about that fear factor...

Some more folks on sailboats who happen to be Firefly fans, the Rude Pundit making some sense, and something about two 14-year olds lost at sea...

Chuck Wendig (an author well worth reading) has a very good take on fear that you really should read and, while not so much about boats, cruising, and suchlike, it really does have everything to do with boats, cruising, and suchlike.

Go read it.

Listening to Tracy Bonham

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a shift away from solitude...

The rewards of being a drug dealer, what the clothes you wear actually cost, and if this does not set off your Spidey sense to 11 you might want to go see a doctor...

Things keep changing.

I suppose that's just a fact of life and at a certain age one does tend to view change in a negative light but still... I'm just not seeing this as a positive trend in cruising.

Listening to Fishbone

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A quick look at some numbers...

Krugman asks a question, news that will make you want to repeatedly bash your head against a bulkhead, and in the "things that glow in the dark department"...

The other day I was looking at the changes of population in the Caribbean and it was/is depressing reading.

For instance, here's the population stats for the USVI but if you bother to look into the rest of the Caribbean you're going to see the same story played out...

Year	Pop.	�%
1901	30,527	�
1911	27,086	-11.3%
1917	26,051	-3.8%
1930	22,012	-15.5%
1940	24,889	+13.1%
1950	26,665	+7.1%
1960	32,099	+20.4%
1970	62,468	+94.6%
1980	96,569	+54.6%
1990	101,809	+5.4%
2000	108,612	+6.7%
2010	106,405	-2.0%

Scary numbers when you think about it. An even scarier number is that in 2008 the population density was measured at 162 people per square kilometer.

The increased population combined with a unsustainable economy, an infrastructure way past its sell-by date, and a total lack of anyone in power actually doing anything remotely constructive to fix things does not a pretty picture make.

Or, to put it in common parlance, it's all going to hell in a turbo charged wicker basket. So, if you plan to visit and cruise down here I'd do it sooner rather than later...

Listening to Greg Trooper

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So, what do you really get for that extra $425K?

Very interesting, well worth a read, and a good point being made...

Reading a recent issue of Sail magazine I was admiring the look of the new Rustler 36 and, thinking to myself, what a nice cruising boat it would be. Well, right up till the point that I saw it was around $450K for a "sailaway" version.

Which is not to say that the Rustler is not a very, very nice boat but an over half-million dollar, old-school design boat by the time you get it off the dock for something that performs like and will take you to the same places as an old CAL 36 (or insert your favorite older classic plastic 36 here) you could buy for less than $15K.

Throw in a smart $10K bespoke refit and anchor it next to the Rustler 36 and 99% of folks who dinghy by wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two...

Maybe it's just me but I just can't see any way that extra $425K spent would make my life any better.

Just saying.

Listening to a hurdy-gurdy man...

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Something you need to read...

Something well worth reading, FYI on appropriate use of language, and an important question you should ask yourself every once in awhile...

In a week with more than its fair share of bad news  a lot of folks have been focused on the loss overboard of Carly Hill of Oryx. Jill from Yacht Mollymawk covers the important stuff better than most and it's really a must read.

Listening to Chicano Batman and digging it

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It's been a shitty week...

One every 98 minutes is seriously fucked up, something you should know if you plan to cruise Guatemala, and Donkey Mountain makes a good point/prediction...

It's the first day of summer and in France the streets are alive with the sound of music during the F�te de la Musique and I'm well and I'm more than a little depressed.

It's been a horrible week. The sort of week you really just wish you had not read the news at all, topped off by a senseless racist massacre in a church in South Carolina.

Made even worse, if that is even possible, by listening to a clown car of spineless, self-serving politicians running for president and FAUX news say that it wasn't about racism, that there was really no racism in the US of A anymore, and that all things considered it was really the fault of any number of things but certainly had nothing to do with racism or guns.

Yeah right...

Of course, as some folks will no doubt write in and tell me...

 "But that doesn't have anything to do with boats or cruising, it's depressing, so you shouldn't write about this sort of thing"

... Here's the thing, it really does have something to do with boats and cruising because I've been at cruiser get-togethers and had to listen to stupid racist jokes and generally stupid comments of a racial nature far more often than you'd expect in a community that prides itself on being non-racist, open-minded, and welcoming to all...

The sad fact is that overt racism has become so prevalent these days that it's considered normal and when confronted with it instead of doing something about it far too many just pretend it doesn't exist...

But it does and we should all be doing something about it.

Listening to Fortunate Youth

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Something worth doing...

A possible felon for President, something about some folks with penis issues, and thinking globally...

Turned off by the cruising rally thing?

Does the idea of sailing in company doing something that would make the world a better place with like minds appeal?

Maybe you need to check this out...

Listening to Scary Little Friends

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Looking at a boat not a reputation...

Not exactly a surprise, just the same old same security theater, and there seems to be a lot of disappointment going round...

Of late in the neighborhood there seems to be a plethora of Hunter 33 & 34's for sale at fairly reasonable ($10-15K) prices...

Now, I'll go out on a limb here and mention that while all the hip folk would never be seen dead in a Hunter that, by and large, they really are not a bad boat at all.

Which is not to say that I don't think Hunter made some bad or iffy decisions design-wise over the years but, then again, I could say that about just about any company building boats over the last few decades has had more than their fair share of "Seemed like a good idea at the time" episodes.

I know that my saying Hunters are a boat you might want to consider will unleash a lot of mail recounting horror stories about poorly built sailboats coming to grief and dire warnings that Hunter's are just not "Blue Water capable"  mostly from folks who'd never actually sailed a Hunter but did have a friend who once talked to a guy who had a friend who met a guy with some problems...

The thing to keep in mind is that while Hunter's somewhat negative reputation is not really deserved, neither are some of the wonderful reputations of some boats because they're based on the same sort of misinformation, hearsay, and opinion little of which has any resemblance to the truth.

Which brings us to the bottom line where in the current used market a truly trashed, beat to hell, and cosmetically challenged Hallberg-Rassy fixer upper will sell for more than a Hunter in excellent condition.

Listening to Twin Brother

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She had me at small and simple...

Donkey Mountain may be on to something, some seriously bad news, and the Retirement Project (a good cruising blog) makes a good point...

Hanneke Boon doing the Pecha Kucha.



Listening to Shelby Lynne

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Hey, here's a thought...

A good run, a good observation, and a very good/apt point being made...

I need to build another dinghy in the not-too-distant-future and perusing all of the dinghy plan pimpage out there no one portrays their dinghies actually being used in normal dinghy situations.

What I see instead are one-occupant dinghies being rowed or motored in flat calm conditions with no passengers and no load. Seems to me, if you wanted to give a real cruising perspective to the mix, what I should be seeing is a guy rowing against a two-foot chop with ten knots of wind. Oh yeah, there should also be one or two passengers, a couple of full jerry cans, and forty pounds of groceries...

Listening to some Rolling Stones covers

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a pretty cool project...

A show you might want to watch, some not so good news, and since the NRA is so big on cheer leading indiscriminate gun ownership maybe they'd like to pick up the tab for gun violence in the US of A...



Listening to Mina Tindle

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Because we're all handy folks on boats...

Some thoughts on the concept of "home", a quick take on threat assessment, and a needful read on the subject of denial...

Here's Tom Cunliffe making some sense.



Listening to The Bohannons

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fear of...

This really made me stop and think, so did this, and, as it happens, this did as well...

The other day I was thinking about the stumbling blocks to being able to build or rebuild a boat and I surmised that most of them begin with the words "fear of"...

As in fear of spars or rigging... Lots of folks have a phobia of building spars or doing rigging work. I know a guy who is a real artist when it comes to making cabinets in a boat but when confronted with the idea of building a mast, which is a lot easier than cabinets, he goes all pale and trembly.

Another friend has certain issues with anything electrical, while someone else I know breaks out in a cold sweat whenever anything mechanical is called for on his boat. Then there's another guy who built a steel boat because he was was afraid of epoxy.

The funny thing is that all of these folks are actually smart and handy but so many people have told them that some stuff on boats is just too difficult to attempt for mere mortals so that irrational fear takes hold and rather simple skills and tasks take on nightmarish qualities that makes even strong, smart, and talented people go weak at the knees...

As it happens, having built a lot of wood boats myself and, since I tend to run with folks of a like mind, I've come across a lot of people with an irrational fear of scarfing pieces of wood together. Like most irrational fears it really doesn't make any sense but it's still problematic. Made worse because most of the people who do not have a fear of scarfing tend to make it all sound more difficult than it is and 99% of the time they're piss poor at teaching...

Which is why I'm more than happy that Russel Brown has put together "Scarfing Basics" which is a clear, concise, and simple booklet about scarfing that anyone with an IQ of room temperature or above should have no problem digesting the content and putting it into practice.

All I can say is it makes it easy and how cool is that? Better yet, there's some good stuff on how to make better scarfs so there's something for everyone whether phobic beginner or more advanced wood butcher.

Definitely a must read.

Listening to Grass Child

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Not a 1.5 million dollar boat...

A modest proposal (I'd be in favor of), the high cost of the food on your table, and that sound you're hearing just might be Teddy Roosevelt spinning like a top...

One thing I take comfort in is that once you've shed the docklines and headed off to some distant shore it's a whole different ball game because the sea is a great equalizer. It simply doesn't care if you're on a 1.5 million dollar boat or something like the Django 7.70.

Offhand the fact that the Django dries out makes me think the smaller cheaper boat is a whole lot hipper...

... and, maybe it's just me, but I think sailing one around the world (like this guy) would be a lot more fun as well.

Is this a happy camper or what?



Listening to Fly Moon Royalty

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the ongoing anchoring conundrum...

L,G,&M asks a couple of questions, in the �It�s all about the experience, and less about the fluff,� department, and the phrase "harrowing future" sorta/kinda makes me nervous...

OK, so here's a question I find myself asking just about every week...

Why are people so frelling bad at anchoring?

Seriously, it keeps me up at night.

It's not like there's not a lot of good to excellent articles, blog posts, and even books on the subject... There's tons of good stuff out there.

So why does someone coming into a wide open nearly deserted anchorage and invariably decides to anchor in the worst possible place?

Think about that for a bit...

Listening to the Grateful Dead

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You could say I'm not a happy camper today...

Something I found worthwhile, an interesting riff on intelligence, and a truly great post from Antonio Dias...

Last night I saw that the French powers-that-be are back on the "Let's tax boaters for anchoring so they'll all go away" bandwagon. You can read more about (if you don't read French simply run the page through Google Translate) it over on the Voile magazine blog and more importantly there's a petition  that you should add your voice to. Seriously, this is important stuff if you're someone who ever plans to go cruising.

Really...

Speaking of important stuff in the same vein, Dave Z (of TriloBoat infamy) recently said a lot of important stuff that very much needs to be said. You should read it and give the content some very serious thought and then share it with others... It's more than time to get seriously proactive on this sort of stuff before we find our favorite anchorages either disappeared or with a MegaYachts only sign.

Listening to Soko



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regarding that frozen concoction...

Well worth a read/watch, just another day in the outsourcing game, and an apt question we should all be asking...

I just realized that today happens to be National Margarita Day... Not that folks on boats actually need much of an excuse to indulge in excessive recreational debauchery of the alcohol-related sort but, if you're so inclined, today you have a reason.

Listening to a variety of artists cover Fleetwood Mac's Tusk

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Some more from the Eco Sailing Project crew...

Not good at all, the reason you won't be seeing a lot of rocket science coming from Texas in the foreseeable future, and in the dueling debt department...



Listening to a medley of soul, funk, blues and folk

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Getaway plans...

A needful read, a study of interest, and in the "if the 1% are starting to talk publicly about getaway plans maybe you should too" department...

Hmmm... That post about rich people running away from the reality they created (which very possibly just might bite them on their collective asses) got me thinking about how cruisers should know a thing or two about running away since a lot of folks on boats are running way from something or other.

Oh sure, I know a lot of people on boats have a lot of reasons for going sailing and  "taking time off to recharge the batteries" or "I just want to see more of the world" and "I love to sail" are the sort of things most cruisers will answer to the question of why they're off sailing about instead of doing what society expects of them back in Akron, Ohio. While all of those answers I'm sure are true to an extent, they're not exactly the whole truth are they?

Truth these days can be scary because most people don't actually handle it very well. If presented with your real reasons for deciding to sail off into the sunset they might overreact because truth breeds truth and your friend at work who asked you why you were trading your cubicle, continually diminishing lifestyle, and overbearing boss for a small boat heading south might have to re-examine his or her own life.

Plus, the whole running away from stuff has a very negative image it does not deserve at all...

That said, running away from things that are bad for you or dangerous is a highly evolved survival trait which is a good thing. If your spidey sense tells you that your job or lifestyle makes you unhappy or is otherwise counterproductive to your very existence, running makes all kinds of sense.

Something you might want to keep in mind is that running away is a pretty awesome survival trait. Those who are both fleet of foot and listen to their Spidey sense early always have the advantage. Just consider the old adage about not needing to be faster than the bear chasing you... You just have to be faster than the other guy.

So, a few words of import from the great philosopher Nesmith...

"I said I roll with the flow
Wherever it goes and it's rolling out of here"

Listening to a bunch of the Band covers.

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So, does this make me a volunteer?

Patagonia is certainly on to something, why a living wage makes sense, and in the "it's just not right" department...

Today's Archdruid report actually made me catch my breath with two words from the title...

"Involuntary Simplicity"

Adding the word "involuntary" to the word "simplicity" makes a world of difference and, as someone who is hopefully making strides towards a more simple lifestyle, it made me sit up and take notice.

For instance, there's a huge difference between choosing to go engineless and being forced to go engineless beause your engine packed up and died. The person who chooses to go engineless is prepared, one way or another, to deal with such things as no wind, lee shores, and suchlike. On the other hand, the guy who uses his engine on a regular basis find the loss of said engine disruptive at best...

A lot of people tend to shy away from simpler boats or boat systems because they tend to think of them as doing without needful things rather than the act of simply losing things they don't really need at all.

Listening to Bob Delevante

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