Comments now working…we think!
But why a J/120?
Good question. Thanks for asking. It’s been almost 10 years since we were boat owners. Our priorities have changed only slightly, with much of the change based on our experience with Earendil, our trusty 1977 Valiant 32 that we lived on for almost 5 years. Prior to 2011, while living in Texas, we decided that
Where are we?
Decisions…bottom paint #2
For us, choosing an “environmentally-friendly” versus “traditional” paint really isn’t that hard of a choice. We will do what we can to minimize our impact, and if that means we have to clean the bottom of our boat more often and/or haul out to repaint the bottom more frequently, then so be it. So, what
Battery conundrums
Hey! Where’s our rudder?
One of the big differences between Earendil and Shearwater is the rudder design. A Valiant 32 has a skeg-hung rudder, while a J/120 has a semi-balanced spade rudder. From a sailing and performance perspective, the semi-balanced spade rudder wins every time. There is less drag due to the smaller surface area (no skeg) and lower
Decisions…bottom paint #1
A boat that sits in saltwater for more than a few days at a time must have anti-fouling bottom paint, otherwise the hull becomes covered in a delightful variety of slime, weed, barnacles, sponges, etc. For a marine biologist, having a marine ecosystem travel along with you could be fantastic, but for a boat where
Welcome aboard!
We’re managing two adventures at once now – with the launch of this blog, we’ll be sharing the planning, outfitting and eventual cruising on our new-to-us J/120 sailboat, Shearwater. We continue to post about living in Europe on our other blog – lifeteria. Thanks for stopping by – please feel free to contribute by sharing your thoughts,