Maybe not the week to store a couple sheets of plywood on the coachroof..

This is good news, a quick shot of reality, and some not-so-good news...

The really hard part about living in the "H" prone area of the Caribbean is not the actual storms but the continual stress factor of keeping an eye on the weather and the hassle factor of having to work around possible outcomes.

Case in point, I wanted to buy a couple of sheets of plywood so I could finish up a bunch of projects and get started on the new dinghy. Of course, invest 93L put the plywood buying off til it's past us in whatever guise it may assume. So, not a lot of projects gettting finished this week...

That being the case, the weather at the moment is awesome and the best time to be in this area of the Caribbean is actually "H" season as the more obnoxious tourists are gone, the weather (except for those pesky "H" tings) is pretty wonderful, and I can sit on my foredeck and watch turtles cavort to my hearts content.

There's a lot to be said for simply sitting and watching turtles.

Might even get a little diving in...

Listening to Zachary Richard (a favorite on the "H" season mixtape)

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A bit more on crowd funding...

About that recovery, a guy making sense, and a horrific scene that makes it difficult to respect the badge...

A reader dropped me a line and pointed out that there was at least one crowd funding campaign, albeit unsuccessful, for a series of designs by George Whisstock.

Which is not to say that the crowd funding model won't work for designers of boats but it is a good example of however a designer decides to market designs, without some promotion in the mix it's just not going to take off.

Listening to Madeleine Peyroux

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Kickstarter anyone?

How the language we use is important, then again the word "accident" does seem somewhat inadequate of late, and I'll tell you I'm reading way too many stories like this these days...

Over the last couple of years I've been paying a lot of attention to the whole crowd funding thing and I've seen a lot of small companies in the film making gear business bring products to market that never would have happened without it. In my view, Kickstarter and other systems of the same ilk do make sense.

So, I have to ask myself why I have not seen much in the way of new products for sailors and cruisers coming to market via the crowd funding route?

It seems to me a near perfect venue for a designer of boats to do something creative outside the bounds of the same old same and attract a niche client base in the process but, despite the fact it seems tailor made for boat design, I don't see anyone doing it.

Why is it there's no one with clever and cunning products for sailing and cruising? I mean seriously it's not like there are not a plethora of things that could be done better on boats and since so many sailors are tinkerers and closet inventors, why are they not doing their thing on a venue that seems perfect for the enterprise?

What little stuff you do see from boat folk seems to be the "I want to go cruising please give me some money to do it with" sort which I tend to find a bit depressing and bothersome.

Personally, I've played with the idea of using Kickstarter to fund a project to study, develop, and evolve better rigs based on traditional overlooked sail designs in a real scientific manner. It seems to me that a lot more real science in sail would be no bad thing...

Maybe you just have a cool idea based on an Arduino that would improve the lot of cruisers everywhere or, just maybe, there's no one left with any good ideas anymore.

Listening to JB & the Moonshine Band

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Not quite as demented as you might think...

You can tell a lot about a country from its pizzas, a rejoinder of note, and... it's not too late to do the right thing...

I'll confess it's not easy being too far ahead of fashion and for the most part it's depressing always being right years before something becomes hip.

Takes scows for instance...

Anyone who knows me and a great number of people who don't are painfully aware that I think scows as a cruising boat make a lot of sense. Of course, most people I've preached the gospel of scows to think I'm either demented, an idiot, stupid, or a cocktail of all three. Face it, being ahead of the curve is a lot like Rodney Dangerfield's famous catch line...

"I don't get no respect..."

But fashions do tend to catch up and sometimes you get lucky to see that all-of-a-sudden folks are taking something like scows seriously. Maybe a little late to the party and a few sandwiches short of a picnic but, it's a kinda nice to find yourself being able to say I told you so...

Two, count them, two maxi scow projects (you can read all about them here)...

Sure, they're silly expensive penis substitutes but it means that if uberwealthy folks are commissioning scows it's an idea that now has some serious traction and I'm not quite the drooling stupid demented idiot waxing on about scows in the corner...

Listening to Seasick Steve

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A quick reminder...

A tuna story, safety in the skies, and yep we're an advanced civilized nation...



Listening to The Brothers of Soul

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Of no interest to trust fund babies...

This should make some folks stand up and take notice, some needful reading, and  a wake up call...

Over at Attainable Adventure Cruising they have a post that is the consumerists wet dream about how to buy a boat. I'll sum it up for you as you need to be born rich, get a better job, and/or wait till you're too old to actually go cruising because you HAVE to have the expensive boat.

Just the other day I saw a CAL 34 for sale for $5K and yes, it needed some fixing up.

That said, there's nothing that a little sweat, some smarts, an additional $3-$5K, and an avoidance of consumerism dogma wouldn't fix.

Hey presto! A serious bluewater cruiser for around $10K and you don't have to wait around till you're too old and wrinkly to enjoy it.

There are lots of people cruising in boats that cost considerably less than some folks say you need to spend. Matter of fact, in the new Practical Boat Owner there's an excellent article  "Cruising on a Shoestring" by Jill Dicken Schinas of Mollymawk fame (you really should have the Mollymawk blog/website on your reading list) that just may open your eyes...

It's a good read.

Listening to Pink Turtle

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The cost of things...

A quick look in the crystal ball, a very interesting article about trout, and 31-days...

Yesterday while doing a little shopping I could not help but look at the lobsters for sale at $39 a pound and reflect that a simple lobster snare can be put together for two or three bucks and there are lobster pretty much everywhere down here.

Just saying...

Listening to St Paul & the Broken Bones (still the best album so far this year)

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Doing the drill..

Ebola still spreading, the good fight against big tobacco, and something worth watching...

Yep, it's that time of year again.

Even though TD2 does not look to be a real problem it still means I need to go through the whole Big-Storm-Soon-Come drill because, you know, shit happens...

Meanwhile on the weather front: sad news that due to flooding, the big rubber duckie has gone walkabout.

Listening to Marah

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SNAFU city...

One small step, follow the money, and some laws not in boatfolks best interest (you might be surprised just how many people equate living on a boat with being homeless)...

Today my boat's a disaster area.

It happens... trying to manage multiple projects will leave you in a serious SNAFU zone. As it happens right now the entire contents of my starbord cockpit locker is strewn hither and yon. There's a surplus-to-requirements stove and sink in the cockpit well and to top it off a mainsail I need to cut down and recut...

I won't even begin go into the current state of the clusterfuck that is the interior...

Of course, tomorrow it will be all sorted out (yeah sure) and we'll have a livable boat but today it's crazy making...

Got to get cracking.

Listening to Mr Big

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A book is the answer to most questions...

This pretty much says it all, something to be aware of, and a safe bet formula wise...

Almost everything you need to know about boats can be found in a half-dozen or so books... It's as simple as that.

I mention this because the last couple of weeks I have been pondering why there is so much misinformation floating around. The possible conclusion I've come to are that folks don't really read anymore and prefer their information in dumbed down sound bites or forum posts. If they did read a book or article they skim/glance at pictures and use the internet as a sorta/kinda Cliff's Notes.

Last night while looking at some "reader" reviews of a few books I hold in high esteem made me wonder if the reviewers had actually in fact read the books...

For instance, this about Fred Bingham's "Boat Joinery & Cabinetmaking Simplified"

"The book is outdated as far as technique. I was expecting to learn the how and why of boat cabinetry, not just basic cabinetry that you would find in an ordinary house."  

Now, personally I simply do not see his point as cabinetry, whether for a boat or a house, is pretty much the same thing and Bingham gives you everything you need to know for where there actually is a difference. Face it, building an interior in a boat is simply building a lot of irregular sized boxes with odd angles here and there.

I have quite a lot of boatbuilding books and read and re-read them on a regular basis because they "talk" to me and, considering what project I'm currently working on, I get different insights. For instance, just the other day planning out a new boom for "So It Goes", I reread the relevent sections in Bingham's book as well as Reuel Parker's "The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding" and "Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding". Those, with a re-read of Russel Brown's "Epoxy Basics: Working with Epoxy Cleanly & Efficiently", have pretty much set the stage for what I hope to be a much improved and affordable boom that will do exactly what I need it to do.

Then again, I could have put the question to various forums and got a ton of verbage with very little veracity or practical content...

Books work for me.


Listening to Los Texmaniacs

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taking things for granted...

How not to sell cookies, on modern policing methods, and, just maybe, the most appropriate headline of the week...

I suspect that, for most of us at least, the most dangerous thing we do on boats is to take things for granted. Truth be told, I do it all the time and, more often than not, I tend to find that it bites me on the ass when I do.

Not too long ago there were all those folks in Mexico who had their boats impounded and reading a lot of the reactions to the situation the recurring themes seemed to be "How could this happen?" and "How could the Mexican authorities be so stupid?". When maybe they should have been asking themselves "Why did I take it for granted that shit wouldn't happen?"

Now, call me paranoiac but I pretty much always expect stuff to get funky on a regular basis and, as it happens I am sadly seldom disappointed... Over the last few years I've mentioned that the USVI government keeps floating some new silly expensive fees for folks on boats as well as some draconian rules that, while not enacted yet, would make the USVI something of a no go place for most cruisers.

I expect when such rules and regulations come into play it will be a huge surprise to most who expect the same old same to remain in perpetuity. You'll be able to hear them screaming "How could this happen?" halfway across the Pacific...

Note to self: must get some earplugs. 

Listening to C,S,& N

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Now that's some log...

An app that just might come in handy, a very scary picture, and where are the perp walks...

I need to get a new log for the boat as the current bidata speed/depth unit I have is more a mono-data sort of thing and in the nearly ten-years we've had it I don't think the log/speed function has worked more than 24 hours total. Which when you consider it's built by Raymarine is more than I actually expected. That said, I would be remiss if I did not mention that the sounder side of things works just great...

Now, what I'd really like to replace it with is the old model of the VDO Sumlog, a mechanical unit with a tiny little hard to foul prop turning an automotive cable that from my experience is bombproof, simple, and as a result, it simply does what it needs to do which is let you know your speed through the water and the distance covered. Which, by and large, is just the sort of information you need to know.

Being mechanical there is very little to go wrong and the weakest link, the cables, seem to last for a decade or so and replacement cables are a standard automotive part so non-problematic to pick up a spare. I suppose the downside is that it won't interface with your chart plotter or toaster oven... but, then again, my Raymarine does not talk to my chartplotter and I don't have a toaster oven so I don't exactly see the problem..

These days most everyone I know tends to use their chart plotters and the GPS derived speed over ground but speed over ground and speed through water are two very different beasts and they tell you very different things. Personally I'd like to know both but if I had to choose just one it would be speed through water.

So if you happen to come across the old style VDO Sumlog in your local yachtgrot maybe you could drop me a line?

Listening to Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul

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Well at least someone understands the future of marine publishing...

Something of a conundrum, this is good, and tomorrow's a dark day in Riverdale...


Video Tablette Voile Mag by voile-magazine

Listening to Vanilla Fudge

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a Dengue vaccine...

Talk about getting seriously screwed, a very good post, and an apt comment...

Since all of the crew of "So It Goes" have had the rather dire experience pleasure of getting up-close-and-personal experience of having to go through the Dengue thang... This is some really important reading.

Really...

Listening to Dr John

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In which I make a prediction...

Skulduggery of the worst sort, needful reading, and just the same old same greedy bastards...

It's interesting how what's normal changes when you're not paying attention. For instance, back in the early 90's from my vantage point was that the average cruising boat actually cruising was somewhere around 30-feet and now 30-odd years later the average is somewhere around 45-feet. Of course, the change was gradual but since I was not paying attention it sure seems like it sorta/kinda happened overnight.

These days, as it happens, I am paying attention and it sure looks like the pendulum has changed direction and smaller/sensible/affordable (i.e. common sense) boats are regaining their hipness factor.

Which does not mean that the floating MacMansion will no longer be with us but they will be a waning influence...

Listening to Free

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A very cool build..

Somewhat nervous making, G&T on a roll, and some truly impressive stupidity...

I don't know if you've been following the build of Yann Quenet's SKROWL but you really should as it's turning into a pretty awesome boat.

Gotta love the paint job...

Listening to Jesse & Joy

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On running before we learn to crawl...

On having perfected the "shrug", an important point, and I suppose there's just no cure for stupid...

Yesterday I had a note to the blog from a guy who's decided he wants to go cruising and was interested in my opinion about the boat that he's decided to buy to sail off into the sunset on.

What was more interesting was he mentioned in his note he'd never gone sailing or even been on a sailboat...

The scary thing is this is not the first email of this sort I have received and, I suspect, it won't be the last one either.

Truth be told, I'm not sure how he took my reply that he might want to consider learning to sail and, just maybe, might be better off doing a bit of sailing on different boats before he takes the plunge but, I expect he thinks I'm an ass for raining on his parade.

Maybe one of the best sailing books I've ever read is "Solitaire Spirit" by Les Powles who not only built a boat to sail around the world on without knowing how to sail but pretty much set off on his voyage with just a couple of hours of instruction. That said, a lot of what makes the book so interesting is the whole "guy-running-with-scissors-accident-waiting-to-happen" vibe... To say Les made some mistakes as a result would be something of an understatement.

Les Powles is a special case and an exception as every guy who pulls it off like Les did there are hundreds who did not... Something we all should keep in mind.

Listening to Geoff & Maria Muldaur

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another case for DIY...

Big money in death, a quick look at the scorecard, and a post worth thinking about...

There is a really excellent post over at the Marine Installers Rant about building an autopilot for not a lot of money and it is really a must read if you want to save money, need a system that you could actually repair when needful, and  just generally enjoy doing the DIY/geek thang.

Oh yeah, I expect it's the sort of article that makes the folks at Garmin and Raymarine pee in their pants so there's that as well.

Imagine a world where marine electronics are more affordable, user serviceable, and no longer disposable... Kind of takes your breath away.

The word for today is A-r-d-u-i-n-o...

Listening to Jesse Winchester

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Simple pleasures...

A worthwhile July 4th thought, some drinks that might get you through to the fireworks, and a book you might want to read...

It's amazing just how little most of us need to be happy. What's even more amazing is that a whole lot of folks don't know that.

So, it being the 4th of July, I plan to make some potato salad and read a good book which will make me one seriously happy camper.

Enjoy the day...

Listening to Tracy Chapman

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Yep it's really here...

Some back story on unaccompanied minors, George Takei making sense, and can you spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y...

Nothing focuses your mind on the fact that it is actually "H" season like the first storm of the season progressing to hurricane status and doing its thing.

More than time to check out the ground tackle, lines, and buy some new shackles...

Listening to Zachary Richard

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a place you may want to bookmark and use...

A bit of skulduggery, people in motion, and did someone say pitchforks...

I can't help but notice that the one cruising forum I find the most valuable is getting less and less traffic and, I suspect, that sooner or later it will lose all relevance.

So, the question comes to mind... why are folks no longer using the SSCA forums?

Looking around the net it seems the Cruisers Forum is still doing its thing but, looking further afield, it would seem that most of the cruising forums seem to have a lot less in the way of posts than they used to and it's starting to look a lot like a ghost town.

Curious.

One of the reasons I like the SSCA forum is that there seemed to be a minimum of BS, misinformation, and the mean-spirited masturbatory one-upmanship that seems the staple output of most of the other forums.

I'm pretty sure that I've gone on record before that the SSCA is a good organization and cruisers would be well advised to join if only for the SSCA newsletters which are invaluable for anyone needing good current information for the places we visit. That said, the organization does have its foibles but it is mostly fighting the good fight so deserves your support.

Drop by and check them out.

Listening to Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers

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