Sometimes during the fall it seems like all we do is work on Mattina to get her ready for the season. Although I love this part too, the fun bits come once we reach the Bahamas.
Kiting and windsurfing in an isolated anchorage with 20 knots of winds makes a pretty good day.
Thanks for reading . . .
Farley Here,
“What the barking blazes is that thing swimming in front of Mattina?” I bark
Kristina and Matt come to the bow. They’re all calm, like a monster isn’t swimming so close to us.
“Go away I,” I bark. “Or else.” Or else what, I have no idea.
Do you see how close it came to our boat?
I can’t believe the beast doesn’t listen to me. So you know what it does next?
It swims right underneath me. I go crazy jumping up and down barking at it. Mr. Dolphin turns on his side and looks up at me. I think he’s smiling at me. An evil smile, mind you. I bounce, and I bark, doing my best to scare it away. I am the protector of this pack, and I take my job seriously.
Kristina and Matt hide behind me. They know they need me to take care of them. And I do. Ten long minutes later, the dolphin finally understands he’s not welcome and he swims away.
I don’t he’ll come back anytime soon. Phew. I’m glad that’s over and I can go back to napping on my trampoline.
Woof Woof.
Fall and winter in the Bahamas can mean cold fronts. Now we don’t mind some, but anything pushing thirty knots and we want to find a place to hide.
There are several marina’s in the Exumas that offer 360 degree protection. Highbourne Cay, Compass Cay and Cave Cay are all good places to hide.
This photo was taken last year by a friend from the top of his mast.
You can see Mattina in the bottom left corner. You can also see how many other boats chose to hide with us.
The thing about Compass is it’s easy to keep busy. Walking, swimming, kayaking in the mangroves and even hiking to the bubbles baths for a splash in the surf entertain us.
Sometimes we hunker down at anchor and wait out a cold front. This can get a little boring or very exciting depending on what the weather does. Really all we care about is that we’re safe
Thanks for reading . . .
How to keep happy on a Lagoon 380 in the heat of the south, you ask.
Air conditioning is certainly a personal choice and depends on where you plan to sail your boat. For us, we have two units on Mattina. One for the main salon and one for our cabin.
Every year, Matt checks the units to make sure they are functioning properly and does any maintenance required. Wouldn’t want to have to overheat.
No surprise to anyone, but Florida is hot and the three of us love to turn on the air. Our dog has figured out the coolest spot on the boat is close the vent. The unit is our cabin is situated perfectly to blow air across the bed. I can’t imagine being in the tropics without this luxury.
There’s nothing like a cool boat to give a person a good night sleep.
Thanks for reading . . .
Eating seems to be a big part of cruising, so I thought I’d share where we dine.
We have two choices.
Inside:
Or outside in the cockpit.
The cockpit table has two leaves, but instead of opening down so the leaves block your legs, we had then made to fold up and lay flat on the top. We designed the table for three settings.
Breakfast Nook: One side is open.
Happy Hour: Both sides closed
Dinner: Both sides open.
Both work well while we are underway. The array of windows at the front give us a great view forward, so we can watch for traffic while we eat. A catamaran sits flat while sailing, and eating underway becomes a joy instead of something to do quickly while healed over.
Thanks for reading . . .
When we first moved onto Mattina, I knew the one item I wanted before we headed offshore was a water maker.
So, Matt got to work and installed a 12 volt Spectra “Cape Horn Extreme.” The unit is installed in the forward deck locker for easy access.
Now, we get 15 gallons per hour of clean water. No trying to find water. No carrying water. Just turn on the tap and there it is.
We like the reliability and the efficiency. It only draws one amp per gallon produced.
Mattina comes with a large shower, so the extra water makes living aboard luxurious. We don’t have to monitor every drop that comes out of the taps. I can’t imagine life in the Bahamas without our Spectra water maker.
Thanks for reading . . .
Part of getting ready to set sail every year includes filling the freezer with meats – unless you’re a vegetarian, of course – and then you can fill the freezer with other yummy foods.
Our freezer sits underneath the cockpit bench and is easily accessible from just outside the galley. It’s an Engel and runs off both 12 volt and AC current. We run off the battery when we are underway and run off shore power at the dock. There is a small freezer inside our galley refrigerator, but it’s not big enough for the quantity we like to bring with us.
I’ve learned a thing or two about getting the maximum use out of the space that I’d like to share.
By not freezing the meat prior to storage, the meat uses up less space. If the meat is frozen first, then you can’t manipulate the shape to pack more in. We store the meat raw while Mattina is plugged in at the dock. This little machine hums away until the meats are frozen solid.
Warning: layer your meats so that each row has a choice. Don’t put all the steak at the bottom, for instance. The freezer has now become a jig saw puzzle and it’s amazing how hard it is to fit a frozen package back in once the pieces have been disturbed. After a while this doesn’t matter, but at first, if you can pick off the top layer without disturbing lower layers, life is much easier.
We also vacuum seal the meat so freezer burn doesn’t ruin the meat.
Now to get to the Bahamas so we can light up the barbecue.
Thanks for reading . . .
Farley here.
Kristina and Matt are getting ready to leave the country for months on end, and there seems to be an endless supply of presents for me.
A delivery person arrives almost daily and gives me a box.
I can hear him coming, step by step, along the dock . . . I can tell by the smell it’s him.
“He’s here. He’s here,” I bark.
Kristina opens the door for me and let’s me greet him. The guy comes so often he knows my name.
He hands over my present. “Thanks,” I bark.
Kristina always takes out whatever is in the box, like I care. But then . . . I get to rip the box apart, making a mess, shredding cardboard. The sound is so satisfying.
Once I’m done, I just have to wait until he comes back with my next box. Who knows why I keep getting presents, but Kristina says it’s something about no stores where we are going and we have to get prepared.
Woof Woof.
Mattina is a lovely boat that needs protection from the sun. Even though we have a bimini shading the cockpit, we feel more is needed.
As we sail we have direct access to our depth sounder, wind speed and direction indicator, knot metre and a chart plotter with radar screen. Our helm station uncovered, looks like this:
The first part in protecting the instruments from the sun is the instrument covers. These get put on as soon as we are settled in an anchorage or at a dock.
The second part of protecting the instruments is our custom-made helm cover. The cover is made of sunbrella that matches the rest of the canvas on Mattina.
You can see from the second photo, there are more items than just the instruments that need covering, including the steering wheel.
Thanks for reading . .
Farley here.
I almost missed the maiden voyage of Allura: our dinghy.
Matt thinks he’s so smart. He uses our dinghy hoist to quietly lower the boat off the stern of Mattina. I hear the splash.
“Wait,” I bark from below. I know what he’s doing.
Then I hear it. One pull and the engine starts. Matt is smiling because it’s the first pull of the season.
I jump up the three stairs from the port hull, that’s my side by the way, and rush to the stern.
“Wait for me!” I bark.
Kristina is passing Matt a life jacket and I nudge her (gently) out of the way. I bound from the top step to the dinghy in one leap. I haven’t forgotten how to do this and am proud of myself. Once I jumped, current took the dinghy, and I went swimming. I try not to do that anymore.
Purr goes the engine (and no it’s not a cat), yippee goes Matt, and woof woof go I.
We head out to the Intracoastal Waterway for my first dinghy ride of the season. I love my little boat.
Woof Woof.
