It has been a while since I brought you up to speed on the upgrades/repairs/cleaning and maintenance on Defiant 08. The list goes like this:
1)water tanks had to be sanitized for potable water, and for anyone who does this on an RV knows how how much water has to be used and we have 115 gallons. The process has taken 3 weeks to complete and the water now smells and tastes good.
2) The ongoing canvas project, a lot of sewing but should be done today, the trail fit worked really well.
3)For our own sanity we are replacing both heads. The stern head will just be a regular pump and flush, it is installed and works great. The master head is getting a household size, extra quite, one flush push button electric marine toilet. Hopefully installed and tested soon. The head project has also involved replacing “Y” valves and flushing hoses, that was the smelly part of the job.
4) I also did some electrical work moving lights around for better galley lighting.
5) And finally did some leak repair on the freshwater.
Everything else goes well and planning for the trip to ensenada continues. We are currently trying to Register our boat in Canada, this is a good thing and will make the boat Canadian, then we can fly a Canadian flag. The only problem is that we will have to change the name of the boat slightly. The new front runner is Defiant 08, The same name plus the year we bought Defiant. The paper work has been started with Victoria and we should know before we leave for Mexico.
Mike and I have been very busy lately! Well, Mike has been busy working on the boat and I have been busy working… His sewing is coming along nicely and I think he enjoys it. He even complained that he couldn’t get to his sewing today! Try to ignore the glare in the pics – the sun was reflecting off our coffee pot… 🙂
We also have a new tender. It has been a lot of fun! Mom gave us Dad’s 2-stroke motor and it is working great! I haven’t used it yet but Mike has been out and about with it. I have been having fun rowing around.
 - Our new tender
 Getting some excersize  Out for a spin  Motoring! We have also gone to a couple of parties this weekend. On Saturday, we went to a beach barbeque birthday party. Sorry no pictures of that but it was a lot of fun. Yesterday we went to a Thanksgiving feast that was held on the dock right beside our slip. Mike made garlic mashed potatoes and we bought a pumpkin pie to take. There was a ton of food and a lot of people. It was great fun!
 taken from the bow of the boat  the hungry masses  for the thirsty masses That’s about all I can think of for now… I am sure something else to tell you will come to me as soon as I sign off… 🙂
Love to everyone
Diana
Let me start by saying we are both well and still enjoying ourselves. I would like to take the boat out soon to make sure it still sails, hopefully next week but we will see still lots of work to do.
Here’s one, I thought I new how to do this. I tried to start the diesel engine (it worked fine before we left) it would not start so I thought I had to bleed the fuel injectors, having tried this it still would not start. After three hours thinking about the problem it was decided that we may have to hire a mechanic. Later having a beer on deck it dawned on me that maybe before we left in April I used the fuel shutoff, so I turned on the fuel and the motor started like brand new. So it only took one day to get the engine started. I think I learned too much last year and am starting to forget.
I have started to learn/relearn how to use a sewing machine; we have a sewing machine thanks to Sarah. As a child my mother taught me how to use a sewing machine, that maybe 35 to 40 years ago. For the first attempt it went well, the pictures show my repairs to our sail cover(all the white stitching) after that I will start to do the repairs necessary on the dodger.
Yesterday for the first I went up the mast, I did not make it to the top but I made it about thirty feet, which for the first time was high enough. It was quite exciting but also made both of us quite nervous. To hire a pro it cost about 80.00 an hour. I have found out that in my old age I’m not as strong as I used to be. It takes a lot of strenght to pull yourself up by hand using a block and tackle. Maybe next time I will make it to the top. This trip was mostley to do cleaning, lube the mainsail track and replace two flag halyards.
 Mike almost to the top
 My sewing practice (the white thread)
 Diana from up the mast
Thats all for now so enjoy.
mike
Hi everyone
We made it to the boat after some delays, everything was as we left it, well not as clean as we left it. It took a couple of days to recover from the trip here, I guess jet-lag but from driving. We have not been sailing yet as there is still a lot of work to go, we will hopefully go out next week.
As some of you know we are planning to spend Christmas in Ensenada Mexico, it should be a great trip. It should take about three or four days to get there and possibility of a couple days at Catalina island on the way, we will see. We will be traveling with Manny and Lola and their boat Desire. They have been great to us as they watched Defiant while we were away and did a great job. It has been surprising the number of boats leaving for Mexico, we went to a going away party last night for two more couples that left today(Sunday Nov 8), everyone on the docks is envious. The weather has been great since we got here, but the days are short.
I am posting some pictures to show our tans a the beginning of the season and for my mum so you can see my new haircut. This is the first time I cut my hair myself with help from Diana, shorter the better, no maintenance.
So long for now we will try and keep you updated.
mike
 Mikes new haircut
 Mike please don't take my picture
We are now on our boat! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
We are in the process of unloading the car and getting our stuff put away. Manny and Lola did a terrific job of looking after the boat for us while we were away! It looks great and the humidifier thingy that we left on did a good job too!
I have to get back to work but I thought I would let everyone know that WE ARE HERE!!!! 🙂
We are currently in King City, CA which is a little less than 4 hours away from the boat! We will be there tomorrow – yay!
As soon as we got through the Mount Shasta area, the temperature went up and we had to take off our fleeces. It is quite warm and sunny! 🙂 Definitely something to smile about!!!
Mike and I are both more than a little tired but we are almost there! Belle is not quite as happy as we are, but I’m sure she will cheer up as soon as she finds a sun beam to lay in.
Apparently there is a halloween party at the Marina so we will be going to that. There is supposed to be a chili cook-off and pumpkin pie contest and I think there will also be a pumpkin carving contest. We won’t be entering any contests – we don’t have time – but I think we can make time to do some tasting! 😉
I have probably babbled enough for now – did I mention I was tired? While Mike has been laying around watching TV, I have been working!
Bye for now, more later.
Love to all!
We are currently in Yreka, CA so we made it over the border!! YAY!! We dealt with a very nice border guard this time so it was a much better experience than the last time we tried to cross into the States. I don’t think I should say what I thought of the first guard that turned us away because this is the world wide web and I don’t want that held against us, so let me just say this crossing was a much better experience! (Even though we still had to wait for an hour…) 😉 This guard was very helpful as well!
Tonight we ate at the Puerto Vallarta again – the same place we ate at the last time we stayed in Yreka (Nov. 9/08). Almost a year ago – the same people still work there! Mike also had the tequila popper again (I didn’t because I was working on my second marg) – if you are ever in Yreka, you have to try this place!
We probably won’t make it to Ventura tomorrow but we should be awfully close to it! YAY! We will definitely be there by Friday.
🙂 🙂 🙂
I will post again tomorrow to let you know our progress.
Love to everyone,
Diana & Mike
Here are some more photos of our last day on the water before returning to Salmon Arm. I will be returning to the golf course for the summer to help restock our finances. To help us return to our sailboat faster you can make your donations thru Paypal
 Diana looking at my wax job Well I now it has been a long time since we posted anything, so I will try and bring everyone up to date. We are still in Venture West Marina; it is a great marina with all the amenities and good access to the ocean and the boat chandleries.
The weather here has been a little winter like, but no snow, it has been cool and recently very windy, last knight the wind blew up to 50mph; we survived mostly intact and were able to sleep.
On the boat front work continues and is coming along. I liken it to a starter’s pistol with six shots; we get to go when the final shot. First shot, make the boat water tight so we can sleep at night in the rain without getting wet. The funny thing is that when you hose down the boat there seems to be no leaks, but when it rains, once every two weeks; it has new leaks, so the leak solution continues. Second shot mechanical make sure the motor works well, oil change, impeller change, fuel filters and the packing seal, they all maybe good but we have no record of maintenance, so we will start fresh. I include sails under mechanical as it is supposed to be our main mode of propulsion, and the sail work is done for this season. Don’t worry there is lots of projects for the last four shots, but that is for next year. Finally we were Coast Guard inspected and past, we got our 2009 USCG Inspection sticker, word has it you are less likely to get boarded by the USCG if you have the sticker.
As for sailing we have been out several times mostly in light wind as we get comfortable with the boat. The outings went well including getting out of and into the slip, the harbor is no problem.
Our plans continue to evolve, we would absolutely love to stay for the summer and longer, but the reality is that we will be heading back to Salmon Arm and a summer at the golf course. The sailboat will stay at Ventura and we keep our fingers crossed. We have met some wonderful people here and will ask them to keep an eye on the boat. I still do not like leaving for max six months and next year I will be looking for work.
We are both well, no sea sickness, I can’t say that for the cat, she gets sea sick every once and a while.
Here are some pictures from our trip to ventura harbor. It was a great day and these pic’s prove this even the cat enjoyed the trip and took time from her busy day to enjoy some sun. The harbor picture is our new home at Ventura West Marina.
 enjoying my moring coffee enroute.
 Diana showing the way.
 Our most recent home
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