Building a Jordan Series Drogue

What do you get when you take:
147 pieces of rip stop nylon
370 yards of nylon tape
650 yards of thread
380 feet of double braid rope
a sewing machine
and
a latch hook?

A project that took me about 3 weeks to complete. Each piece of material is cut so that it will form the shape of a cone when sewed together. Each cone has 3 30" strips of nylon tape sewed to it, double stitched. Each completed cone is attached to the rope by feeding the ends of the nylon tape through the rope using a latch hook at both ends of the cone and tying a figure 8 knot in the end (that's 882 knots). The cones should be spaced 20" apart.







All this for a item that you hope you never have to use.
Read more about it at http://www.answers.com/topic/drogue

Zero's 1st Dinghy Ride

We took Zero out in the Dinghy for the 1st time yesterday. He did pretty good, he didn't freak out and took it all in but was happy to jump out as soom as we got close enough to the dock for him to make the leap. It was another beautiful sunset.

I've been taking advantage of the nice weather we've been having and sewing up the new boat awnings out on the dock. I should be done by the time it starts raining again on Wed. The boat projects are coming along, we may actually get out of here someday and maybe we'll find ourselves somewhere down south where we can see how well the awnings keep the boat nice and cool in that hot Mexican sun.

Sunset at Emeryville Marina

Arctic Tern

The weather has turned windy, cold and wet, wishing we were down south but we're still here in Emeryville. New date for leaving is mid January. Things are getting done and we're slowly making progress. Still waiting on some parts. The sail we ordered from Second Wind Sails in Florida turned out to be junk and we returned it, the guy that sold it to us totally misrepresented the condition of the sail, what a waste of time. So we're still looking for a 2nd head sail. We'll get out of here eventually and until then it's nice to be able to spend more time with our friends here in the Bay.