well, sure I'm nervous...

Justice (or what passes for it) in 2013, in the life is good department there's a new Hiaasen book, and about that last ferry in New Orleans...

I'm not really a doom and gloom sort of fellow. You might say I'm actually pretty positive in the general scheme of things and have a great respect for homo sapiens' general ability to mostly muddle through whatever gets thrown at us.

That said, not having my head buried in a hole like the proverbial ostrich, I do find the current state of affairs somewhat nervous making. Face it, if your spidey sense is not tingling like that time you licked a 9-volt battery because someone dared you to...

Well, you're just not paying attention.

We folks on boats tend to have a much better grasp of what we use and resources in general but we do take a lot of stuff for granted. For instance, the other day while shopping I found it interesting that nothing in our shopping basket came from anywhere closer than a thousand miles or more (OK I did break down and buy a bottle of local rum). Being on the ass end of an easily disrupted supply line with almost zero local food production can be stressful or, interesting as they say...

So, next time you're provisioning take a moment or two and think about how many of the foodstuffs you regularly use and depend on come from somewhere a long way away and what those supermarket isles would look like if there were no containers for a couple of weeks.

Spidey sense kicking in yet?

Listening to Reel Big Fish

So it goes...

Still a great resource...

About that cat on the roof, important to know, and why does this sort of insanity just seem normal these days...

Back in the 80's our number one cruising information resource was the SSCA Newsletter... Boy, does that make me feel old or what!

You know what? In 2013 the SSCA newsletter is still our main resource for good cruising information. Which, is why, when I got the time to pay our dues notice in my email today I paid it... It's worth it!

Just saying...

Listening to Johnny Hallyday

So it goes...

and a blog well worth checking out...

Color me impressed (imagine our commander-in-chief in comparison), a Democrat with a backbone (about as rare as an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker), and is not ignorance bliss...

Being on a boat is not for everyone. Fact is, we've noticed more than our fair share of cruisers not having a good time... the bitch and moan brigade.

Which is not to say a bit of grousing or creative use of profanity is not a goodly thing (think of it as the pressure relief valve on your espresso maker) and I myself have been known to bitch and moan with the best of them (especially when rebuilding my 象爆炸式的拉肚子 generator carb over and over and over again!).

That said, being on a boat is still a mostly positive experience... Sure, there are any number of negative aspects to it, being the real world and all, but as long as stuff stays mostly positive I'm a happy camper. On the other hand, if it ever turns to mostly bad I'm not going to hang around being one of those unhappy campers in paradise and tough it out...

Which leads us to More JOY Everywhere a blog about a couple sailing off into the sunset. You really should read this because they're selling their cat and getting out of cruising, and it's all there in the blog... Personally I'd start at the beginning and read it in order.

Listening to Joe South

So it goes...

Problem solving...

So, apparently, I'm not nearly as paranoid as I should be, beware charities, and, personally I'd be proud to be called a "moral moron" given the available alternatives...

How do you solve problems?

Really... I'd like to know. Please do the poll over on the top of the sidebar.

Listening to Jesse & Joy

So it goes...

My dream boat...

Johm Vigor with something of interest, fun and frolic in copyfraudland, and some bad news...

Someone asked me the other day what sort of boat I'd choose if I were rich and cost was not an issue... Actually, it's a pretty difficult question to answer.

Partly, because folks get boats for a variety of reasons and there are several boat designs I'd love to own just for their "art" value like the CAL 40... Wouldn't it be awesome to have a perfectly cherry CAL 40? Better yet, to own the one of a kind White Squall which I consider to be the best CAL 40 ever built...

That said, I would never like to "collect" boats and, as there are so many great designs, how could you choose just one?

Lucky for me I'm not rich so I don't have to worry about such things.

Listening to Humble Pie

So it goes...

A nice day to get the epoxy out...

I, for one, am really looking forward to seeing this, AAC on Eric Tabarly is certainly worth reading, and looking on the (mostly) bright side...

It's a nice day out and it looks like I'll be able to make a dent in the project list. Life is good!

Of course, I'd rather take my fly rod out and play with the tarpon...

Listening to the Civil Wars

So it goes...

on the advantages of a misspent youth...

The downside of being Amish, this explains a lot, and a must read from Orlov...

Someone wrote the other day and asked what sort of talents were needful for the whole cruising into the sunset gig...

Well, being semi-talentless I'm probably the last person you'd want to ask. Face it, my real talents, which were exhibited at an early age, seemed to be getting in trouble, being in the wrong place at an inappropriate time, and pissing people off. Not exactly the sort of talents you want to stick on your resume or brag about to potential mother-in-laws.

That said, having those talents does tend to create a feedback loop of a positive sort. For instance, if you have a knack for getting into trouble you quickly learn to fix stuff or you wind up cleansed from the gene pool in short order. Same goes for being in the wrong place thing as that amps up your situational awareness (spidey sense) to the Nth degree and that, mostly, will get you out of Dodge before the serious shit hits the fan.

Of course, you all know this from the "What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger Handbook".

Oh, and for the pissing off thing? Not so unsuited to a curmudgeonly sailor with little interest in sailing/cruising as a group/summer camp activity...

Listening to the Electric Flag

So it goes...

I've got the funky gasoline blues...

Could this be a trend (I do frelling hope so), the word heinous does comes to mind, and it's not like people weren't warning us...

I'll be honest... I'm not really in a good mood.

My generator has a carburetor issue. Normally no biggie and the usual fix is to take down the carb clean it, put it back together, and it's taken care of. Sometimes it might take a couple tries to get it right. Well, I'm past a dozen and the problem keeps coming back...

You can see how that might affect my current "fun" factor.

I really do need to get a better fuel filter for the generator as the in-line one that is stock is obviously not up to the current state of Caribbean gas. The problem is that no one makes a decent filter that is small enough to work with a small generator.

So far, the only one that actually makes sense in scale/size is this Racor...

... it's a cool little filter which will work if I route the gas line out of the generator through the filter and back in to the carburetor. Sure I know it is something of a kludge but, so far, it's the best solution I've come across.

The real pain is the cost of said little bit of plastic with a paper filter is just nuts. That said, it could be worse as I can only imagine what it would cost if Nestle (see heinous link above) was selling it...

Listening to Crystal Bowersox

So it goes...

Designing to build...

Something to think about, Robert Reich makes a depressing case, and, personally, I think it's my patriotic duty to treat politicians with as much rudeness and scorn as they deserve...

As things go, I'm more of a boatbuilder rather than a designer of boats. That said, the line between the two can often be some kind of a seriously blurry no-mans land.

For instance, I like sharpies for a variety of reasons. They're fast to build, have an unbeatable turn of performance if done right (providing cost is part of the equation), and they're cheap... What's not to like?

The problem I come across is most designers designing sharpies don't actually build them and, as a result, they tend to be problematic to build as well as expensive. Of course, this problem is not confined to just sharpies but pretty much anything that floats. Non-optimum use of materials, silly amounts of needful man hours, and exotic materials all add to the problem but it is SOP (standard operating procedure) in this maritime world we live in...

Everyone knows I admire the work of Phil Bolger and I've built a bunch of his designs. He was a rare duck in the world of boat design because he seemed to get the construction mostly right yet was not a boatbuilder himself... Apparently, he used to have some very good friends who were boatbuilders and, I guess, he may have actually listened to their feedback from time to time.

On our Loose Moose 2, a 38-foot sharpie Phil designed for us, there were any number of ways a builder could improve on the design to make it easier to build and, to some extent, less expensive but those changes were small improvements rather than re-design.

Of late, I've been thinking about clever (you might even say c-u-n-n-i-n-g-p-l-a-n) methods of building sharpies. The trick, I think, is to think structurally first and then see, once you've sorted that out, what sort of sharpie that structural method will get you. Just a hint but you might want to think monocoque construction on steroids.

But, more about that later over on VolksCruiser...

Listening to Lio

So it goes...

Who says you can't build a boat quickly...

Just the sort of thing to make you repeatedly bang your head against a handy bulkhead, meanwhile back in the workaday world, and Webb Chiles with an observation about Bernard Moitissier...

Quite a few of the Roberto Barros Pop 25 seem to be building in a timely manner...



You can find out more about some of them here.

Listening to Joe Bonamassa & Beth Hart

So it goes...