AN INSIDE JOB

I've been taking a little time this spring to refinish some of the cabin interior before launching. The left side in the photo has been done the right still needs to be. I'm using  Cetol Natural Teak. Easier to do this kind of stuff with the boat on the hard.

SQUALL AT ANCHOR 50+ KNOTS

 I've been out traveling for the past few weeks and so have not posted anything in awhile. But, here is a video I took while cruising in the Exumas when a squall came through one morning. It did not last long but, long enough to rip apart the dodger which you can see flapping at the top of the screen in part of the video. The boat behind us also had it's dingy flip over with a brand new outboard attached:

COMFORTABLE SWIM GOOGLES

I spent most of January cruising through the British, U.S. and Spanish Virgin Islands. Did a lot of swimming and snorkeling during that cruise. Several weeks after returning home I began to miss the ability to swim everyday like I did on the cruise. So I decided to see if I could make do with a substitute until the waters warm up enough and I could just jump off BIANKA for my daily swim.  So I signed up for a membership at a local health and fitness club that had a decent sized pool:

This worked out well for me and I soon got into a good routine for an early morning swim. Though I needed to find some type of googles to keep the chlorine out of the eyes as much as possible. While cruising I was mostly using my dive mask and snorkel when swimming. But, in the pool it's a little bulky and does not allow for ones nose to be used for breathing and exhaling.

I find that the swim googles I've seen most frequent pool swimmers use don't really fit my face well:
They tend to leak requiring frequent stops or require me to keep them overly tight. Plus they never fit my eye sockets comfortably.  So I went looking for an alternative that would fit my face.







The solution to my problem is the Aqua Sphere Vista Swim Mask



Unlike other goggle type swim eye wear it is shaped so it seals around ones forehead and cheeks. Yet, it still keeps the nose clear so it is easy to exhale when swimming which is one of the draw backs of a dive mask. It also does not put pressure around the eye sockets like the usual swim googles do.   I've been using them  for several months and find it very comfortable to wear and I can do an entire thirty minute swim without it leaking.  I'm so pleased with it's comfort and use I plan to buy another one to keep on the boat for my frequent cool down swims off of the boat during the summer .