and in the "How paying a lot of money does not always get you a good boat" department...

Webb Chiles points out the one great advantage of the Southern Hemisphere,
twisted beyond repair, and we really should be better than this...

You really should read this article by Charles Doane.

Really!

Listening to Glen Hansard

So it goes...

and in the fall down go boom department...

McD's confronts minimum wage in a sorta/kinda way, Dick Dorworth talks Ghost Dance, and Donkey Mountain takes a break...


Phaedo dismasting from Richard Langdon on Vimeo.

Of course, this sort of thing is just part of the mix when pushing the envelope doing near five hundred mile days...

On the other hand, the dismasting of SV C'est la Vie is going to resonate with us a lot more and their story is important reading.

Listening to Gordon Lightfoot

So it goes...

Might want to check who made your propane bottles...

An important read, Dick Dorworth with a reminder, and a great piece about Judee Sill...

Have one of these?

It's a Lite gas bottle and if you have one you may not want to...

Attention: All Retailers, Distributors and Users of Composite Cylinders manufactured by The Lite Cylinder Company,

Subject: Emergency Recall Order

The US Department of Transportation has issued an “Emergency Recall Order” for all LPG composite cylinders manufactured by The Lite Cylinder Company as per the following Emergency Order No. 2013-002. The recall notice specifically identifies those cylinders manufactured under DOT-SP 14562 (and DOT-SP 13957 as authorized therein), DOT-SP 13105, any cylinder re-qualified under H706, and any cylinders manufactured under M5729.

Lite Cylinder Company has submitted a Petition for Review with DOT seeking to amend several portions of this Recall Order. It is unknown as to when or to what extent, if any, portions of this recall may be modified. Until such time, users of this product are directed to immediately cease use of the cylinders identified in the recall.

All cylinder sizes are involved in this recall: 10#, 20#, 25# and 33#

Please note that the directive states “Under no circumstances should a cylinder described in this emergency recall order be filled, refilled, or used for the transportation of hazardous materials.” The cylinder’s identifying markings may be found on the label affixed to the dome of the cylinder.

To effectively comply with this recall, cylinder owners must:
1. Take proper safeguards in identifying and handling the affected cylinders identified in this order.

2. Cease use of all specified cylinders until notified of DOT response to Petition for Review.


3. Arrange to have all propane gas removed from cylinder. This should only be done by qualified persons, trained in handling cylinders in accordance with Federal regulations. (Note: All propane dispensing agents should meet this criteria.) This person must discharge all gas, purge, and remove the valve per the recall.

4. Return the empty, purged, valve-less cylinders, to the manufacturer, freight prepaid, at:

The Lite Cylinder Company
139 Southeast Parkway Court
Franklin, TN 37064

It gets worse...

litecylinder@litecylinder.com

Subject: Emergency Recall Order

Please be advised that The Lite Cylinder Company is no longer in business and is currently evaluating its legal options. The company’s facility is now closed and unable to receive cylinders returned per the instructions detailed in US DOT – PHMSA Emergency Order No. 2013-002. Furthermore, the company is financially insolvent and will not be able to recompense cylinder owners, dealers and distributors for the expenses incurred in complying with this Emergency Recall Order.

Bummer...

Listening to Ronnie Earl And The Broadcasters

So it goes...

On getting what you pay for...

Let's take a walk down Whittier Blvd, a big guy Mini-Simmons of note, and I'm pretty sure the operative phrase here is ass-backwards...

Over at Cruisers Forum there is a thread concerning Chinese-made diesel engines and, as usual in these things, several people made the point that "you get what you pay for..."

It's an oft heard phrase about things concerning boats and, more often than not, it's as accurate as something your politicians might say during the election season. It certainly sounds reasonable but it has very little, if anything, to do with truth.

In the past I've used the example of the lowly cleat to show how what you pay has very little to do with its actual utility but the same goes for all products these days and that includes things like engines.

Way back when I was researching a new engine to replace the Atomic 4 for "So It Goes", I looked very seriously at all of the various diesels including Chinese ones and pretty much found all of the engines seemed to be problematic. I talked to folks with Yanmars, Volvos, Universals, and Saabs. The thing I kept hearing was that diesel engines just don't seem to hold up like the older simpler ones. This bothered me.

Something else that bothered me was a friend of the "you get what you pay for" mindset with a catamaran who, in the last six years, has had to replace three engines. Now, seriously, there is something really wrong with that picture is there not?

Which is not to say if my friend had installed older/simpler designs of a Chinese build for a fraction of the cost he'd would not have had some engine problems but it's hard to imagine he'd have had any worse luck.

Most folks I've talked to with Chinese diesels are pretty candid about their engines and how they work. Most have the opinion that they are certainly a bit old school and a little cantankerous/special but they do seem to work and have the saving grace that they are fixable most anywhere you go due to that old school/simplicity design thing where more highly engineered diesels are written off as total losses.

Which is a roundabout way of saying don't ever judge a piece of gear by its price tag look at its actual build and utility... Nuff said.

Listening to MacY Gray

So it goes...

On getting stuff...

Pop-tart mayhem, about that common good stuff, and some folks call me irresponsible...

I just had to buy a new 48V charger for my propulsion bank...

Of course, there are not a lot of 48V chargers floating around the Caribbean so, like many things, it is something you have to buy in the States and ship down.

The charger I'm buying is not expensive as such things go (a kiss over $300) but, like a lot of boat part problems, the issue is not the cost of the item but simply the hassle of finding someone willing to sell you something outside of their same old same experience...

I often wonder about the American educational system when I constantly have to explain to folks that the U.S.V.I. (that would be the United States Virgin Islands) is actually part of the United States and you really can just mail something down to us and it will get here.

For instance, the other day I needed a new rudder pin for our Hobie Mirage kayak which is a little piece of nylon and weighs a lot less than an ounce. The fact that it is a little piece of nylon, it also does not cost much at a grand total of $3.99... Which, when you think about it, you have to seriously wonder why one of the shops up in the US of A mainland were telling us it would cost in excess of $60 to ship it down here by a non US Mail shipper...

When we pointed out that...

      A. It could be put in a envelope with a 66-cent stamp on it and it would get here finest kind in about a week...

      B. That it would fit quite nicely in a USPS Priority flat rate box for $5.80 and we'd get it in a few days...

They said they'd only send it via FedEx for something like $60...

Now, let's do that math... $3.99 item that weighs a few grams shipped for $60 = Way Too Fucking Much!



Used Cars makes a whole lot of sense...

Obviously we didn't  buy the rudder pin from folks who refused to send via the good old US Mail and the folks we did buy it from mailed it and, hey presto, a few days later the new pin was in our kayak and we had steering again.

Anyway, back to the battery charger... Same drill as some folks will only send via FedEx, UPS, and those Dropped Hard & Lost folks but we're not stupid (cheap yes, stupid no) so we held out for a supplier who'd ship it via Mr Zip for $15 instead of over $100 and, I expect, in a couple of days we'll have a brand spanking new charger waiting at the Post Office for us to pick up. Life, as they say, is good!

By the way, I'm sure you're hearing a whole lot of negative but bogus stuff about the US Mail and 99.9% of it is wrong. For a good explanation about what's going on you can read all about it here. I've mentioned it before but it bears repeating that the US Mail is a cruiser's friend whether you're in the Caribbean (the USVI and Puerto Rico are covered by the US Mail) or even in the Pacific (Hawaii, Guam and other US territories) so well worth keeping in mind when you need to get stuff in a safe, affordable, and timely manner.

Listening to Chris Ardoin & Double Clutchin'

So it goes...

Feeling lucky?

Something from the x-files, sad news about Mountain Gazette, and it might be late but the future is just around the corner...

Over at Commuter Cruising they're not exactly happy with their Mustang PFDs and you should really hop over and see what they have to say... I'll wait while you do!

Dum de dum de dum de dum de...

So you've read it? Does that suck or what!?

As you might recall, we had a similar episode with our last inflatable PFDs which has us back using non-inflatable foam flotation PFDs aboard "So It Goes". My over all experience with products that are glued together are such that I find it very difficult to put any real trust in them whether it be my Tevas, PFDs, or liferaft.

The thing is, I can walk barefoot but I can only tread water for so long...

Not too long ago when we had some serious seam failures in our inflatable (Clear Blue Hawaii) kayak, we talked to someone from the company who had the audacity to brag to us that their 2% failure rate was better than the industry standard... It has to make you wonder when someone is proud that 2% of their very expensive products fall apart.

Where life saving/dependent gear is concerned, a less than 100% chance of stuff working like it should is a pretty scary place to be...

Listening to Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

So it goes...

Do your own math...

Boy, am I in the wrong business, Archdruid on interesting times ahead, and I don't expect this is going to surprise anyone...

The other day someone over at the Junk Rig Association website shared some details of his electric propulsion set up and made some good points in the process. The resulting discussion made me realize a couple of things though not exactly about electric motors...

Just about every discussion about electric propulsion on the web seems to include some naysayer with highly inflated estimates of what an electric propulsion system will cost. So much so that almost everyone believes that it's a non-negotiable fact that electric drives are much more expensive than a diesel engine.

Part of the problem is that there are some really silly-expensive systems floating around of the "There's one born every minute so let's screw them and make a quick buck" piratical marine trades sort... You know the kind, geared to idiots who think paying $1800 for a $600 motor some how makes it, you know, better.

The thing is, living in 2012 (the internet being a wonderful thing) it's easy to check out what stuff should cost by going to the source and looking up the price and seeing what stuff does cost. Trust me, it beats listening to the guy on that forum who knows what stuff costs because he knew a guy, who knew a guy, who met a guy in a bar who had one...
 
Which brings us to one of the most important rules about boat gear...

Do your own math!

Listening to Little Feat

So it goes...

Learning through misadventure...

Something you should read about wolves and politics, someone at Goldman Sachs apparently grew a conscience, and what the media misses...

I'm in the midst of trying to repair a "new" to me inflatable kayak I recently bought and it's not a pretty picture...

On the plus side, nothing teaches you what works or does not work in a design like having it fail and then seeing the why of that failure and it is especially frustrating as some elements of this design make so much sense only to be ruined by cutting corners on materials or labor somewhere else. Sadly, the way things are built these days it's often impossible to see how things are put together unless they fail and you get up close and personal with them trying to fix them.

That said, the old adage of "What does not kill us makes us stronger" is certainly apt and, while the new kayak is something of a disaster, it has taught me how to build a better inflatable dinghy. The big question is now that I know, how do I turn it into a reality?

Oh yeah, you might want to give Clear Blue Hawaii products a miss...

Listening to Rickie Lee Jones

So it goes...

My current Teva rant...

One sentence speaks volumes, that fracas in London, and, just maybe, I should reconsider a folding bike...

A reader wrote the other day and referred to Boat Bits as an "anti-gear blog" which I find somewhat happy making... Though, truth be told, I don't think it is quite accurate as we actually like good gear. We simply do not trust the marine industry further than I can carry a Westsail 32 up a hill on my back.

There is a difference...

Speaking of gear though, I'd like to mention that Teva is now on my "will buy only on my next ice-climbing vacation in Hades" list. The reason for their inclusion is that I just had two pairs of very lightly used Teva's (Hurricane sandals and Churn water shoes) delaminate... and by delaminate I mean failure of almost all glue joints!

Now, here's a thought if you are going to sell sandals for $50 and water shoes for $80 or so that are glued together you might consider using glue that lasts more than a couple of months!

Just for the record, I also have a pair of Nike sandals whose soles came off less than a week after buying them and my last two pairs of Columbia Sportswear sandals both failed in the same way... I think I detect a bit of an industry trend!

Of course, I'll be able to glue the soles and various bits back on the Teva's with half a tube of 5200 and a lot of swearing, but when you pay this kind of money for shoes you really should not have to...

Ya think?

Listening to the Lovin Spoonful

So it goes

Status quo...SNAFU!

Seems like Zero to Cruising has the fridge blues, the boat anchored next to us is making expensive engine/transmission noises, and the cost of fuel keeps going up...

SNAFU seems to be the order of the day!

Aboard "So It Goes" we've tried to opt out, as much as possible, of systems that are more prone to the SNAFU norm.

Our propulsion system is a good example... Our move to electric propulsion is a lot more about a simple, less prone to failure answer to the problem, rather than being "Green". That said, being less polluting and closer to being a sustainable system is a huge bonus...

I've mentioned before about our choice of fridge system (if you're curious you can read about it here) and that, like our choice of electric propulsion, was simply us opting out of the norm because everyone we saw doing "normal" marine refrigeration was having problems and, dear readers, life has too many problems without having to pay big money for more...

Of course, our choice of refrigeration and propulsion systems are not without their critics. The most vocal being diesel and refrigeration mechanics whose, correct me if I'm wrong, income is dependent on internal combustion engines and marine refrigeration systems not working and needing costly repairs. When you think of it, a better engine or fridge would put them out of business so they have a vested interest in the status quo... SNAFU!

Listening to John Stewart

So it goes...

Deflatables woes...

It's warm with a little breeze and the water is crystal clear so I should be out doing something fun...

What I will be actually doing however is fixing my Caribe (spelled spawn of the devil) deflatable.

I've always hated this dinghy... Its roll-up design is such that the various bits are in constant motion and they rub together which creates friction and friction creates leaks. Made worse, of course, by the fact that all of the designed in friction points are in the most inaccessible and hard to repair areas of the dinghy...

If that's not enough to make me have evil feelings where the dinghy is concerned, the floor panel seems to have its protective scrim developing a leprosy-like malady...

The thing is, not so long ago Caribe made the best inflatables and RIB's around. Funny how things change.

Listening to Ray Wylie Hubbard

So it goes...

And you need an electric winch because...

I've gone on record that electric winches are a seriously bad idea, but the awful news from Antigua really takes it up several notches...

As a rigger, I have had a couple of close calls going up a mast when power assisted. Once an owner of a boat I was working on used his windlass to haul me up the mast at what seemed like supersonic speed and it got worse when I arrived at the top, battered and bruised, only to find that the windlass would not turn off and as a result was doing its level best to pull me back down through the mast on the inside.

As I recall it was not a lot of fun... and have never allowed myself to be at the mercy of an electric or hydraulic system (or owner for that matter) while working on a rig since.

Just about every malfunction or problem I've come across over the years involving powered winches and windlasses have been caused by switches or motors shorting in open position where it is impossible to shut them off from the winch/windlass. So if you really must have a powered winch (and ignore the fact that needing one is God's way of saying you need a smaller/simpler boat) you should really sort out some sort of emergency cut off switch within easy reach of the winch or windlass.

Seriously un-macho...

Not too awful long ago, a reader to this blog wrote and asked my thoughts on such things as hydraulic-driven furling systems and electric winches for sheets and suchlike.

My view on such things is that they really do not belong on a cruising boat that is trying to cruise on a blue-collar budget or actually needful, and I said as much in my reply. Not too long after I got response where the person in question pointed out that most folks he knew were not as "macho" as I was and my advice sucked...

Anyone who actually knows me will tell you that macho is most certainly not a word to be used in conjunction with yours truly. They might suggest more appropriate words such as lazy, slothful, shiftless... and, as much as I hate to admit it, they would be right.

Being lazy I have something of a deep distrust for gear that can fail and as a result make me have to work more than I deem needful (i.e. not a whole lot).As a certified dumpster diving, cheap-seats sort of guy, the fact that such systems also cost a lot makes them something of a no go zone.

But, since I am lazy, I have a great respect for the fact that physics can be your friend in the form of blocks, winches, and suchlike which makes sailing a boat... easy.

But... If a winch is a good thing, is not an electric or hydraulic winch better? Well, if you equate more expensive as better (and I won't bother to go into how screwed up that thinking is...) yes. On the other hand, if you simply want to pull on a line without raising a sweat, not so much...

The thing is, a properly sized winch (and almost all boats these days have oversized winches) for your boat is capable of doing all its various jobs without raising a sweat and more than likely, if you are raising a sweat you are either doing something wrong or breaking something. (You'd be surprised how much deck gear I have seen pulled out of decks, backing plates and all because someone kept winching the wrong line). So consider sweat as your body telling you to stop and think about what you are doing. So why do you need something that can exert even more force?

The other negative that I see with power-assisted systems on boats is that it becomes seductive to go bigger than you are physically able to handle whether in boat size, ground tackle or sails and when the system fails you are simply stuck...

Katy Burke wrote a great book some years back which addresses the whole subject a lot better than I can and 'The Handbook for Non-Macho Sailors" is well worth a read if you can get your hands on a copy.

At the time of it's publication, as I recall, it pissed off quite a few people who (obviously) missed the whole point of the book and seemed to resent its simplistic emphasis of basic physics and mechanical advantage instead of being a guide to buying stuff... My kind of book!

Listening to The Pretenders

So it goes...

a rant on marine quality...

Tim (AKA "Crab trap dude") over at Navagear has some thoughts on my post regarding solid fuel stoves and, as it happens, he makes a good point or two... He always does!

Tim, however, is a younger and less cynical man than I am and apparently still believes in the tooth fairy, honest politicians, and "marine quality". He actually likes the marine industry and seems to think that if we all clap just that little bit harder, Tinkerbelle will rally and live and the marine industry will actually make something that works in a marine environment enough to actually justify its piratical pricing.

Not too long ago, I bought a power plug to replace a marine plug that had become a mass of shorting corrosion... Fact is, the only thing that was still working on the plug was the $29.95 price tag still stuck to its bright yellow, though slightly melted plastic casing. When I took it apart I noticed that not only were the various parts dissimilar metals, but it seemed some effort had to be taken as every single component was a different metal... Going to ACE hardware for a replacement plug for $2.95 and comparing the two it became obvious that the ACE cheapie plug was going to be a lot longer lasting than the "marine" plug since it used one metal. While it is obvious it would rust in time, just keepkeep an eye on it, or better yet give it a shot of Boeshield every once in a while to keep it happy and rust free.

The thing is, the reason we are willing to pay for "marine quality" is we want the peace of mind that someone took a little care to make a better product so we can sleep soundly knowing that the gear on our boat is going to be trouble free and not put our lives at risk in the quest for higher profits...

I used to be involved with a chandler/consignment shop that mostly catered to the charter boats and cruisers in St Thomas... Folks brought us stuff that broke or failed on a regular basis as well as problematic gear that simply did not work well that they'd like to get off the boat and have it become someone else's problem. Sort of a good training in the myth of marine quality if you will... It also allowed me to deal with companies that built crappy equipment on a regular basis and learn that in most cases the companies involved just did not care.

Which is a roundabout way of getting back to the Stovetec stove and why it may very well be a better choice than a thousand dollar or more marine alternative... It's not an install and forget item, so you need to adapt it to the rigors of being on a boat yourself. As it is not "marine" you'll know that it may very well take a little maintenance from time to time. Sure with the Stovetec or similar stove you would have to cobble together a chimney arrangement and throw in a flower pot or suchlike for a heat radiator to make it a heater but in the process you would also get up close and personal with how it all works and have some foreknowledge of any possible trouble areas to keep an eye on.

Whether we buy marine or decide to do differently, we still have a responsibility to make sure the stuff we install on our boats does the job and does not put us at risk. These days, most people think that buying "marine" is some sort of insurance that a part or product has a certain quality or function. It has been my experience that we can no longer accept that on faith... Whether marine or non-marine, you simply have to treat everything with a certain suspicion... The bottom line is that where profits are concerned there are simply no morals and it is the prudent mariner who keeps that in mind.

Welcome to life in 2011!

So it goes...

With labor at 23 cents an hour you'd think they'd be a little cheaper...

I'm not a big fan of the Raymarine family of marine instruments as I've never found them to be all that reliable and after sales warranty service about as enjoyable as a root canal... On the other, hand various NASA (the British budget electronics folk) and Brookes and Gatehouse instruments have performed flawlessly.

I've often wondered why...

So it was with some interest that I noticed the Raytheon name (Raytheon used to be the parent company of what is now Raymarine) come up in an article about prison labor building parts for Patriot missiles and paying as little as 23 cents an hour.

Interesting...

Listening to Graham Nash

So it goes...

A thought or two...

Yesterday over at NAS they mentioned the Sail Innovation Awards and it got me thinking...

Sadly, most awards these days given by an industry to itself has bugger all to do with design, quality or innovation but does have a lot to do with money. Running an article in a magazine about the "Best of" or the like, is really a pretty good means of selling those folks who make the gear some advertising.

In fact, more often than not, when you see a blurb about a great piece of gear in a magazine these days it is lifted word for word out of the press release that the company in question sent to the magazine. Though if you read the resulting article you get the impression that the editors have actually used the product and done some testing. I know this because those companies send me the same press releases... Hell, I even get press releases for products that don't even exist (except on paper) of the vaporware sort and it is interesting to see some magazine enthuse about how wonderful something is when we all know they are simply nonexistent.

Just my take, but before I'd bestow any awards on new products, I'd actually like a chance to see them in use on a real boat as opposed to in a press release or sitting in all its prototypical wonder in a glass case at a boat show. I'd like to up the ante and see how it fares in actual use for some period of time and go all Practical Sailor on their ass. Truth is, I'd really love a whole different sort of yearly awards of the negative sort... and the award for the most over-priced-silly-expensive new gen anchor goes to... Yeah, I'd pay to read that issue!

Of course, I'm not the guy folks are going to send any gear to test as they don't want to hear what I have to say, and without the carrot of placing advertising or withdrawing advertising dollars to Boat Bits, they can't control the outcome.

Which brings us back around to the Sail Innovation awards. Looking at the products mentioned I simply don't see anything innovative in the lot (with one exception) unless you consider "innovation" as a means of replacing perfectly good gear with more expensive stuff that mostly does the same old same. The only exception to that on the list as I see it would be the Seldén reversible winch. It is such a smart idea one wonders why no one has done it before (and if I ever need to replace my bombproof stainless 40-year old Barient 26's I will certainly consider them).

I really would like to do a yearly Boat Bits award thingy that would focus on real innovation of products that made sailing/cruising more accessible, simpler, affordable, and safer but I simply don't see that sort of gear coming out of the industry these days...

... And that, dear readers, is a seriously sad state of affairs.

Listening to Sail Away

So it goes...

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!

Hmmm...

Yesterday I became obsessed with an ongoing hardware problem we have been having on "So It Goes"...

CRAPPY HINGES...

I go to the chandler and buy the best I can find and make sure that the hinge in question is really stainless or bronze (they say it is) and pay silly prices as well only to find that after installing them that beneath the outward stainless sheen there lurks something not so stainless which in time will rust solid. Recently when I go to open my cockpit locker... Well it's not that pretty at all and involves having to do some re-glassing!

So yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking of various cunning plans that ranged from casting my own hardware to re-inventing the wheel (so to speak) and came to something of a conclusion... No more hardware on "So It Goes" where I can replace it with a simpler and better working alternative!

The solution is a page off of our old Wharram Tiki 31 where the rudders were lashed to the boat instead of using expensive and prone to failure gudgeons and pintles. If this sort of system is strong enough to withstand the wear and tear on a rudder, it stands to reason that a cockpit locker hatch should be well within its comfort zone. Fact is, as I plan to use Samson Amsteel for the cordage hinges, that comfort zone would somewhere in the vicinity of a breaking strength of 20,000 pounds per hinge using 1/8 inch Amsteel. Factor in that the cost to redo both of my cockpit lockers would be a fraction of what one less-than-great-quality-marine hinge would cost and you have something of a no-brainer!

My current mantra is "soft tech"...

Some smart words relating to anchor swivels...

Attainable Adventure Cruising tells us "Just say NO!" where anchor swivels are concerned...

Excellent advice!

Some thoughts on snake oil...

Every day I find all sorts of fun and frolic in my inbox of a scammy and spammy variety and while most of it is so idiotic (I'm dying and have decided to give you 26 million dollars because I liked the sound of your email address) I do have to remind myself that folks would not be doing the scams if people were not falling for them...

Of course, scams come in all sorts of types and sizes but when all is said and done, they all share the same "too-good-to-be-true" essence whether it be an electric drive that promises more than is possible in a world governed by physics, an anchor that promises performance in excess of common sense or anything that simply seems too good to be true just may have that whiff of... Snake oil.

And, dear readers, snake oil is not a good thing to have on a boat!

Nuff said...

Listening to Mr Bad Example by the late and great Warren Zevon
(apt music to buy anchors by)