Paul and I have been making our own wine for about 2 years now. Paul bought me a wine making kit for Christmas, and we have been enjoying the products of it ever since.
We buy a kit with concentrated grape juice and the yeast, oak chips etc. It takes about 4 weeks to brew a batch of 30 bottles. The wine is ready to drink after about 30 days, but we leave it for an extra week or so. It is very easy to drink wine, and does not leave with the dry horrors in the middle of the night.
Our son Xavier created a wine label for our wine, it has a picture of a Westsail Yacht on it. He also created a back label with information about the wine and where it is made ( I never got those printed though).
We have found that doing the wine making together is a really enjoyable time. And we both like the rewards (drinking it). We have given a few bottles away to family and freinds. At first they are quite dubious about it (homemade wine.......) but after they try it, they like it.
Anyway Paul and I are making our last vintage, we will bottle it in 2 weeks time and then we will not be making anymore for six months. I don't know how we are going to survive with cask wine!!!!!! Oh well sacrifices have to be made.
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Paul and I are getting organised to haul Kabuki out on the 5th of September. We are hoping to install an Inverter ( a device that converts 12 volt battery power to 240 volt) for using the laptop and any other electrical devices we require. Also the engine needs a service, Paul will be dealing to the scuppers (these are drains on the side of the boat, that drain the deck).
We also have to do the usual anti-foul ( paint the bottom of the boat with special paint that stops marine growth) and clean up of the boat. We need to get our anchor chain ( all 300ft of it) re-galvanised, this can only be done in Auckland...........OH JOY.... We will have to take time off work to take the chain down, and then again to go and pick it up. The joys of living away from a major metropolis, but then I am sooooooooo glad that I don't live there.
So, we are starting to sort our stuff out for the move onto Kabuki. I sometimes wonder if we have enough time to do it. We are not packing up our house completely, as our Son will be living here. But we need to pack away delicate stuff, and things He doesn't need to have around. Our house is only a 2 bedroom unit, so there is not alot of place to store stuff. But we will find a way...
Sometimes I don't think I can wait another 2 & a bit months before we leave. I have the urge to just jump on Kabuki and make our escape NOW.
But then the ever practical side rears its ugly head, and I think about what needs to be done, commitments that need to be met. This I suppose is all part of the build up to the adventure... anticipation, worry, dread, loss, joy.
We are such complex creatures.
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Well I finished the Mainsail cover last week or, was it the week before? (where does time go). It was not as easy as the first Mainsail cover I made years back. This one was about 3ft longer, and my hands don't work as well as they used to. But I think I did an alright job, I used my old Janome sewing machine ( the one I used on the other cover). This machine is no good for doing delicate/normal sewing anymore, the tension seems to be all wrong.
So I have now started making a new cockpit cover, which hopefully I will install on the boat tomorrow. This will be of course if I am feeling better, as I have had Paul's cold for the last two days.
Paul was saying today that we may be putting the boat on the hard in a couple of weeks time ( yahoo). That means that we will hopefully be able to move aboard after we have Kabuki back in the water. ........... We are on countdown to departure.....
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