Due to circumstances beyond my control, my time on Evolution has been suspended. (He got custody of the boat.) I will not be posting to this blog for a while, until my sailing resumes.
Please visit my other blog site "Hoootyhoot".
Monday, July 30, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The Sherman Tank of Sewing Machines
I’m doing a lot of sewing for Evolution. All the cushions need replaced, and I need to make some heavy duty, durable covers for the engine and some of the hardware. A few equipment bags for storage would be nice to.
Working with canvas and other heavy fabrics, can be a nightmare. After breaking several needles and smoking the motor on the ol’ Singer, trying to sew through four layers of canvas, one might be tempted to think it can’t be done and just give up.
Enter the Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ-1, the sherman tank of sewing ma
chines. This is the coolest machine I have ever owned, and I’ve been sewing since I was 7 years old. (And NO! We won’t say how long that’s been!) Granted, it can’t embroider a tulip design on my tea towels, but it can sew through eight layers of heavy canvas, and then with a quick needle change, I can whip up a little satin evening dress!
My Sailrite is small, portable, and it's all metal, unlike most sewing machines that are plastic. It’s meant to be used in the damp, rugged, rough and tumble environment of a sailboat. It has a very heavy duty case to protect it. This baby could fly across the cabin during heavy seas, and not sustain a scratch. It might go right on through the hull,… but it wouldn’t get hurt in the process! Come to think of it, it could probably even double as an anchor!
The best part of my machine is,… for a fancy plastic machine that could do this, I’d have spent well over $1,000, and it would still burn out and/or break after a year or two of that treatment, but my Sailrite was under $800 and will travel the world with us, fixing sails and repairing cushions for many, many years!
P.S. I also do repairs and custom sewing. Got a project that needs done? Just whistle!
Working with canvas and other heavy fabrics, can be a nightmare. After breaking several needles and smoking the motor on the ol’ Singer, trying to sew through four layers of canvas, one might be tempted to think it can’t be done and just give up.
Enter the Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ-1, the sherman tank of sewing ma
chines. This is the coolest machine I have ever owned, and I’ve been sewing since I was 7 years old. (And NO! We won’t say how long that’s been!) Granted, it can’t embroider a tulip design on my tea towels, but it can sew through eight layers of heavy canvas, and then with a quick needle change, I can whip up a little satin evening dress!My Sailrite is small, portable, and it's all metal, unlike most sewing machines that are plastic. It’s meant to be used in the damp, rugged, rough and tumble environment of a sailboat. It has a very heavy duty case to protect it. This baby could fly across the cabin during heavy seas, and not sustain a scratch. It might go right on through the hull,… but it wouldn’t get hurt in the process! Come to think of it, it could probably even double as an anchor!
The best part of my machine is,… for a fancy plastic machine that could do this, I’d have spent well over $1,000, and it would still burn out and/or break after a year or two of that treatment, but my Sailrite was under $800 and will travel the world with us, fixing sails and repairing cushions for many, many years!
P.S. I also do repairs and custom sewing. Got a project that needs done? Just whistle!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
I joined a sailing club!
I just joined the Oregon Women’s Sailing Association, (OWSA). Being new to the Portland area, and new to sailing, I thought it might be a great group to check out. I figured I could learn more about sailing, meet new people and maybe make some “girl friends” to do the lunch or drinks kind of things. You know, kill 3 birds with one stone!
Yesterday was OWSA’s summer picnic at Tamahawk Bay Marina from 4pm to 9pm. I was flying in from out of town, and my plane landed at 5:10pm, so Bob took me straight to the marina from the airport. He made himself scarce, thinking it was women only, but it looked like most of the women had their husbands with them.
I’m not sure the size of their membership, but there appeared to be a good turnout. As I met one or two women, they would take me around and introduce me to more, who then introduced me to even more! What a great group! I met a woman who has her boat moored just a few slips down from Evolution! Wow, neighbors! I also signed up to help with “Sail for the Cure”. (See the pink ribbon on the ‘port’ side of my blog here. Feel free to click on the link and make a donation!) :o)
‘Wednesday Night Sail’
Once a week, OWSA has a ‘Wednesday Night Sail’, and I am really eager to try it! Basically, they just all get together and take several boats out for an evening cruise on the river. It’s a great opportunity for me to crew on someone else’s boat, and to watch other experienced sailors in action. Maybe I can even get over my fear of heeling! I’m going to have to be super brave, because I’d be REALLY embarrassed if I screamed and peed my pants the first time the boat heeled over a little. I can see it now, these poor women trying to talk me, (in my soggy pants), down off the mast. I’m willing to bet I’d be asked to forgo any future participation in the Wednesday Night Sails! Or worse yet, maybe they’d use me as punishment. “Yea, Sue forgot to bring her famous jello salad last week, so next week,… she has to have Kay on her boat!” Hmm,… yeah, I think I’d better take a few precautions; maybe a little nip o’ rum and a nice absorbent ‘Depends’ and I should be good to go!
You can comment on any post by clicking the word 'comments' below.
Yesterday was OWSA’s summer picnic at Tamahawk Bay Marina from 4pm to 9pm. I was flying in from out of town, and my plane landed at 5:10pm, so Bob took me straight to the marina from the airport. He made himself scarce, thinking it was women only, but it looked like most of the women had their husbands with them.
I’m not sure the size of their membership, but there appeared to be a good turnout. As I met one or two women, they would take me around and introduce me to more, who then introduced me to even more! What a great group! I met a woman who has her boat moored just a few slips down from Evolution! Wow, neighbors! I also signed up to help with “Sail for the Cure”. (See the pink ribbon on the ‘port’ side of my blog here. Feel free to click on the link and make a donation!) :o)
‘Wednesday Night Sail’
Once a week, OWSA has a ‘Wednesday Night Sail’, and I am really eager to try it! Basically, they just all get together and take several boats out for an evening cruise on the river. It’s a great opportunity for me to crew on someone else’s boat, and to watch other experienced sailors in action. Maybe I can even get over my fear of heeling! I’m going to have to be super brave, because I’d be REALLY embarrassed if I screamed and peed my pants the first time the boat heeled over a little. I can see it now, these poor women trying to talk me, (in my soggy pants), down off the mast. I’m willing to bet I’d be asked to forgo any future participation in the Wednesday Night Sails! Or worse yet, maybe they’d use me as punishment. “Yea, Sue forgot to bring her famous jello salad last week, so next week,… she has to have Kay on her boat!” Hmm,… yeah, I think I’d better take a few precautions; maybe a little nip o’ rum and a nice absorbent ‘Depends’ and I should be good to go!
You can comment on any post by clicking the word 'comments' below.
Monday, July 2, 2007
aarrrgg... all sailin' vessels need a parrot, matey!
We spent the weekend at the boat just fixing a few more things and doing more cleaning. We didn’t take her out, we just fiddle-farted around there in the slip. Since we weren’t going out, I thought it might be a good time to introduce Grace to Evolution.
Let me take a moment here to tell you about Grace. Gracie is our African Gray parrot. Like most highly intelligent parrots, Grays tend to be one person birds, meaning she loves me dearly, and is a poop to everyone else. She puts up with Bob because he isn’t intimidated by her, but if she can intimidate you - she will, and she uses it for all it’s worth. What all this means really is that when we take off to sail for long periods of time, we can’t leave Grace with a friend or family member, because everyone except us is afraid of her. So guess who else is going sailing!!!
Also, like most parrots, African Grays live to be about 70 years old. Gracie is currently about 6, so I’ve told my two daughters that when I finally kick the bucket, one of them is going to inherit her. They both stare at me wide eyed and say, "Not me!" So I can see it now,… at my funeral, as they slowly lower my casket into the ground, from inside there will be a little voice saying, "Hello? Hellooo? Good Morning! Hello???" And Lisa and Andrea will look at each other, smile, and shrug innocently.
Gracie has a huge vocabulary, can identify family members and pets by name, asks for what she wants, and let us know when she’s bored. She’s incredibly kicked back and very little seems to upset her. She has a great sense of humor and is overall content with life. She constantly reminds us that life is all about having a good time, as she swings from the ceiling of her cage by one foot, her wings all splayed out, and yells, "SUPERRRR CHICKENNN!!!"
She did fine at the boat. I didn’t take her travel cage because, even though it is much smaller than her home cage, it’s still pretty large. So she just rode on my shoulder or sat on her portable perch. She didn’t seem to mind being on the boat. The saloon is small enough that she probably just thought, "So this is a ‘people cage’, huh?" It did cloud up for a while, and got a little chilly. She shivered a bit, but did fine. We don’t have fuel in the little saloon stove, so we couldn’t heat it up for her. But it was still in the 60’s so I knew she wouldn’t freeze. She dealt with worse than that when we lived in the cabin up in the hills.Grace has learned to enthusiastically call out ,"Ahoy, Mate!" But she needs to learn a lot more sailing phrases to become a REAL ship’s parrot.
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