Spiffing up Pelagia: New upholstery

Among many upgrades completed/in progress/planned for Pelagia, some fall into the "spiffing up" category. The upholstery in the main salon was definitely showing wear and a little tired (after at least 20 years) 

Here is what the old upholstery looked like:

old port-side settee

old starboard-side settee

We decided (February, 2013) to re-upholster: new material, new colour/design, and new foam. Here is the new main salon upholstery:

New starboard-side settee and table

New port-side settee

Besides looking great, they are also "improved". The bottom cushions are thicker and definitely more comfortable. We also had the backs cut differently to make it easier to use the settees as sea berths. 

We're pretty happy with the results!



P. S. In case you are wondering, we had the cushions done by Randy at
 The Chair Centre

Good work done very fast (that's right, he's not a "marine" upholsterer)

Skiing Whistler (January & February)

On the Wizard Express (Blackcomb Mt)

End of the day run -- heading down to Whistler Village (Michelle ahead with blue pack, Whistler Mt)

 

We've had a couple weeks of skiing up at Whistler in January and February. All sorts of conditions and lots of snow.

Had a good dump of new snow in January, but it was super heavy and windblown -- making the ski down from Whistler Peak via "Doom & Gloom" a real challenge.

Michelle skiing "Doom & Gloom" (Whistler Mt) in super heavy snow

Best skiing was early February, with a couple of good powder dumps -- this time light and easy (and fun) to ski.

David skiing Secret Bowl on Blackcomb

Michelle skiing down Blackcomb Glacier

To top it off, we had sunshine and powder!

At the bottom of Blackcomb Glacier

Lots of fun!  We'll be back up in March and April.

(Will we miss this next year in Mexico?)

What's the purpose of this blog?

Why do we have this blog?

As with so many other "sailing" blogs, we originally started this blog as a way to let our friends and family know, while we were away cruising, how and where we were, what we're thinking and planning, and to see photos, etc. This still remains a key purpose for the blog (though not the only one).

However, delaying our "leaving for Mexico" for one year resulted in this blog being less about our sailing and more about our travel (and skiing, and hiking...), especially over the past 6 months.  As we haven't left Vancouver yet (at least, not "long term"), perhaps the blog is not (yet) so important as a provider of information to our friends and family. Certainly seems so, as few of them have ever looked at the blog and they certainly don't "follow" the blog.     sigh....  

https://deborahrosereeves.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/thank-you/

But we are not alone in this. Just google "Why does no one read my blog?"  (yes, David actually did this),  and a very long list of links comes up. However,  most of these write about how to attract new   (i.e., unknown) readers to a blog.  Most seem to take a "marketing your blog" perspective. But that's not our issue: as the above notes,  the frustration lies with those we know (friends & family)  not reading the blog and thus not knowing what we are (or have been) up to....

http://www.thetwincoach.com/2012_05_01_archive.html

It's OK, we know they are busy and, perhaps just as important, they're generally not "blog readers". (Indeed, of the two of us, David is the regular blog reader -- Michelle rarely reads others' blogs.)

On the other hand... it is pretty cool to see we get readers from around the world -- as many as 23 different countries. 

 

We didn't think of them when we started;  but they are now also on our minds when a new piece is written.  Hopefully, the few readers out there who have chanced upon this blog will find at least something of interest or of use (maybe they were interested in Sceptre 41s, or sailing in British Columbia, or perhaps hiking/trekking). Of course, we welcome comments and questions. We certainly don't get many (but that too apparently is common for most blogs) -- perhaps that's a blessing as some blogs attract some pretty off-the-wall comments.

There are many reasons to write a blog. We don't try to be controversial (in contrast to a column in Forbe's suggesting bloggers should be "controversialists" ). And the idea that blogs need to conform to some specific standard or purpose (or frequency) seems wrong; such a view seems narrow and perhaps "elitist"). Whatever.  It's our blog. 

In the end, it seems the main, albeit unexpected, purpose of our blog is that it provides, for us, an easy-to-access (and read) repository of when and what we've been doing (and, occasionally, thinking). If, and when, others read it, that's great. They are very welcome.

Nepal treks: Posts updated (plus new posts)

For those interested...

Posts in October/November (2012) concerning our treks in Nepal have been updated, and posts added. Several photos from these treks are posted (including a short panoramic clip of Gosainkund area).  All photos (!) are posted on Flickr (see links to the right).

Back home in Vancouver

Jericho Beach Webcam shot of English Bay

Cloudy,  cold, and drizzly with wet snow flakes (but not sticking) -- must be Vancouver in December.  The local mountains are full of snow.  Quite the change for us.  On the positive side: the air is clean (and brisk), the sidewalks clean and uncrowded (especially with this weather), and water from the tap cold and drinkable. And it's home.

Winding down in Asia...

Our final two weeks in Asia were in Thailand.  Although food in Bali was pretty good, we were looking forward to delicious Thai food.   We were not disappointed! We first hopped on a bus from the Bangkok airport east to Rayong and Ban Chang (both east of Bangkok) to visit friends. (Brent was a fellow crew member with us on the "interesting" sail from Vancouver down to San Francisco on SV Sapphire in September.) Not much for tourists in the area, but we enjoyed our visit.  Brent and Kob (in Ban Chang, Thailand) We then went to our favourite beach town Hua Hin, and spent a relaxing 8 days at our usual hotel (Hotel Jed Pee Nong). To get there, we first took a shared mini van from Ban Chang to Bangkok's Victory Monument, then hopped on another mini van to Hua Hin. Those familiar with mini van transport in Thailand will know how damn fast these vans like to travel (140 km/h is not unusual) and how hair raising they can be. About 6 hours later, we arrived in Hua Hin. After the lack of tourists in eastern Thailand, the large number of tourists (most, it seemed, from Scandinavian countries) was a change. The town was decked out for Christmas. Hua Hin Market Village Mall: Decked out for Christmas After 8 days, we headed back to the Bangkok area, opting to take the brand-new luxury (big) bus between Hua Hin and Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport -- staying nearby in the Lat Krabang area. We like this area: besides being 5 minutes from the airport, and a good, reliable and cheap hotel favourite -- Thong Ta Resort -- the area if filled with places to eat, drink as well as night markets etc. It also has easy and fast transport into Bangkok by the "Airport Link/City Line" rapid train: take a songthaew (7 THB) or a taxi (40-70 THB) to Lat Krabang Station ("Sataannee Lat Krabang" in Thai). On our last full day, we spent a tiring day shopping in the MBK Shopping Centre in Bangkok -- Michelle was less tired, thanks to 2 hours in the spa....    MBK shopping ... while Michelle goes to the spa... Sadly, our trip comes to its end today, as we head home Vancouver. It sure will feel cold to us -- we've become so used to 30+ degrees (Celsius!) we don't even sweat now. Last dinner in Thailand Last "Leo"... Michelle is not a happy camper going home to rain and grey skies. David is more optimistic -- thinking of skiing, as well as getting back to Pelagia (oh, and all the work to do on her...).

Last days in Bali: Monkeys, motorcycle riding & hard lessons about "kopi poo poo" (luwak coffee)

Our last two nights in Bali were spent in Ubud. This is a town with multiple personalities. On the one hand (the interesting hand), it is the cultural centre of Bali (dance, music, carving, etc) and is fascinating. But, on the other hand, it is also overhyped, overpriced, and filled with "fashionable" tourists, especially women of a certain age riding 1-speed Dutch-style bicycles (think  "Eat, Pray, Love"). Really! But $250/night hotels!? And why would you go Starbucks in Bali (and pay over $4 for burnt coffee -- indeed, why ever go to a Starbucks?) when great "kopi Bali" is available everywhere for <$1. Still, Ubud is well worth a visit and one can still find many well-priced hotels  (we paid $45/night, which seemed high to us) and restaurants. 

View from our villa outside of Ubud

We stayed in a beautiful villa (out in the rice fields) that was a little too far out of town. So we rented another motor scooter. First stop, the monkey forest (temple). Michelle had to get her monkey fix!

So, how's your day going?

Enough talk ... just give me the damn banana!

Talk about getting the monkey off your back! And swimming monkeys too (but these monkeys don't need a shearling coat like Darwin, the Toronto Ikea monkey )

More monkey pictures on FLICKR:

After the monkeys, we headed off for a long drive up towards Penelokan and Mt Batur. Must have driven past at least 153 (ok, we lost count) wood carving and other art shops (we even saw newly carved "thunderbird" totem poles -- Balinese? Hmmmm, was there a land bridge between Bali and British Columbia before the last ice age?) Nearing the crater rim, we had to do a quick U-turn because we were warned of (and could see up ahead) a police roadcheck. Bali police are notorious for handing out on-the-spot "fines" -- gee,  no receipt -- to locals and tourists,  even when nothing illegal committed; see:  http://www.travelforum.org/bali-lombok/police.html

Asian Palm Civet

So we headed down and decided to stop and check out a luwak coffee place that we had visited in 2011 (but did not buy the expensive stuff back then). 

For those who don't know, kopi luwak (or poo poo coffee)  is made from the beans that civet cats (luwak, in Bahasa Indonesia)  have passed through their digestive system (that's right, they eat the tasty coffee fruit and shit out the undigestable coffee bean). Thus, coffee poo poo, the most expensive coffee in the world. Fashionable thanks to the movie "The Bucket List" (which we've never seen) .    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

Hard lesson #1: we paid a lot for 250 gm (>$50), even after bargaining, only later to find it in a local store for 1/3rd the price we paid! 

Hard lesson #2,  however,  was much worse.  Later,  after purchasing our luwak coffee,  we discovered the dirty truth about this brown gold: assuming it really is luwak coffee (some say as much as 50% is fake), production of luwak coffee is usually the result of significant abuse of the animals: 

From a recent article in The Guardian:
The civets are taken from the wild and have to endure horrific conditions. They fight to stay together but they are separated and have to bear a very poor diet in very small cages. There is a high mortality rate and for some species of civet, there's a real conservation risk. It's spiralling out of control. But there's not much public awareness of how it's actually made. People need to be aware that tens of thousands of civets are being kept in these conditions. It would put people off their coffee if they knew.  http://m.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/19/civet-coffee-abuse-campaigners

This is terrible, and to think we actually bought some!  Stupid of us  -- learned too late! All we can do now is to try to make people aware of this -- hence this blog post.

DON'T BUY LUWAK COFFEE!
(unless you know for certain it is from beans collected in the wild)

A SAD FAREWELL TO BALI. . .

On a lighter note. . . . We are now in Thailand. 

We were sad to leave Bali. The people are wonderful, the island beautiful, and the costs are low. We especially loved our time in Lovina.

Oh yes, the regular coffee in Bali ("kopi Bali") is great, cheap, and NOT made from luwak shit.