Random thoughts and rants on boat design, boat building, and other boat bits for those in the 99%...
Grim, so much for common sense, and remember when America had a sense of humor... Oh yeah, it's the 4th of July and that sound you're hearing is our founding fathers spinning like tops.
Well, since it's a holiday I'm going to take the day off...
So, shall it be safe and sane or dumb and dangerous?
Listening to Amy Speace
So it goes...
In the "it's-only-deadbeats-who-get-foreclosed-on" department, well worth watching, and about that collapsing empire infrastructure...
I realize that this may get me kicked out of certain clubs but I really hate reading the Defender and West catalogs.
It's not just that I'm frugal, I know lots of people with less money than I have who spend hours and hours looking at things they wished they could afford for their boats...
No, the problem is deeper than that. I just find modern boat gear pimpage mostly depressing and, well if you must know, boring.
Partly, it's about the fact that a long while ago I figured out that I did not need all that much to make a boat go and, as a result, once I realized that having the newest state-of-the-art-integrated-navigation-system had nothing to do with my best interests, boredom set in.
The other part is how, even when I need something, shopping for boat gear is just not fun. In fact, it's more like a chore right up there with fixing a marine head and I'm pretty sure most folk reading this understand where that is on a scale of one to ten.
Listening to the Clash
So it goes...
George Takei always brings a smile with a thought, something about people stealing (who won't go to jail), and this is not where I'd be trippin...
Over the years I've seen a variety of folk eke out a comfortable cruising income as they cruised... Off hand, I'd say it is not that hard.
That said, those who are successful at it seem to fall within a certain mindset of not concentrating on a single thing (it seems that multiple small income streams work better than one big one), they're not reinventing the wheel, keep a low profile, and, most importantly, they're not greedheads. They also can tell when/where a need needs filling...
Then again, there are exceptions but the folks we've encountered who were making money and happy seemed to fall into that group.
A case in point: we knew a couple who were nearly flat broke in the Canaries and when a group of us were talking about fishing and handlines they seemed to take a keen interest. Next thing I knew he was asking me where to find the bits to make a handline...
As it happened, there used to be a fishermen's coop in Las Palmas that sold cheap commercial fishing line, rubber squids, associated hardware, and suchlike. So I took him to the coop and he bought enough stuff for a couple of handlines and lures...
A couple of days later, there he was by the ARC boats sitting on a bench making handlines like an old pro while a half dozen ARC folks stood in line with money in hand waiting to buy one.
A couple of weeks later they sailed off headed towards the Caribbean fully provisioned, cash enough for a while, and a whole lot of handline/lure making materials in a locker...
Listening to Telephone
So it goes...
Worth checking out, something very cool, and an interesting way to learn your sushi cuts...
This story is really something of a must read...
The important phrase everyone should dwell a bit on is:
"According to news reports, Vernon was an inexperienced sailor and could only watch as the 38-ft Jonetsu sailed away from Stimson..."Sadly, over the years, we've met a great number of long-term cruising couples and families where almost all of the sailing was done by just one of the crew while the other/others were more akin to being a passenger.
Something about our open government, you might want to send your Rep a note after reading this, and an important note for those with guitars on board...
It's interesting what/how people worry about moving aboard...
Most folks considering moving onto a boat have a lot of issues/worries with the whole living in a small space, lack of mod cons, and trying to bring their "normal" life along in the process. A lot of those folks write to Boat Bits from time to time and ask about those questions and mostly seem a little put off when I tell them it is not a problem and it will all work out... Apparently "No problem, mon" is not a sentence a lot of folks understand.
One advantage to hitting a certain age is that you have enough life experience to step back and see how things work and having watched lots of people move onto boats and cruise both successfully or having it become a clusterfuck, I've noted that the very act of moving onto that boat is such a sea change that it simply evolves you to a different level and things that you worried about are no longer an issue...
Of course, if you have not moved onto that boat you can't understand that. It's a leap of faith thing. I might add, that when I say moving aboard I mean something other than just the physical act of taking up residence on a boat and there are no half measures in the process.
Folks who decide to live aboard and cruise but want to keep their options open (translated as keeping their shore bound life in stasis or worse, keeping it in full tilt boogie and trying to jump between the two) are not going to get into that headspace needed for a successful transition because they simply have not made the leap of faith needful to evolve to that next level. Face it, it is hard to enjoy your life at anchor somewhere beautiful if you are worried about whether your lawn back "home" is getting watered enough.
Actually, "home" is the key word to a successful transition to life aboard as you simply don't start really living aboard until you think of your boat as your home and that, not whether or not you can live without a washer/dryer, is the key make or break issue.
Like the man said... "Home is where the heart is"
Listening to Mylene Farmer
So it goes...
On the fact that Krugman just used the "D" word (warning some seriously scary shit), the sort of film that deserves support, and I wonder if this is available with a rail mount?
On "So It Goes" we tend to go into consumer mode around the holidaze...
Part of this is that as it is the end of the year, we have a pretty good idea of what is affordable in the grand scheme of things and partly because there are a lot of sales about we can take advantage of.
So at the moment we feel quite rich with a lot of unread books on the shelf (and in the Kindle), loads of DVDs, and lots of bits and pieces for various ongoing boat projects stowed away.
One item we just picked up was a test replacement for our stable of iPod Mini's which in the last few weeks have sickened and apparently decided to go to that great iPod dock in the sky to be with Steve Jobs... Sad to see them go as we loved them and listening to music is such a big part of what I do...
Friends on Maralonga dropped me a couple of pictures of some friends who dropped by the boat...
It's been pretty low on the excitement meter here on "So It Goes" of late. Instead of just getting to it and finishing the dead eyes and simply dealing with the mayhem that milling aluminum in the cockpit always seems to cause, I've been trying to work up a fiendishly cunning plan (Yes, THAT cunning)!
Nah, not really... In truth it's simply a means to avoid just doing it and hoping that the Deadeye fairies would get with the program and do it for me...
Which we all know is simply not going to happen, so color me just doing it and making a mess!
Listening to Dedicated Friend
So it goes...
We have been having no shortage of rain and the Lewmar hatches are both trying to out leak the other but hardly surprising that the one over my head is a clear winner and is doing a quite passable imitation of a SuperSoaker!
We have pointed out, from time to time, that learning at least the basics of the languages spoken where you plan to cruise is no bad thing and even suggested that Esperanto would be an awesome lingua franca for boat folk and a smart thing for the rest of the world... Of course that suggestion triggered a flood of emails to Boat Bits central suggesting that there was already a lingua franca and it was ENGLISH and that Esperanto was some sort of commie plot.
Sigh...
Whatever the readership thinks I still think that if you learn to speak at least the basics (please, thank you, could you direct me to the nearest ATM) you will be a happy camper more often than not.
But what about when you are beyond the comfort zone of civilization and visiting the lost isles of the fire god or other places that you won't find cruising guides for? What if you were about to enter an island mostly populated by zombies for instance... Would English alone do the trick?
I get a lot of mail here at Boat Bits about the various aspects and reality of cruising or living on a boat outside of the comfort zone that is home...
A new blog/website is The INTERVIEW WITH A CRUISER Project which looks like it is on to something much needed for those considering a life afloat and voyaging...
Check it out!
One of the questions you hear a lot is the rather basic, but very important, "What's it cost to cruise?" It's a simple question but all of the answers are anything but simple... As they say, it all depends!
Most of the battle to pare down cruising costs is won or lost long before you set off from the dock. Did you do your research? Can you fix the various systems on your boat (or at least make do without them till you can sort them out)? Have you locked yourself into expensive systems?
As most readers of this blog know, we lost our rig about a month ago and by lost I mean total loss including the mast, all rigging and sails. No big problem when all is said and done, and to be truthful, I am really enjoying the chance to build a new rig and one a bit more suited to the sort of cruising we favor.
Losing the rig is a good example of just the sort of problems that can destroy someones cruising dream, unlike say, the loss of radar which you can get along without till you sort out a replacement, fix it or simply decide to do without. Nope, losing the rig stops you dead (well maybe not for those "we never take our sail covers off" folks but you know what I mean). Throw in the fact that the rig is a BIG TICKET item... I'll admit that I am still a bit dumbstruck at the cost of getting a new mast shipped down to the Caribbean, new sails, rigging and all the various bits and pieces that added up to a very severe WTF moment.
When you think of it, the perfect cruising boat or cruising plan is one where you design out all the possible WTF moments which is why you do your research so you know what can cause those moments.
Our first real WTF moment way back when, was when we provisioned in France and I noted that just about all of the canned tomato products in France were actually from Spain, so while we provisioned to the hilt, we left tomatoes off the list as we were sure that since they came from Spain they would be cheaper than in France... When we got to Spain, not only did we find that tomatoes were way more expensive, it was almost impossible to buy them at any cost as apparently all of the canned tomatoes went to France. While not a WTF moment of the stature of sticker shock for a new rig and sails, it was still a WTF... and WTF moments are simply not good for the cruising kitty.
I'm lucky as I have been doing this boat gig for a whole bunch of years and I long ago learned to work on my skill set and tool inventory so I don't have to depend on people charging $75 and more an hour to do rather simple tasks. So, when I saw just how much a new stock rig would cost, I simply moved over to plan DIY which is still more money than I'd like but when the dust is settled my new mast (yes... singular and more about that later) will wind up costing less than the shipping alone for a new mast from Stateside.
So it does go...
