New crew arrives!
Our new crew members have arrived! West Jack LOA: 21″ Displacement: 6lbs 9oz Nyah Lydia LOA: 19″ Displacement: 5lbs 15oz
Espar
In past years we’ve heated the boat with a Dickinson Newport diesel fireplace, but we were always a bit nervous to run the fireplace at night and usually just used a small electric heater after we went to bed.  This resulted in a few funny instances, most notably the time we woke up to find the temperature had dropped overnight and our breath had coated the entire overhead of the v-berth with ice, but mostly it just resulted in arguments about…
Extreme Sole Makeover
We’ve been meaning to do this for years (3 to be exact) and finally got around to it now. Â A good scrub, light sanding, and three coats of Ultimate Sole made a huge difference.
Gulf Islands 2010
Well, due to me being pregnant with our new crew (twins arriving in December) we didn’t do a big trip this summer. Â We had planned to go around Vancouver Island, but settled for some time in the Gulf Islands instead. Â After a fantastic time at Svea and Fergus’ wedding on Saturna we picked up Erika in Nanaimo and enjoyed a leisurely week. We swam “Fished” Caught some unknown monsters of the deep in our crab trap Showed we know how…
Adding Ballast
Sonrisa has always sat a little low in the bow.  According to the original owner this was due to a mistake when her lead ballast was poured.  As a result water didn’t drain quite right on deck or in the bilge.  The problem was made worse when we installed a newer lighter engine.  So we decided to add 500lbs of lead to an extremely inaccessible area of the bilge, directly under the engine and all the way aft. We could not physically…
Alaska Trip
May to September, to Glacier Bay Alaska and back. Sarah finished her PhD and I quit my job. Since we were now a pair of shiftless hobos we took the opportunity to sail north. Our housie friends often asked “why north?” We found that north had a lot to offer. Click the map to tour the coast.
Electrical
As with many older boats, haphazard additions and jury rigs had taken their toll on Sonrisa’s wiring and it looked like a ball of colorful spaghetti. Â In addition the electrical panels were installed in a bulkhead so that they backed into the starboard lazarette. Â This was the factory design, but it rendered the lazarette almost useless. Â Items had to be placed in there with the greatest of care for fear of snagging the wiring, and they had to be dry,…
Engine Replacement
One issue that we knew we’d have to deal with when we bought Sonrisa was her 30 year old engine that would only start after we’d had an electric heater aimed at it for 15 minutes, and then only if we were lucky. So, although neither of us are mechanics, and we had no idea what we were doing, we set out to replace the engine. We did most of the work at the dock. We disconnected everything, moved the…
Farewell fairweather sailing
When we bought Sonrisa she was set up for fair weather sailing only. Â She had no reefing gear (the boom was a bare pole) and, although meant to be a cutter, the inner forestay was not rigged. Â Not wanting to tempt the weather gods, we decided to install some reefing gear and re-rig the inner forestay so we could fly a staysail. Â The reefing gear was relatively easy, two cheek blocks, two cleats, a hook at the gooseneck, and voila,…
Sonrisa!
After living aboard our 27 foot Cascade sailboat for 6 months, Sarah got tired of me complaining that I couldn’t do the dishes due to lack of headroom.  We were also tired of arguing who got to lay comfortably on the one settee.  So the search began, and through a series of lucky events we found and made an accepted offer to purchase Sonrisa, for sale down in San Diego. Here she is where we first saw her Organizing the haul-out in…