Isola Naida

Category: Life Ashore

Shore Life: A Refreshing New Look

We’ve been progressing the work on Isola Naida as spring continues. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to be consistent in executing any single project from start to finish on account of the Nova Scotia spring. We take advantage of the sunny days when we have them to progress work on Isola Naida’s new look. When the rain comes, which is often, we retreat back inside to work on mechanical systems and to find all of the leaks that we need to address when the sunny days return.

In our last post we made a list of the jobs we need to complete before Isola Naida splashes in a few weeks. This week, we’re looking at the progress made giving Isola Naida’s hull a fresh look as we head into the season.

Bottom Paint

A few weeks ago, D’Arcy used painter’s tape to mask Isola Naida’s boot stripe then donned a paint suit, face mask, and gloves. Equipped with his trusty DeWalt random orbital sander and just enough 120 grit sandpaper to get through the job, he gave gave the bottom paint a thorough sanding. Isola Naida’s bottom paint was not in bad condition, though the underside of the keel lacked paint coverage. After smoothing out any uneven surfaces and giving the existing paint a consistent tooth, D’Arcy thoroughly mixed two gallons of Petit HRT Unepoxy – Black.

A full coat of fresh bottom paint was applied to the hull. High-friction areas received a second coating: the waterline, the bow, and the rudder. When we’re lifted from the stands in a few weeks, the areas that were missed will get a coat of paint before we touch the water.

Removing Old Vinyls

Isola Naida’s vinyl decals were aging and beginning to chip away. The large blue serif lettering was dated and bulky. We wanted to breathe some new life into Isola Naida’s appearance. When we purchased Isola Naida in July 2025, we changed her port of registry from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We were going to have to remove some of the decals and decided this would be a good time to replace them all.

It took a few days of work dodging the rainy weather, but we eventually had all of the old vinyl removed. The adhesive was persistent, but nothing that acetone and a microfiber cloth couldn’t handle with a little bit of elbow grease.

New Vinyls

We used PhotoPea to mock up various font faces before finally settling on a font called Lemonmilk. On 16 May, Noelle made her way across Halifax to HFXVinyl. Despite the limited colour selection we had decided that we were going to choose from the Oracal 751C line of vinyl. We had originally had our hearts set on choosing a grey vinyl but the Oracal 751C grey was too light a shade for the white of the hull. We settled on glossy black instead.

On 17 May, D’Arcy set up the Cricut on the kitchen island of our apartment and laid out the required cuts before weeding the vinyl and adhering them to the transfer tape.

Adhering the new vinyls took a lot of patience marking out lines with masking tape, stepping back dozens of times to make sure that the lines appeared straight, despite the complicated compound curves of the hull. Before the vinyls were permanently affixed to the hull the area was cleaned, polished, polished again, and wiped down with acetone to ensure the best possible adhesion. Afterward, the polished area was waxed to protect the sheen and the vinyls while we continued polishing the rest of the hull.

Near Mirror Finish

Starting 17 May, D’Arcy began the process of polishing Isola Naida’s hull. We’re not sure when the hull was last polished, but it didn’t take much to get the gel coat gleaming again. Before polishing, the hull was washed with Meguiar’s Boat Wash and rinsed with fresh water. Any staining was treated with CRC’s On & Off.

We used 3M Perfect-It EX AC Rubbing Compound and a lambswool polishing pad to polish the hull. Isola Naida has a painted cove stripe and boot stripe, so we had to be careful not to polish over the paint with the lambs wool pad. We were able to skip over the cove stripe easily enough. For the boot stripe we needed to mask off the paint, polish to the tape, then pull off the tape and hand buff the boot stripe. We followed polishing the hull with a coat of Meguiar’s Flagship Premium Marine Wax to protect the finish. We’ll re-apply more wax part-way through the season to continue protecting the hull from the elements.

What’s Next?

With the hull work complete we can turn our focus topside and inside. Before we splash we’ll need to give Isola Naida’s standing rigging a thorough inspection as well as finish rigging the main and mizzen sails. We have some mechanical work to do such as installing the new impeller for our engine’s water pump, inspecting hose clamps, re-packing the stuffing box, and completing our survey of seacocks and through-hulls.

Work won’t stop when we splash either. There’s an extensive list of deck hardware that requires re-seating to eliminate slow leaks and some aesthetic work to complete over the course of the summer.

Follow along with our progress here! You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook.

May 21, 2026
Shore Life: Spring Maintenance & Preparing Isola Naida for the New Season

We’re back!
After a long winter hiatus, we’ve finally returned to the shipyard and to Isola Naida to begin our spring maintenance. Like many boat projects, progress over the winter was… aspirational at best. Work schedules, weather, and life in general got in the way, so most of our “boat time” went into planning instead of executing.

That planning time wasn’t wasted. It made us more eager to get back aboard Isola Naida and start bringing those ideas to life. Now, with spring finally here, the real work begins.

Winter Break: Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Our last update was at the end of October. Before stepping away, we tackled a few key jobs. We cleaned the hull, removed the sails, and created a plan to protect Isola Naida through the winter.

Unfortunately, our winter cover didn’t live up to expectations.

Within a few weeks, we realized the setup wouldn’t hold up to the elements. It worked temporarily, but we couldn’t rely on it long term. We’ll treat that as a lesson learned.

This year, we’re building a proper winter cover. We’ll document that process in a future post.

Spring Plans: Spring Maintenance & Refit Checklist

Instead of tackling projects at random, we’ve divided the work into two groups. Some tasks need to be completed before launch, while others can wait until we’re back in the water.

Before Splashing

Before we launch Isola Naida, we have a long list of jobs that require us to stay ashore or are much easier to complete on land.

Hull Work

This season is all about giving Isola Naida a refreshed look below and above the waterline. That means prepping and painting the bottom, removing the old vinyl decals, and bringing the hull back to life with a full polish and wax.

We’ll be cutting and applying a new set of decals before the hull is waxed. We’re still narrowing down our preferred look, but we have a few weeks left to make that decision.

Water Systems

Above all else, we want to make sure the essentials are solid.

We’ll be inspecting and cleaning all three water tanks, and refinishing them where needed. Isola Naida has a massive amount of water storage onboard and we want to ensure that it is accessible when required, and safe to consume, and that starts with clean tanks.

Motor & Drive System

While we prefer to be under sail, the reality is that nobody wants to be caught out without a reliable motor. Our Yanmar 4JH4E is one of the most reliable motors out there and we want to do everything we can to keep it that way.

We’ll be getting the motor ready for the season, checking the packing, and replacing anything that looks questionable. It’s much easier to deal with these things at the dock than out at sea.

After Splashing

A few of our projects this year can don’t need to be completed before we’re in the water. In fact, some of these projects may take most of the year to actually accomplish, but that’s okay because we get to make our own timeline with these projects!

Fuel Systems

The Reliance 44’s primary fuel tank is integrated into the fiberglass structure of the keel. Isola Naida’s keel tank has a history of water contamination which her previous owners were unable to mitigate successfully. As such, her keel tank has gone unused for some time.

We intend to flush and isolate the keel tank before refilling it with biodegradable antifreeze to provide the intended ballast and to provide colour indicator incase we find that the tank is compromised.

We’ll also be replacing the fuel pump which feeds the liquid pre-heater in order to provide on-demand heat throughout the boat.

Topsides

We’ll be sanding and refinishing the toe rails, hatches, and cockpit brightwork, followed by multiple coats of varnish to bring everything back to life. There’s nothing quite like freshly varnished wood to make a boat feel cared for again.

We’re also planning to pattern and sew custom hatch covers to help deflect rain weather and protect the brightwork of the hatches over time – and don’t worry, we won’t be completely preventing air flow with these covers, we’ll share more about the design of these covers in a future post.

Salon

Inside Isola Naida, our focus is on making the space more comfortable, functional, and bright.

Not only is a deep-clean in order, we’ll also be progressing storage improvements and refreshing the look and feel of the interior by making all new salon cushions using a light-coloured, durable canvas material to really help brighten the space.

Looking Ahead

There’s no shortage of work ahead of us this season. Some of it is routine, some of it is long overdue, and some of it will almost certainly take more time and effort than we expect. That’s all just part of the adventure.

We’ve already started making progress on a few of these projects, and we’ll be sharing those updates in upcoming posts as we go. There’s something satisfying about finally moving from planning into executing, and it feels good to be back aboard again.

This will be our first full season with Isola Naida, and we’re looking forward to making the most of it!

If you’d like to follow along in real time, you can find us on Instagram and Facebook, where we share more frequent updates from the yard and beyond. And if you haven’t already, consider joining our growing community! We’re glad to have you along for the journey.

April 28, 2026
Shore Life: Cleaning the Hull, Removing Sails, and Preparing for Winter
The last two weeks have been busy here ashore, but work continues aboard Isola Naida as we prepare for the arrival of winter. We took advantage of the weather over the last two weekends to get more work done on the exterior of the boat. The calm conditions this past weekend provided the perfect opportunity to remove her sails and pack them away for the season. We also took some measurements and developed a plan to fabricate a reusable winter cover for Isola Naida which, we hope, we will serve us well for years to come.

De-Staining the Hull

On 18 October, D’Arcy took the day to get some work down aboard. As is often the case, the list of planned jobs proved to be more ambitious than time would allow. The weather was cool but dry, making it a good opportunity to tackle the staining around Isola Naida’s hull and give her a good cleaning.

There are many hull-cleaning products on the market, all promising to remove stains without damaging the gelcoat. Having worked in the shipyard for some time, D’Arcy is familiar with CRC Marine’s On & Off, a muriatic acid–based cleaner that’s excellent for removing heavy staining and barnacles. Since Isola Naida’s hull wasn’t in terrible condition, and for reasons of cost and availability, we decided to try Marine Spray Nine Marine’s Boat Bottom, a phosphoric acid–based cleaner that’s gentler but still effective on general staining.

Overall, Boat Bottom did a respectable job of lightening the stains on Isola Naida’s hull, and the results look quite good in photos. In person, some shadowing remains, and a few barnacles along the boot stripe will still need attention. Perhaps reason enough to invest in a bottle of On & Off next time.

Removing the Sails

On 26 October, we made our way to Isola Naida to cross a few more items off the to-do list. The main task for the day was to take advantage of the calm forecast to remove and fold the main and mizzen sails for storage. Both came down smoothly. We laid the main sail across the boom to dry out in the sun after the previous week’s rain.

Before long, a large dark cloud rolled in from the north, and the wind began to pick up. Not wanting to risk losing or damaging the sail, we quickly rolled and tied it, then passed it over the side to stow in the Jeep, safe from the weather. Later in the day, we brought the sail to one of the storage buildings in the yard to lay out and refold properly before leaving for the day.

Preparing for Winter

With colder weather on the way, we’ve been developing a plan to cover Isola Naida and protect her from snow and ice. Around the yard, we’ve seen a wide variety of winter cover solutions. Many owners opt to shrink-wrap their boats – effective, but costly, with prices hovering around $1,000 for a vessel of Isola Naida’s size. That’s had us exploring alternatives.

A custom-fabric cover would be ideal, but the cost would still be high. It’s something we might pattern and sew ourselves in the future. Some owners insist that only the cockpit needs to be covered to protect electronics, since the decks should already be weather-tight. While that makes sense, we’d still prefer to shield as much of the deck as possible, particularly the wooden hatches, which could suffer from freeze–thaw cycles over the winter months.

After some research, we’ve narrowed our framing options down to three main solutions:
Solution 1 – Aluminum Conduit

Pros

Can be bent to any desired arch or headroom

Strong, durable, and long-lasting

Connects easily along a centre-line spine
Solution 2 – PVC Pipe

Pros

Can be flexed or heated to form arched shapes

Connects with standard tee and cross fittings

Lightweight and affordable
Solution 3 – Timber A-Frame

Pros

Low-cost and simple to construct

Fully customizable with basic tools
Cons

More expensive than other materials

Requires specialized bending tools or pre-bent sections

Heavier than PVC, though lighter than wood
Cons

Can become brittle in extreme cold

May crack under heavy snow loads
Cons

Heaviest option, especially when vaulted

Susceptible to moisture and rot

Difficult to transport and store long lengths
At the moment, we’re leaning toward the PVC pipe framing solution. It offers the best balance of flexibility, cost, and strength — allowing us to create arched ribs connected to a centre spine that maximizes headroom under the tarp while supporting winter snow loads.

For the tarp itself, we’ve sourced a 30′ x 60′ (9.14 m x 18.28 m) sheet, large enough to cover the full length of the boat and its framing. We’ll need to cut openings along the centreline to accommodate the masts and furlers. These cuts will be reinforced with tuck tape and lined with grommets so the edges can be re-stitched once the tarp is in place. Finally, the tarp’s lower edges will be lashed beneath the hull to keep it secure against the wind.

Until Next Week!

As we move closer to winter, we’re eager to get Isola Naida tucked safely beneath her cover and ready for the months ahead. If you’ve built your own winter frame or have tips for keeping a boat protected through harsh weather, we’d love to hear from you! Your experience could help shape our next steps. You can share your thoughts in the comments below or connect with us on Instagram and Facebook, where we post regular updates and photos from life aboard and ashore.
October 31, 2025
A Weekend Ashore: Nova Scotia’s South Shore Road Trip

Not every weekend is spent sailing aboard Isola Naida—sometimes life calls us back to land. This time, we traded the mooring for a road trip along Nova Scotia’s South Shore. From fresh bread at LaHave Bakery to sandy walks at Crescent Beach, the weekend proved just as full and refreshing as any day on the water.

A Stop at LaHave Bakery

On Saturday, we picked up Jetta (our energetic American Staffordshire / Labrador mix) and set out from Halifax for a little road trip along the Lighthouse Trail, a scenic route along the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Our first stop was the LaHave Bakery. Noelle had heard about the LaHave Bakery and been wanting to visit for some time now. We checked out the bookstore and craft shop also located on the property before we stocked up on artisanal bread and cookies. The building, with the exception of the bakery and dine-in area, are dog friendly, so Jetta didn’t have to be excluded.

Crescent Beach Adventure

From there, we headed to Crescent Beach, one of our favourite beaches a little further down the Lighthouse Trail. Crescent Beach is a two kilometer stretch of white sand connecting the historic LaHave Islands to the mainland. Despite the adjacent roadway which runs the length of the beach behind the dunes, vehicles are allowed to drive right onto the beach and traverse its length. The grade of the beach is so gentle that you can walk out over one hundred feet and only be up to your waist – in the heat of the summer sun, the shallow water stays warm, making it easy to get into for a swim. Jetta had a blast splashing in the water and chasing us around in the shallows. Noelle went for a swim, which Jetta vehemently opposed the idea of!

Burgers, Fries and Sundaes in Bridgewater

After we ran out of steam at the beach, we packed into the Jeep and drove up to the outskirts of Bridgewater to try out Tastee Freeze, a small walk-up restaurant serving up burgers, fries, and soft-serve ice cream. Jetta enjoyed a pup-cup of soft serve and a big bowl of water. We both had bacon cheeseburgers and fries followed by sundaes. Overall, the food was good – not exceptional, but decent quality and enjoyable and the prices are affordable.

Visiting Deep Cove and Beyond

We departed Bridgewater for Deep Cove, a local hurricane hole that we’ve been interested in visiting for the last few weeks. There’s potential that we can secure a mooring in Deep Cove in the future, so we wanted to check out the area. The cove is quiet and completely sheltered from al sides. There’s a small cottage community at the south end of the cove and just around the corner is the community of Blandford.

After Deep Cove, we drove through Bayswater and Mill Cove. Both locations have very popular beaches at their centre. Both beaches were swarming with people beating the heat in the waves.

We continued the drive to the Upper Tantallon Pet Valu where we took advantage of the bathing facilities to give Jetta a much-needed bath. She was covered in salt residue from swimming in the ocean and we didn’t want to return her to her mom’s in that state. Jetta doesn’t love bath time, but she puts up with it. Afterward she was rewarded with one of her favourite treats, a pig’s ear, which she promptly demolished in the back seat.

Sunday Ashore: Chores and Catching Up

We had intended on departing early Sunday to get to Isola Naida and head out for a day sail like we had last week. We decided that we should make the responsible decision to catch up on chores and get supplies in preparation for the week ahead. Sometimes boat life has to wait while land life takes priority.

D’Arcy finally bought a new hat, a green Tilley LTM5. Noelle searched for sandals at multiple stores but stock is low as we head into the tail end of summer and she was resigned to needing to order a pair online. We went to Home Depot and gathered some supplies for the sanding work D’Arcy has begun onboard (more about that in a future post) and Noelle did a grocery run while D’Arcy stayed at the apartment installing wall hooks for our bikes and hanging shelves to organize the limited space we share.

Even though Isola Naida stayed on her mooring this weekend, the ocean still found its ways into our plans. It always does.

Until next time, fair winds.

August 20, 2025