Big storm coming...

Ooh baby baby...

Listening to Change in the Weather by John Fogerty

So it goes...

A quick word about our fishing and food sites...

Here at Boat Bits Central we still get a lot of mail asking why no fishing and cooking stuff anymore...

Well, that's because we wanted to give the fishing and cooking stuff their very own blogs to better cover a couple of our favorite things!

Fishing Under Sail is 100% fishing, spearfishing, and other assorted critter-catching mayhem from sailboats. In the not too distant future... Well, I'll leave you with one simple phrase that sums up the future of Fishing Under Sail...

"It's going to get radical"!


Island Gourmand on the other hand, is about food on boats and you might say we cover the galley... Some of our best friends are charter chefs and they will be sharing some of their best recipes but it won't be all frou-frou and napkin folding lessons! Island Gourmand will touch on all the various subjects that make cooking in a small sailboat galley just a little bit easier... From provisions and galley gear to mind-numbing libations.

Tasty!

I've seen the future, it looks a lot like bamboo...

I've mentioned in the past that bamboo makes a whole lot of sense as a boat building material. Bamboo is a "green" material, has incredible physical properties, and has the potential of becoming very affordable...

What's not to like?

But why listen to me when you can be viewing a bamboo schooner project from start to finish in a great photo blog Bamboo Yacht!

Listening to Pearl Harbor and the Explosions

So it goes...

Just like the other guy two step, or getting your freak on...

There are times when you find yourself saying silly stuff...

"I'm the white boat out in the anchorage with the blue sail-covers"

Only to realize as you say it, that you've just described all forty or so boats in the anchorage who ALL have blue sail covers and are white! Which, when you think about it, is some kind of odd considering that boat folk tend to think of themselves as stone cold individualists who walk a different path...

"No way I'm like other guys, I'm a sailor"

...Who just happens to have the exact same paint scheme as everybody else. To a certain extent you might consider that a certain nautical God, Nathanael G. Herreshoff once said...

"There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black".

Then again he also hated fiberglass and said it looked like "frozen snot" so he can't be the problem...

When I wrote in the blog about doing up "So It Goes" with a dazzle paint job I got a load of mail telling me I can't, that it would be akin to a crime against nature, and that a single dazzle paint job just might bring on something truly horrible (a zombie apocalypse perhaps?) and end the world as we know it...

Now I'll admit that (while not being all that smart) I'm no fool so I am certainly not going to paint my boat black, but do you really think doing up a boat in some color scheme other than white is really going to tilt the earth off it's bearing?

Did this?

Or this?

So do what you will... Get your freak on and be creative! Scandalizing the neighbors can be a good thing!

How does a James Burton Telecaster motif grab you?

Listening to The GREAT Dave Davies... "I'm Not Like Everybody Else"

So it goes...

Two tone, full blown...

It's been pretty low on the excitement meter here on "So It Goes" of late. Instead of just getting to it and finishing the dead eyes and simply dealing with the mayhem that milling aluminum in the cockpit always seems to cause, I've been trying to work up a fiendishly cunning plan (Yes, THAT cunning)!

Nah, not really... In truth it's simply a means to avoid just doing it and hoping that the Deadeye fairies would get with the program and do it for me...

Which we all know is simply not going to happen, so color me just doing it and making a mess!

Listening to Dedicated Friend

So it goes...

A special place in hell...

Off hand, I'm not a guy who believes in hell or heaven, but there are times I wish there was a special hell for those idiots who don't know how to use a dinghy dock...

I've lost track of the number of times coming into a dinghy dock where we'd find some doofus had tied up in such a way as to make it impossible for others to dock. While other times ill-placed dinghies have made it impossible to leave because they were locked in such a way that blocked anyone from getting out...

Then there are those folk who put their outboard legs up, oblivious to the fact that their prop would be eating through someone's dinghy tube while they are doing their shopping.

While I don't believe in a heaven or hell, I certainly do believe in Karma and while some may be more instant than others it most certainly does come around!

Some years back, I returned to a crowded dinghy dock in St Thomas while the "1500" was everywhere with their pink flags a-flying and as I unlocked my dinghy noticed that the half dozen dinghies with their outboards up were all missing their props. Further investigation revealed that the props had simply been removed and dropped overboard... A rather benign and instant karma wake-up call if you will!

On the other hand, I have also seen dinghies slashed and trashed as a reaction to some nitwit's dinghy blocking the exit from an enclosed dinghy dock in such a way that no one was able to leave until they came back. Face it some cruisers and live-aboard locals could use some anger management counseling but until that happens, best not to make them angry as boat folk as a rule carry knives and multitools.

When all is said and done, it is simply easier to do the right thing...

So it goes...

Around the web... loose ends

Some stuff of note that you should be aware of...

The Alberg 30 Sailboat project is a must read for Alberg 30 owners but lots of great DIY goodness for anyone fixing up a boat...

Seriously scary tales of batteries that will keep you up nights and make you wonder if sealed and leakproof batteries were such a good idea...

Hisse Et Oh is an excellent resource from France and well worth doing the BabelFish thing if you don't speak French...

Attainable Adventure cruising talks about their engine...

Me, I'm going to try out my new lobster snare!

Trying to keep up with the mailbag... answering the same old same.

As much as I'd like to, it's hard to keep up with the mail we get here at Boat Bits Central and as a lot of folks write and ask the same questions forgive me if I don't always answer with a personal note. So to catch up on some questions folks want answers to...

What about buying a boat on EBAY?

Offhand I am not a huge fan of Ebay. For every guy wanting to sell off some personal boat gear or a boat, there seems to be three who are doing it as a business and bring on my Spidey-sense-scammer-alert full tilt boogie. That said, at any given time there seems to be a few good deals especially if you are willing to do some serious boatwork and pay pennies on the dollar for the boat.

My formula in gauging what you should bid is never to pay more than 10% of what the boat would sell for in great shape from a reliable broker. Factor in the cost of ripping out the entire interior and replacing it as well as an entire rig replacement plus some for your own labor and the cost of being on the hard for months while you are in boat-building mode. In most cases that leaves you with no more than a couple thousand dollar bid for a boat you could buy for $20,000 in excellent shape somewhere you can inspect and survey it.


How much should I pay for a boat to sail-away with my wife in?

Less really is more! In this mind numbing economy (which does not look to be getting anything but worse) you should easily be able to find a turnkey boat for $15,000 or a lot less if you have the industry to really look hard and not be worried about what other people think. I've seen a CAL 28 in great shape with all the needful cruising gear going for less than 5K and an Irwin 28 (a much under appreciated design) ready to sail off into the sunset for $2800 and I'm not looking so who knows what I'd find if I was...

I'd like to go cruising with my wife but she'd prefer it to be more comfortable. What should I do?

Be more than comfortable! Seriously, sailing is only as comfortable as you make it and it is a simple matter of rolling with your priorities and comfort should be high on your list.

The other day a certain blog wrote a post that I took some issue with as they made a point of the fact that their planned circumnavigation would be done in style while eating gourmet foods, drinking excellent wine and wearing fashionable clothing... All things, apparently, that none of the existing cruisers or any who have gone before know anything about. Makes me want to drop him a line and ask him if he'd be interested in that cast iron tower I have for sale in Paris...

Truth is most cruisers I have known are all about comfort and the finer things in life. You simply have to roll with the flow and if being comfortable is part of the program so be it!


Do I really need a self-steering gear?

Yes.


Can I live in comfort on $500 a month?

Yes... But the learning curve is one steep sucker!


How do I best avoid zombies?

Be somewhere they don't happen to be...

The empowerment of DIY...

"If you can't repair it, maybe it shouldn't be on board."

- Lin and Larry Pardey

Doing stuff yourself has a whole bunch of advantages for those of us who are into the sailing gig far and above simply saving money...

Doing repairs or projects on a boat is mostly a happy making experience on "So It Goes" and the only repairs and projects that were not happy making involved the gladly departed internal combustion engine. Since the Atomic 4 is now ancient history being replaced by an electric drive, life is good doing the DIY thing.

Being able to do stuff yourself also gives one the sort of confidence to ...well... DO STUFF! Seriously knowing you can do stuff and fix things puts a person into a completely different head space that really can not be explained but has to be experienced. In essence it is the difference between "CAN DO" and "CAN'T DO" and that. brothers and sisters, is POWER!

Once you have the power you begin to look at things differently. The idea of building a watermaker instead of buying one becomes a simple plumbing problem (because that's really all a watermaker is, a bunch of plumbing). Redoing your rigging becomes no more problematic than measuring and cutting some wire or dynex and putting it together. The point is, once you know that there is nothing really hard or difficult about boat work, it all becomes doable providing you have an IQ higher than room temperature.

Of course, there really is a money element to the DIY thing as well, and while it is not the primal core of it all, it IS a BIGGIE as it will save you seriously scary amounts of money over time once you cut the umbilical to the $75 (or more) an hour charges that even simple tasks in the marine trades go for and that is no bad thing...

Six of one and not six of another... Silly marine pricing

Whenever possible I prefer to buy gear outside the marine industry as on one hand, there is that mark-it-up-till-their-head-explodes pyratical bent and on the other, a lot of backpacking or climbing gear is simply built better...

Hey, don't blame me I'm just the messenger!

Don't believe me? Let's look at an example...

It's a Spinlock deck and mast harness and it sells over at West for $179 and change. It has wider leg loops, a place for your multi-tool, and maybe you'd call it a fid carrier but otherwise, it is simply a rather uninspired same old same one-size-fits-all climbing harness...

Now over at EMS.com they have over thirty climbing harnesses (which you could call deck/mast harnesses if you feel it needful) and only one of them costs more than $100 at $130, with most being under $60 and any of which are as capable as the Spinlock.

Why so many harnesses? The big answer is Fit (with a capital F) as most folks don't have cookie cutter bodies they actually need a harness that fits, which is especially needful in the comfort zone, but even more important in how well a harness works. A badly fitting harness is a dangerous harness and one size fits all is a seriously outmoded concept where safety is concerned.

This harness, the BOD by Black Diamond, would make an excellent harness for anyone needing to go up the mast on a regular basis (or climbing in the Dolomites or Yosemite perchance...) and is pretty close to what I use personally. What makes it better than the Spinlock is that it comes in sizes from XS though XL (five different sizes) which from my days designing such gear, is much more expensive to make than a one size fits all which is why some companies roll with the one size fits all compromise as it right with different sizing cuts into profits...

So, one wonders why the less expensive seeming harness costs $179.99 and the better harness costs $49.95?

Does the fact that one is marketed for boat folk make any sense?

He did the mash.. The Monster Mash!

I'm never quite sure who comes up with those quasi holidays such as National Waffle Day (August 24), National Beer Day (Aug 7) or National Kick Butt Day (Oct 11) but hey I'm all for a reason to take off from work for a good cause.

As it happens today is something of a biggie in our holiday calendar as it is National Monster Mash Day and the ghost of Bobby "Boris" Pickett has most certainly entered the building...



As he points out in the video he may have only had one hit but he outlasted Elvis...

A bit of Monster Mash trivia as you may not be aware that Leon Russel (Yes THAT Leon Russell) was was one of the original "Crypt Kickers" when the song was recorded.

Face it, you know you want to listen to The Monster Mash...

Listening to (wanna guess?) my favorite cover of the Monster Mash!

So it goes...

A great place to build a great boat...

One of our readers (Thanks Steven!) sent a link to a Irens designed "fusion" schooner project that built in Cebu!

Not only an awesome schooner design but a great site to get the sort of scale that is the stuff of building a 50-foot schooner and doing it well...

Check it out!

It can get scary out there...

One of the places I've considered as a site to build the next boat is the Philippines as there is an abundance of good wood and a supply link is already in place for epoxy and composite materials. Throw in the fact that the Philippines is something of a cruisers dream (so many islands so little time...) and so far, the zombie scourge of bareboating has not yet taken hold nor appears to look like it will...

And, have I mentioned that growing up in LA in a neighborhood with a lot of Filipino  families that Filipino food is one of my favorites?

Gotta be a catch...

One thing I'm not so big on is that they get hurricanes just like we do, though in the Pacific they call them Typhoons and Luzon was just hit by a category 5 storm with sustained winds of over 200 MPH...

You can read more about Super Typhoon Megi over at everyone's favorite storm guru Jeff Masters blog. Scary stuff indeed.

Then again what's a few super typhoons if the anchorage is free of bareboats? 

Going simple... a most excellent water pump

Over at the never ending discussion about whether you can cruise on $500 a month, I caught this gem... A new potable water pump I needed was US$500 in the boat parts store while the rebuild kit was only US$100. But I had to be willing to take the old pump apart and rebuild it. Hiring a "professional" to get and replace the pump would have probably cost near to US$1K (pump and labor/time).

Actually, not a bad point as it shows the advantage of doing your own work and saving money in the process. Which I think you'll agree is no bad thing in the grand scheme of things as being DIY capable cuts the costs of cruising radically.

Of course, for us in the cheap-seats universe, the idea of a water pump that costs $500 is akin to gold plated toilet seats... Ain't going to happen!

The water pump on "So It Goes" is a seriously fine (some might even say superb) Babyfoot by Whale that has a list price around $50 but if you buy one at Defender or other discount chandler it should be less than $40.

It pumps water just like the more expensive electric pump but not being electric it does not use any power. Every time you use it you are up-close-and-personal with water usage in a way that both encourages water conversation while discouraging the waste of water... How cool is that?

Even better is the fact that it is so simple there is hardly anything that can go wrong with it and when it does it's so easy and cheap to fix it (a rebuild kit is around $20) so is well within the most tyro DIYer's comfort zone... What's not to like?

Skin like sandpaper and real big teeth...

Back when I was a kid, my brother and I started our version of a lemonade stand... Since we lived on Catalina, instead of making lemonade we did the next best thing and started catching fish for salt-water aquarium folk.

As things go it was actually a pretty successful business enterprise for a couple of kids. Once we moved from simply using an aquarium net to home-built slurp guns we actually started making money.

The downside was being the greedy kids we were we'd find ourselves festooned with plastic bags containing little fish all thrumming with danger danger Will Robinson vibrations which attracted sharks who thought someone had just rang a dinner bell. The worst were young adolescent Tiger sharks who would rip the bags off our belts and come back for more... Coming home from a hard day catching critters, the difficult part was having to explain to my dad how I wound up looking like I'd lost a fight with a belt sander.

Have I ever mentioned I used to be young and stupid?

Over the years while spearfishing and surfing I have had no shortage of up-close-and-personal experiences with a variety of sharks who never seem to have been interested in eating me but they have had some serious interest in fish I've speared and my surfboards...

Which is why I perk up when folks mention shark repellents as anything that makes sharks less interested in my upcoming dinner or surfboard would be no bad thing!

Shark Camo out of OZ is making a large decal you put on the bottom of your surfboard that says to sharks don't bother...

Since it's less than $50 and even looks cool it's sort of a no-brainer!

Another company that seems to have a viable product is Shark Shocker which is a wrist/ankle band containing very strong magnets that sharks and rays don't find pleasing. The video of various rays reactions at an aquarium petting pool seems to show that they just might be on to something. At a pretty reasonable $30, I'd certainly give it a try...




Hey, I'm no longer young but apparently still kinda stupid!

Listening to Shark-Fin Blues by the Drones.

So it goes...

Water, water everywhere redux...

As today is Blog action day 2010 and the subject is clean water, I'd thought a repeat of this post would be no bad thing...

One of the first things that living on a small boat teaches you is your place in the eco-system... Unlike most land dwellers, you know exactly how much stuff you consume, how much waste you generate, how much electricity you use and how many hours of sun/wind or generator used to replace it. In other words, living on a boat gives you a clue (which I guess makes most land-dwellers clueless?).

Water for most newbies on boats is something of a panic-attack inducing conundrum as the wasteful practices ingrained in the resource wasting land dwelling model is very hard to break and trying to make these ingrained bad habits work on a cruising boat... Well, that way lies madness!

On the other hand, water IS serious stuff. We need water to live so it is something that does need to be factored in terms of how much you use, how much you actually need, how to obtain it, and how to keep it.

Throwing money at the situation with something like a watermaker or turning your boat into a sailing tanker truck seems to be the two most popular initial answers to the problem of having enough water. The real answer is getting in touch with the need/want equation and begin using what you need, rather than what you want or think you need or, in other words, get smart and waste less...


Speaking of waste and water, here is a great presentation on a perfect example of silly waste/being dumb where water is concerned and a great example on how what we think is true, simply is not.

Edging toward simpler...

One of the problems we have in the doing-up-a-boat-and-sailing-away-gig is that most folks don't pay enough attention to the world outside a very small confined orbit... I'm lucky coming from a climbing, backpacking, and cycling background so realize the answer to all questions is not always over-priced marine gear.

For instance, not too long ago I pointed out that a figure eight descender made a reasonable boom brake for around ten dollars instead of a "marine" boom brake for hundreds. Of course, I'd never have realized you could use one to stop a boom if I had not arrested a 230-pound climbing partner's 80-foot zipper fall on Half Dome. Face it, it makes sense to look outside at what other sports use from time to time...

But it's not just the gear we need to keep an eye on as an even more valuable resource is keeping tabs on what other sports and activities are up to in terms of head-space. What are they thinking?

Left to the CruisingWorld/Sail consumer yachting world it's all about buying things and comfort or ever increasing luxury as the norm for what is needful on a sailboat. Not too long ago, the people who still are heroes to most of us sailed without engines, furling gear, refrigeration, EPIRBs, computers, watermakers or onboard washers/dryers... Hardly seems possible if you only read the sailing rags of today. What is even more surprising to some, is most of them had a pretty good time doing it!

Which is one of the reasons it's good to read blogs like "A Path Less Pedaled". It gives you a different viewpoint and makes you realize just how comfortable in the grand scheme of things a 1970's era classic plastic sailboat can be compared to riding a bicycle across the USA. A whole different head space for sure! Their post from today really is a must read if only to tweak that urge for yet more and more expensive gear/toys that the sailing rags tell you ya gotta have...

Listening to Dexys Midnite Runners

So it goes...

34 things...

That make sense!

Worth watching... Hold Fast

Good stuff from The Anarchist Yacht Clubb...


Hold Fast from Moxie Marlinspike on Vimeo.

One born every minute... and a snake oil alert

As I peruse the cyber online marine world and shopping for a couple of needful bits for "So It Goes" I happened on to a couple of products that engendered serious WTF moments...

Being that I have been planning to get an iPad, anything of a marine and iPad nature triggers my attention and lo and behold I see that the Outback Marine Store is selling a panel mount system for an iPad. Being a lazy fellow I look closer because avoiding getting out a bit of plastic, scrap teak or cypress, and the router to build a trim ring involves work and, like all lazy folks everywhere, I do try and avoid that four-letter word whenever possible.

What do I find but a pretty nicely done trim ring of sorts (but hardly deserving the moniker of a system) and available in both flush (well nearly flush) and surface mount... The WTF moment occurred when I looked at the price of $365 for the surface mount and $295 for the flush mount... Yowza! For perspective, the cost of the panel mount is over half the cost of the 32GB iPad... YOWZA indeed!

As I said, I'm one seriously lazy dude when all is said and done but I'm also one seriously CHEAP dude as well. You can see that I am somewhat torn between two primal forces.

So, let's see... I have some just-like-starbord plastic (I'm way too cheap to buy that plastic with a marine name stuff when the same stuff is available for 10% of the marine price) laying about that I think I spent about $15 bucks for, a router and a bunch of router bits so I could do a panel mount trim ring in about an hour and a half with most of that being the cleanup that turning on the router on the boat engenders. So the cost to build my own would not be excessive and while it does require a bit of work, it only requires a little, so the fight between lazy and cheap is something of a no-brainer!

To make it clearer, when you apply the Cruzan Black Strap formula to the problem we quickly see that by not buying the panel mount unit and doing it myself I can go out and buy over forty liter bottles of Cruzan Black Strap rum with the money left over (and that dear readers is one helluva PARTY)!

Actually doing a trim ring is so easy that I'll admit it kicks in my pyratical side and fills my head with that old quote "There is a sucker born every minute" that almost makes me want to join the pyratical hordes fleecing unwary boat folk. That said, the truth is while making over-priced trim rings is not hard work, fleecing people is! So I will sit and contemplate snake oil, nerve tonics and forty-one bottles of rum instead...

Listening to "Tent" by the Bonzo Dog Band.

So it goes...

Not the world we were expecting...

Back in the 1600's they thought the world would be different too...

 A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years

A small and tidy package...

I've spent months researching various inflatable kayaks and so far most have come up short in one way or another. So far, when all is said and done, they all seem to take up just too much space in the cockpit locker to make them a better choice than a real tortured plywood sea kayak. Inflatables cease to have an advantage if you have to keep them stowed on deck.

This one by Innovahowever, looks promising...



I'm pretty sure I can find that kind of space!

Wet and wetter...

The rain down here for the last few days has been... well, the word biblical does come to mind...

You may not be able to see the full extent of the water level in the dinghy but that is about eight inches, and pretty impressive for less than twelve hours.

DIY WIFI goodness...

This makes a lot of sense and if you find a waterproof box instead of a cigar box seriously boat friendly!

a little leak...

We have been having no shortage of rain and the Lewmar hatches are both trying to out leak the other but hardly surprising that the one over my head is a clear winner and is doing a quite passable imitation of a SuperSoaker!

The hatches actually don't bother me as the plan is to replace them with self-built hatches as soon as we have a couple of days without rain so they are a done (if not yet completed) deal... The leak that does have me a bit worried is one that is over the dinette table. Which was apparently repaired with Bondo or some such by a previous owner where the leak exits. The problem is trying to find where the ingress point is. This is some kind of problematic as it could be anywhere on the coach roof. As things go in such cases, I'll more than likely have to re-bed all of the deck hardware but I doubt that will actually fix the problem as it predates all of the current deck hardware which makes where the actual leak is something of a conundrum...

Zombie talk...

We have pointed out, from time to time, that learning at least the basics of the languages spoken where you plan to cruise is no bad thing and even suggested that Esperanto would be an awesome lingua franca for boat folk and a smart thing for the rest of the world... Of course that suggestion triggered a flood of emails to Boat Bits central suggesting that there was already a lingua franca and it was ENGLISH and that Esperanto was some sort of commie plot.

Sigh...

Whatever the readership thinks I still think that if you learn to speak at least the basics (please, thank you, could you direct me to the nearest ATM) you will be a happy camper more often than not.

But what about when you are beyond the comfort zone of civilization and visiting the lost isles of the fire god or  other places that you won't find cruising guides for? What if you were about to enter an island mostly populated by zombies for instance... Would English alone do the trick?

Face it today's modern cruiser needs to be prepared and if you don't think a few phrases in Zombie won't make points with the immigration folk you have never met the ladies who clear you in to the BVI...

While I was never a boy scout (being dubbed a bad influence when I was a Cub scout) the always being prepared ting did take and having a copy of "How to Speak Zombie" gives me just that extra feeling of comfort next time I am in need of conversing with a zombie...

Some excellence from the Interview with a Cruiser Project...

The most excellent Interview With A Cruiser Project has been doing a great job of spreading good information and today's interview with "Velella" is no exception... While you're at it you should check out Velella's website which is a mine of great info!

Then again, I am much more likely to perk up and show interest when someone in a less than 36 foot boat (Velella is 31feet) is talking than someone with a Deerfoot or suchlike.

A board of note...

Cool ride!

Surly just made my day...

One of the bikes on my current shortlist the Long Haul Trucker by Surly just got a whole lot more attractive...

They added a Long Haul Trucker deluxe frame...

With the S&S Machine Company’s BTCs (bicycle torque couplings)...

Doing the happy dance!

Now, here's a thought...

Jay Fitzgerald, author of "Sea-Steading: A Life of Hope and Freedom on the Last Viable Frontier" and sustainable farmer these days has some ideas about how to solve his local economy...

Makes as much sense as anything coming out of Washington these days!