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...

A quick provisioning tip or two...

Just another monkey doing the wrong monkey dance, in the "Need to know" department, and just in case you missed this...

In case you were unaware, things in America's Paradise tend to be quite a bit more expensive than in the US of A. That said, the USVI is quite a bit cheaper than a lot of other places in the Caribbean so, in general it pays to provision in the USVI rather than Antigua for instance. Still, I have to admit that the total on our grocery shop at the local Cost U Less can be downright painful.

Did you know that Walmart will ship groceries free to the USVI with their Shipping Pass program? The deal is you pay them $50 to join and then you qualify to have most things shipped to you "free". Which can be a huge help to the provisioning budget.

Of course, this does not include booze, fresh meat, fresh vegetables, and oddments but, as it does include most staples like canned goods and other packed foods, it is a great way to save some serious money if you need to do some heavy provisioning.

Another quick tip is that I'm pretty sure that anything you need or use regularly that comes from Mexico (engine parts and tequila jump to mind) is going to get a whole lot more expensive in the near future so you might want to stock up...

Listening to Dan Layus

So it goes...

as if being too far to windward was not enough reason not to visit...

Buckwheat Zydeco is no longer with us, a whole lot of sense being made, and in the "I still don't understand why we're not seeing perp walks" department...

So, according to the new October issue of  Blue Water Sailing, Barbados has now added a flat $2000 annual fee per boat to the cost of visiting the island. Apparently the powers that be in Barbados think it's going to attract more tourism...

Yeah right!

Offhand, I can't say such antics of clueless bureaucrats on small islands with not much to offer in the grand scheme of things is going to affect me one way or the other as Barbados is just not on my places to windward I ever need to go to.

That said, dumb ideas are a lot like the common cold and tend to spread so I wouldn't be at all surprised to see such silliness popping up elsewhere.

Just saying...


Listening to The Main Squeeze

So it goes...

But seriously...

Regarding rising mortality rates for some, a question about a quarter billion dollars in cash, and a good point being made...

So, yesterday I had a video of Robin Knox Johnson being just a bit pissy on the antics of Captain Snafu and the Fubar Kid which resulted in no small amount of mail as a result.

Surprising mail as it happens...

Most of it being of the "well accidents happen, stuff breaks, and they're newbies so no reason to be so hard on these guys" sort.

Obviously some folks have not been paying attention...

Then again maybe they have and are simply too dense to understand just how dangerous these idiots are both to themselves and, mostly, to those who go to sea to rescue sailors in peril.

Then there's the other thing... Sailing for Americans is pretty lax on rules, safety requirements, and licensing. A situation I heartily approve of as it requires, to a great extent, that we as sailors take responsibility for our own safety and actions. Not all countries take that viewpoint but because the US of A is who it is, they allow us to sail their waters without a lot of red tape and onerous licensing requirements. This, of course, could change.

Captain Snafu and the Fubar Kid are just the sort of poster boys that will have politicians in a variety of countries falling all over themselves to write new laws regarding how foreign sailboats are allowed in, what hoops their crews will have to jump through to be deemed acceptable, and, the icing on the cake, a whole new plethora of fees to support a whole new bureacracy. Sort of a politicians wet dream is it not?

So, maybe it's just me, but the next time I sail to the UK, France, Turkey, Argentina, Tahiti, or wherever-the-fuck I really do not want to have to get a license to drive my boat in their waters or post a million-dollar rescue bond to prove that I actually have a clue how to sail a boat, have a modicum of common sense, and that, in the event of needing rescue, I will be able to pay for the full cost of the rescue and any damages or injuries caused to those rescuing me.

Just think about that scenario for a few minutes.

Oh yeah, for those who are thinking to themselves that their ASA 104 Bareboat Certification card that came in a box of Cracker Jacks will past muster, you might also be interested in a metal tower I have for sale in Paris...

Listening to some Marty Balin covers

So it goes...

Could I ask a favor?

A seriously problematic statistic, a quick reality check on that global warming myth, and something important you should be aware of...

I have a pet peeve about folks who write cruising blogs, hang out on cruising blogs, and folks who write up their cruising experiences in such places as the SSCA Bulletin and it's this...

If you're going to talk about cruising don't be coy about what stuff costs.

For instance, if you say you stayed at a marina, hauled out, or stocked up on provisions somewhere don't say it was expensive, inexpensive, or a "little pricey" because unless we know you personally, none of those descriptions actually mean anything to us. So, if you're going to mention you filled up your fuel tanks it wouldn't hurt to throw in a "at $3.77 a gallon" to give us an idea what the current cost of fuel is in Saint Somewhere.

I've lost track of the number of times I've called a boat yard for a haulout I'd heard was inexpensive, a marina for rates because they had been termed "affordable", or walked into a "Great cheap place to provision" only to find the places in question were not only not inexpensive/affordable/cheap but downright pyratical with a capital P.

I won't even get into what eateries and beach bars cost but if you think a $4 Coors and a $14 plain burger that looked like something from a Jr high school cafeteria is a bargain, I just may have a great deal on a hardly used cast iron tower in Paris you might be interested in buying...

So, about that favor...

Since I know a lot of folks cruising read Boat Bits from time to time, I'd really appreciate it if the next time you haulout, do a serious provision, or spend a chunk of money while cruising someplace interesting maybe you could drop a note about what it all costs. It would be especially helpful if you could include cruising fees and suchlike as well.

The idea at the moment is to work up a reality based database of just what the basic cost to cruise in places is and dispel a lot of the misinformation floating about what stuff costs and, hopefully, maybe we can lose a certain amount of the old WTF factor in the cost department.

I realize that this is asking a lot... So, thanks in advance.

Listening to PHOX

So it goes

On doing your homework about the cost of cruising...

More on the continuing USPS saga, some thought on risk management, and in the “We don’t fully understand what is happening in advanced economies.” department...

I hear a lot about how one or another cruising area is too expensive... It's depressing!

Even more depressing as it is seldom based on actual facts but just that someone opined that, for instance, France is way too expensive to visit on a forum and from then on it becomes a fact. Of course the orginator of this opinion never bothered to define what "too expensive" actually meant, what sort of budget the writer was on, or any real examples of what stuff cost...

Looking over what's on sale this month, I notice that just about EVERYTHING is less than it is here in the good old USVI (which everyone appears to agree is one of the less expensive places to provision in the Caribbean) but then I realize that I have to do a little math to sort out the Euro/Dollar thing.

So I choose a few things at random...

A six pack of beer is $2.58 (the cheapest six pack here is $6.99) and I won't tell you what the difference in wine is as it will just make you cry!

A KG of rice is $1.83 (I just spent $1.85 per kilo yesterday).

Pork chops are $6.35 a KG (here a KG will set you back $5.48)

Cous Cous (a staple for us when in Europe) is $1.19 a KG and the best I can find here is  $5.06 a KG.

I could go on but the trend does continue and a quick guesstimate tells me that my monthly outlay on groceries is going to be about 30% less than it is here in the USVI.

Since I was online and checking prices it also turns out that marina prices are considerably less than they are here (not that I ever do marinas) as are haul outs, lay days, and suchlike. Fuel is quite a bit more expensive at over $7 a gallon for diesel and $8 for gas but as I have a SAILboat gas/diesel is not a big budget item for us on "So It Goes".

Stuff from marine stores/chandlers is a bit less than prices here in the Caribbean so between 10-15% higher than stateside prices.

So, doing about twenty minutes of research tells me that France and its European neighbors are actually a pretty cheap place to cruise. I'll add a personal note that once you get there you'll find you can do it for even less because most really great deals are simply not found until you happen to be on the ground and checking out what the locals buy and where they go to do it.

Listening to Tristan Prettyman

So it goes...

Nights at anchor...

In the "what the frack" department, profoundly depressing, a gateway post to some interesting stuff, and Lefsetz on the passing of Alvin Lee...

The other day someone asked me how much I pay for marinas per month... and no, he wasn't joking but actually serious.

The answer was somewhat problematic because, at the time, I could not actually remember the last time we were in a marina berth. After some pondering I realized that the last time we slept in a marina was 1996 in Las Palmas before leaving the Canaries.

Since we're talking about things folks on boats pay for, maybe I should mention that the last time we picked up a mooring we had to pay for was in Virgin Gorda (a $25 ripoff if there ever was one) in 2005 and it was not a happy-making experience. As far as I'm concerned every new mooring in the BVI is just another reason to leave the BVI as a reserve, of sorts, for bumper boaters bareboat sailors where they can bump and drag to their heart's content unencumbered by folks (like myself) in a grumpy mood (who long ago quit being entertained by bareboat fear, loathing, and mayhem) to spoil their fun and frolic...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the point of this post is that you don't really need to stay in marinas if you don't care to and can get by just fine on the hook.

Listening to Joe Bonamassa

So it goes...

about that word affordable...

A note on the price of e-books and the downside of greed, you pee first is a political mantra in Georgia, and Wendell Pierce (one of our favorite actors from Treme and The Wire) does something important...

Have you ever noticed how coy some people are when it comes to discussing what it costs to have a boat, cruise, and other monetary hijinks around boats?

Personally the word I hate most is affordable. Affordable is a cipher and only means something if you know the code... For instance, when someone tells you that a marina or boatyard is "affordable" that could mean anything and face it, a guy with a pristine Swan 70 is going to have a very different idea of what the term affordable means than say a couple on a beat up CAL 28...

So, next time you write into a cruising forum to share information about the cost of cruising a certain area, try and include some real numbers about what stuff actually costs. If you're talking about a marina or boatyard give a cost per foot, if it's about provisioning mention what a few staples (rice/eggs/chicken) go for to give us a hazy idea about what affordable actually means...

Listening to something from Treme

So it goes...

The trend continues...

Guatemala just got more expensive...