July 2017 | MONTH IN REVIEW

Here's a quick summary of what we were up to this month. We survived another tropical storm Don -- a short lived storm that brushed over the Windward islands on July 17th. We finally re-sealed the front windows although it was a challenge with the constant rain. We replaced the insulation on the engine cover. After 8 long months, the engine is finally back in the engine bay, resting comfortably on the new engine mounts and {good news} the engine works! Having said that, we still have to replace the mixing elbow (it's too old, rusty...

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How To Open A US Bank Account As A Tourist/Non Resident

Opening a bank account in the US as a tourist/non-resident was not as difficult as we'd thought. Sure, we spent a lot of time looking around, searching for the bank that we could open an account with; not all banks in US are able or willing to open an account for tourists or someone without a social security number.  There are thousands of banks in the US. We searched for a bank that required the least amount of minimum daily balance. Larger banks like Citibank and HSBC were happy to open an account for us, that is.. if we maintain a minimum...

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How To DIY Courtesy Flags on the Cheap | Less Than $1 A Flag

Firstly, I'd like to thank S/V Wanderlust for their post on DIY Caribbean Courtesy Flags! 3 years ago, during the World Cup in Brazil, I noticed these string banner flags everywhere. I remember suggesting to Alex that perhaps we could get them and convert them into courtesy flags, but we didn't know where to get them at that time and we weren't sure of the quality either. Imagine my delight when I found their post. After reading their experience, we felt more confident and bought ours on eBay for $19.77 USD; also available on Amazon. It comes...

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Installing Port Visors

As you know, sailing in the tropics means we're always in warm, humid areas with lots of rain. Opening and closing portlights (or portholes) every time it rains is a major pain, especially for short showers not to mention how stuffy the boat gets when there's no air ventilation. We know this is not a necessity as we have lived without them for years, but.. what's life if we can't splurge a little? So, we decided to invest in some port visors. We searched online and were surprised that there weren't many options available. We ended up ordering...

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