May Long Weekend at Gabriola Is.

We spent this May long weekend at Silva Bay on Gabriola Island. After an uneventful and windless crossing, we enjoyed two days of sunshine and a day of rain.

We decided to take a dinghy ride over to Degnen Bay to explore the sandstone galleries there. Here is a picture of the kids and Diesel sitting up in the stone, accessible only by boat.

We were able to make radio contact with Ron on 80 meters from Silva Bay, and both Jocelyn and Jenny spent about 30 minutes on the radio talking with Ron's daughter about anything and everything (girls are never at a loss for words!). Jocelyn has been bitten by the radio bug and now wants to get her own call sign, so maybe she'll start working on that this summer as well.

Our dinghy davits should be arriving soon and we are really looking forward to the convenience of lifting the dinghy out of the water each night and not having to tow it while sailing.

We are planning a 5 week circumnavigation of Vancouver Island this summer as part of our shake down prior to our big trip in 2007. We intend to do at least one overnighter once we are on the West Coast of VI which will give us all a taste of the offshore seas and 24 hour watch. The kids will also be taking Planning 10 while we are away this summer, which will give them a taste of homeschooling while on the boat and will also lighten their academic load while we are in the tropics.

SSB Radio Installation

SSB Radio Installation

We had our Radio Operators class aboard last week to inspect and test the installation of our Icom 802 radio. Jay went up the mast to inspect and seal the antenna connection and our class inspected and tested the foil and cable installation. After a little troubleshooting we were able to make contact with a net.

The SSB radio will allow us to have daily contact home while we are at sea and will provide a way for us to send and receive text emails and weather information as well as a way for you to contact us in the event of an emergency. It is a very important piece of equipment aboard Malachi.

The other boats around us cause a lot of interference with our radio, so we will have to practice away from the club. We are looking forward to practicing speaking on the radio as well as listening, which can be quite challenging at times.

NOTE: It it not advisable to take a flash photo of an electrician while he is working :) Sorry Ron!

African Choir

African Guests
We had the pleasure of hosting two Ugandan girls who sing in a Christian choir. As you can see, the kids had a wonderful time! The children stayed with us for two nights following a concert at our childrens school. If you ever have the opportunity to hear the African Children's Choir perform, we would highly recommend it, you will be richly blessed! These are children who have lost either one or both of their parents as a result of poverty or AIDS, they perform throughout the US and Canada for 15 months then return home with a full educational scholarship. These beautiful and talented young people go on to become their countries doctors, teachers, pilots and pastors. It is truly a wonderful organization. You can visit their website at www.africanchildrenschoir.com

Vessel:
Malachi is a 48' cutter which arrived in Seattle, from the Tayana factory in Taiwan, in January 2005. She is a center cockpit, 3 stateroom model. She is pictured here in the Spring of 2005 just off Eakins Point before we had the canvas work done and the name applied.

All sails are roller reefed. We have chosen Leisurefurl in-boom reefing for the main sail and Profurlers for the Jib and Staysail. We really enjoy the ease of the reefing systems. This winter we had an autopilot installed and let me tell you, Otto is our new favorite crew member!






Diesel really enjoys spending lots of time with his family!

Welcome to our Blog,

Our vessel, Malachi, Tayana 48 cc, and crew are preparing for a two year offshore voyage beginning in July 2007. We will depart Vancouver and coastal hop down to Mexico and then cross over to the Marquesas and then continue South to New Zealand before heading home via the Cook Islands and Hawaii.

Please visit our site often, I will try to keep this blog current with all of the preparations both vessel and crew are undergoing.

Radio:
Both Jay and Marg just completed a Ham radio course and are now certified Ham/Morse operators. VA7JGC and VA7MEC respectively. We are looking forward to taking an operating course next month.

We are in the process of installing our SSB radio (Icom 802), which has proven to be a rather tricky job. We need to make sure we have proper grounding and spent all day Sunday fishing copper foil, over, under and through what seems like everywhere! The backstay will be insulated this week and we should be operational in the near future.

Jay recently installed heat to the cockpit which we completely enjoyed a couple of weeks ago during the snow (in March? Yikes!).

There are many jobs on the list, which seems to get long again the minute we knock off a few of the items - oh well, that's boating for you