On the subject of thinking about buying another anchor...

Something from the "Just plain stupid or is it a Death cult" files, EBM making an excellent point, and an American heroine in Portland...

So, new cases of Corvid 19 keep popping up down here in most southern tRumpistan with the ever-present knowledge that peak "H" season is going to get going any day now.

Yeah, you might color me somewhat nervous these days. This means that a whole lot of my thought process gets sidetracked by my pondering what I need to do now to prepare for a storm, where we're going to go when it's coming, and how to prepare for the aftermath of a storm if/when we get hit.

Having been through this sort of thing before you'd think that it would actually be easy but the added factor of being in the middle of a worldwide pandemic is something of a wild card I'd prefer not to be a part of the mix.

For instance, there are a lot more cruising boats here in Southern tRumpistan than usual due to the virus. It's just about the only place an American flagged boat is welcome in the Caribbean. The problem is that hurricane holes are too few for the normal population of the islands plus, I expect, that for a lot of the newbies here for the duration don't have much in their how-to-prepare-for-a-real-storm skill set. Those things combined could make things get real ugly real fast.

The fact is, a real storm, even if you're prepared and knowing what to do, is still a very dangerous enterprise as the tons of well-anchored and prepared boats stacked up like so much cordwood in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria attest to.

This also has me stocking up for an extra couple of months of provisions and fuel because it's not just the storm but the aftermath we have to worry about and given the current situation we'd be stupid to expect any help from the powers that be stateside this time around judging from their piss poor and less than proactive response to the virus.

Like I said, got a lot to think about.

Listening to a few Bananarama covers

So it goes...

A needful skill...

Some needful reading on the greed vs public safety subject, Jim C. Hines (a fantasy writer I admire) grapples with the whole "riot" thing, and the questions we should all be asking...

Some time ago on a forum that shall remain nameless a guy, complaining that he could not find anyone in the Caribbean to do some splicing he needed, complained that his only option was to send the various lines to be spliced to the US of A. Later on in the thread he said he was happy with the splices but that the cost of shipping ropes to and from the states made the process somewhat expensive.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions on the IQ of the guy who got the splicing done.

I will point out that splicing, not being anything like rocket science, is dead simple, and just about anyone can do it. The added advantage is you won't have to spend hundreds of dollars on shipping to get those $12 dollar splices.

Premium Ropes, in my opinion, does the best tutorial videos on splicing so here are a few to get you started.

Your basic three-strand eyesplice.



Since a lot of folks are using eight-strand for anchor rodes these days.



Your basic double braid eye splice.



Let's not forget the Brummel-splice for those folks using Dyneema and single-braid.



I'm pretty sure you're now covered on the eye splice front.

Listening to some songs from the Brill Building days.

Soit goes...

Some good advice...

TPM with a good point, Wil Wheaton has something to say, and in the "A bit of historical perspective" files...

Yacht Mollymawk has an excellent pandemic post that everybody should read.

Listening to Chaka Khan

So it goes...