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"A sailor's plans are written on the sand at low tide." Well... we've been living that VERY honest assessment of sailing life over the past year or two. In this short update video, we will tell you what has happened, talk a bit about what we've been up to, and reaffirm our plans moving forward. We'll also introduce you to a new member of the Sailing with Intention family! Okay... two new members of the family. Our new asymmetric spinnaker, and our new music provider Arden Little! Thanks a million, Arden. We love your music!

We bought a condo because we needed a home base, a safe harbour if you will. During hurricane season, we need a *literal* safe place to live when it's unsafe to be onboard Intention. But in a more pessimistic sense, If something happened with Intention, we'd need someplace to live while we sorted out our lives. Who knew that the roles would be reversed? Who knew that something would happen with our condo that would mean that Intention would become our safe haven? That's exactly what happens in this episode. What was expected to be a two night stay onboard Intention becomes... well, a lot longer. In the process, we learned a LOT about living aboard our remarkably comfortable floating home. We also learned that we're more ready to head to the tropics than we thought we were.

As promised, here is the uncut, unedited video of the adorable river otter that climbed up on our deck to warm up and have a little nap on our lines. No commentary, no effects - just OTTER!! Tech details: shot in 4K at 4X frame rate, yielding a motion of 25% of real time.

We've been having the bathroom in our condo redone, and what we expected would be two nights aboard Intention has turned into almost two weeks. WE ARE THRILLED!! We are learning what it's like to ACTUALLY live aboard our amazing boat, and do that we are really impressed! We were getting low on diesel and our holding tank was probably about two-thirds full, so we motored over to Van Isle Marina to fuel up and pump out. As we were leaving Tsehum Harbour, the Sun was shining and there was around 10 knots of wind. OF COURSE we went sailing!!

We've been living aboard Intention for a variety of reasons this past week. It's been GREAT!! We're learning so much about how to live aboard long term, and that of course means eating well.

We picked up a mooring buoy at Sidney Spit for a couple of nights, and one morning we had the CUTEST little visitor!

I saw this technique used in one of the Sailrite videos where the person sewing was asssembling several identical pieces. They used one long strip of basting tape to create the seam on all the pieces, then fed all the pieces through the machine almost as if it was one piece. This is a REAL timesaver!! I intended to include all of this in the "Sewing the Sail Pack" video but somehow forgot. Rather than re-edit the ENTIRE video, I thought I'd give YouTue Shorts a try!

We've already shown you how we installed our new sail pack on Intention; check out episode 11 if you haven't already seen that. In this deep dive video, we will shows the steps we took in actually laying out and sewing the sail pack. Like I say in the video, we aren't trying to replicate the informative Sail Pack instructional video from Sailrite, we just want to share our experience as we sewed our own sail pack. We are going to try to show some of the unique challenges we faced and how we dealt with them. We will also show some of the alterations we made to the Sail Pack instructions to meet our needs onboard Intention. Check out Sailrite's Sail Pack video at: https://youtu.be/JMB-r4mtK1Q?si=Hxn8PreNJQDF8Q_7 By the way, this video is NOT sponsored. Sailrite hasn't given any promotional consideration and has no influence on what we say in this video. All opinions stated in this video are strictly our own. Thanks for your support. Like and subscribe - it helps us grow our channel. And please leave a comment; we really like sharing our experiences with you! Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 02:40 - Laying out and cutting 10:05 - Batten pocket changes 16:57 - Sewing begins! 24:33 - Lock strap changes 30:43 - Twist-lock covers 31:26 - Outro and shameless "L/C/S" request

Back in Episode 6 ("Gone with the Wind(lass)"), we highlighted the issues we were having in addressing an issue that was identified on our survey. This episode ended on a cliffhanger, with us discovering that the windlass we had worked just fine, but it did NOT play well with the chain that we have. The solution? Install a new windlass, of course. This episode will walk you through the steps we followed to FINALLY install a working windlass - a VERY necessary step to allow us to leave the marina for good and head out on our adventures. As always, we welcome any and all (constructive) comments. If you're not subscribed yet, please click that button so you will be notified of new videos as we release them. And as always, if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up - it really helps our videos get pushed out to more potential followers. TECHNICAL NOTE: I switched video editing software for this episode. Let me know if you prefer the look and feel of this versus our previous episodes. If you're curious, I can also share details of what our previous software was and what new software I used on this episode.

This was a big week onboard Intention. We left the marina, and for the first time, WE DIDN'T COME BACK!! Well... not right away, at least. We took Intention out with a friend on Sunday and anchored for the first time off Portland Island. Then, just two days later, we went out AGAIN, this time to anchor in Cadboro Bay - OVERNIGHT! It's been a great week, and even though we didn't actually *sail* very much, we got a little tiny taste of what it will be like when we leave the marina for good. Spoiler alert: We REALLY liked that taste!

Intention came with a servicable but aging sail cover. It did a great job of protecting the mainsail from the Sun and other elements when it wasn't in use, but in practice we found that it was difficult to take off and put on, we had to find someplace to put it when it was not on the boom, and it was just generally a PAIN. As a result, we tended to avoid raising our mainsail when we *probably* should have. We wanted to switch to a sail PACK instead of a cover to address these shortcomings, and after getting a few estimates for having one made, we decided to buy a Sailrite LSZ-1 sewing machine and one of their sail pack kits and do it ourself. We are VERY happy we did! This is a project that we would estimate at MODERATE difficulty. Pretty much anyone that knows how to sew a straight stitch with a sewing machine can DEFINITELY sew one of these sail packs. And trust us - you will be really proud of the results!! We make frequent mention of the Sailrite video on sewing a sailpack. You can find that video at: https://youtu.be/JMB-r4mtK1Q?si=jM2V2j9SZTnJgNSL The sail pack kit we purchased is technically no longer available, but the replacement kit can be found at: https://www.sailrite.com/Sail-Pack-Stack-Pack-Kit-for-16-Boom If you liked this video, please leave a comment! Thanks!

LINK TO SAILRITE BOX CUSHION TUTORIAL: https://www.sailrite.com/How-To-Make-a-Quick-and-Easy-Box-Cushion-Video In this video, we discuss the reasons that we wanted to redesign the seatbacks for our saloon upholstery and we also describe the details of how we created the removable box cushions for our seatbacks. I won't say that we couldn't have done this project without the helpful information provided free of charge by Sailrite, but I'd be lying if I said that their tutorials were anything other than HUGELY helpful. I really can't say enough positive things about Sailrite - except, maybe, that they don't have any easy shipping options to Canada. (Maybe I'll make a video about how we navigate getting things across the border legally; let me know if you're interested). Anyway, the link to Sailrite's tutorial page is listed right at the top of this description box. Check them out if you have any similar DIY projects. We don't have any cockpit cushions onboard Intention (*yet*), so we really wanted to have these seatback cushions double as sitting cushions that could be used on deck or in the cockpit. We didn't buy water-shedding reticulated foam for them because they're not intended to be left out in wet conditions, but it's nice to know that we have some extra soft things to sit on when the weather is nice. We LOVE the way the upholstery turned out and think that the new design for the removable box cushions on the seat backs make the saloon much more versatile. Let us know what other projects you'd like to see. We'd love to hear your comments!

It has been FAR too long since we took Intention out of the marina. Our sailing skills have gotten rusty, and the bottom of our sweet girl has gotten pretty dirty despite its spiffy new paint job. So we decided to take Intention out for a little sail, including testing out our new anchor windlass at Portland Island (off Saltspring) as we made supper onboard. That was our intention... but things changed. We had a WONDERFUL day out on the water, and in the end we sailed further and longer than we ever have before. It was a huge accomplishment for us, so we really wanted to share this video with you!

"The best laid plans..." We never want to have the mindset of forcing ourselves to do something simply because we had a schedule in mind. In this video, we talk about that, and in the process we give you a major update about our sailing status for 2023.

We've already shown you how we constructed a French seam to widen the seat bottom upholstery where it was necessary. We've also shown you how we attached the new upholstery to the old seats. In this detail video, we'll show you how it all started - with deconstructing our 30 year old upholstery! No, that is NOT the way that time works. We know that. There's probably no surprises here, but it may still be useful to some people to see the steps we followed in removing the old upholstery. As always, if you're new here, please subscribe and enable notifications so you will know when we post a new video. Give the video a thumbs up if you liked it, and add a comment. It all helps feed the ravenous bloodblatter beast of... YouTube. ;-)

In this detail video, we show many of the steps we followed to attach new Sunbrella marine grade canvas fabric to our deconstructed upholstery. What's that? I haven't posted the deconstruction video yet? Well, perhaps I'm not as tied to a linear, cause-and-effect timeline narrative as some. Or maybe it's that I edited the videos in the order that I was interested in so they're a little our of order. People are different, that's all I'm saying... Anyway, we describe some of the challenges we faced when attaching a VERY different type of fabric to 30 year old upholstery. We also offer explanations of how we overcame those challenges. Isn't that nice?

Two of our seats - the port side and the galley side ones - have seat cushions that are too wide for the fabric that we bought. We decided to create a French seam to join two widths of the fabric together, giving us more than enough fabric width to cover these longer seats. I have always liked the look of French seams, and they can provide a really strong seam between two fabrics in this scenario. I could also have made either a flat felled seam or a full flat felled seam to join the panels together. And... about flat felled seams. At the time we filmed this, I had it in my Teflon-coated brain that the seam we were creating was called a flat felled seam. I mean, on some level I *knew* it wasn't, but I still kept saying the wrong thing. I've included an appropriate disclaimer at the beginning of the video and have put corrective text overlays every time I mess up. In case you're wondering, I mess up a LOT! We are not sewing professionals. This is offered simply as a documentary of the simple method that *we* used when *we* assembled a French seam. It's not intended to be any kind of autoritative reference on the best method for constructing this attractive and practical seam. For a better tutorial on how to do this sort of seam, see https://www.sailrite.com/french-seam-construction-tutorial?gclid=Cj0KCQjwlPWgBhDHARIsAH2xdNfZ0HtH4whJlMM8jwFcOsFRaC9wpZiGwT8JZylEaJKBYKPgVDWZFfUaAh1hEALw_wcB. We are very pleased with the look of these seams, and it gave me lots of good experience using our new Sailrite LSZ-1 sewing machine. I put a text overlay in the video stating this, but it bears repeating here. We are NOT sponsored by Sailrite in any way - we just love their products, and ESPECIALLY love their extremely informative videos on YouTube. Another great thing about their videos? THEY'RE FREE!! And who doesn't love free stuff? Not us - that's for sure... We only wish Sailrite had an easier Canadian shipping option. Oh well - you can't always get what you want, right?

Our 30 year old upholstery looked fine, but... well, it was 30 year old boat upholstery. You can't SEE smells in the video, and you should be thankful forthat! This video is an overview of the process we followed as we recovered our saloon upholstery with brand new Sunbrella marine canvas. It's not a tutorial, and there's two reasons for that. The first reason is that neither of us are an expert at sewing or upholstery. So if you haven't already figured this out, our disclaimer is that this video shows what WE did to reuphoslter Intention. If you did things differently for your boat, we'd love to hear about it. Chances are that YOU know what you are doing and we just made it up as we went along. The second reason is that there will be several more detailed videos that show each of the steps we cover in this video in a lot more detail. If there's a step that interests you, check them out. or if you're bored and you like hearing our voice, then check them ALL out!! This project was a lot of fun, honestly. And although it might sound like we were sponsored by Sunbrella, we were DEFINITELY not. We spent between 12 and 16 hours taking off the old fabric, sewing new covers, and stapling them on. We spent approximately $500 (Canadian) on the Sunbrella, Velcro, Phifertex (for the seat back cushion backing), zipper chain and pulls, and other notions and sundries. That amount doesn't include the costs of any new tools that we bought to make our lives easier. We didn't even bother getting quotes on how much it would cost to have a professional reupholster these cushions, but we'd be willing to bet that it would be much more than that. The final product is something that we are INCREDIBLY proud of, and we think we saved a lot of money in the process. By the way, if you are curious about the details of Sunbrella, check out https://global.sunbrella.com/en-us/textiles/marine/marine-canvas. And if you're curious about the sewing machine that you see me using in the video segments here, check out https://www.sailrite.com/Sailrite-Ultrafeed-LSZ-Walking-Foot-Sewing-Machine-110V. Ours is the previous model (LSZ-1), but there's really not a lot of difference aside from the new model has several new features that we *could* add to ours. The removable seat backs were made using the helpful Sailrite fabric calculator, specifically the Box Cushion calculator. You can find that at https://www.fabric-calculator.com/boxcushions/index.html. We will go into more detail about the unique details we added to the seat backs in a separate video. Thanks for watching! if you liked the video, please give it a thumbs up! And comment if there's something you learned or something you think we could have done better. And if you're new here, please subscribe! That way, you can get notified of any of our new videos as soon as they are posted.