A quick link...

James Howard Kunstler's post today is well worth a read...

Maybe it's not just me...

I've always had a sneaking suspicion that the reason I was not a big fan of cruising rallies had a lot to do the fact that I never did well in larger groups, and going sailing was about getting away from people as opposed to a social exercise... and well, there is the whole curmudgeon thing.

One blog podcast I follow, Follow the Boat, has some interesting observations about a rally that they are crossing paths with in India in her post entitled "The Sooner These Miserable Sods Leave, The Better". Kinda says it all, does it not? Interesting to read what the rally organizers are saying about the miserable sods same group.

The thing about rallies is they quickly become a clicque, mob, posse, gang, group and that process insulates them from the places and people they run into along the way. More often than not, it is also made worse by the fact that the group is managed and shielded from a lot of local color (for their protection, of course) not unlike one of those bus tours of Europe we all used to make fun of...

Some years back when the ARC came into Las Palmas and the local marina became the "ARC marina", it was very clear that the other fifty or sixty non-ARC boats and their crews were persona non grata. While we met several cruisers in the ARC who were really nice folks as individuals, when in "the group" they tended to resort to group think and, since we were not ARC, we simply did not exist or worse.

A funny thing about that year's Atlantic crossing class was that the divide between the ARC and the Non-ARC became so unfriendly that one boat we knew started making burgees and t-shirts that were for the N.A.R.C. (Not-A-R-C). These became so popular that even some of the ARC folks were trying to buy them as all the cool cruisers were wearing them (apparently they did not get the joke!).  One ARC participant mentioned to me that he wished he could come to some of the NARC parties as they seemed like a lot more fun than the ARC shindigs. He seemed seriously confused when we pointed out that of course he was welcome as unlike the ARC functions all sailors were welcome. The NARC parties were nothing special, as getting together with other cruisers was simply part and parcel of what cruising was about...

Funny thing is that now there really is a NARC rally which in my mind is easily one worst acronyms anyone could pick for a rally as no one I have ever met likes a narc!

All fun aside, like a lot of other cruisers I know, we give all of the various rallies a wide berth as they tend to suck the fun right out of a place, lower the tone, and leave something of a bad taste with non-rally sort folks (for example: last year, anchored cruisers were told they'd have to leave an anchorage as a group of boats from the so-and-so rally was arriving and they'd need the room). Lucky for us, all of the various rallies publish their plans and they are pretty easy to avoid (even if you screw up and are entering an anchorage with a bunch of boats with matching pink burgees you can always turn around and bugger off before you suffer any permanent psychic damage)!

In the nothing-is-black-and-white-and-there-are-exceptions-to-all-rules department, I should point out that I have heard nothing but good things about the Baja HaHa

A whole lot of nervous going on...

Off hand I'd just like to mention the fact that being anchored in the Caribbean is no bad thing and if things get ugly I can always mosey on to someplace where it's less interesting... Boats are a GOOD thing!

I mentioned the other day about how Egypt is in the midst of some serious frolic and yesterday's news points out that Jordan, Algeria, and Tunisia  are looking "interesting" as well.

China, as it happens, has censored the word "EGYPT" from its internet so their people won't get any ideas of the frolicsome sort.

For anyone interested in the best coverage,  AlJazeera is the place to be watching it... truth is, it just may be the best news source around for anything these days!

Current news, of course, does not really have anything to do with sailing or cruising but a simple understanding of how the real world actually works from perspectives other than Fox news (Fox and news in the same sentence is sort of a contradiction in terms though) or CNN will go a long way to keeping you a happy camper.

Another way of keeping the inner camper happy is to always have a back-up plan in your back pocket...

A very long time ago I drove down to the tip of South America to do some climbing (a rather unsuccessful but cunning attempt on Cerro Torre though we did get lucky with Fitzroy) and ever since, I have been looking for an excuse to go back.

Awesome trout fishing, incredible (if somewhat chilly) rock climbing, great skiing and a climate not unlike the Pacific Northwest which I once called home... What's not to like?

Oh yeah, the sailing is seriously interesting but in a good way!

Lots of homework, research and charts to look into...

Now it's time for you and me...

Fatty Goodlander (the only guy I know who can compete with me for the Mr Cheapseats trophy) has an important article in the new "All At Sea" (Feb.2011) that is pretty much on target... Sadly, the new issue is not available on the website yet so most of you will have to wait a bit to read it.

Fatty mainly seems to be upset over the price we as cruisers seem to be paying for various services, non-services, and the fact that today the cruising sailor is considered as something of a cash cow. He also points out that "we" are a very big part of the problem because we allow it to happen and pay...

I know I often rant on the subject of overly high prices for second rate goods and services which is SOP in the marine industry but, in hindsight, I maybe have not made it clear enough that we as consumers have a lot of power. If we do not exercise this power a lot of those high prices and inferior products are really as much our fault as the greedheads who are selling crappy goods at silly prices.

Of course, folks in the marine trades who sell a bit of stainless steel made in India for a few pennies and sold to you at your local chandler for a too large chunk of your paycheck might have a different view on things as they are just trying to make a profit... The question really should be what exactly is a fair profit?

That "We Can Do It" dude in the White House thinks the answer to various problems is for the American worker and business to get more competitive and that will bring jobs and suchlike back and hey presto we will be all fine and dandy. But, the thing is, to be competitive with workers making a couple of dollars a day would mean that American workers would have to work for the same sort of wages and in the same sort of conditions one would expect to get in someplace like Mumbai... Now, there's a scary thought if you do the math!

That said, big business is not going to want a decrease in profits so prices will remain as high or higher which would leave folks who make things even worse off.

Bummer!

On the other hand, there are any number of new small boutique "maker" businesses arriving on the scene that give some hope that there is an alternative to the same old same marketplace and here at Boat Bits we are going to be putting a lot of effort into helping them connect to those folks cruising, getting ready to cruise, and building or refitting. So if you know of someone designing, making or otherwise serving the cruising sailor with well done, fairly (real world) priced, and sustainable products or services, we'd really like to hear about them.

More than time to put that cash cow thing behind us!

So it goes...

Listening to Jefferson Airplane

Interesting times...

According to the news this morning, Egypt has shut down the internet and cut cell phone systems to avoid a repeat of the recent silliness that just toppled the President of Tunisia...

Interesting times indeed!

Off hand, I'd be very nervous these days if I was a politician living high on the hog while the citizens of the country I was supposed to serve were poor and underemployed and being fed tough love while the wealthy and big business got to do whatever they wanted to. We are, needless to say, talking about various Arab and middle-eastern countries, of course...

Which has me thinking of various cruising plans over the next couple of years as, whenever possible, I prefer to cruise in interesting places that are not "interesting" to the point of having to pack Kevlar for day to day wear... Well, unless they start making Kevlar in festive Hawaiian prints!

The real bug in the ointment with our plans for the next couple of years has been The Schengen Agreement which make staying for any length of time  with a sailboat in Europe somewhat problematic these days and the fact that the Suez canal was part of the exit plan in doing an ass-backwards circumnavigation.

The Schengen, is doable and simply a pain in the butt of keeping the i's dotted and the t's crossed but more so as Turkey has also decided to do some serious additional red tape and visa hassles which add to the problematic nature of things Schengen...

But, Suez to me is the real hassle as I simply don't want to fuss with the bureaucratic nightmare and baksheesh that is part and parcel of doing the Suez canal (pretty much the same sort of reaction that has me no longer flying on planes in the US of A  as it is simply no longer fun) these days... and if it's not fun why bother?

I'm thinking I need to spend some serious time looking at my copy of  "World Cruising Routes"...

Do you know how to use your multimeter?

I'm always a little surprised that more folks on boats don't know how to get the most out of their multimeters. Make Magazine gives us an excellent Multimeter 101

Getting into hot water...

Here at Boat Bits Central we have had a few emails regarding propane hot water heaters as opposed to going the solar shower route...

Fact is, most of the places folks tend to cruise even a solar shower is something akin to overkill and while we are in the dead of winter here in the Caribbean (according to my depth sounder the water temperature is 82 degrees), simply leaving your pressure sprayer/shower outside is enough needful warming for most folks.

Of course, some folks have a thing for hot showers and may plan cruises to more artic climes so I guess that a propane fueled "on demand" sort of water heater makes some kind of sense and these days they are even  affordable. While we cruised Europe and the Med, we noticed all of  our British friends tended to use this sort and were all pretty happy campers. We, on the other hand, had to resort to the old boiling water in a kettle regime and pour hot water into our pump up garden sprayer shower. As I recall, we were happy campers as well...

So it goes...

I guess, when all is said and done, it's simply what works for you and your budget...

A good read...

Well worth reading...



However... No zombies!

Self-steering and a very special day in history...

Whenever the discussion is about windvane self-steering gear it often morphs over to sheet to tiller because of its cheapness and simplicity...

For the record, I'd never cross another ocean without the components and some means of sheet to tiller steering sorted out as a fallback in case something were to happen to our vane system. That said, I doubt I'd ever consider sheet to tiller as a primary system of choice.

Vanes are simple (and if you don't think so you do not know how they work) so jumping between self-steering and hand steering is easy and they steer a better course then most of us are capable of. Sheet to tiller systems are not quite as easy and while they can steer a good course they are not quite as adaptable (at least with out tweaking) and somewhat more fiddly than most cruisers I know are willing to put up with.

For me, I really like that I don't have to steer when sailing 99% of the time and all I have to do is engage the gear and kick back, pull out the fishing gear, read a book, or simply watch the scenery go by while not being glued to the tiller.

That said, I might have a very different view if I were sailing a long keeled schooner and not an old plastic fin-keeled sailboat of lightish displacement prone to surfing... The point being it has a lot to do with the characteristics of the boat you have and if it pretty much steers itself on all points of sail sheet to tiller makes all kinds of sense.

For those who would like a very good description of a sheet to tiller set up that will work for a primary or backup system you can find all you need here.

Now for something completely different...

I'm sure that a lot of Boat Bits readers are well aware that on this day (Jan. 24) back in 1935 the first can of beer was sold! I, for one, plan to take a six-pack up to the foredeck and pay some serious homage to those brave brewers who pushed the envelope! I'm sure all like minded Boat Bits Readers will be doing the same...

Listening to Reel Big Fish...

So it goes

Thoughts on the purple mold from hell and a cool shower...

We've had various solar showers on board Loose Moose, Loose Moose 2, and "So it Goes" over the years...

Solar showers work well as they are simple, do the job, don't take up any room, and are affordable... They can also drive you nuts!

The problem is every solar shower we have come across are cheaply made and simply don't hold up. Fact is, I was looking in a locker and we have three solar showers that have died (one leaks, another has terminal UV disease, while the third the shower tube simply pulled out) that I have been meaning to cobble together into one that would hopefully work for a bit.

The other thing is that solar showers love to produce interesting flora and fauna (sorta like your gym showers back in high school) but are almost impossible to clean out and if you give them the bleach treatment it does something to the PVC or vinyl that accelerates  their deterioration so you are stuck with the conundrum of useful life or living with the purple mold from hell...

Lucky for us MSR, maker of bespoke mountaineering and backpacking stoves, has come up with what would appear to be the perfect solar shower and you can color me impressed! The first thing you notice about the MSR PackShower is that it is big and can hold six gallons of water and having to deal with some serious weight of water it is built much heavier than anything else on the market. Even better is you can actually open it up and get inside with a sponge and some soap and clean the sucker out or use it to store stuff as a dry bag... How cool is that?

That said, I'm not sure what life on "So It Goes" will be like without the purple mold from hell but I'm willing to give it a try...

An interesting read... Home Fires

I was reading a rather interesting interview with the author Gene Wolfe and it left me with a lot to think about and wishing his new book "Home Fires" was in paperback or I'd got around to buying my E-Book reader so I could read it RIGHT NOW!

In the interview there is a really good line about his book and the bleakness of his near future world with its overpopulation and unemployment...

"Well, when you have overpopulation, that's what you have. If you have jobs for all those people, you're not overpopulated; you're just densely populated. But if you don't have jobs for those people, then you are overpopulated..."

Oh yeah, In the world of "Home Fires" the cruise ships are all powered by sail...

Listening to the iPod and filling holes...

I'm currently in the process of losing all of the deck hardware involved in bringing the halyards and reefing lines back to the cockpit...

Which means I have a lot of holes to fill and as filling holes is something of a time consuming though brainless job I have ample time to listen to my iPod and wonder at how much all of this gear I'm taking off the boat cost... Jeez!

Bringing the reefing back to the cockpit is an idea, that while appealing on many levels, can be somewhat problematic when confronted with real world use. Over the last few years I have lost track of the number of times I've had to go to the mast to free a line, untangle something, or sort out other mayhem during a squall and I'd hazard a guess that, if I had kept track, that my visits to the foredeck with lines led aft in heavy weather were about the same as when none of the lines were led aft.

The big difference though is that if you expect to go to the mast on a regular basis you are prepared to go to the mast. On the other hand, if you don't expect to leave your cockpit... Well, shit does happen!

So, at least for my style of sailing, going back to simple make sense.

The bright side of all of this is that I'll have a lot of line organizers and suchlike to pimp at the next nautical flea market I find myself at and, with any luck, might even pay for all of the epoxy and fillers that the hole filling consumes. I can live with that.

What would be even better (I'm guessing) is one of those holes has also been causing an apparently untraceable leak in our deck that has had me jumping through hoops for months...

Listening to the Bonzo Dog Band...

So it goes...

Some Zydeco anchor thoughts...

I've been hoping that my public disclosure that I have not bought into the next-gen anchor hype would have kept people from anchoring on top of "So It Goes" for fear I'd drag down on them in the middle of the night...

Bummer!

Seriously though, I have been keeping an eye on folks anchors and (at least down here in the Caribbean) the so called next-gen anchor patterns are something of a rarity. Maybe folks who have anchors that work just fine don't seem to have a driving desire to go out and pay a whole lot of money for an anchor that, most likely won't work any better than the one they already have.

We still like our Brittany/FOB pattern anchors as they work and as long as they keep working I just don't see the need to pay five or six times as much for something different.

Being happy with my anchor and not dragging does not help with the fact that some folks just anchor too darn close! What to do?

Well as it happens I have... dare I say it... A cunning plan!

Lately I have been listening to a bit of French music mixed with an equal proportion of Zydeco and it has occurred to me that while I can't have a Hammond B3 and a pair of Leslies on the boat, maybe something a tad smaller like a concertina or a Cajun accordion just might make folks anchor off a bit further...



You have been warned...

What's a warranty worth...

I know I go on and on about simplicity...

Recently a marine electronics company with much fanfare and ballyhoo has upgraded their warranty to three years. I have not had a chance to read said warranty and its fine print but if it reads anything like previous warranties I have been up close and personal with, it may just be a lot of smoke and mirrors. Truth be told, I'd much rather see them tell us how their gear is simpler, user-serviceable, and tougher, rather than when it craps out they "may" fix it for a longer period of time if the fine print does not get in the way.

Face it, if you are a thousand miles from the nearest approved warranty service center, that improved warranty is simply a piece of useless paper and you are on your own...

In the like minds department, over at Attainable Adventure Cruising they wax poetic on the subject of cruise tough and simple... Give them a read!

Mommy's alright, daddy's alright...

They just seem a little weird...

I've become somewhat obsessed by a fish...

I went diving this weekend (lobster being on the menu) and both dive sites were heavily infested with Lion Fish. Lion Fish are sort of the evil mother-in-law of the fish world as once they get a foothold they simply won't go away.

They are kinda pretty though in an evil-don't-touch kind of way... But pretty as they are, they are spreading like cancer through the Caribbean and as they have no natural enemies things are looking somewhat dark. Sort of a weapon of mass destruction with fins/spines for reef life as we know it...

On the plus side... They taste good and can be excellent as Sushi or sub for any white fleshed fish in your normal fish recipes.


Making Lionfish Safe to Prepare from Marine Resources on Vimeo.

Need I say more?

Listening to Ox cover Cheap Trick...

So it goes...

Simple wheels... BLT

BLTownie Demo from Bruce Gordon Cycles on Vimeo.

The difference between pimping and reviewing... The Anglo/French divide

I spent my second cup of coffee yesterday reading a current American cruising rag and the new Voile magazine...

The thing that jumps out at me about the Franco/Anglo divide is how much more critical boat and gear reviewers are in the French yachting press... Well actually, that's not a fair statement as for the French reviewers to be more critical that would imply that American reviewers were in fact critical in some shape or form as opposed to ... Well, the word fawning does come to mind.

The reviewers of the new Varianta 44 in Voile quite liked the boat but were quick to point out both good and bad points and they pointed out a lot of stuff that could be improved...

That's just a taste but these guys seriously get into the workings, build and performance of a boat they review. You might say they take their job seriously!

I won't bother to go into how the American magazine toadied to their advertisers wants and quoted whole passages from various press releases... Sort of depressing as it really shows a great disrespect for their readers as well as a serious misunderstanding of what a reviewers job is... Here's a hint: it does not involve the word pimp!

For those who'd like to see how a real boat review works you can find the Voile review in PDF format here (You'll have to click on reports)

A quick question...

Why is there no equivalent sailing/cruising film fest or tour along the lines of The Fly Fishing Film Tour?

On the "Green" ting...

ProaFile making some sense...

Speaking of money...

Here at Boat Bits we are big fans of MooseJawas they do the whole mountain gear thing as well as anyone, and well... there is also the moose thing...

What I'm working towards... Eight times cheaper

I've been known to rant and roar over the silly prices and sub cruise quality boat gear where profit seems to be the only objective... Not that I'm adverse to people making a reasonable profit. The cats will no doubt be overjoyed if and when Boat Bits ever shows even a hint of a profit, as I've promised them some serious cat toys...

So you can see I'm not against people making a profit, it's just when the profits get out of hand that I start getting all Bolshoi.

Part of the problem is since it's easier to make huge profits if you control the market big companies get bigger and gobble up smaller companies till there is no natural self regulation in the market place known as competition...

Competition is your friend, dude!

Sadly, a lot of what passes for competition these days is somewhat bogus as a lot of the companies competing with each other tend to be owned by the same folks. This sort of faux competition does not regulate a market, it controls it with artificially high prices while giving you the warm and fuzzy feeling that you got yourself a deal.

If given a chance (when I can't make something myself) I prefer to buy stuff from a small guy who actually owns his business and produces a real product. That said, there is a downside that small concerns, more often than not, can't actually compete that well with mega-business behemoths as the economics of scale are what they are...

Bummer...

On the other hand, in some cases when the small business is smart and does not try and compete on the same playing field, not only can they compete, but win. The hard part is thinking far enough outside the box for both sellers and buyers to make sense of it all.

So here is a hint and it does not exactly concern boats and boat stuff... In fact, it is all about tractors and tools as well as being the ultimate nightmare for executives at Massey-Ferguson and International Harvester. Though if you step back far enough and open your mind it might be all about boats and boat gear...




My mantra of choice "Eight times cheaper"...

A quick answer...

I've had lots and lots of folks asking which figure eight I'm using for our boom brake on the new rig...

It's cheap and it works...

No shortage of things to do...

Boredom is simply not an issue on any boat I have ever lived on as there is always a long list of things to do and cunning plans to sort out...

Since we are currently without an internal combustion charging source (yes, it appears that our Honda is no longer doing the happy dance) and as our solar panels are doing as well as could be expected (with the sun only poking through the cloud cover every once in awhile) ones thoughts turn to cunning plans involving wind generators and suchlike.

So it goes...

Making money on the water...

Even though the economy sucks, there are no shortage of possible income streams for those on boats with the right attitude and work ethic...

Since we work in the charter business I'll start with that area of the nautical workaday world. Right now, while true that the number of charter clients are way down, it might surprise some that it is also getting a lot harder for us to find  good boats and crews for a lot of our clients who can still afford to charter these days. Fact is, we just had to remove another charter catamaran from our website as they simply did not have half a clue how to provide the sort of service that a client deserves, it being after all a service industry with a capital "S". I know we as charter brokers are always looking for new enthusiastic boats/crews with the right stuff!

While chartering is not for everyone and can be a highly demanding and very stressful 24/7 sort of job, the rewards, both personal and financial (though you won't ever get rich doing it), can be well worth the energy and investment.

By chartering I mean chartering your own boat and not working for one of the big bareboat/charter conglomerates more akin to MacDonanld's/KFC (Ya want fries with that dude?) sort of service and only missing the paper hats and hairnets. Such companies are a training ground for second and third rate crews which are something of a blight on the industry...

Then again, I'm told we are really picky about such things as putting quality and our clients enjoyment of their hard earned vacations first.

Some Tiki thoughts...

One nice thing about the whole sailing into the sunset gig is that we are somewhat more adaptable than other means of travel...

As someone who has a travel business, I can vouch for the fact that "peak travel" is a very real thing and the current downtrend in travel for leisure is no passing fad but now simply a permanent part of the landscape we call modern times.

Of course, folks with sail boats can pretty much go wherever they want to and, as tours, cruise ships, and cheap air travel become a dim memory, we might actually be appreciated for a change. What was I saying about silver linings?

A lot of us who as kids used to sit in front of the B&W TV and watch "Adventures in Paradise" with its welcoming islanders coming out to greet the Tiki and it's crew is one of those seeds that grew to become what is now known as cruising. Though you'd hardly know it with its too often unwelcoming officials and red tape which seems more designed to keep sailing folk from visiting rather than welcoming sailors and their money a happy stay.

The coconut telegraph tells me that there is already a shift in where people are cruising... The Caribbean, once the premier destination of cruising folk, is now less so and I keep getting notes from Ushuaia, SE Asia, and other far flung ports that have never even seen a bareboat and actually appreciate sailboats coming for a visit.

That said, shifting from the tourist routes to something a bit different (dare we call it... adventure?) brings a whole new mindset to bear and one that does not easily include such things as cruising rallies, air-conditioning and boat folk who need to jet home on a regular basis...

I  just may need a thicker wetsuit though...

More guitars and zombies...

While Sarah Palin and her minions scrub their web presence of embarrassing cross-hairs, other various voices of hate and ichor are doing the "Wasn't anything I said" shuffle. At least a Sheriff in AZ is making some sense but as a result is in the cross-hairs himself...

So it goes...

The fact is I have been planning some changes to the blog and since I can't put pen to paper in the normal Boat Bits vein at the moment... Might as well tell you about them instead!

We get a lot of mail here at Boat Bits Central and most of it involves requests for more details and more in depth stuff on various projects and "How-to's" which are somewhat problematic in a blog format (spelled boring) for anyone not interested in more details. My thoughts when writing stuff is not to be an authority but simply a guy who points folks in the general direction of how something might be done rather than the you must do something my way. That said, apparently some folks want more details in some areas and Boat Bits is going to add an Email newsletter (three times a year) for those who are hopelessly deranged enough to want to know more about the A-Z of such fun subjects as composting toilets, self steering, boat butchery or cruising on a blue collar budget. More about that soonish...

Some folks write and point out I may be a tad too harsh in pointing out from time to time that some sailing related gear is junk, over priced or both... To be honest, I'm still trying to comprehend why anyone would defend people who are selling them stuff that is junky, overpriced, or junky and overpriced. The mind simply boggles! On the other hand, I hope these folks stick around because I still have a junky satphone that does not work very well I'd like someone to take off my hands for a lot more than its worth!

We also get quite a few emails on the subject of political content and over 90% of it is favorable as apparently the odd rantings of a middle of the road democrat with leanings towards fiscal responsibility seem to strike a positive chord. That said if you are in the other camp and prefer your Boat Bits to be 100% boat content all of the time... Well, dudes and dudettes, you are simply out of luck (life being like that) and either suck it up and get with the program or simply quit reading Boat Bits (might I suggest North American Sailor a good blog with an interesting non-political and pro sailing industry content).

When we morphed Boat Bits into three separate blogs (Boat Bits, Fishing Under Sail, and Island Gourmand) I was not aware of how much more work was involved. Getting Fishing Under Sail and Island Gourmand up to speed has been something of a head banging task... Hopefully there is now some light at the end of the tunnel but I'd like to take the opportunity to thank those readers who keep reading in spite of slow updates and suchlike.

And yes there will be more guitars and zombies!

More tomorrow...

Some days...

You simply want to give up what little hope you have...

Steve Audio pretty much sums it up.

Truer words...

Since we were speaking of composting toilets this news clip is somewhat fitting!

Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) speaks the truth... Though I'm sure it was not his intent!

 "I would make the point that the leader and the Speaker have established their integrity and their mendacity for years in this Congress, and I don't believe it can be effectively challenged, and those who do so actually cast aspersions on themselves for making wild accusations."

The beauty of a slip of the tongue and too stupid to know the definition of the word mendacity...

So it does go...

One cubic foot...

A couple years back we bought a cubic foot of compressed peat moss for under ten dollars. Peat moss being our chosen composting medium for our composting toilet...

This morning we just finished the last of that peat moss and had to buy another cubic foot for just a kiss over ten dollars... All set for a couple more years!

Might want to keep a low profile...

Cruisers of a Republican bent might not want to wave their party affiliation in such places as Puerto Rico, Guam, the USVI and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands...

Being that the very first act of the new Republican led House was to strip the vote from the delegates of Puerto Rico and the territories, you might find a less than warm welcome wearing that "Vote Republican" sweatshirt.

As a Virgin Islander myself, morphing from a second class to third class citizen in the course of a single day makes me just a kiss testy!

Is there a Honda mechanic who reads Boat Bits...?

Is there is a Honda mechanic, boffin, geek or hobbyist in the house?

We are having some intermittent issues with our much loved Honda eu2000i and need some sage advice...

The story so far... The red light (overload) comes on with nothing plugged into the generator and no power to the outlets. Looking inside nothing looks amiss and all cables seem to be in good shape with no evidence of excess corrosion or shorts. We replaced the circuit breaker just in case but nada... It does, however work some of the time...

God, I HATE intermittent faults!

If you have an idea drop us a line...

One very cool possible dinghy!

These days we tend to think of dinghies as RIB's and that is just a little problematic... I won't get into the whole RIB's vs other forms of dinghy arguments except to say a lot of us do ourselves a disservice in not looking past the same old same...

Lately I've been leaning towards kayaks but they have their own brand of problems and compromises as well. That said, kayaks are a growing market with a somewhat explosive evolution at the moment and it is only a matter of time till a kayak or kayak like dinghies becomes a serious contender... Fact is. it might already be here!

The Nucanoe fits into that sorta kinda kayak/canoe zone and if I were to describe it to someone I'd call it more dory like than anything else...

Yeah I'd say there is a real dory influence!

The Nucanoe comes in 10 and 12 foot and the company has put a lot of thought and cleverness into making it adaptable to various uses, which for us sailing folk means we can pretty easily adapt it to OUR needs...

Like most tupperware rotomolded boats they are unsinkable and tough, not a bad thing in a dinghy...

Even better is the current pricing... The 10 foot lists for $799 while the 12 foot goes for $899... A quick search on the internet shows me street pricing is maybe $100 less... I have to say I really like this boat!

My next washing machine...

I've mentioned before that laundry tends to be the most problematic chore aboard a cruising boat. Every once in awhile someone comes up with a clever idea or prototype but they all seem to stay ideas and prototypes...

Yesterday, I read about, yet another, clever idea for a non-electric clothes washer and spinner... Color me excited... then I came to the part that said it was not available and was a concept rather that a I-can-buy-it-anytime-soon sort of thing or in the parlance of the day... VAPORWARE!

That said, it looks kind of cool but does not quite inspire confidence...  Then again it might do double duty as a rice cooker!

But it did get me thinking and since said concept is based on a salad spinner, why not simply buy a real heavy duty industrial manual salad spinner and have done with it? Stuff built for food service tends to be built to last, and as things go, at a little over a C-note, affordable. Especially if you factor in not having to hit $3.50 a load washing machines at the local laundry...

... Plus if you ever have the need for making Godzilla sized salads you're covered!

Apocalypse and silver linings...

Some folks seem to have a preconceived idea of what the future is going to be. Some think the future will continue just like it is while others are thinking "Mad Max" dune buggies will be the order of the day...

Off hand, I'd say both of those camps are a few sandwiches short of a full tilt picnic and my guess is that in the not too distant future things are just going to be different (though, just maybe different with a capital "D"). Different is not always an apocalyptic thing but can be if you are incapable of rolling with the flow and not take advantage of opportunities presented...

 
Technology is a wonderful thing and for anyone who's been watching the tech world there is ample evidence of multiple glimmering silver linings in the approaching storm...

Way back when, JFK used a mistranslation of the Chinese word for crisis (wei-chi) in a speech because it contained the "wei" (a word that could mean danger)  and "chi" (a word that could be construed to mean opportunity but only in a kinda/sorta way) and as a result everyone now thinks that the Chinese word for crisis or danger also means opportunity. The fact that it does not (without some serious massaging) hardly matters as JFK simply gave it a new meaning and it stuck. I only mention this because... Well, some of our Boat Bits readers can be seriously nit-picky folks... and it's fun to beat them to the punch!

But, in truth, crisis, danger, and even apocalypse always ride with opportunity of one sort or another and there will be silver linings. The trick is simply to be able to see and take advantage of them when they arrive...

So it goes...

Listening to Michael Nesmith make some sense (Roll With The Flow) on "Live at the Palais"

A must read...

Clusterfuck looks at the year to come...

A self-steering reminder...

Mr Vee's contest to win a self-steering gear is now up and running!

I'll be very interested in what sort of entries folks come up with on the Yellow and Black theme...

Rocket stoves...

A great resource for rocket stoves...

Can you think of a more perfect system to build a solid fuel heater for a boat?

A quick note from one of our readers points out that  Wood/gas stoves also make a lot of sense and have the advantage of being in production and pretty cheap (batteries seldom included).

What is Hip?

Being that, more often than not, I've earned my living shooting film I've been no stranger to what passes for trends and fashion... A reluctant observer and participant if you will.

One thing I have learned, is as far back as elementary school trends and fashion are something of a primal force and as a primal force I have always been surprised how no one seems to notice that those who set fashion or start trends are seldom (if ever) the ones who profit from them...

Just like in Jr High... Remember how the folks who started wearing certain stuff and were ridiculed for their fashion sense at the time had already moved on to the next coming thing when everyone was now wearing last months fashion faux pas which was now Hip (with a capital "H" of course)?

So it does go...

The same thing, of course, is part and partial of yacht design as for those of us of a certain age remember building cats and tris and being told by sailors, experts and the dreaded yachting press that multihulls were unHip, unsafe and a social faux pas of gargantuan proportions...

A lot of people think that trends and fashion are the stuff of rich folk and I could go into a long and multi-faceted argument as to why the wealthy, when it comes to common street smarts, simply don't have a clue. But, rich people are really boring so I won't bother except to mention that fashion and trends are a thing of the streets and with no street smarts the only way you are going to get your Hipness is second hand by buying it...

So, the fact is I don't pay much attention to what is fashionable but I do try and keep a weather eye out for what some folks are doing... Especially those folks who people make fun of and heap disdain on at the moment as they really are the true fashion and trend setters.

Right now I'm seeing a lot of people downsizing and simplifying  who are not being forced to by the economic wonderfulness that is life in the US of A in 2011. While the rich (always one step behind in the Hipness ting) are buying bigger and bigger megayachts those with their ear to the ground are downsizing and looking to do more with less...

Kind of makes you think...

I've also noted a trend in some of my readers who write and apologize or make excuses to justify their choice of having a larger than needful boat  or replacing their engine and not going electric without any prompts on my part. If these folks feel the need to justify or apologize not going with something it is already a trend and it is something you may wish to to factor into the game plan. I should also point out that fashion and trends are not always trivial pursuits akin to mullets and hula hoops but can be simple survival instincts kicking in...

So it goes...

Listening to Tower of Power...

1-1-11... The story so far!

Mike (you know Captain Mike) dropped me a New years greeting and mentioned he was getting ready to go off to the Maldives for a bit of R&R. Which I'm certainly sure is needful having had a job for the last couple of months... I'm sure he is looking forward to some heavy petting courtesy of the TSA.

Speaking of work, I need to dust off the film gear and get to doing some myself if a new boat build is in cards (but a lot more on that cunning plan later)... Luckily for me, the new Nikon I've been waiting for is finally out and will go a long way to making my boat (Martime Moose) film projects both fun and frolicsome... Anyone need a lightly used D200?

Karl and Iris, jet set duo and all around bon vivants (who just may single handedly bring hats back) are doing music as well... Check it out.

Our friends over at Zero to Cruising are wishing they'd kept the composting head...

Oh yeah... The world is still going to hell in a super-charged wicker basket but I'll get around to that later!