We have arrived in Panama! Starry Horizons is safely tied up to the dock at Shelter Bay Marina, thanks to some excellent maneuvering in close quarters by the Admiral. There are lots of other cruisers here prepping for the Pacific so we’ve already started making friends. Sailing Passage Summary The final day of the passage…
Even straight from the factory, one of our deck hatches leaked. That meant that early into our cruising life, I learned how to pull out the hatch and re-bed it. Remove the screws in the frame. You might notice that the screws are not all the same. Be sure to keep track of what screws…
It’s been a year since Starry Horizons was launched, and that means it’s time for our first haul out! We went to Nanny Cay on Tortola at the suggestion of our friends Frank and Mary Grace on the Helia ‘Let It Be’. Arrival at Nanny Cay We arrived at Nanny Cay at 4:30 pm and…
So where to start? Oh yes… How about 5 AM about 100ish miles out from Bermuda in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? It was the middle of my first night watch when I noticed that the true wind speed and true wind angle numbers on our chart plotter would disappear for a few seconds…
As part of our outfitting process, we replaced our anchor chain with a longer, stronger, and lighter anchor chain. This meant we had to replace our windlass gypsy too so that it would work with the new size of the anchor chain. The anchor chain and windlass are all critical parts of our anchoring system,…
One of the projects we tackled when outfitting our boat for cruising was converting our heads from saltwater to freshwater. This was a project that I tackled on my own and I’m proud to say I completed the project with only about 4 trips to West Marine and no sewage leaks in the boat! Â …
In this post, we tackle a big project for our outfitting – solar panels. Solar panels are the most popular method of gaining power for a cruising boat and on a catamaran, there’s tons of room for solar panels. First of all, massive thanks go out to another Helia owner, Tad on Bisou, who pioneered the…
Pretty much the biggest reason we brought the boat all the way from France to Palmetto to do our outfitting was that we wanted to work with the guys that our boat guru Pat had lined up to create a custom hardtop and enclosure for the helm and cockpit. From the factory, the only option…