Author Archives: Sailing Zingaro

New crew & same old sails | Sailing Zingaro Ep28

Leave a reply

🙂 Finally! We’re back on track with the episodes 🙂

Another Berliner joins the boat: Lucie (Kim’s friend from Berlin)! She will be on the boat for a few weeks, helping us through the Panama Canal, and generally being awesome. In this episode we provision the boat, and sail from Puerto Lindo to Colón to get measured for the Canal.

Unfortunately we lost about 4 months of work with a drive failure – but guess who had some of the footage: LUCIE!!! She saved us! She rocks! We love you Lucie! ❤

You can imagine how difficult it was to download over dropbox all the footage she had…

Much love!

-James & Kimmi (& Lucie 🙂 )

You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.

 

Dyneema #3: How I made my rigging strong!

I received a comment (rather harsh to tell you the truth) about my failure to use the correct toggles in my Dyneema installation videos. Well, turns out the guy wanted to help, and sent me a whole box of goodies.

We went back and forth for over a month, with measurements, drawings, ideas, and here’s the culmination of that work.

Watch how I took my synthetic standing rigging to the next level! I explain everything I did to upgrade my synthetic rigging, what tools are required, and where to get them. Then a step-by-step installation process.

Special thanks to Kraken Structures for the equipment and instructions. I think we’ll be seeing more of Kraken …

Contact Kraken: facebook.com/SeaMonsterStrong

Soldering the VHF Connector

My boat was broken into and someone cut my radio cables when he tried to steal my radio. Fortunately the guard caught him just as he was trying to escape and he dropped it. I needed to re-solder the antenna cable, so used this opportunity to make a video to show YOU how.

Not many people know I used to work for an audio/video company in LA. They specialized in equipment rental for commercials, and I was their only tech. So I did everything: Cables, building circuit boards, repairing resisters, all of it. I learned a ton on that job…

…and I’ve soldered a few things in my life.

Soldering my PL-259 connector to RG-8x cable was super easy. And I think this is an essential skill to have on a cruising sailboat, you need to know how to fix your radio.

Hope it helps. Much love!

-James

You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.

The ONE time a catamaran SUCKS

When trying to find a place to HAUL OUT on the pacific coast of Central America.

Why? Because I want to copper-epoxy the bottom of the boat. It’s greener (no ablative paint to fall all over the coral), it’s easier to clean (no ablative paint in our skin), it’s stronger (no ablative… you get the picture).

marina-pez-vela

Marina Pez Vela, Costa Rica | (c) Sailing Zingaro

BUT it’s been the biggest PITA! Listen to this BS:

Continue reading →

Sailing Zingaro Live from Costa Rica

Want to sail around the world? It’s not as easy as it looks …

Cruising is HARD!!! In this stream we talk about the hard parts of cruising, our sailing plans for the next months, and we have a special interview with another captain that sailed with us for two weeks, a Q & A, & we also respond to some YouTube comments at the end of the show.

[Streamed live on Jun 25, 2018]

You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.

We tour a farm in Colombia | Sailing Zingaro – Episode 22

Do you see the SIZE of that thing?! There’s something in the water in Colombia … 🙂

We get invited by a local to his family farm, so we leave the boat at anchor and take a water-taxi, car-taxi, & 4wd jeep to one of the most biodiverse places we’ve ever seen. Wow they sure do grow everything mega-sized here. Join us on our private tour of a Colombian finca.

Continue reading →

Livin la Vida Broka (5): Rigging with Dyneema | Sailing Zingaro

How to install synthetic standing rigging on a sailboat, how to splice a deadeye, and discussion of the pro’s and con’s of steel rigging vs synthetic.

In this series of Livin la Vida Broka, I take you step-by-step through changing out my 1×19 steel wire rigging for synthetic Dyneema rigging.

You can’t find this anywhere on the internet, it took me a long time to get all this information, then put it to use, learn from the mistakes, and ultimately make this video.

Continue reading →

Made it to Costa Rica!

So, the journey up to Costa Rica was… LOUD. We motored more in three days than we have in the last 3000 miles combined. Started off beating into 15kts – Zingaro was doing great! We were moving at 8kts or so for the first 4 hours, storms forming all around us as we headed out and they headed in towards land. Got some really cool videos of that.

Then… dead. 3kts for the next two days. We had to motor so long I ended up freaking out at 5am and we drifted for a couple hours as I contemplated buying a trawler. 😀

We shut the motors down to eat, and sunsets, but we basically had to motor the whole way up here less 7-8 hours. It was a 52 hour journey.

Continue reading →

The most populated island on earth | Sailing Zingaro – Episode 21

Join us as we discover the small, packed, island Santa Cruz del Islote (Colombia) – the most (or second-most) densely populated island on earth! We meet the local leader of the youth environmental club, meet some of the people that live here on the island, and see what there is to see on this small crazy place.

You’re in for a surprise too, Kim and Lucie made a music video at the beginning of this episode.

Continue reading →

Livin la Vida Broka (4): The Dyneema Video

A complete how-to on Dyneema. This video took me awhile to make, but I’m proud of it. Been waiting for a long time to put this one out. Here is a great addition to the LVB series. Everything one needs to know about dyneema, including:

  • What is Dyneema
  • How to make the 2 splices you need to know
  • How to make soft shackles, which are ~$1 to make, and could save your boat
  • 20 places it’s used on my boat

Continue reading →

Cartagena wasn’t ready for the Zingaro | Sailing Zingaro – Episode 17

We didn’t even look at a picture before we arrived in Cartagena (Colombia). So we thought we were in the WRONG place! It was a HUGE city, awesome people, great nightlife, and a Russian submarine turned bar. This is a cool one. Enjoy folks!

You like our content? Please don’t forget to like, subcribe and share!
… or spend us a cold one on PayPal and become landcrew on Patreon.

What is left of the Boat after 9,500 miles | Sailing Zingaro

A lot of people have asked for it, so here it is! Boat tour time! This one will be a bit different than most, as I’ve already given a tour of the layout. If you haven’t seen the first walkthrough, please click here …

If you HAVE seen the boat, Kim and I put this together. A hilarious look at life on our home-built sailboat after 9,500 miles of cruising the world! We’ve fixed a TON of stuff, and there’s a lot left to do, but this is a funny look at the repercussions of sailing around the world. 😉

Hope you all like!
-James

Continue reading →

Swimming in the canal and paying the fee

Well… I can check “swimming in the Panama Canal” off the list. Didn’t even know it was on there. Don’t recommend it. Here’s the story:

colon club nautico

Our challenge: transiting the canal without an agent

So we’re trying to do this on a budget. The least possible amount you can pay is $1875, with $891 coming back after 3 weeks if you don’t hit anything, or cause a big delay.

Continue reading →

Our first PATRON joins the boat! Sailing Zingaro – Episode 12

Please welcome Kris Knabel (one of our first supporters on Patreon) came down to Grand Cayman to sail to Jamaica with us. With the new and improved rudder we let the wind fill our sails and GO!

Unfortunately… in true Zingaro fashion our OTHER rudder fell off. Oops …

Continue reading →

Panama Canal is calling!

Getting measured for the Canal on Saturday, February 10th!

We’re busy filling out forms, and borrowing other people’s cell phones to make the arrangements for the canal without an agent (livin la vida broka isn’t a joke). Looks like it’ll cost us right around $2045. The agent quoted me $2900 …

I’ll be putting out a Livin la Vida Broka (LVB) video on the cheapest way to get through the canal. 😉

Just arrived: New crew and a special package

We have new crew arrive last night! Please welcome Lucie Leichsering, another Berliner (I’m outnumbered…). Lucie will be staying with us indefinitely, and definitely transiting the Panama Canal with us next week!

Kim Lucie James with Vollkornbrot

Guess what she brought?? Some of the world famous bread made fresh in the oven of Ute (Kim’s Mom)!!! It’s the best bread we’ve ever had. I wish I had some local bread to show you the difference, but I don’t like wasting food and we won’t eat it. 😉

-Cap’n James

We are back at Puerto Lindo (Panama)

Kimmi and I just got back to civilization from the San Blas Islands. Wow, they’re pretty. Got drone shots under sail. Followed Kim with the dink while she was kiteboarding, underwater stuff. Super fun couple weeks. Good to get away, that’s what this is all about …

Coming soon: Next episode of Livin la Vida Broka and Sailing Zingaro – Episode 12

Freediving the Kittiwake before it toppled over | Sailing Zingaro – Episode 11

S/v Zingaro makes it to Cayman Islands, and we take it easy with a little kiteboarding and diving. The Kittiwake was a really cool wreck to dive, and Kimmi’s first freedive! She did amazing! Little fish. After that’s all over we realize we’ve got a little problem …

Continue reading →

Say Guten Tag to my new editor! | Sailing Zingaro – Episode 9

Kimmi’s first episode! Yup, she edited this entire thing. I’m very proud!

In this Episode Kim joins the Zingaro Crew and we take the boat from Isla Mujeres, Mexico, to Cozumel. Unfortunately Cozumel was a paradise for cruise ships and not cruisers. Expensive compared to the rest of Mexico and no authentic tacos to be found … A nightmare for Kim!

Luckily we got to meet some French-Canadian sailors on a 30′ boat (with 5 people, one Mom, and one dog). They are living the pirate kind of life even more than we are. It ended up bring days of singing and sailing with a bunch of beautiful people aboard.

Continue reading →