Tag Archives: Rigging

Getting It Up – Marathon, Florida, USA, March 20, 2025

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Getting It Up – Marathon, Florida, USA, March 20, 2025

Still sitting on the dock in Marathon, Florida we finally finished the rigging replacement and solar arch!  It has been about 6 weeks since we took possession of the boat and the list of projects has been long but is now complete.  The crane showed up and the mast was put back up today.  It took four guys to wrestle the boom and main sail back on and I am glad it was something we did not have to do ourselves.  Our amazing rigging guy Anthony did a great job from Onboard Rigging.  Thank you.  He was a lot of fun to work with and I think Ron really enjoyed the process more than expected.

Game hanger in off grid living.
This is not scary at all.
Always a group project.

Since we have been in the keys for nearly 6 weeks and simply in Marathon for 3 we have had a chance to make some new friends from Dockside Bar & Grill, where the $2 beers were great!  First off, the bartender “generator” & her husband were a lot of fun, then there was Mark and Rick, our two Michigan friends and fans.  Rick comes down for 6 months each year and I think Mark is a sheriff here.  Each time we went there the banter once he found out I was a vegetarian got intense and then when he found out I was an OSU graduate it got even worse.  By the time we were ready to leave I had a little going away present for him.  I found a t-shirt online that I simply had to have.  It said “Meet Dick, Dick is a Michigan Fan” then on the back it said “Don’t be a Dick.”  I wore this to Dockside on our last night just to even the score on all the references I took to bacon and OSU.  Anyway, we had a lot of fun with these two and now have two new friends.

Once again, per our nomadic lifestyle, it was time to go.  Our project list is complete and a weather window to make the jump has presented itself, so we are going directly from Marathon, Florida to the Berry Islands, Bahamas.  It will be our second longest sail, 198 miles, and 32 hours.  It is also our first test sail with the new rigging and solar.  We are leaving on Saturday Morning. 

Removing the Mast – Marathon, Florida, USA, March 17, 2025

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Removing the Mast – Marathon, Florida, USA, March 17, 2025

Replacing the rigging was more of a process than we expected.  The first trick was Anthony’s dock was down an extremely narrow canal.  It was roughly 4 feet wider than our boat with other boats lining both sides.  This means only two feet on each side and if you screw up, we take out someone else’s boat.  Yikes!  Then the real kicker was you would have to do this all while backing the boat through the canal and into the slip.  Yeah, not a chance.  Anthony had a captain who does this for him each time and the boat here before us as a 44 foot which is wider than we are.  This means it’s possible, but Ron was willing to let the other captain do this one since he has done it many times.

Not tight at all

Ron and I had spent the time to prep the boat and disconnect all the wiring in the mast and remove the head sail.  The next step was to remove the boom and main sail which Anthony, Ron and his guys did since it is too heavy for Ron and I to do ourselves.  This leads us to the fun part.  Anthony must remove the mast based on how our rigging is laid out.  Apparently, the spreaders where the diamonds come together often corrode and are impossible to remove while the mast is upright. We played it safe and just pulled the mast which was the safer option. So, he brought in a crane and after about an hour, it came down. 

Houston we have Separation.
Why is it always windy when you remove a mast? Asking for a friend…

It was a bit nerve wrecking to watch the mast get removed, but it was clear this was not his first rodeo, and it was without incident.  What we found was unfortunate.  In addition to the cracked swages (which we knew about), the radar cable was in very poor condition, and much of the rest of the rigging was also in poor condition.  This made us feel better about making the decision to replace everything.  Unfortunately, the prior owners did nothing to maintain this boat including the rigging, which is why it should not have needed this now, but this is our reality.  I am glad we negotiated this into the purchase price.  In addition, the bonus of allowing us to do the solar install and arch at a reasonable price makes this all worthwhile.  This is the final project we have to do and still hope to be able to jump to the Bahamas in the next week or two.

The bad news.
DIY solar arch 1700 watts should do just fine.

Seashells and Sunsets – Marathon, Florida, USA, March 15, 2025

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Seashells and Sunsets – Marathon, Florida, USA, March 15, 2025

I know I write a lot about all the awesome places we travel to but there is another side to sailing and travelling that is noteworthy.  It’s not all seashells and sunsets.  This lifestyle does have its set of sacrifices I should discuss.  First off, being nomadic and not really having a true permanent address.  When trying to do things like vote, register the boat or RV, receive packages, BMV, etc.  We hover between a few address when we can. We also use Amazon pick up boxes, and the occasional marina office when we can.   It can be a logistical challenge, and we do tend to spend more time considering what we need and where to have it sent based on our location.

The second challenge is the small space.  Ironically the boat seems very large now compared to the smaller space we have come from in the RV but most other folks coming from a house would consider this a very small space.  This creates a struggle to store provisions, spare parts, clothing, and of course beer.  We tend to stock up heavily before heading to the Bahamas since everything is a cost factor x3.  An example if a case of beer is ~$20 in the US and ~$60 in the Bahamas. 

Rationing of water and power is item number 3.  We do have a water maker on board, but it requires the engines to be running in order to use it consuming diesel.  This means we are more careful when we do laundry (which I now have a proper washing machine – yeah!), don’t have a dishwasher (which some may consider a sacrifice, but I don’t mind this one), or even shower.  For power we did upgrade the batteries to lithium but have not yet added additional solar panels yet, so we tend to run the generator for now to keep things properly charged.

Then there is the simple issue of not having a car and doing everything via Uber, Avis, or on foot.  Overall, the cost of owning a car would be more than what we spend on the occasional car rental or Uber on an annual basis.  Then there is the logistics that the car would never be where we needed it when we needed it so owning becomes impractical for our lifestyle.  And the upside is, we like to walk, and our dinghy is the closest we have.  The downside is we carry every bag of groceries on foot which forces you to carefully consider what you buy and make multiple trips.

For me the upside of this lifestyle outpaces any “sacrifice” we tend to have.  But then this week we got the final kick in the pants.  We had a professional rigger come out (Anthony) and tell us we could fix our rigging issue (the one the surveyor found when we went through the boat buying process), however, he said it would need new rigging within a couple of years based on its current state.  His fix would cost 50% of what getting all new rigging now.  This led us to the decision to go with new rigging now since we were planning to keep the boat for more than a couple years and would pay this cost anyway.  Why not get it now and ensure it was safer and in the long run cheaper?

The bonus we are getting from Anthony is he has a free dock with free water and power.  Secondly, he has a shop and is willing to let Ron use it to build our solar arch and install solar panels.  He will sell us the panels but said he doesn’t really like to do this work since the ROI is better for him to do another rigging job vs. building and installing solar.  Yeah – this saves us about $15,000 and we won’t have to wait til we get to the Chesapeake this fall.  Guess we found our next project on Mariposa.

It is all worth it

Survey and Sea Trial – Key West, Florida, USA, January 27, 2025

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Survey and Sea Trial – Key West, Florida, USA, January 27, 2025

It’s our first day back on the water for the survey and sea trial of “Greenlights.”  That is the name of the boat we are looking at.  She is a 2018 40-foot Leopard.  It is a 3 cabin, owner’s version and for only being a couple feet wider and longer than our prior Mariposa, quite spacious!  Captain Ron did a lot of homework and got us the best surveyor in southern Florida – Jonathan.  Not only is Jonathan a good surveyor but he is also a rigger and will do our rigging inspection as well today.  He started out the survey by simply going through the boat and testing every single system looking for any issues.  We have formally put in an offer which we would have a chance to edit before a final agreement can be reached.

Johnathan doing his thing.

The upsides and why we like this boat are the layout is much bigger, there are low hours on both engines and the generator, she has never been chartered, majority of the upholstery work has already been done (except the dinghy chaps), She is a Leopard and not a Lagoon (which is know for having major issues to its bulkheads), we have a front door and wider decks which will be safer in stormy weather.

Thanks to Jonathan’s diligence, here are the main issues we found: 

  1. It had a grounding early on in its life and had both sacrificial keels ripped off and repaired. Thankfully they were repaired properly.
  2. She needs a new bottom job.  This is one of Ron’s least favorite things to do but this should be better than the last one he did as it only needs a light sanding this time and a couple coats of bottom paint which we can do ourselves in Key West.
  3. Several windows in the kitchen are starting to delaminate.  We had the same issue on Mariposa and it is a known issue on Leopard boats.
  4. While it is equipped with a propane stove and oven this is something we will take out and switch to induction.  We are also going to replace the grill with the same Weber one we had on the other boat.
  5. The batteries are lead acid batteries and not much solar.  We will immediately invest to upgrade her to lithium and eventually add more solar when we get somewhere Ron can weld up a solar arch which needs to be added.
  6. The dinghy is old and in poor condition.  It does work and you never want the prettiest dinghy on the dock, but we will essentially drive this one for the first year and plan to replace it soon.  The good news is Ron is happier with the Yamaha engine since our last dinghy had a Tohatsu he hated.
  7. Our generator and both fuel tanks leak. 
  8. The water maker was pickled so we didn’t get to test this and are going on the honor system for this one.  I am glad it has one we are just hoping it works.
  9. The radar doesn’t work properly.  Ron is hoping he can fix this by cleaning up the connections, but we need to be prepared to replace this if necessary.
  10. There is no life raft on board which we will need to purchase to go offshore.
  11. The standing rigging needs a lot of work and was the biggest surprise we found.  Essentially the rigging needs completely replaced before we can even raise the sails.  Having lost one boat to being demasted, this replacement is at the top of our list.

We made edits to our offer based on the new information from the survey and now we wait to see if they will agree to lowering the price to cover the issues we found.  The overall process is much like buying a house.  It is nerve racking, and the pushy owners made it as difficult as possible.  So, while we were waiting for the final survey document from Jonathan, we headed back to Jekyll Island to visit with my parents again.  After a week and a half, I think they were ready for us to go!  Thankfully, we got through the boat buying process with all the paperwork and wire transfers completed and we pick up the boat February 10th. 

Ron found a place to store the RV in Brunswick, Georgia so we spent a few days at Mom & Dad’s cleaning it out, waxing the exterior, and wiping down the inside with vinegar.  Whew!  Changing homes again takes quite a bit of work!  We ended up dropping off the RV to storage and picking up a rental car in Jacksonville, Georgia.  On the morning of the 10th we said goodbye to Mom & Dad and drove the 10 hour trip to Key West to pick her up!  Mariposa 2.0 here we come 😊.