We’re Not Quitting Sailing… We’re Just Reproducing 👶⚓️

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:02][music] >> Hey guys, I'm Malvina. [music] This is my handsome handy husband Conner and this is Finn, currently freeloading rent-free in my belly. Together, we're Alibo sailing, living aboard our 1977 [music] Sea Breaker 50, one of only seven ever made. After years of prepping this old girl for the ocean, we finally left Marina del Rey in October 2024 and [music] sailed south through Mexico, across the Pacific, and all the way to New Zealand.

[00:00:34]We've made some life-changing memories, seen [music] some incredible things, and laughed a lot along the way. And we are just [music] getting started. We have finally arrived in New Zealand after a 10-day passage from Fiji. Come along today as we begin the process of shutting down our sailboat Alibo so she can sleep peacefully here in Fangarei for the next year. That way we can go back to California to have our baby boy and then continue [music] our circumnavigation.

[00:01:04]But we woke up to this beautiful day, which is perfect cuz we were so nervous that it was going to be it is going to be raining quite a bit this week and we got to get the sails down, all the lines down, all the things that we don't want to leave on the boat wet for a year. So, that is currently what we're working on and partially why I'm still sweaty after my workout.

[00:01:24]Yes, we just folded our headsail.

[00:01:30]As you know, this is our original headsail.

[00:01:34]And our new one is already packed away and down below, all dry and ready and fixed. Since we did rip it, got it repaired and from Marshall Sail, our brand new one's all packed away.

[00:01:46]Headsail that we used to cross to New Zealand, dry, folded, and now we're going to pack it and put bring it down below.

[00:01:53]Second thing we'll work on is I'll probably work on lines while Connor disconnects all of uh the stuff for the mainsail.

[00:02:01]And then we're going to bring the mainsail down. Uh he even said something about taking down the boom, but one thing at a time.

[00:02:08]Okay, we just have to take a moment of appreciation cuz I don't know if you guys remember, but looking back at when we were in San Diego, and we were folding up this headsail at A1, I think. And look at how we folded it this time. Even on the deck.

[00:02:22]Didn't need a park or a field.

[00:02:29]We learned from our mistakes last time to keep the left up front.

[00:02:35]Cuz it makes it a lot easier when it's folded up front to raise it back up there.

[00:02:40]Tip of the day.

[00:02:45]That might be the neatest we've ever folded [music] anything up. I think the sail loft might want to hire us to fold sails now.

[00:02:51]All right, so my creation's complete. It doesn't look like super [music] beautiful, but hey. Eggs, tomatoes, avocado, bacon. Oh my gosh, we even threw in some gouda cheese.

[00:03:03]Pretty damn beautiful, if you ask me.

[00:03:06]Bon appetit.

[00:03:07]>> [music] >> All right, breakfast was amazing. We are fueled. We are ready.

[00:03:12]So back to work. Now we're focusing on the mainsail.

[00:03:18]So Connor disconnected everything. We released the lazy jack on the port side, and we kind of had like the sail flop down to that side.

[00:03:27]And then we just released the starboard side, and we're going to basically start taking this mainsail and kind of pulling it down, so we can fold it here.

[00:03:39]All right, here we go. Here we go. Here we go now.

[00:03:44]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Take out our top button.

[00:04:10]>> [music] >> And I'm just really proud of our folding skills, how much we've grown.

[00:04:15]Look at this accordion.

[00:04:18]And this is our first time doing a mainsail. Yeah. Yeah. Good job.

[00:04:24]Woo!

[00:04:25]Action.

[00:04:30]>> [music] [music] >> Gosh, what a beautiful day. Next up, now we are working on [music] lazy jacks.

[00:04:46]Take the kind of battens out. They're kind of [music] a PVC pipe. That's right there.

[00:04:52]Get in there. Get in there. And now Connor is also telling me he wants to take down the boom. It's not that heavy.

[00:04:57]It's not that heavy?

[00:04:59]Not that heavy? Well, I can't really lift that much, so good luck, but don't you worry. I may be 6 months pregnant, but I can still [music] handle business. First, we attempt to tidy up the jacks nicely, so it hopefully will be easier to reassemble back up. But, we'll see about that on our return. Look how naked she looks.

[00:05:19]Wow.

[00:05:22]>> [music] >> We then pulled everything out of the v-berth to reorganize, and thank goodness we did, for some things [music] were a little moist. So, we layered all the moist items up on deck, so it could dry out in the sun. And well, let's just say they don't call it finger rain for nothing. [music] Well, we had everything on deck, and then that looks like it could totally come down with some rain, so we're trying to get everything back down.

[00:05:45]So, most of the sails are down. So, reports are down.

[00:05:48]We have another spare jib, so we're going to potentially before this comes down try to refold it cuz that is a really crappy fold, and we're professional sail or or Sail folders.

[00:05:59]>> Sail folders.

[00:06:00]>> [laughter] >> So, got to do it right this time.

[00:06:03]Who the heck folded this one?

[00:06:06]This is They just shoved it in there.

[00:06:08]>> [laughter] >> Jason, is that you?

[00:06:13]Jason, you're getting in trouble.

[00:06:16]We're going to have to show you how to fold the sail, mister, just like you showed us some tips and tricks for wing on wing.

[00:06:23]I'm sure it was Derek. Okay, we'll blame Derek.

[00:06:26]>> it on Derek. All right, Jason, you get an owl.

[00:06:29]>> [laughter] >> Love you, Jason.

[00:06:33]All right, this sail that we took out from its big crumpled bag. Can't quite figure out the shape of the jib, so we just are going to hoist it up and get a feel for how it looks flying. Winds are pretty light now all of a sudden. The clouds have parted, and so sun is back.

[00:06:51]Back to scheduled programming.

[00:06:54]And I kind of wanted to be able to pull out two two headsails, you know, it'd be awesome.

[00:07:00]Coming from your prefer professional sail folders, check it out.

[00:07:07]We got a little order in our lives now.

[00:07:09]It's going to pack down to like a third of the size that it was probably. Yeah, that's amazing you guys. It looked like a full-size jib or bigger, and it's a tiny like 50% jib working jib.

[00:07:28]>> [music] >> Wow.

[00:07:31]I can't believe we've been storing it that way the whole time.

[00:07:37]Now that we have some order in our lives, well, maybe not our lives, but at least [music] the V-berth. Now, it's time to take the wind instruments off the top of the mast. Birds like to land on these, so wanted to take this down and just, you know, reduce the age on this thing, too, cuz it's got all kinds of moving parts. So, if we can take it down for the year that we're not using it, might as well.

[00:08:01]Comes off actually pretty easy. There's just these two little slides that go up to unmount up there. And to make sure that like the other side, since it's not plugged into anything, isn't getting water in it, I put some dielectric grease on the connector there, and then I kind of electrical taped the heck out of it, and that should keep it watertight for the time being.

[00:08:26]Yeah, it's pretty new instrument, so might as well keep it. Yeah.

[00:08:29]>> Keep it fresh. Only 1 year old.

[00:08:32]Or year and a half.

[00:08:34]And also the Dyneema that he used for the backstays. Backstays.

[00:08:39]I had a static topping lift. I had running backs.

[00:08:44]And I think that was it. But, yeah, a lot of lot of stuff up there. We're really cleaning this boat up. Making it like a stock boat again. Yeah.

[00:08:55]All of it down.

[00:08:57]Another big victory.

[00:08:59]Good job.

[00:09:00]We're losing steam now, aren't we?

[00:09:02]Woohoos are getting pretty sad.

[00:09:05]And next, and hopefully the last step of at least today, we'll see. Connor is pretty ambitious, but I am pooped. But, it's a pretty big one. We got to take the boom down. And he is telling me that it's really light. I don't know. Booms seem really heavy, but this is >> Really light, but it's light enough.

[00:09:28]Light enough.

[00:09:30]And so, he has a shackle with a main halyard kind of holding up the front of the boom. And then, it at the topping lift with the shackle on the back.

[00:09:40]And so that kind of runs up and this whole thing held. So, I think he's going to disconnect it here and then I guess because it's a little windy, I should just as soon as you let it go, make sure it's not blowing over to the side.

[00:09:53]>> over to that side and we'll be good.

[00:09:54]>> And then drop it. Drop it down. All right.

[00:09:59]Something missing. Something missing.

[00:10:01]All this space in here.

[00:10:03]>> [laughter] >> That's why Connor really wants to build out our cockpit and like have the hard top come all the way in, but something's always in the way.

[00:10:14]I don't like Boom vang.

[00:10:18]Yeah, the boom vang's out of the way, to the side. Now working on the boom.

[00:10:23]>> [music] >> How much space?

[00:10:49]>> [music] >> Ta-da!

[00:10:53]Told you it was easy. Easy.

[00:10:56]Woohoo!

[00:10:58]Take a look at our reefing line. This is the second reefing line that we had when we were crossing from Fiji to New Zealand and it is What is that? Two?

[00:11:09]Two [laughter] I don't know. I >> Hanging on by a thread.

[00:11:13]>> By a thread.

[00:11:16]That was scary. Yeah. Gosh.

[00:11:19]I kept thinking when I was down there, I was like, "Please, everything hold it together. Nothing chafe, nothing break, nothing If anything goes wrong, we do not want to go out there in this weather cuz it was just so easy to get bucked off the boat, I feel like. So Woo!

[00:11:34]Thanks for everything, line. You did us good, but we're doing a new one now.

[00:11:38]Bye. We're tired. We're tired. And Connor's laughing at me, but I'm pretty proud of this organization.

[00:11:45]Just having all the lines all together in one spot. They've been kind of drying in the sun all day.

[00:11:50]And we'll tuck them away in a good spot, but we've got all our shackles, lines, and paracord.

[00:11:59]Woo!

[00:12:03]Just like that.

[00:12:05]Woo!

[00:12:09]What a good day. I haven't worked like that since Marina del Rey. Mhm. We've been living the good life. Traveling.

[00:12:18]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, that's so.

[00:12:19]Time to now just enjoy last bit [music] of the day.

[00:12:27]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Uh week Uh week And um Uh Um But >> [music] >> In the next episode, we begin the bittersweet process of exploring the [music] place where Alavah will sleep for the next year while we head home to have our baby boy. But before we tuck her away, we get our first real [music] taste of life in New Zealand, exploring the beautiful city we'll get to call home when we return next season. Oh, and Connor attempts driving on the other side of the road for the very first time. Honestly, at this point, we're just hoping we all make it out of this one unscathed.

[00:13:22]We want to give a huge thank you to all our supporters. We so appreciate you and are amazed at your generosity. If you want [music] to also help support our journey, check us out on Patreon.

[00:13:32]There's a link below in the description.

[00:13:34]Or [music] if it's easier, scan your phone right now on the QR code that's right here on the screen. Now, make it a great day and see you [music] next episode.