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 . . .
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 . . .
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 . . .
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 . .
As many of you know, Mattina, our Lagoon 380 S2 is already in the water, but I thought I’d back up a bit and show off our Radiche props.
Mattina has folding propellers. The propellers fold back when not in use, as shown below, to reduce drag while we are sailing.
And they open when we are under power.
Every year Matt paints the props with anti fouling paint and puts on new sacrificial zincs. Looking pretty nice for something that won’t be seen. Not that it matters, because the whole point is for Mattina to sail faster when the propellers are folded back than she would with fixed propellers.
Now I can’t wait to get out on the ocean, head for the Bahamas, and do some sailing. What are you waiting for, you ask? The end of hurricane season.
Happy Sailing and Thanks for reading . . .
As we continue to get Mattina ready for the upcoming season, I’ll share the improvements we make; such as, Mattina gets a new helm seat.
Who says sailing can’t be comfortable?
After searching through my photos I found this one of Matt and Farley at the helm station (I forgot to take the before picture I’m so fond of prior to installing the new seat.)
Can you see the shape of the back rest? That’s the original back rest that came outfitted on the boat. It’s circular and a roll in the back is not exactly comfortable. You also get a glimpse of our full enclosure for those rainy days. We must have been expecting rain that day or maybe the wind was cold and we were keeping warm.
We had a new back rest designed and made for comfort.
Now we can sit together at the helm for long periods of time and feel comfortable.
Thanks for reading . . .
Sometimes preparing a cruising boat for the winter season is like Christmas, and this year’s present is a new trampoline.
As you know, I love the before and after photos.
So, here’s the before . . . Yuck.
And here’s the after . . . Awesome.
Doesn’t Farley look happy on his new trampoline? We love to keep Mattina in mint condition, meaning I think we should look like a Lagoon 380 S2 brochure.
Oh, and did you notice? Mattina is in the water 🙂
Thanks for reading . . .
The fall season is here and it’s time to start blogging about cruising. During the winter months, I post every Wednesday about our cruising lifestyle, so here we go. . .
The time of year is upon us where we go through our commissioning list and launch Mattina, our Lagoon 380 S2. We usually spend about 8 days on the hard, working on areas that need to be done with the boat out of the water.
Then Mattina gets launched, and we proceed to part two of the commissioning process. I won’t rewrite what we did in the fall of 2012 for commissioning, but here are the links if you are interested.
This year, I thought I’d write about some of the things we do that aren’t on our regular commissioning list but have to be one for us to keep Mattina in mint condition.
I love before and after photos. We decided Mattina needed new window coverings. The large windows on the cabins and showers provide ample light below decks and spectacular views. We all want to see out, but that doesn’t mean we want others seeing in. The winder covering on Mattina started to wear and so . . . new window coverings.
This might seem easy, but getting paint off windows is hard work and certainly takes time.
But the result was worth the effort.
Now tell me the second photo doesn’t look better!
Thanks for reading . . .
Emotions are crazy and have a life of their own. I’m sad to be decommissioning my sailboat for the summer, but extremely happy to be going home to my family for a few months. Happy – Sad – Happy – Sad . . .
I just can’t have everything I want at the same time 🙂
We prepare the boat as if we are expecting a hurricane and have a two step process for Mattina. Part of the work is done in the water and part on land. Luckily we do most of it in the water and only a few hours on land. Too hot up on the hard.
In the water . . .
THEN, Mattina gets hauled.
On the hard. I’ve listed a few items so you get the idea of what needs to be done. Our actual is list is 3 pages long.
Matt has a detailed decommissioning list that we seem to add to every season. I keep asking Matt why the list doesn’t get shorter and he just smiles and assigns another item to me.
Our dog gets the best deal. He plays on the dock and greets anyone who walks by. He also lets us know if dolphins or manatee swim by and we get to take a break and watch.
Thanks for reading . . .
Sailing on the Exumas banks in fifteen knots from the east, flat water and clear skies is our favourite. Our plan had been to sail north each day and make our way to Florida within five days.
We didn’t quite stick to the plan, or as we call it, Plan No Plan.
Highbourne Cay marina has a new restaurant that we had to try out.
The spotted eagle ray gave us a lovely show at Cambridge Cay.
After that it was off to Rose Island, Chubb Cay, South Bimini and then – and I feel like I should play music here – Florida.
Time to work on the Mattina, go through our decommissioning checklist and put her on the hard for the summer. Boo Hoo.
Kristina Stanley 