a film I'd very much like to see...

More climate spinoff, a bit of advice, and about those Monk seals...

Listening to Leslie Stevens

So it goes...

Protect, restore, and fund...

Greta still telling it like it is, a very apt point being made, and in the "read it and weep" department...

Some sense being made.



Listening to Rhiannon Giddens

So it goes...

Welcome to the future... Electronic anti-fouling

There has been a longstanding discussion on one of the cruising forums about electronic anti-fouling systems...

Well, hardly a discussion but more a parade of people with opinions and no real personal knowledge on the subject saying anything but the same old same ain't going to work.

Sigh...

Funny thing is you used to hear the same sort of arguments where multihulls were concerned and, like the discussion on electronic anti-fouling systems, most of the anti-multihull brigade knew pretty zip about cats or tris but they knew (by damn) that they did not work!

Fast forward to 2010 and just about anywhere you go you'll see catamarans cruising, daysailing and doing the lion's share of chartering. Meanwhile, all the magazines that published editorials saying that multihulls were not only an affront to sailing tradition, nautical sinew, and nothing more than floating death traps, are telling us today that if you don't have a cat you are simply not cool.

So it goes...

Like multihulls before, electronic anti-fouling scares some people. People, who as it happens, have a lot of money invested in the status quo and like the same old same just fine. Paint companies make and sell millions of gallons of toxic paint, boat yards depend on folks having to haul out every year or so to put poison on their bottoms and every time we paint our bottoms someone's bank account gets bigger (everyone's but the poor fool painting his bottom). Make no mistake, but there most certainly is entrenched interests who have a serious stake in continuing with the system as it stands. As long as there is a profit involved they will keep doing what they are doing.

As I've mentioned before, we had electronic anti-fouling on our last boat and it worked in the Med, Atlantic and Caribbean. It did not use much in the way of power and except for the fact that we had a couple of parts fail we'd still be using it. Sadly, the company that made our unit went out of business (no doubt, bringing happy camper smiles to the paint companies' faces) and at the time we could not find a replacement.

I'm not sure if any of the existing electronic anti-fouling systems actually work but I do know that next haul out I will be installing a system. The cost of hauling out these days is becoming a process more a thing akin to armed robbery than commerce. All said and done, I've never felt good about working with poison whether to my health or to the health of the oceans I call home.

Progress is actually seriously cool... Come join the future!

What happened to "Can Do"?

There was a story in the San Francisco Chronicle
that of course I forgot to save
But it was about a lady who lived in the 'good old days'
When a century was born and a century had died
And about these 'good old days' the old lady replied
"Why they were just a lot of people doing the best they could"
"Just a lot of people doing the best they could"
And then the lady said that they did it, "pretty up and walking good"

- John Stewart, Mother Country

I just finished reading a series of books that mainly covered the World War Two era and the thing I noticed most was how the population of the USA supported the war effort in a very impressive way. Whole industries changed over from making luxury cars and consumer goods to building tanks and suchlike. There was a national speed limit to reduce the use of fossil fuels and rubber. People recycled their tin foil and tin cans to enable the building of fighters and Liberty ships...

Our parents and grandparents were very "can do" generations...

Sadly the same can not be said for those running the show these days who, while using the "Can do" sales pitch, just can't seem to get past the "Can't really" stage and we the people who should be telling our elected officials to get to doing don't seem to have the right stuff to follow through and just maybe cut back on our use of fossil fuels and needless toys because as a whole we simply cannot be bothered.

Sad that...

For us boat folk, a simple matter of sailing more and motoring less becomes part of the solution... So does swapping down to a smaller outboard for your dinghy and the bonus of running a 5HP over a 15HP  will save you big bucks in the process. If you already have downsized horsepower you might want to switch from two stroke to four stroke (or maybe even "oar" strokes) which will more than double your miles to gallon while cutting your personal pollution down by 90%.

The point is there are a whole lot of "can do" solutions that are neither painful, expensive, or even hassle making, and well within our abilities.

Sadly, I don't have high hopes that the right stuff our parents and grandparents took for granted exists anymore but some times I hope...

"Just a lot of people doing the best they could"
And then the lady said that they did it, "pretty up and walking good"