Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!

Chris and I have a lot to be thankful for this year and wanted to take the time to reflect and give you all a real-time update.

 

Work

2021 has been a wild year, not necessarily as wild as it’s predecessor but still plenty of notable moments, nonetheless. Since Hollywood and the film industry in general have begun to thaw out from the height of C19, Chris has been busy going between video shoots and boat projects which has kept him on his toes. Towards the end of last year, we met a fellow Ventura liveaboard named Jeff who also works in the film industry. Lately, he and Chris have been working closely together on some really neat projects which has given Chris a whole new appreciation for his industry in addition to gaining a new friend. My digital marketing business has grown significantly this year, securing some incredible clients who I thoroughly enjoy representing on the digital front. It has been scary and exhilarating to turn this idea into a reality that supports us and our cruising dreams financially. Speaking of cruising, we are closer than ever due to finishing up some major projects! 

Boat Projects

We have joked for years that we should rename our YouTube channel to “Fixing Avocet” rather than “Sailing Avocet” because we clearly do more projects than sailing. During a small friends-giving get-together last week we broke out Avocet’s original listing photos from when we bought her – what a difference 3 years make! Looking back I cannot believe this is the same boat. It has truly been a labor of love. As we near the end of our “big” project list Chris and I enjoy looking back at all we have done to transform this good ol’ boat into our home sweet home. Most recently we have been refinishing working on our mast which we sanded down to bare aluminum and coated with a new-to-us-product called Nyalic after my extensive research. The mast is nearly ready to be re-stepped but we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of some final parts which were delayed due to shipping. With the rig put back together, we will turn our attention to completing the rest of our cabin sole which we got 2/3rds of the way finished before pausing to address the rig. Finally, we look forward to reupholstering our interior and building a hard dodger very soon. Throughout every project, I am reminded how thankful I am to have a handy partner like Chris who is patient enough to teach me along the way. Avocet 2.0 is nearly ready to be revealed to you all in a boat tour, so stay tuned 😉 

Sailing

And now for the update you have been waiting for… sailing status! Right now we are hyper-focused on finishing projects so we can fill our sails with the wind once more. Speaking of, we are happy to announce that Precision Sails has partnered with us and created a brand new headsail just for our Avocet! We are so anxious to put their sail-making technology to the test and retire our worn genoa as a backup sail. This year we did manage to put the tools down a handful of times to buddy boat with our friends to the islands, both northern and southern! We recently did a week-long trip to Catalina alongside Esprit and had the time of our lives, reigniting the fire under our asses to go cruising. It was bliss and we feel so blessed to have friends that share this passion with us and the adventure grounds to get a taste of the cruising life. With that said, we are casting off late spring 2022 to chase the never-ending summer! See you out there!

All in all, there are so many wonderful things to be grateful for not only this Thanksgiving but every day of our lives! Thank you for following our adventures and supporting us with every “like, comment, and share” of our posts, we sincerely appreciate it. Chris and I will be having our Thanksgiving dinner with family in Central California (Mono Native Land) and continue to reflect on the many things we are thankful for this year, before heading back to Ventura where we hope to wrap up some projects to share with you soon. 

Fair winds,

Marissa, Chris, and Cleocat