a quick note from grumpyland...

EBM makes an excellent point, so does Bernie, while Blue Heron Blast has a link on microplastics and dementia you should check out...

We've got a tropical wave blowing through and it's gray and rainy. I've got a bunch of projects on hold for a variety of reasons and can't seem to find a window for the ones I'd like to do.

Makes me kind of grumpy and not fit company for civilized folk.

So here's a video that you'll find entertaining as recompense.

It sure made my day a little better.

Listening to Carson McHone

So it goes...

a Schengen workaround of sorts...

Something good on the subject of fishponds, what we're up against, and in the "Where the money doesn't go" department...

Back when we lived in Paris, the place to buy a VW camper van was at the American Express office not too far from the Opera. The reason it was a good place to buy a van was simply that folks would fly to Europe, buy a van, and then travel around Europe till it was time to fly home and they needed to sell their van in a hurry.  So, they'd park in front of the American Express office with a for sale sign and the hope that someone would buy it before their flight.

I mention this because I was just thinking about how the Schengen treaty has made cruising in Europe all kinds of problematic for us non-Schengen residents. It's hard to see all of Europe and get out of the Schengen zone in a three-month period.

Now, our boat can stay within the Schengen area with no hassles but the crew can't and that's where the problem lies. While perusing various cunning plans and visa possibilities, it reminded me of those folks trying to sell their vans when they knew that sold or not they were going to be on a flight home at 10:00 AM the next morning.

Which got me thinking of how a small cruising boat like a Jeanneau  Sangria, with much greater livability than a VW van, could be bought for around $3K Euros, and might work out cheaper than the cost of hotels. You could fly in, buy the boat, cruise for a couple of months, then sell it or store it before flying out. If you stored it, you could return later (three months or longer) for another three months and repeat the process.

Since a large part of what we love about France is the French canals, I'd feel the need to modify the Sangria (or reasonable facsimile) by adding a tabernacle so I could lower or raise the mast easily to allow visiting the interior of France via canal.

It occurred to me that the idea would be even better if there were other folks involved with a joint ownership situation. That would allow the boat to be used and not stored, so while one crew is off waiting for the Schengen clock to rewind, another crew could be sailing in the Med doing the happy camper dance.

On the other hand, I expect that the wonders of the internet would allow one to sell the boat in a much easier method than parking in front of an American Express office with hope and a for sale sign.

Listening to France Gall

So it goes...

on not protecting your assets...

Just a few 47 bad apples people have to live with, a film I really need to see, and in the "I never thought I'd see an honest oil company ad" department...

In my morning news box I see that five people in Seattle were injured in three unrelated shootings which, by Seattle standards is not exactly surprising. Seattle, as things go in the US of A is a pretty safe place to live.

I mention this, partly because I used to live in Seattle so have a passing interest in what's going on there as well as that what passes for the norm  in terms of crime and violence in the US of A is of interest to me. 

As it happens, the Seattle news came to me at the same time as a current crime report from the Caribbean Safety and Security net had something about someone having their dinghy stolen in Aruba. The idea that someone stole an unlocked dinghy with an outboard was not exactly a surprise. Since outboard motors have become silly expensive and are easily sold (often to cruisers who seldom question a good deal on an outboard) but hardly a crime wave.

The fact remains that sailing and living on a boat in the Caribbean is, more than likely, a lot safer than living back where you came from. Fact of the matter is that most of the folks in the Caribbean inclined to villainy can be found in the local marine trades as there is just not enough profit in stealing your outboard.

That said, if it's unlocked and just sitting there, many will consider it fair game.

Listening to AJ Lee & Blue Summit

So it goes...

a path mostly untrodden...

An apt cartoon, what I'm not having for lunch, and in the "One man with a..." department...

The idea of a circumnavigation only appeals if it's a connected series of places I actually want to visit. Off hand, I can think of any number of places that I'm interested in seeing and experiencing so, the idea sorta/kinda makes sense.

Now, what would make the task more appealing is if one could avoid places I don't want to go. This is a bit more difficult as most milk run cruising locations are part and parcel of places I don't have much interest in. Which is a roundabout way of saying that avoiding the riff-raff could be somewhat problematic.

I suspect, the easiest way to avoid milk run locations is to take a more, shall we say, jaundiced view of most of the existing cruising advice. As I've always had issues with following the herd this is right up my alley.

The downside is that going your own way requires having to actually doing your homework. But, hey, planning and research can be pretty entertaining if your bent leans that way.

So far, so good.

Here's something even better! If you're researching and planning your own route you can leave out all the stuff you hate.

Like marinas! I really hate marinas and the idea of a marina-free circumnavigation makes me giddy with anticipation. We could call it the 2024 Marina Avoidance Tour and what a great T-shirt that would make.

So, to recap, a lazy man's frugal circumnavigation to interesting places while avoiding all the popular cruising locations with the express purpose of not staying in a marina while only anchoring is pretty much what I'm talking about.

I'm pretty sure that I'd have to harness my inner Phileas Fogg to do it but I'm sure it's doable.

I've got some homework to do...

Listening to a Strokes cover

So it goes...

thinking on a novel approach to a circumnavigation...

Sailing Anarchy saying the needful, some climate arithmetic you should check out, and in the "There's a difference between famous and infamous" department...

Everyone seems to want to have their fifteen minutes of fame with some Derring-Do feat that sets them apart from the crowd. You’re going to have to be real creative to come up with a “first” where boats and sailing are part of the equation.

Many sailing and cruising folk don’t have a lot of historical knowledge where sailing accomplishments are concerned. Pretty much all the firsts have already been done. Since someone’s already done it before, you’re mostly just following in their wake.

Of course, most folk seeking to be first are harvesting ideas from the “How stupid can you go?” files. Crossing an ocean in a three-foot sailboat might get me into the Darwin Awards for sure but don’t float my boat.

I’m really not adventurous but having a goal for a circumnavigation would be no bad thing. I’ve pondered on what would be a significant method of getting around the world. A method that folks would deem either impossible or doubtful of success yet little chance of becoming a statistic in the yearly USCG mortality at sea report.

What to do?

When you think about it, it’s an “Around the World in Eighty Days” sort of question. So, what would Phileas Fogg do?

Or, to be more precise, what would someone who is a bit anti-social and very frugal desire to do or do without in a seaborne circumnavigation?

More on that soonish…

Listening to Las Cafeteras

So it goes...

A different yacht charter...

EBM making sense, can't fix stupid, and in the "Take this job and shove it" department...

As some of you know, here on "So It Goes" we're, for want of a better description, Boat Pimps and have a charter brokerage. As a general rule I don't pimp charter boats on Boat Bits but have occasionally mentioned repositioning charters as they give an opportunity for long passages, different venues, or bargains.

One charter fleet we work with in Belize is repositioning some of their cats to the Rio Dulce for the "H" season. They are offering a per-cabin flotilla charter August 21-27 which includes sailing from Belize City to the Rio Dulce in Guatemala

For more information including an itinerary you can check it out on the Paradise Connections blog.

Listening to the Iron Leg Radio Show

So it goes... 

a nightmare of note...

Florida bans math textbooks, an excellent example of form follows function, and in the "Just in case you haven't been paying attention" department...

I had a bad dream that woke me up this morning. It wasn't about COVID, climate change, or the Ukraine Russian war morphing into a nuclear debacle. All of which have been fodder for uncomfortable dreams of late.

It wasn't even about killer clowns either. It was a lot worse than that.

It was about... 

Marinas

Now, I'm pretty sure I've gone on record about my feeling regarding marinas and the soul deprived creatures that own and operate such hellish establishments. As an admittedly low budget cruiser I avoid marinas just like you'd avoid taking a walk in a cemetery at midnight, going down in the basement during a zombie outbreak with only a couple of matches to light your way, and going outside to check out a suspicious noise just after having sex on Elm street.

Which might tell you a lot about how the nightscape of my dream where everyone is forced to stay in marinas may have chilled me to the bone and found myself woken in a cold sweat.

So scary in fact that to get the images of "No Liveaboards or Wooden Boats" and "Outboard Powered Dinghies Only" out of my head that I had to read some Stephen King to cleanse the dark dank suppurating images from my mind.

Listening to Drive-by Truckers 

So it goes...

Improving the cruising grounds one megayacht at a time...

Some folks just doing their part, something about the price of oil, and a different take on Job...

I'll be honest and admit I find the following highly entertaining.

Listening to James McMurtry

So it goes...

It's a very small world...

A positive trend in energy, some Hawaiian history, and a whole lot of ski films...

While I'm often told that politics has no place in sailing or cruising, the fact that Russia is currently invading a sovereign democratic country is going to be somewhat problematic for a lot of folks on boats.

Next time you buy diesel you'll no doubt notice that the cost to fill your tank is not going to make you a happy camper. Neither will the fact that the EU and Russia will, for the foreseeable future, be one bad decision away from what will amount to a World War.

Yeah, I know everyone says that the currently airborne excrement won't hit the rotating blades but I'll remind you that "everyone" said that about WW1 and WW2. Since I'm ranting, I'll add that they also said that COVID would not be a problem, too.

Face it, it's a small world and pretty much anything that happens in the dire department will wind up affecting all of us in one way or another. Being on a boat, avoiding the news, or ignoring your moral responsibilities won't give you a free pass.

Listening to a "sweet" playlist

So it goes...

Off the grid...

Something I find very scary, how just living in 2022 takes its toll, and the term Neo-Feudalism kinda makes my spidey-sense go into overdrive...

I was just reading about someone who considered that they were sailing off the grid and bemoaning the relative hardships encountered as a result. 

The thing is that there's not a whole lot of off-the-grid locations in the Caribbean these days. More so when you consider that the writer in question was on a big catamaran with all mod-cons including a washer/dryer, a solar array big enough to power a medium sized village, and in an anchorage twenty minutes from a town.

Such is the stuff of adventuresome sailing on the cutting edge these days.

Listening to a literary playlist

So it goes...

on places to avoid and when to avoid them...

Regarding a mountainous load of crap, some rampant stupidity, and and in the "I'm so glad I live on a boat" department...

Part of the secret to successful cruising is knowing where to be in a place and when you want to be somewhere else. While, not exactly rocket science, I've noticed that cruising guides tend to over complicate and confuse the subject.

Which is why I was delighted to see a simple concise article in Bateaux magazine on the subject of cyclonic storms and how to avoid them.

Sure, it's in French but easy reading for anyone who took high school French or you can use any number of translation apps to check it out. It would be well worth the effort.

Listening to a Randy Rhoads cover

So it goes...

S 48° 52.6' W 123° 23.6' ...

Somewhat spidey-sense inducing, a good cause, and in the "Where the hell are the perp-walks?" department...

The other day someone asked me where I'd like to sail off to.

Now, in a general way of thinking, I've always considered the best way to sail someplace was more of a that-a-way, yonder, or wherever the wind takes us sort of thing. Being also somewhat superstitious I never say we're sailing to Puerto Rico but 'towards' Puerto Rico because having the audacity to imply you have total control of a voyage is akin to tempting fate to prove you wrong.

I'll also add I never ever begin a passage on a Friday either.

The thing is, there actually is a place I want to sail to and it's not Fiji, it's not Greenland and it's not  an island, country, or continent. It's just a place in the Pacific known as Point Nemo.

I'll be honest and admit that I'd never actually set sail to Point Nemo but I just might set a course towards New Zealand that sorta/kinda might get up close and personal with a certain Lat & Long location of note.

Like I said, I'm somewhat superstitious.

Listening to Eva & the Vagabond Tales

So it goes...

In the "No big deal" department...

Understandably pissed off in the USVI, tsunamis of Bullshit, and unwelcome visitors...

The other day I was perusing Les Amis du Sangria et de L'Aquila website and came across this map.

Which, to my mind at least, represents a pretty impressive Atlantic circle. More so when you consider that the boat doing it was a Sangria which, at 25-feet and an over fifty-year old design, is now considered too small by many for such exploits. The reality is that I've actually lost track of the number of Sangrias that have crossed oceans over the years because there have been so many that it is simply no big deal.

Which when you consider that if you look around you can find one for two or three thousand bucks in pretty good shape.

Listening to the Simple Radicals

So it goes...

on the new same old same...

Some really good news, where that money goes, and in the "Now we know where the next big Covid spike is going to happen" department...

Watching the news, talking to friends, and just getting a feel for what's going on via osmosis I'm pretty sure we can all admit that whatever the new normal becomes it won't be anything at all like the old normal. 

That said, the jury's out on what the new normal is going to be for folks cruising but my gut instinct says it will be a mashup of a lot of things. There won't be a single new norm but rather a lot of different versions of ordinary depending on your mindset, economic status, and political inclination.

One thing you can say about living in interesting times is it's going to be fascinating.

Offhand, as the overall trend of polarization continues, a lot of the places that were standard cruising destinations will no longer be as welcoming or affordable as they used to be. Which, I suspect, will have a two-fold effect of shifting the standard cruising routes to take advantage of locations more open to cruisers while the more affluent cruisers will continue to do the same old milk runs which will escalate greatly the cost to cruise those areas.

Which, when you think about it, would be no bad thing as it has always been natural that the less well-heeled and more adventurous cruisers have always been the explorers who discover while the more affluent tend to follow in their wake once those places have become trendy.

Which is all a roundabout way of saying that most of the interesting cruising in the new normal is going to be to places where there is not much in the way of cruising guides. Personally, I kind of like the idea of a new age of discovery and rediscovery.

Listening to Liraz

So it goes...

on the subject of cruising with training wheels...

Wil Wheaton making sense, something timely on the flat earth thing, and about that Patagonia label...

So, I just noticed that the ARC and Salty Dawg 2020 rallies are still going to happen. Which, I’ll admit, surprised me as half of the islands in the Caribbean are closed (more if you’re American).

Maybe it’s just me but going on with cruising rallies in the middle of a world pandemic just seems to send a message and not a particularly good one. While both rallies are taking precautions of sorts it still smacks of a sense of entitlement and social impact that has always been a problem with the various cruising rallies.

That said, most rally destinations are on my places to avoid list anyway but still, the cruising rally/pandemic dynamic is the recipe for some off-the-scale potential ugliness.

Listening to some Joe Jackson  covers

So it goes...

Persona Non Grata...

How running a country during a pandemic should be done, How running a country during a pandemic should not be done, and in the "Well we all shine on like the moon and the stars and the sun Yeah we all shine on" department...

CNN has an article and a map of places Americans are unwelcome in these days of COVID.

The new normal for folks with an inclination to go cruising these days is, at best, all kinds of problematic.

Maybe it's time to start looking for interdimensional portal waypoints.

Listening to some covers David Byrne picked

So it goes...

Catching up with Yann...

Some last words you might want to pay attention to, stuff to keep in mind now that it's Hurricane season, and in the "No Donald you can't sell Puerto Rico" department...

Nautigirl has something on the subject.

Listening to Stereo Jane

So it goes...

A mountain rising from the sea...

Brian Wilson asks fans to boycott Beach Boys performance, some inter-species cooperation, and what you need to know about that reprehensible tRump decision...

In Japan with snow.



Works for me.

Listening to the Iron Leg Radio Show

So it goes...

Round the Horn?

Some situational awareness on the climate front, good points being made, and Sailing Anarchy with a pithy comment...

So, it would seem, we're about to get a bump in the price of doing a Panama Canal transit. Which translates to get through the ditch sooner rather than later.

Then again, I hear great things about Uruguay, Argentina has a lot to say for it, and the Trout fishing in Chile is stupendous.

Just saying.

Listening to a Bananarama cover shich caught my attention.

So it goes...

What happens when you avoid politics...

Not exactly the way I'd deal with a neo-nazi robo-caller but it does bring a smile, USPS in peril, and this is just all kinds of neat...

I got the following email from Budget Marine yesterday.

Dear Valued Customer,

The United States has recently implemented additional tariffs on a variety of products like steel, aluminum, and a number of finished products.

Although the effect of these tariffs might not affect Budget Marine and its customers immediately, if not reversed, prices on the affected products will eventually experience an increase.

As the leading retailer of marine equipment in the Caribbean, we feel compelled to properly inform our customers of issues that affect their spending power and any price increase that might eventually result from the additional levies on selected products.

Budget Marine is committed to closely working with its vendors and will explore all alternatives to mitigate the effects the tariffs might have.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank each one of you for supporting Budget Marine over the years and along with our suppliers, we will keep you informed of any changes if and when the occur.

So yeah, politics do affect cruisers and boat folks so best not to leave politicians unsupervised by the people they work for.

Just saying...

Listening to Judee Sill

So it goes