Living La Vida Broka (LVB) is back! This time, Zingaro is sending out three boat hacks, that I learned along the way.
These are things I didn’t know about when I started, that I wish someone had told me. Tips to save money and time on your boat. Learned during my circumnavigation, I’m passing the knowledge to You.
Hope you enjoy!
James
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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.
If you remember in the last episode, we were just about ready to drop the boat back in the water…. BUT (and there’s always a but) the “Biocide-free” paint we used didn’t dry. Ever.
What are we suppose to do now? Sail away? Wait in the boatyard? Start going crazy on the paint manufacturing company? We’ll see. Watch and find out.
We made sure to follow the directions perfectly, but after 27 hours it’s still wet. Damn. So we let her stay up on the trailer for another 5 days while we try to get a refund for the paint, and see if it will ever dry (it didn’t, we got a refund 6 months later).
After we finally splash Zingaro Kimmi is in heaven being out to sea again, and the boat is WAY faster than it had been, and much safer.
We now just need to check out of Costa Rica, and head for the PIRATE ISLAND of Isla Del Coco 🙂
Hope you like the episode!
Much love!
-James & Kimmi
In this episode we talk about plywood catamaran problems and what work you can expect.
After sailing 700nm we finally find a boatyard to haul out Zingaro. Repairs, refit, bottom paint, and lots of fiberglass await.
When we got Zingaro on the hard all hell started breaking loose. We could see numerous dripping spots on the bottom (indication of delaminated fiberglass and water intrusion).
Luckily our boat is all Airex Foam and the water had nowhere to go. But on a few places it seeped up inside the glass layers and I had to remove big pieces. We had purchased 3 gallons worth of West System Epoxy to do the entire bottom in an epoxy/copper mix, but with this new dilemma we were forced to use 1 entire gallon on the bottom repairs.
We even removed an old through-hole that was filled with cabosil (not the correct way to fix that). All in all there were 7 big patches, and a lot more work than we though it would be.
-James & Kim
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After sailing all the way to Costa Rica just to find a cheap yard to haul out, they kick us out!?!?! The dude does not abide. What are we going to do now? We need to repair the bottom of the boat and nobody will let us in!!! Well, there’s only one thing to do… We hoist the sails and go SAILING!
Much love
James and Kim
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Remember the $5k boat? Well the guy that owns that boat came down to get a taste of cruising. This whole episode is about our time together, and at the end he gives us an “exit” interview.
Cleveland records his REAL thoughts before departing and gives YOU guys a heartfelt, no BS description of the two weeks he spent with us cruising southern Panama.
We love ya Cleve! Had a blast with you bud. Good luck on all your future adventures!
Got a bit of everything in this episode. Hope you guys enjoy!!!
James & Kim
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Cleveland contacts me, and tells me he’s living on a sistership in Sausalito Bay (San Francisco Bay Area) and if I’m ever in town, look him up.
So I was in town, and holy moly he’s not lying. He paid $5,000 for a Crowther Spindrift 37′ and we’re about to go on a tour of it.
This thing is CRAZY. It’s a “fixer upper” for sure.
I thought it might be fun, since we have internet right now, to take everyone on the buying journey for my boat – and look on the internet to see if we can find a good deal on a cat.
Is it the sailboat deal of the century or a boat buying nightmare? You decide in this walkthrough.
Much love.
James
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The engine room is definitely my favorite place on the boat. Join me for a maintenance video on rebuilding the water pump on my 1GM10 and find out WHY.
I was doing some maintenance on the diesel, and I found THIS in my engine room! It’s AMAZING! Ive always wanted one! What a beautiful day. Hope you guys like the engine maintenance video!
Hope you guys like!
Much love from James & Kimmi.
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After beaching the boat for two days straight (3am-2pm) there was just too much wave action to get the bottom painted. Continue reading
We get hit by lightning off the coast of Colombia. Worried that the sailboat might be hit again, the first mate sails Zingaro back to Cartagena.
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]
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Looks like the third time is the charm! The improved Zingaro is finally leaving the Cayman Islands. The ride to Jamaica started out very pleasantly, until we got smashed by a wave that killed all our electronics. I don’t think there is ever going to be a longer passage without a major drama …
This episode is about our second attempt to sail to Jamaica and about our second failure. Building a rudder on the beach and other fun stuff to do in Cayman Brac (the most expensive place Zingaro has been so far).
When we arrived in Cayman Brac, James knew exactly what to do. By then he was an experienced rudder-builder, You could say. He got his angle grinder out and got to work immediately. And even on this little island, we were able to find a hardware store. YES!
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
We lost our rudder off the coast of the Cayman Islands, so Captain James had to build another. Working in a shed, surrounded by roosters, rastas, and rain, we were actually able to finish everything and sail to Jamaica!
A HUGE thank you to our Caymanian friends! We loved it there, thank you guys for everything. Special thanks to the Hyde Family. Thanks for taking in a couple stays.
James & Kim
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 …
Check out our tour of the bottle island. It’s a really amazing adventure we had in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. An island floating on nothing but used plastic bottles? How sick is that! RichArt, a British artist, is really a master of recycling. All the little details in his house…
We had a lot of fun with him and the guys from Project Atticus. But after the island and our sail were fixed, it was time for us to leave Mexico. So the Captain took me (Kim) out for my first real sail. WOHOOO! It was a nice one…
If you like the how-to vids here’s a really fast walkthrough of a month in the boatyard to repair my bottom.
We fixed the damaged spots, rebuilt the daggerboards, and generally refit the boat. It was a ton of work, everyday 10-12 hours. I lived in the yard during this whole operation. But she’s ready to go! Also, a suprise paint-job!
Let me know what you think!
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So I broke two of the biggest pieces of my boat … Here’s how I fixed them. In this video you’ll learn the method I used to rebuild my broken daggerboards. Even if you don’t have daggerboards, you can use this to fix rudders, centerboards, and the like.
This is the culmination of two weeks of solid work, 12 hour days. Tons of work, but man, I learned so much.
The public transportation in Panama is old schoolbuses, back from primary school days. They don’t change the seats (which, btw, are built to fit CHILDREN) But the do change the speakers … And blast reggaeton while they drive them like Richard Petty.
Also helped another captain replace his head gasket on a Volvo Penta MD2030. Something every boat owner should know how to do. It’s really not as hard as you’d think.
