Closed Captions (CC):
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last time

on sailing bella chandra we did some

free diving at the molinaire underwater

sculpture park

then we dived on a coral reef in

bozzajor bay

grenada if you're new to the channel

i'm noelle and i'm dan and we're sailing

bella chandra

we're from nova scotia canada and now

we're sailing around the caribbean

if you haven't subscribed to our channel

just do so right now go right below the

channel look for the big red subscribe

button

press that button if you go back and

watch some of our older videos we have

another video that does fairly well it's

called

live aboard life hacks with all the tips

and tricks we've learned since living

aboard our boat

so here we go with another life hacks

video of life hacks too

it's not just our boat that i'm going to

be showing you around but we'll be

showing you around our neighboring boats

and what they've come up with we've

asked their permission and they've

allowed us to film on board their

vessels

and this is the second time that we've

made a video just like this

so if you haven't watched our first one

please don't forget to go back and check

it out

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one seriously essential item we brought

on board with us

is our trolley cart it folds up quite

easily and we store it just about

anywhere on the boat

and can be really handy when

transporting groceries water jugs

or a diesel jug or a large item that you

purchased somewhere and just have to get

it back to the dinghy

our trolley cart is a cruiser's

must-have item

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cockpit lighting is really important

especially at night when you're trying

to clear up something in the cockpit or

maybe you're entertaining and you have

guests

and it just helps to be able to see we

installed our own cockpit lights using

these led strips

taped to a spare batten they make a huge

difference at night in our cockpit and

it's great for entertaining

here are some other great cockpit

lighting ideas from other boats in our

anchorage

led strip lighting is now commonly found

throughout boats and you can even have

them change color which is pretty neat

friends of ours installed as extra light

on their transom which is actually made

for off-road vehicles but works well in

the marine environment

a light off the transom makes a lot of

sense especially at night when you're

tying up your dinghy

or you have guests aboard who are

leaving in the dark

here's a cool life hack i simply just

had to share just the other day while

dan and i were sitting on deck enjoying

some cold beverages

we looked across the way and noticed a

friend of ours scrubbing his

hall while sitting on a pool noodle

which gave them just enough buoyancy to

clean that water line without a whole

lot of effort

it was really clever and a great reason

to keep a pool noodle on board

if your toilet paper roll is inside your

cupboard

accessing the toilet paper by opening

the door can sometimes be difficult

especially if you're tall

or in a cramped space on our boat we

turn our toilet paper in reverse

and pull the loose end through the crack

above the door puppy pee pads

we used them for zeus obviously while we

were potty training him

but believe it or not these guys have

multiple purposes

but it can help you with diesel spills

oil spills any spills you name it a

friend of ours

even uses it under their engine

compartment we already covered using

sheets to make sun shades

here in the tropics in our 27 things we

didn't know

video but thought we should mention it

again because our homemade sun shades

have been quite useful in keeping us

cool here in the caribbean

our sun shades were made from cheap bed

sheets that we picked up along the way

on our friend's benetto there's a

transom step that folds down

and to prevent chafing on the fiberglass

edge they were able to screw a piece of

hose in where the stopper would go

the hose was a good solution here as a

spacer and a bumper

and seems to hold up well in the marine

environment a scrap piece of hose has a

lot of uses on a boat

you can use pieces of hose for

anti-chafe here is a piece of hose i cut

at an

angle to cover these pieces of sharp

bungees that would otherwise hurt our

feet when we walk around the deck

here's another small piece of hose i

added to this teak rail to keep hanging

items from chafing while moving underway

another simply awesome life hack we had

to share from one of our neighboring

boats is how they used a large diameter

pvc

pipe off their transom rail to hold a

spare anchor

what a great idea on balachandra we have

a single sideband radio

a certain portion of our backstay is

used as the radio antenna

and is bookmarked by two isolation

points the wire going to this antenna

must be

isolated from metal components here i

was able to use some zip ties and some

small scraps of flex pipe

to hold the antenna wire off the lower

portion of the backstay

to avoid metal contact a single sideband

antenna is a high voltage item

and it's important to isolate this wire

from other metal parts on your boat

12 volt refrigeration on boats is a

touchy subject

a refrigerator is probably the highest

draining item you will have on board

so it's very important especially in a

hot climate to optimize how much cold

air you can keep

inside here on our friends beneteau they

added this great blanket on top of their

freezer

to help isolate the fridge and freezer

from the top

another cool upgrade are these digital

thermostats

and i'm told these were purchased on

amazon and were very easy to install

if you have the space for it in your

salon and you like to have

extra cold storage why not have a

standalone fridge and freezer

right here in the salon for extra cold

food storage what a great idea

i wish balochandra had room for one of

these these guys

have a full-size washing machine on

their boat

man if i had the space i would totally

have this i think it's a great idea

especially while traveling in the

caribbean

as washing your clothes is not always

that

affordable a pressure cooker is also a

great item to have on board

it cuts your cooking time in half

therefore

saving you heaps on propane here's a

great idea for storing fenders

in the deep lazarette compartment of our

friend's beneteau

near the transom opening the compartment

you can see the fenders are stacked

vertically

and held in place by clam cleats a

clever modification

and a great way to store your fenders

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if you have a flat screen television on

board you're probably going to need a

way to secure it while underway

here's how friends of ours took care of

that problem using lines and bungees

to hold the tv in place pretty clever

another important feature of this flat

screen television

is that it runs off dc voltage when

purchasing a tv for your boat

see if you can get one that has 12 volts

dc in

it'll save you a lot of trouble and you

can watch television without running the

inverter

if you have any extra material from

building a dodger or bimini

like canvas or other marine fabrics

there's lots of useful items you can

make

some friends of ours did just that

here's a homemade sheath for a machete

a machete is useful here in the

caribbean for opening coconuts or even

bushwhacking a trail depending on where

you are

it's great to save your plastic bottles

whether it be an empty coke bottle water

bottle all shapes and sizes save them

because down the road you will have a

purpose for them

at a common toy store sometimes you can

find these great little water guns

which are actually a water pump just

like the water pump you would use to

drain your dinghy if you can find one of

these they're easy to store

and they're great if you need to drain

out the fridge drain out the dinghy or

something very quickly

for those items hanging in your locker

that you haven't used in

ages it's a great idea for you to just

throw a plastic bag over them

it'll help keep them from getting that

still smell

those friends of ours with the beneteau

explained to us how their hanging locker

had no ventilation they cut this hole at

the bottom of the closet

and used this metal mesh material

creating a vent which is fairly tasteful

inventing the locker we just love this

net that friends of ours installed on

their transom when coming in from a swim

or a dinghy ride it's easy to just throw

items in there as a catch-all

like your snorkel your flippers or

anything else you might be carrying

it's a quick way to drop something while

doing something else and come back and

get those items later

what a great idea to put a net here at

the transom

this was the first time i've ever seen

anyone protect their lifelines from a

jib sail

it seems like a really good idea

especially if you have a large jib sail

which may tend to rub against your

lifelines and possibly chafe the sail

on this boat they wrapped styrofoam pipe

insulation around the lifelines it's a

clever idea

and it should preserve the life of the

sail

i thought this homemade outboard motor

mount was quite unique

it has a support system using a chain

and a turnbuckle

and should provide lots of strength to

the rail when mounting a heavy outboard

motor

this motor mount was made using

starboard some pieces of aluminum

and some steel bolts a non-marine

bbq that's right these guys have

a non-marine barbecue and it's working

perfectly they've been sailing with this

for a while and it's holding up just as

well as a marine grade barbecue

noel was complaining that my guitar was

just everywhere anywhere we wanted to

sit or lay down that guitar just seemed

to show up

borrowing an idea from another cruiser

friends of ours who mounted their guitar

on the ceiling i devised a way to mount

our guitar on the ceiling of our boat

using nylon straps and some clips so i

can quickly release and remove the

guitar or put it back when i'm finished

without too much hassle

on one side i have a plastic clamp and

on the other a carabiner tied to the

handrail

if i had known benatos came with this we

would have bought a beneteau

just kidding but this simple feature is

just amazing

it's actually a dustpan you remove this

floor panel

and it catches all of the things that

fall through the cracks in the floor

amazing why don't we have this in every

boat so that's the end of our liveaboard

lifehacks video

i hope you enjoyed it if you guys have

any life hack suggestions of your own

that cruisers might enjoy please leave

them in the comments below

and maybe it'll go into our life hacks

3.0

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