We have very much got used to our in-mast furling system on Mariadz, having learnt with this system ten years ago. We generally have our techniques for avoiding sail jams despite having one for the first time in years a few weeks ago. However, one of the issues with older sails is that the flap […]
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We like Mariadz to look good as well as being in good working order. So she gets a regular clean from us but sometimes you feel it needs a little more. We’re not OCD (well mostly), but we think, since Mariadz looks after us, we should look after her and make sure she always looks […]
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We like having redundancy and spares on board Mariadz. One of our fallback navigation and anchor watch options is the iPad but these are power hungry apps which will run down the batteries quite fast. So, in true Mariadz style, this has led us to get a charge capability in the cockpit which will work […]
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Dahling, one can’t have a sundowner without ice! And so it began. The hunt for a portable ice maker that could make ice quickly and didn’t use much power. Our cruising friends have always said that ice is very unusual on cruising boats and potentially a commodity. I can see the ice maker being on […]
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We had a lot of electrical work done a few years ago and as part of this we had some extra 240v sockets added in useful places with usb sockets included. The vast amount of devices that are now chargeable by usb seemed to make this a sensible change. Unfortunately this year one of the […]
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When we bought Mariadz, the anchor windlass had only just been replaced and we laughingly have suggested that this was the only thing that actually worked properly when we got her. So it was with some dismay, that on our first weekend of the 2018 season, we tried to deploy the anchor and got nothing. […]
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Those that are familiar with our journey will know that music is important to us. One of the first things we did when we got both of our boats was install new stereo systems with Bluetooth, to access music on phones, and a remote control to allow us to control the stereo from anywhere on […]
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Mariadz had the same cockpit cushions for seventeen years and if we are honest they were a little “tired” and not as comfortable as they could be. We knew before we left on our big trip we would need to sort these out and Maria has also been keen to remove any semblance of the […]
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As always with a boat, there were a few niggly things that we need to get done before the start of the season. The first of these is the throttle on Mariadz. This is located on the steering binnacle next to the forward facing radar control but Maria has always struggled when the engine is […]
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We were just about to go on holiday at the end of January when we suddenly started to have issues with the shore power. It seemed like there was a loose connection somewhere and so we had to trace it back from the pontoon power supply. It became clear that there was an overheating problem […]
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