Aaza Dana is HOT!

Vessel Name: Aaza Dana
Vessel Make/Model: Kalik 40
Hailing Port: Kuwait
24 April 2011 | Kuwait
21 November 2010 | Kuwait - Kubbar Island
01 November 2010 | Kuwait
Recent Blog Posts
24 April 2011 | Kuwait

Curtains & Cushions

Well, it’s 14 months to go, and finally we seem to have gotten ourselves motivated to get that boat prepared! Firstly the pretty curtains! Now, you might not think that pretty curtains are so important on a boat – but these are more than pretty curtains. They are our key to privacy!

21 November 2010 | Kuwait - Kubbar Island

Disaster Sail!!!

Marc and I tried our first married couple cruise this weekend. It was disastrous! More later....

01 November 2010 | Kuwait

Back in the Water

Well, we just got back from another amazing island hopping holiday, and we are motivated to sail again. We haven't taken the yacht out since we broke her in the summer - how sad is that! We were racing and the chainplate snapped, resulting in us losing our foresail and having to retire from the race. It's been fixed now, I'll just post a pic when I can find it!

Curtains & Cushions

24 April 2011 | Kuwait
Bloody Windy!
Well, it’s 14 months to go, and finally we seem to have gotten ourselves motivated to get that boat prepared! Firstly the pretty curtains! Now, you might not think that pretty curtains are so important on a boat – but these are more than pretty curtains. They are our key to privacy!
Foreberth with white blinds

A good wind scoop is essential for comfortable passage!

Now, when we sail off, we intend to use the enormous berth in the main cabin as our master bed; but meantime, we often sail with crew. And at one stage last year this was driving me dilly, ‘cos I had no privacy. So I decided to adopt a berth as my personal space.

My first choice was the quarterberth, which has the most comfortable ride – it doesn’t slam up and down on waves like the foreberth does. But Tris, who was coming on a round-the-island voyage with us decided he wanted it… So I conceded and gave him it, adopting the forberth instead! I’m glad I did now, ‘cos with the quarterberth being right next to the main hatch, crew tend to sling their bags in there, and they’re easy to retrieve from there as well! The other advantage with the foreberth is that when it’s choppy I can crawl in and curl up athwartships, jamming my feet against the leeward hull, and the I sleep very comfortably. Until we tack, that is. But when I wake up upside down and with a crick in my neck, it’s no big deal, I just spin around!

The blinds, which were bougth from B&Q, are not just there for prettiness, they also serve an essential role as wind scoop. See, When I go and put my head down in the foreberth when we’re on passage, it’s cooler if I have the main doorway closed off. That’s because when the roof hatch is open, the air just blows down the hole, through the doorway and into the main cabin. Whereas, if I would hang up a towel to block the air’s passage, it would bounce back into the forecabin and cool me down. And these blinds, as well as being pretty, are water resistant. Not that I want to use them as a shower curtain or anything, but I figured if they’re water resistant, they’re also wind resistant!!

You can actually see two blinds here. The narrow, tall doorway goes from the main cabin to what I call ‘the landing’ (since I don’t know what it’s proper nautical term is)! You can’t see the heads on the port, and our clothes cupboards on the starboard. You can also see the shorter but wider door into our forecabin. I bought this second blind in Febrauary when I visited for Dad’s funeral – since the first blind worked so well!
v cushion on lounge floor

The old one has been too small ever since the v-berth grew

You might notice the new cushions I had made too. This is because we extended the v-berth when we rebuilt, and filled in a useless gap that was there… You can sort of get the idea of the shape it used to be from the old cushion. Well, we were having new cushions made anyway, and since the foreberth is mine, I naturally decided to start there!

After consulting Cruisers Forum, I decided to go for a hard base, with a few inches of soft foam on top (memory foam would have been preferable, but no such luck in Kuwait). And since we have actually got three stowage units under the foreberth, I decided to make the cushion into three pieces, to make accessing the storage easier. Lucky I did really, cos two of the new sections are heavier than the original. Which Marc is not best pleased about, but at least they’ll be comfortable!! Anyway, they were a nightmare to cut – I had to go straight to the Al Baghli Sponge factory out in the desert. But that was a lot of fun. The guys were great, and it would seem they’d never had a white girl pitch up with a dog before. I so wish I’d taken a photo – maybe next time when I go back for the main salon cushions….

Disaster Sail!!!

21 November 2010 | Kuwait - Kubbar Island
Calm to stong winds.
Marc and I tried our first married couple cruise this weekend. It was disastrous! More later....

Back in the Water

01 November 2010 | Kuwait
Kate
Well, we just got back from another amazing island hopping holiday, and we are motivated to sail again. We haven't taken the yacht out since we broke her in the summer - how sad is that! We were racing and the chainplate snapped, resulting in us losing our foresail and having to retire from the race. It's been fixed now, I'll just post a pic when I can find it!

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