Aft Cabin Fever

When our friends stayed over for two nights recently I realized that my set up for sheets in the aft cabin is way too complicated...so I brainstormed a little and came up with an idea that is far more practical and still keeps everything looking beautiful :) Don't believe me? We'll...here is what I did...

Changing sheets is an annoying affair on most boats...our aft cabin is big and beautiful, but having to climb onto the bed and tuck in sheets and secure them, so the don't come loose easily is a pain in the "you know what"! So instead of using fitted or other sheets I have long ago changed to using a thin cotton quilt enveloped in a duvet cover...the quilt is used like a thin mattress pad where you sleep on and not as a cover up...this way it lies flat on the bed and nothing needs to be tucked in anymore...the duvet covered quilt does not move around much when laying on it, and is easily pulled straight in the morning. When it is time to change bed linen I simply take off the duvet cover and wash it...easy peasy! This system has worked extremely well in our V-berth (front cabin) where we usually sleep :) 

Here is a photo of how I had set up the aft cabin for our visitors...notice that the duvet covered quilt was tucked in on all sides of the mattress...looks great, but is really difficult to maintain that way and even more troublesome when having to change the duvet!

Here is a photo of the new set up...although it is hard to notice, the duvet covered quilt is now only half the size...and instead of the sides being tucked under the mattress it is now shortened to fit the dimensions of the bed...no more tucking! I simply doubled the quilt over (yes it was that big)...out of the kingsize duvet cover I made two smaller duvets that fit the doubled over quilt :) So now I even have a spare duvet cover! My sewing skills come in very handy at times...I even altered the kingsize pillow covers that came with the initial duvet set...cut one to make it fit a normal pillow and extended the other to make it fit one of the big nautica body pillows.

When not in use for sleeping we can either roll up the duvet covered quilt and hide it behind the two blue body pillows underneath the portholes (windows) or simply leave it in place and cover with another small piece of quilt...either way looks great and is practical! Hah...I can see us snoozing in both front and aft cabin at random now, hahahaha. Mission accomplished :)

Catching the rain...

Some of our friends are interested in our rain water catcher on Orion...so here are a few pictures...we inherited the system from the previous boat owners...it attaches via snaps onto the bimini top and the outside edge is reinforced with a stick pushed through a channel which was sewn there specially for that purpose...I didn't have a long enough stick and used two smaller ones on the picture...we will get wooden dowels of the appropriate length before we leave the dock for good...we have two of these systems one for port and one for starboard...so bring on the rain :)

Thanks for your interest...maybe this will help you design your own :)

 

Small stuff...

Whilst my captain has been working hard on the big stuff I have been busy finishing some small stuff:

British Red Ensign courtesy flag

First on the list was to finish my two British Red Ensign courtesy flags...so I did just that by sewing on the Union Jacks and putting in two spur grommets on each flag for hoisting...done :)

 

 

 

Cockpit sunshade

Next I finished making a sunshade for the cockpit...mounted on the inside. We use this only when the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening. The shade is made of jersey nylon material (with lots of holes in it), which I cut to fit and then sewed a band on the bottom which attaches to the bimini tubes via snaps...for the top we just use wooden clothes pins and a line...very simple but extremely effective! The nylon material is great, because it doesn't fray when cut, so there is no need to sew the edges...best of all...I got it for a buck a yard (!) at Walmart. Of course I made another one for the front as well :)

Mosquito screen

Small stuff number three was making a mosquito screen for the salon hatch. I used Phiphertex (also called Textoline) material to which I sewed hook and loop tape...the frame on the hatch is made of wood on the inside of the cabin, so it was easy to attach the hook and loop tape with some glue and screws that were already in place there. Now I need to make some more of these screens for all the other hatches, which are currently covered with screen material that is attached with sticky gum (the one used for sticking pictures to the wall)...seriously...this works well, but is not a long term solution.

Last but not least I successfully tackled repairs to our Eisenglas (plastic) protective cockpit coverings. The panels are zipped in at the top and the sides (snapped in at the bottom) and form a complete enclosure...great for those really gusty rainy days at anchor (or at the dock)! Well...some of the side zippers were totally disintegrated from the sun and it seemed that the material had shrunk, because there was quite a gap, making it impossible to pull the sides together! What to do? My solution: I measured the gap (actually I eyeballed it, because I am not good at measuring), sewed a small sunbrella panel to fit and attached it with snaps...yap...snaps...works great :)

 

Snap on panel

We shall see how this will hold up in a gusty storm...I am pretty confident it will pass the test, keeping us dry inside :)

That's it for now...it feels good to get stuff done...now it's time to play for a little before embarking on the next project...

 

Just in case you are wondering about my method of putting in snaps...here is my very own snap tool called Pres'n'Snap...it is the greatest tool ever! Saw it in action at Marianne's (my sailmaker friend) shop and after she explained how it works I was hooked! It is expensive...but so worth it. I bought it on the internet from a company called Perfect Fit...they also sell all kinds of other useful stuff...I also got the hook and loop tape from them in big rolls for little money and the shipping was reasonable :)

Together with the Pres'n'Snap I bought all kinds of fasteners, which I store conveniently in a fishing box...of course I have a few of those fishing boxes for all the different fasteners. With this tool I also put in the spur grommets on the courtesy flags, which I talked about earlier. Everybody is behaving real careful around me these days, because I love this tool so much that I snap almost everything that is "snappable"...Just kidding :)

 

Hah! Making my own courtesy flags for the Caribbean!

Courtesy flags...what are courtesy flags? According to wikipedia...

Courtesy Flag

A courtesy flag (or courtesy ensign) is flown by a ship in foreign waters as a token of respect by a visiting vessel. It is often a small (that is, smaller than the ship's own national ensign) national maritime flag of the host country, although there are countries (such as Malta) where the national, rather than the maritime flag is correct. The flag is customarily worn at the foremasthead of multi-masted vessels, the starboard yardarm or crosstree of the mast of single-masted vessels, and from the jackstaff of vessels without masts.

There you have it! To put it simple...a courtesy flag is a small flag of the country you are visiting with your boat and you fly it to show respect for that country :) Further research taught me that there are three different sizes for courtesy flags: 12"x18" is the most common, followed by 10"x20", followed by 12"x20". Believe me I googled and yahooed for quite a while in order to gain more knowledge on the subject and alas my research was rewarded! I can just imagine what a wonderful project this would be for cruising kids...many thanks to my friend Debbie Verstoep who messaged me that her son Matheus was in charge of making the courtesy flags when they were cruisers...he made them out of scrap sail cloth (that sailmakers donated to him) and painted them with acrylic colors and markers...she told me that her son to this day knows every single flag he made and the country they honored with it :) Way to go Verstoep family! If Matheus can do it there is hope that I can do it also...thanks Debbie and Matheus for inspiring me :)

To be honest with you...I was going to purchase the courtesy flags needed for the Caribbean Islands...all 28 of them...until my eyes almost popped out of my head when they saw the price tag of almost threehundred US Dollars for the set...you are reading correctly...threehundred Dollars...US! Although I am sure it is a nice set...with all due respect...but threehundred bucks for a set of flags that will last for only a few weeks to maybe two months before the Caribbean sun has gobbled them up is entirely too much money for these two sweeties on Orion!

Thank God for others who have traveled this path before :) My research brought me to the sailrite website and the book "Make Your Own Courtesy Flags..." (yeah yeah...and signal flags, but I am not interested in those...) by Bonnie Ladell and Matthew Grant. I ordered the book and shortly after receiving it was on my new venture of flag making :) Not only does this book list all the courtesy flags of the Caribbean it also tells about their meanings, about flag ettiquette and best of all...it contains templates for the flag details! Hah...piece of cake! Or so I thought...

To make a long story short...I figured out a way to make my own templates for the three different sizes of courtesy flags...because this flag maker is not going to measure each and every flag she makes...oh no! The templates needed to be stiff yet flexible...my Phifertex material that I had on board would work perfectly...and it did :) Below you can see the three templates framed with blue tape, as well as two strips for seam allowances of 1" for top and bottom and 1.5" for each side...

three templates made of phifertex

Now off to making the flags! To simplify the process I decided to start with the three flags that each cover several of the Caribbean Islands:

1. The British Red Ensign flag is also used for Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Island, Montserrat, and Turks and Caicos
2. Flag for France is also used for St. Martin, St. Barthelemy, Guadeloupe, and Martinique
3. Netherland Antilles flag is also used for Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten

Note to self: Check out number three for accuracy, because some cruiser friends told me that just recently something has changed! No problem...I am starting with number one, which has not changed for sure. From the book I learned that the ratio of the British Red Ensign flag is 1:2 with a finished size of 10"x20"...out comes my 10x20 template and in very little time I have the thing pinned to my red nylon flag material, marked, cut, and prepared,for sewing :) Oh...I also decided to do two of the same flags at a time...this way I always have a spare :)

My very first set of British Red Ensign courtesy flags...ready to sew :)

Well...all that is left is the Union Jack in the left upper corner of the flag. I traced it from the book onto spinnaker cloth...next step is to paint the details...

Painting the details with acrylic fabric paint

Voila...the finished product...well...almost finished. Just need to sew around the Union Jack to reinforce it and put two grommets on the side for hoisting the flag...

Turned out quite okay :)

My British Red Ensign courtesy flags :)

By the way, I also learned that there is a right way and a wrong way to put up the Union Jack...admittedly I had no idea!

If you are interested in finding out more about this...here is a nice website:

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/geography/unionjack7.html


That's it for now...more next time :)

 

Uff!! The Mattress Extension Project!

I know...I know...everybody is waiting for sailing pictures, but this past weekend was put aside for the long postponed project to extend the mattresses in the aft cabin...so instead of sailing pictures you will see sewing pictures. The plan was to add two big pieces to the already existing ones in order to form a U-shaped "playground", if I may say so :o) Having never done this kind of stuff before, I was not really looking forward to it...but hey...we live and learn and if you don't try you don't succeed!

I am happy to report that this dreaded fun project turned out alright...actually pretty darn good...so good, that I no longer dread to cover all sorts of shapes and forms of foam :o) We purchased 5 inch high density foam from our friend Marianne (yes, Marianne from Trade Winds across from the marina) and had her make the two patterns and cut the foam accordingly. With this heavy duty work out of the way, it was time for me to sharpen the needles of my beloved Singer sewing machine. Seriously, this little Singer machine is like the little engine that could! Initially I made a slip cover, which is an easy thing to do, slipped it over the foam and pretended I was done with it! Ugh...it really was awful and after a night's sleep I decided I could not live with the result of such poor workmanship (mine). So I took the slip cover off again and vowed to produce a far superior product with my next try. This cover needed to be done properly, so that everything would fit and match with the existing mattresses!

Off to a new try and a great learning experience. I consulted my "Don Casey's complete illustrated sailboat" book, which contains a whole chapter on canvas and sewing projects for sailboats. I copied the formula for making cockpit cushion covers, which is the same as making upholstery covers...just a few little adjustments. I double checked my formula with Marianne BEFORE I started cutting the material (thank you Marianne). As it goes, the first cut is the hardest, because you just don't believe that a tiny seam allowance of 1/2" ( only half an inch for heaven's sake!) will be enough to make everything fit in the end. But my worries soon disappeared and I happily continued tracing, measuring, and cutting...all the while sending small little prayers that in the end nothing would have been done in vane. Ah well...only two things could happen...either it worked or it did not.

Since there was a lot of tension on Orion, the captain wisely decided to work on some projects that required him to be away for a while...(like checking the outboard motor on the dinghy)...Yes, we are a great team :o)

I was able to finish covering the foam pieces with the jeans-material I had selected (matching to the existing ones)...stuffing the foam into them is a different story...but I was successful with that also...hurray, hurray.
 

blue cheese head in place

All that was left was two tiny triangular pieces, which I conquered without too much fuss at all! So the two little "blue cheese heads" fit perfectly into the spaces they belong...how kewl is that?

"blue cheese head"

new mattress addition to the right

finished project, new extension to the left

After successfully covering the foam and putting the finished mattress extension in place, I draped everything with a blue king size sea shell quilt, which I cut to fit. The pillow covers and curtains you see in the pictures are home-made also...I did these almost three years ago already...and they still fit in with everything just perfectly...at least in my/our humble opinion :o)

finished project, new extension to the right

All in all we now have a very very comfortable aft cabin and can roll around any way we want...Life is good!

A closer look...

The quilt covers in place...

We turned the cupboard into a book cupboard :o)

The rear portholes with sun shade covers