Makina Sea Log : May 29, 2026
Well it has seemed like getting Makina sea ready has been moving ahead nicely; yet it is often two steps forward and another step back. Once launched we were shocked to find, on our first sea trial, that the steering had been installed backwards during repairs on the rudder over the winter. It was a hairy 60 seconds or so, after leaving the dock, until we realized what was going on. The wheel had to be used tiller style to bring us back to dock without a scratch.
Exposed rudder during repairs over the winter.
Even after the shipyard repaired their error the rudder, itself, seemed to be riding up a half inch or so when turning to port or starboard. They thought they may have missed a bushing during the winter repairs and have agreed to bring Makina back on the hard to fix what had been missed.
While in the water and awaiting our spot in the queue to take Makina back on the hard we put her mast back in. The boom needs to still be installed; which we shall likely do over the upcomgin weekend; yet she is looking more like her old self again.
Makina with her skipper and recently installed mast
With the haul out not scheduled until next Tuesday we turned our attention to other little projects to have her readied. One hold up had been to get a new Bimini and Dodger made. The fellow that we had been waiting on turned out to be too busy to fit us in. We decided to try something on our own using the old sails. Not sure that it was mentioned that new sails were made at the Stevens Sail Loft in Lunenburg earlier this spring. They have been there for decades and have done sails for the Bluenose II and most likely the original one.
Makina's new sails
We have been trying to put a pattern together, using a tarp, to allow a local seamstress (Jill) to make the finished product out of one of the old sails.
Blue tarp is being used to make a pattern for the finished bimini
Another project we have been moving ahead with is the wind generator. We have tested it and it seems to be in working order. It has not been used since my time as skipper of the Makina. The difficulty we have run into is the installation of the generator on its pole. We think we may have found a solution after a talk with Adam at a local metal works shop. We plan to drop round with the generator and its pole on Monday so that they can manufacture a metal base attachment piece. With the generator installed we should be able to almost double our electrical input from the solar at present during 14+ knot winds.
There has been minor project testing previously installed items like thre diesel heater and the fridge which had originally been an icebox. Some rewiring was required.
Although this has been a long month of delays we hope that's light we see at the end of the tunnel.
May the wind be at your back!
A listing of my sailing posts
https://hive.blog/blog/@novacadian/categories-of-novacadian-s-sailing-seasons
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