tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114305742024-03-05T14:24:37.140-05:00Cruising With CloverleafWith 60 years of boating experience, Bev and Dave Feiges have see it all. From racing inland lake scows, to cruising and living aboard sailboats and trawlers for the past 30 years, they have developed opinions on almost every aspect of life on the water, especially with an eye toward the needs of older boatersDavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04069549237811732049noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-1638095456575850402018-04-15T19:14:00.000-04:002018-04-15T19:15:15.723-04:00photo[<a href="mailto:cid%3AFF3A80FB-F4DA-42C9-9092-41EF1C949057@250.19.86.hwccustomers.com">cid:FF3A80FB-F4DA-42C9-9092-41EF1C949057@250.19.86.hwccustomers.com</a>]
<br>Dave and Bev Feiges
<br>21040 95th Ave S Apt C425
<br>Boca Raton, FL 33428
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<br>Cell phone , best to use
<br>847 363 4905
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<br>Phone in Apt.
<br> 561 609 4377
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<br><a href="http://feiges.blogspot.com">http://feiges.blogspot.com</a><<a href="http://feiges.blogspot.com/">http://feiges.blogspot.com/</a>>
<br>opinions on everything marine
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<br><a href="http://beverlyraespeaksout.blogspot.com/">http://beverlyraespeaksout.blogspot.com/</a>
<br>opinions on everything elseB.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-57907507422810462292014-09-12T11:35:00.001-04:002014-09-12T11:35:32.601-04:00I put this post up some time ago but want to repeat it for those who missed it. In my small world it has "gone viral", having been reprinted in Active Captain Newsletter, the NordHaven Newsletter,, PassageMaker Magazine, under the title Down Shift" and originally the DDCA Bulletin. If you missed it the first time, take a gander.<br />
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<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">2501 East Commercial Blvd., Ste. 203<br />Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308 USA<br />Phone: (954) 771-5660 Fax: (954) 771-5662 Website:</span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.ssca.org/">www.ssca.org</a> </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">Email:</span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="mailto:office@ssca.org">office@ssca.org</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700;">Cloverleaf </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 12pt;">– 61’ Trawler – 5.5’ draft – Nov. 2013</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 12pt;"><br />Subject Area: </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">A Different Kind of Cruising for the Young at Heart</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">but Over-the-Hill Crowd and the Nervous Newbies</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">Dear SSCA,<br />This letter is not just for the over-the-hill cruiser, but could also be very appropriate</span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">for you newbies who are a little uncomfortable about casting off, or the wannabes who might be hesitating to take the plunge off the end of the dock, especially if you are hesitating because youthink you are too old for something so different. Dave and I are octogenarians, who have been sailing, motoring, and cruising around for over 60 years.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">After many, many miles, and about 25 years of racing around lakes in small, fast, tippy, boats, it hit me that I needed a more stable platform that could take us exploring over the horizon, with room for our large family, while still doing our favorite thing in life, sailing. That change in attitude was good for over 21 years, when again I had an epiphany. It was time to make the cruising life easier and move to the dark side: time to move aboard a trawler. We have been aboard the latest </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Cloverleaf </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">for 13 years, but still follow our old style of living at anchor, and constantly exploring new harbors and even new countries.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">This summer we moved into phase three, still on a boat, still cruising, but with a whole different attitude. We are doing a different kind of cruising, something gentler, kinder to one who needs less stress and it’s probably as appropriate to a nervous newbie as it could be to other old-timers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">So what are the differences in this new cruising? Top of the list is more time at marinas. What does this accomplish?</span></div>
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<li style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">First and foremost, a chance to get off the boat and walk around. This is really essential to us actually old, old-timers. Endless days of sitting on the boat are simply not good on the body.Where I used to compensate by swimming almost every day, I no longer care to dunk in colder, murkier, often times fast-moving waters (often laden with stinging critters).</span></li>
<li style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">A chance to more easily meet fellow cruisers. Ask any cruiser what is the best thing about the lifestyle and they will always answer, “the people you meet.”</span></li>
<li style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">A chance to explore what the area has to offer, whether it is a unique restaurant, a chance for local entertainment, learning about the history of a place, or visiting its historical places. Have you been to Brookgreen Gardens south of Myrtle Beach, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston or the book fair in Miami? Have you seen the wonders of Washington, DC, the Visionary Art Museum or the Aquarium right on the harbor in Baltimore? Have you experienced the theater in New York City or the great fishing that’s everywhere? There is no end to the possibilities, but you do have to stop and go ashore to smell the roses.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">The downside for us is that anchoring is quicker and easier than hauling lines, cords and fenders. In the past, anchoring out in some remote place was more exciting, more adventuresome, more like really living the cruising life. But—been there, done that—thousands of times. Now I need the chance to relax and enjoy what’s ashore and take the stress level down</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">If you are a wannabe, or about to change your boat, I must insert here how having what we used to call a marina boat can simplify what the boat you buy must have. Marina boats, like the majority of sportfishing boats, even the larger ones, do not need the amount of anchoring gear, the size of dinghy and motor, the amount of storage space for food or parts, or even the number of guest cabins that a cruising boat that goes off the beaten path and spends the majority of time at anchor must have.They can carry smaller anchors and smaller windlasses, smaller dinghies and engines, have smaller batteries and don’t need watermakers. Food, parts and mechanical help is always available. Guests can always sleep ashore, so even a smaller boat is fine. We all know smaller translates into less expensive and less fuel costs, which helps cover the extra expense of staying at marinas. This brings me to big difference number two in the cruising life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">Big difference number two:</span><br />
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<li style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Staying longer in one place. If you haven’t learned this yet, you should know </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">that staying longer is really much cheaper. We have been in marinas where the price of five nights covered your costs for the rest of the month, where the whole six months winter rate was half to a third of what one month in Florida in the winter would cost. We aren’t going to take advantage of staying north for a whole winter, but we are doing the month or longer reservations.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Staying at least a month or more we can really relax and see things at our leisure, since we are really only good for one big thing a day, maybe every other day. We can get involved with the local scene and meet local people. We can afford to ship our car (the first one owned in over ten years) to where we are staying longest in the first place and then move it ourselves to the second or third place nearby, if we choose to visit more places. If our glasses break, or a tooth falls out, all of which has happened in the last two years, we have help </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">nearby. We do not get out of phone contact. We are again dropping the stress </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">levels, enjoying what we can, but practicing the K.I.S.S. principle.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;"> 3. By sitting still longer, we can also take more time to fix things, (yes, it’s a boat and things still need fixing) without Dave missing meals or sleep over it. I also have more time to plan the what, where and when, and to read and write. It </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">seems like a win/win situation to me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">As an example of how this played out, here are some of our highlights for July into </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">October.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">While on Long Island we got to spend three afternoons at Brookhaven Labs, for </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">their Science Sunday programs on the Synchrotron, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and Functional Nanoparticles. I can’t take the space to explain what phenomenal things these studies are leading to—you will have to Google them yourselves—but only yesterday I read about big advances in finding a cure for Alzheimer’s and it involved just the studies we heard about at Brookhaven on our Nanoparticle visit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">The stand-out star in New York City was </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Pippin, </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">with Patina Miller in the lead, and I don’t know if I have ever seen such a stellar performance. Was it because we were about 10’ from the stage and we could see every sparkle in her eyes? Don’t know, but it was the best ever. Then there was the James Turrel light exhibit at the Guggenheim, like nothing we have ever seen. This wasn’t just looking at something, it was living and feeling it and being immersed in it. We saw paintings at the Metropolitan I had never seen before, and we went to the 92 Street Y where we heard Martin Amis and Ian McEwan read from their latest books (cleverly introduced by Salman Rushdie). Of course, they all talked about their great friend Christopher Hitchens. Can you imagine the sparks flying from great minds like these? Naturally, around every corner is an amazing restaurant, most at very reasonable prices.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">Out on Long Island there is a lot of community theater, but usually with casts from Broadway. We also ran into some film festivals. My best picture award goes to </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Disobedience</span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">, a French-made film about Aristedes Sousa Mendes. I had never heard of the man and most of us haven’t, to our shame, because he was one of the greatest heroes when it came to saving lives during the Nazi era. You would have to find it on Netflix, but it is as good as it gets and so important.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">Long Island is also full of gardens and stately mansions open to the public.This year we visited the Phipps Estate at Old Westbury Gardens and the Guggenheim Estate. Last year it was the Vanderbilt Estate. We will never be able to see them all or to take part in all the special happenings that go on at all of them during the summer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">The buildings in NYC never stop amazing me. There is the Battery, at the foot of Manhattan. You have to pay attention to your boat going up or down the East River, but there is always time for some picture-taking of the bridges, </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">the boats or the buildings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">We ended our summer in Maryland, first at </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">Annapolis, in a super marina called Chesapeake Harbour Marina, with all the amenities of a country club. Being on the doorstep of Washington, DC, we got to go to their big Book Fest on the Mall and had a chance to again see </span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">an excellent production of </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Miss Saigon</span><span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 10pt;">. Next year we want to spend much more time in DC This is another area with so much going on that a whole summer could easily pass away and you would have only scratched the surface. We ended with the SSCA Annapolis Gam on the Rhode River, another winner for Judi Mkam and all those who helped her. Now, after our annual haul-out, the last socializing days are at the Krogen Rendezvous at Solomon’s Island. Then it is back to heavy-duty traveling on our way to Ft. Lauderdale, but I hope I will be able to stick with the plan of stopping at marinas to take a break, take a walk and keep the pressure down. Wish me luck.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ACaslonPro; font-size: 9pt;">COMMODORES BEV AND DAVE FEIGES </span></div>
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Bev and Dave Feiges</div>
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Aboard Cloverleaf</div>
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2525 Marina Bay Drive West</div>
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Ft Lauderdale, FL 33312</div>
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opinions on everything marine<br /><br /><a href="http://beverlyraespeaksout.blogspot.com/">http://beverlyraespeaksout.blogspot.com/</a><br />opinions on everything else</div>
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B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-52568047092707910562014-07-04T11:53:00.003-04:002014-07-04T11:53:44.157-04:00 THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING RADAR<br />
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We have had radar aboard our cruising boats, sail and power, and anyone who prefers to live without radar is a masochist. They may be sailing around in the fog thinking they are avoiding everyone with their skills at listening, and not giving credit to all the boats our there avoiding them, because these boats have radar. Our closest call in the past years was a target on our screen that kept coming at us, no matter how many degrees off course we turned. We were putting out our loud fog signal, but he kept coming at a fast speed. When he finally emerged, close up and personal, it was a small, fast boat with no radar, obviously pursuing us because he must have thought we were a sound emitting buoy. He did a quick turn and disappeared back into the fog.</div>
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B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-2627203437418504692013-10-25T14:56:00.000-04:002013-10-25T14:56:52.043-04:00<br />
Watch for this one in an upcoming SSCA Bulletin.<br />
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A DIFFERENT KIND OF CRUISING-FOR THE YOUNG AT HEART BUT OVER THE HILL CROWD AND THE NERVOUS NEWBIES</div>
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It is an extension of my summer letter on a different kind of cruising and if you are part ov the over the hill crowd, a wannabe or a newbie, this is for you.</div>
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If you don't know about SSCA, google it, talk to fellow cruisers, and join. It is top notch for socializing, for information gathering, and to make you a wiser cruiser faster.</div>
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B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-82568196388681741352013-10-25T14:46:00.000-04:002013-10-25T14:48:35.053-04:00<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"> A DIFFERENT KIND OF CRUISING</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">What's different about this summer's cruising? It is a hurry up so you can sit still kind of cruise, something we have never done before. We hurried up, all the way from the Bahamas to NYC, and now we are in phase one of the sitting still part. Phase two starts in about three weeks, when we hurry backt to the Chesapeake to sit still there n Annapolis and Solomon's Island for about six weeks, when we will get back in hurry up mode and point our bows south to Florida. Meanwhile, we are really enjoying this non cruising part of the summer, so here are the highlights.</span><br />
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The stand out stars, so far have been Pippin, with Patina Miller as the MC, and I don't know if I have ever seen such a stellar performance. Was it because we were about ten feet from the stage and we could see every sparkle inher eyes? Don't know, but it was phenomenal. Next was the movie Disobedience, part of a Jewish Film Fest at the Suffolk JCC. A long drive, but so very worth it. the story of Aristedes Sousa Mendes, a name I had never heard of , but probably more deserving of the Yad Vashem award as Righteous Among the World for the lives he saved as anyone. It is a French film produced for TV, stunningly told, and one I guarantee you will never forget. What a man he was! Net Flix is probably the only way you will get to see it, though it should be shown everywhere.</div>
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Other great things we have seen or been to, in no particular order:</div>
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Brookhaven Laboratory, always a favorite, with a visit to their old and new Synchrotron, where light is speeded up to reduce a beam of light to something so powerful and small that scientists can look into the inner working of proteins and polymers and even computer chips. Last Sunday it was Center for Functional Nanomaterials, with its multimillion dollar electron microscope that can look at things one hundred times smaller than an atom, and next week it will be the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, something very new at Brookhaven.</div>
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Old Westbury Gardens and the Phipps estate. I always love gardens, and tours of famous houses are always interesting.</div>
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, an afternoon spent in the city with Holly and Fritz, followed by dinner in a very nice Turkish restaurant close to the 92 street Y where we went to hear Martin Amis and Ian Mcewan read from their latest books and cleverly introduced by Salmon Rushdie. Of course they all talked about their great friend Christopher Hitchens, also a favorite author of mine. </div>
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Another movie at Suffolk JCC, Hava Nagila, just for fun history of the song, and we found a Japanese restaurant nearby that had the most spectacular Sushi I've ever eaten. Place is called Izumi, just north of Commack. Worth the drive.</div>
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Yesterday we went to the Syd jacobson JCC for their Monday morning News Behind the News discussion. Moderator was brilliant, and the discussion was most informative. </div>
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Today Dave was busy installing a new radar to replace the Broadband radar that was injured in our nearby lightning strike in Palm Beach. Since I did not want to spend money repairing something I have never liked, we got a new open array radar that will display on our chart plotter like the broadband did. You live on a boat, there is always something to fix.</div>
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All of this has been packed into the last ten days since the first ten we were "under the dome of heat" that made just walking to the swimming pool here in the marina almost too much. Thank goodness the heat broke when Holly and Fritz arrived so we could do what we did without melting.</div>
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B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-84790540859536399532011-06-25T15:58:00.007-04:002011-06-25T16:36:48.898-04:00GARMIN MYSTERY MAPSAs an addendum to my previous post, GARMIN CHART PLOTTERS, HAVE THEY LOST THEIR WAY, I thought I would post some pictures of exactly how these charts look, what I call the Garmin mystery maps, to illustrate the point I am making. The purpose of this is to bury Garmin with complaints, so maybe they will do something about it. A pity to ignore a great piece of equipment because they seem to have forgot how to make a navigation chart.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinUHVDQf2j6MdufOcrb8Y-It2-ger0Sir3kOl61CPlu_WFpvhFkb6MYyBDDaqcRRPwNaUmc1obd-MiS4kKzUiKmRTLB6j_Fp3YK9se4coVnBdrcctLJ54s7Pl6SEWd9O7yVP7aYw/s1600/DSCF5603.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinUHVDQf2j6MdufOcrb8Y-It2-ger0Sir3kOl61CPlu_WFpvhFkb6MYyBDDaqcRRPwNaUmc1obd-MiS4kKzUiKmRTLB6j_Fp3YK9se4coVnBdrcctLJ54s7Pl6SEWd9O7yVP7aYw/s400/DSCF5603.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622251878967857346" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Do you recognize any of the names on the chart? I don't. This is the main port of the whole west coast of Florida, Tampa Bay and further south. This is the main cruising area of the west coast of Florida. Here is an example of how a normal map would look.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX5xSxpod5lSmYlIP_ByJ1vNG6gyG8HAI7r_W0wrL2eZaz58TFRcBdIQjoXg9NiZ6BRiJq2Sb9lE3m6udbNAn9cXE9IElMX0SYtwua4vWPex11ux9jrCjeyvAWkvf5D80tAu6D7g/s1600/DSCF5601.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX5xSxpod5lSmYlIP_ByJ1vNG6gyG8HAI7r_W0wrL2eZaz58TFRcBdIQjoXg9NiZ6BRiJq2Sb9lE3m6udbNAn9cXE9IElMX0SYtwua4vWPex11ux9jrCjeyvAWkvf5D80tAu6D7g/s400/DSCF5601.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622253729023555778" /></a><br />I am sorry the pictures aren't as large as I thought, but you can still see Tampa Bay plainly marked, and below that Sarasota Bay and further south Charlotte Harbor and Punt Gorda, the places you would be looking for as you plan a cruise of the west coast. I am sure the names Bird Key or Whiskey Kay, or Perico Island, would mean as little to you as they do to me.<div><br /></div><div>Get on the ball people and write to cartography@garmin.com. If you want more illustrations, I have more, just write and ask, but believe me when I say, this same thing is true of any place you look.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-61861878884683803402011-06-24T14:47:00.002-04:002011-06-24T14:48:58.349-04:00Dolphin Encounter 2Tom Hethrington, the "shooter" of the dolphins playing under our bow, tells me this is a later edited version.<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqYhnbgWgRcB.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-49011629096511616972011-06-12T09:03:00.003-04:002011-06-12T09:07:11.561-04:00M/Y " Cloverleaf " Dolphin Encounter<iframe width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mpAIPjf6CeE?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-55560094935324635632011-06-04T19:47:00.008-04:002011-06-04T20:43:42.039-04:00Refrigerator for the Cruising Boat<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKDzVbTeAqcEYD1MCMhVqzftVLU6xpoXteGlJJPuD9bx0PPdACjEV9opfDWB_BaQrkMO00uDUmznU-h-tgIcBLSXUeBQs4yPRSK3ak6bn0bBD_yU50pnFajzq8Qi_X5xAj6YJ2Dg/s1600/DSCF5572.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 302px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKDzVbTeAqcEYD1MCMhVqzftVLU6xpoXteGlJJPuD9bx0PPdACjEV9opfDWB_BaQrkMO00uDUmznU-h-tgIcBLSXUeBQs4yPRSK3ak6bn0bBD_yU50pnFajzq8Qi_X5xAj6YJ2Dg/s320/DSCF5572.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614523974618729122" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBNKhQtFOlWm_WKUYnXqUNWD40ArttumFiFR1hmsS_UzhhGN6DFYSqsftbXaGUN75gztqjMW-Qi8xNaFlu0mYIPwKXlPgQ0oa4l45uMYw-BMxPISfsGfJsDNGezKJD7xPN88Lmhg/s1600/DSCF5548.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 264px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBNKhQtFOlWm_WKUYnXqUNWD40ArttumFiFR1hmsS_UzhhGN6DFYSqsftbXaGUN75gztqjMW-Qi8xNaFlu0mYIPwKXlPgQ0oa4l45uMYw-BMxPISfsGfJsDNGezKJD7xPN88Lmhg/s320/DSCF5548.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614523960533329314" /></a><br />Our refrigerator/freezer on the Cloverleaf, like the Cloverleaf, is 21 years old. We have owned the boat for the past 11 years, and it has been 11 years of constant appreciation for this super piece of boat equipment. It is a Sun Frost, designed and mostly sold to people who live "off the grid", people, like boaters, who must supply their own power to run electrical appliances. It is not the most beautiful of refrigerators, or one full of great gimmicks, so what makes it so perfect? It is its minimal power drain. We run the Sun Frost off our batteries, and it adds no extra time to our generator charging time, which runs from almost nothing on the days we are traveling and our alternator on the engine charges the batteries, to about two to three hours a day, when we are sitting at anchor. The unit is air-cooled and uses between 60 to 90 amps per day, depending on ambient temperature.<div><br /></div><div>It is when another boater comes aboard and complains about the hours and hours a day, sometimes half the day or more, that he must run his generator to keep his refrigerator happy, that we really realize what a gem we have. We have had to replace a few minor items, like the gaskets around the doors, and recently a glass shelf that Dave broke while cleaning. It is not self defrosting, and we had to make our own "drawers" using inexpensive plastic storage boxes, but these are small trade offs for the freedom of not running the generator any more than we would, if we just had an old fashioned ice box.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can find Sun Frost at <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; "><a href="http://www.sunfrost.com/">www.sunfrost.com</a> or write to them at </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; "><a href="mailto:info@sunfrost.com">info@sunfrost.com</a></span></div><div>Hope this information will help you choose refrigeration you can live with, on your motor boat or sailboat.</div>B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-45300600819753568212011-05-14T09:45:00.002-04:002011-05-20T17:40:26.359-04:00GARMIN CHARTPLOTTERS: HAVE THEY LOST THEIR WAY?<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>GARMIN CHART PLOTTERS: HAVE THEY LOST THEIR WAY?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I have owned a Garmin Touch Screen Chart Plotter since late 2007, and thought it was god’s gift to boaters. No more, since my original was switched for a newer version recently, when I had locking up issues. I want everyone who has a Garmin, or everyone considering buying a Garmin to look at the pre-loaded charts and see if you see what I see. If you see what I am going to describe, then be forewarned before you buy, or if you own one, complain vigorously to Garmin, and maybe this once fine product can be turned back into a proper chart plotter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If you are only planning to cruise inside the Intercoastal Water Way, you will have no issue, but for those of you planning offshore hops, or long range planning to islands in the Bahamas, there are serious issues.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Let me describe overall what I mean, and then in some detail. When I look at a map, one that covers anything from the whole coast line of Florida, or from Florida to the Chesapeake, I would expect to see major cities on the coast, and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>major harbor entrances. For instance, going up the coast of Florida, Key West, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Ft. Pierce, Jacksonville, Fernandina, all having first class entrances, should be named. When you zoom in another level, more of the minor entrances, still reasonably safe, should be named. The closer in you go, the more detail it is possible to put on the chart, the more harbor entrances of lesser quality can be detailed, along with smaller towns, bridges and their details, until you get down to the information critical to those traveling the waterways. But lets stick with the major maps, the ones I have issues with.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I will pick just a few places to illustrate the point I am making, starting with Palm Beach and Lake Worth Inlet. Starting at the 30 mile scale, which shows the whole east coast of Florida from Miami to Jacksonville, both on the chart in the smallest letters possible, you are also given, Delray Beach, Pine Island, Kid Creek, Landing Strip. That’s it folks for a whole coast with four more major entrances left unindicated.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">At the 20 mile scale, from Miami to 230 NM north you now see, Miami, in small letters, Ojus, large letters, Boca Raton, large letters, Lantana, even larger and in all caps, Everglades I. and Munyon I., in large letters as is Corset I., John’s I., Troust Creek, small, Tortoise I., large, then Cocoa, all caps, and Titusville-Cocoa Airport. Nothing else is indicated from there north to Jacksonville, written<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in very small letters.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">At 12 miles, zeroing in on the Palm Beach area you still have Lantana, in caps, and Munyon I. north to Corset I.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">At 8 miles Lantana has disappeared, instead you have Boynton Beach, in caps, Airport, then five miles north of that, Palm Beach International Airport, then on the coast in small letters some details on a red bouy and a red and white marker. North of that is Munyon Island.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">At 5 mile scale, Lantana is back on the map, still in caps, Hunters I, Palm Beach Internatinal, and then Little Munyon I.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">At 3 mile scale, going 9 miles north and south of Lake Worth Inlet, still unnamed, you have, Bascule Bridge, 33 Ft. at Center, in caps, West Palm Beach, in caps, Tarpon I, , and then small notes, such as Foul, Dump sites anhorage area, Wks PA. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">You cannot check on these notes by zooming in since there are more and more of the I signs indicating info, and so often, what is on one scale is omitted on the next. Note the place names, which come and go.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">At 2mile scale, going from 5 miles south to 5 miles north, you have Everglades i. , medium size, Royal Park Bascule Bridge, Flagler Memorial Bascule Bridge (at Center), all in caps, Lake Mangonia, small letters, then the notes at sea surrounding the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>entrance, still unnamed, Wks PA, North Palm Beach Waterway, very small, and Signs.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A mark with LW shows at the 1.2 mile scale, and the name Lake Worth Inlet finally shows in very small letters at the .5 mile scale but not near the inlet. The name shows, right in the inlet, at the .3 mile scale.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you go to the west coast of Florida it is the same story, islands you never heard of which will come and go at different scales, and the only recognizable name is Sarasota. Tampa Bay, great and mighty Tampa Bay, or Tampa/St. Pete, Naples, Charlotte Harbor Ft. Meyers, Marco island, don’t show up until you are in a very small scale. You have to go to the 2 mile scale to find the names of Tampa<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and St. Pete, It is worth going in step by step on Tampa Bay to see what I mean.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Even the Bahama islands will leave major islands unnamed, like Long island, Crooked Island or Acklins Island. Pigeon Cay is the only identifier on Long Island at the 30 mile scale. I suspect this wide spot on what looks like was part of the salt pan dyke system<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>was some one’s idea of a joke. The<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>major town, Clarence Town is not named until the 800 feet scale, and Salt Pond, the other major settlement is never named, although Salt Pond Cay is, and Thompson Bay makes it in in small letters at the .5 mile scale.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">If someone could make sense of this for me, I would appreciate hearing. Why one area is given multiple names, but not the initial important one you need, I will never understand. Final example, Final example, <span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:ArialMT">Port Royal Sound, a major entrance is marked at first Otter Island, then Hunting I on the 30 mile scale. Then it becomes Morgan Island on the 20 mile scale, then Lemon I. and Bay Point on the 12 mile scale, then Morgan, Hunting and Lemon I. are all on the 8 mile scale, Beaufort County Airport shows on the 5 mile scale, so you get a cue of where you are, Port Royal Sound finally shows on the ,8 mile scale.</span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:ArialMT"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:ArialMT">Please protest to Garmin for me and for your own sake, if you want one of the best, most inexpensive chart plotters, but loaded with proper maps. As cruisers, we don’t need local airports before harbors, or islands reachable only by kayaks or canoes. If you only do the ICW, as I said before, this is not an issue, but if you are a stranger in a strange land or planning off shore jumps, it sure is.</span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <!--EndFragment-->B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-55559781726417123172011-01-25T11:45:00.002-05:002011-01-25T11:49:30.636-05:00A COLLECTION OF THINGS WE'VE LEARNED<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>BOATER BEV’S BLOG</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>A COLLECTION OF THINGS WE’VE LEARNED </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It took a long time for us to realize that running our boat at normal cruising speed, seven to nine knots, in shallow water, under nine feet, not only caused a distinct rumbling sound, serving as an excellent depth sounder, but caused the back of the boat to sink, so our swim platform submerged. We found it was common knowledge among tug boat captains, but it was a slow learning process for us.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">For those of you who bring an anchor into a hawse pipe, and the anchor must be brought up and face the right direction to house it, rather than try to lean over with a long pole poking at it to turn it about, just back up as you bring it aboard, and it will automatically turn facing the way you need it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Here’s how to clean your anchor quickly, when it wants to bring a big sample of the bottom aboard with it. When it comes off the bottom, and has come up a few feet, give it a quick drop. This assumes you are in clear water where you can see what is happening, and you are not moving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If any thing remains on the anchor, backing will help clean it, without banging it on the hull. Of course you must have a wash down on the chain as it comes aboard, and it still pays to stand by with a hose in hand. Best of all, if your boat didn’t come with an enclosure that keeps the dirty water from running down the deck, you can often build your own, and cut some scuppers in the toe rails at the low point of the blocked area, so the dirty water runs overboard. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Don’t mix metals in your twelve volt wiring, such as using a stainless washer on your battery terminal bolts. Use a copper washer to match the copper wiring. If possible, use copper or bronze bolts on the battery terminal. This is really important with your major twelve volt wiring, not so much with the minor wires, although you may lose some power. Check for the extra heat generated, with your infrared thermometer. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Buy an infrared thermometer, if you don’t have one. Any good hardware store has them. They have multiple uses, such as measuring the changes in temperatures in your water and oil in your engine, and your exhaust temperatures. Remember the water temperature in your engine will change, as you go from area to area with sea temperature changes.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Get all the manuals for all your equipment. Know who made the components. Most equipment you buy, from your engines to your watermakers are assembled of other manufactures equipment, not built by the name of the company on the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>item. When you need a replacement part, it can be quicker and always cheaper to buy from the manufacturer of it, or a major parts supplier such as Grainger, rather than the company who assembled the item. Be sure you have aboard a Grainger catalog, a West Marine catalog, and a Defender catalog. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">With very few exceptions, never anchor with two anchors. The exceptions are anchoring in a tidal sluice way, where you place one anchor upstream and one down stream, or if in a heavy gusting situation where your boat is being batted from one side and then the other, and the motion is miserable. This happened to us just once in thirty two years. Last exception is a very tight anchorage, where those around you have two anchors out. Best is to avoid these places, the risk is too great. Most times when we see someone anchored with two anchors, we know he, or his anchors, are not to be trusted, and we move away.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Get some means of communicating with your partner that is hands free, to be used when anchoring or going into a slip. We bought the combination microphone and ear phone set, the first ones at FAO Schwartz, the second set at an SSCA Gam. The two sets were the same equipment, but the first ones were half the price.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Both have proved invaluable. Best part of the second set is the soft case that came with it, which keeps the off switch from being moved to on accidentally. Doesn’t help if we just forget to turn them off</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It is important to have your name on your boat so it can be read, by either a boat along side of you or astern, if you want other boats to communicate with you. This is really necessary in passing situations. It doesn’t help if it is on the stern and then you put your dinghy blocking it. It doesn’t help to have these pretty varnished name boards with the lettering in gold, only okay for someone strolling by your boat while it’s tied to a dock. Forget fancy lettering, just get that name big and bold, two places, on the stern and somewhere on the side of your boat. The test is, can it be read by anyone a decent distance off.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Next important thing is to have your radio on and where you can hear it while you are traveling. All this is really vital when you are traveling in close quarters like on the waterway, and it might save your boat someday when someone<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>is trying to warn you of your proximity to danger. This happened years ago off Long island in the Bahamas when John McKie from his perch overlooking an eastward reef could not reach the boat heading for it. There is no excuse these days not to be able to communicate right from the cockpit, but I can’t believe the boats who still do not respond to calls.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Last resort to communicate your intentions in a passing situation is to use the horn. I can almost guarantee that when I do, like give a one toot, meaning I am putting my bow to starboard, the boat in front of me will move to starboard himself. Learn your passing signals and signal back to show you understand. I hate to use horn signals because of that, I hate going past someone at full tilt, but if I cannot get their attention, I have no choice but to pick the side I want, maintain a speed that gets me past as quickly as possible, and hope they don’t do something incredibly stupid. If you want a slow pass, you have to slow down yourself, and you have to be able to hear the request.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I have said this before, but it’s been a number of years. If you want to really sail your sail boat, you must have a downwind pole for those wonderful downwind days. If you can’t wing out your jib, or really effectively pole out that downwind sail, you will be rolling around with just a main or just a jib, not making enough speed to get where you want to go. Sails set on both sides of the boat keep you from rolling and keep you moving. If you want to sail upwind, you must get a well cut sail, use new technology like full battens, and learn how to set your sails. Get some sail boat racer, or a sail maker to go out with you and help you get the maximum potential from your boat, for those lovely light wind days. Know how to reduce sail on those days she’s really honking, so you’ve got the speed but can still be comfortable. You are not just a trawler with a high antenna. if you paid all that extra money for a sailing rig, learn how to use it. Too much effort? Save the money you would spend on a sailing rig, and buy a trawler, more space, more comfort, and the extra money buys you fuel.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you really lust to live aboard for long stretches, away from marinas, make sure the other part of the crew shares your enthusiasm, and they have what it takes to keep them comfortable. They must be able to go to bed at night knowing their chance of dragging is all but nil. Twice in ten years is once too often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Keep them warm and dry, keep them out of extreme weather unless they are really up to adventure, let the one least comfortable make the decisions of when you go, and where you go. Both people must have the tools they need to make their jobs easier. A well equipped galley for the cook, the latest in navigation tools for the navigator, everything the chief engineer needs to keep things running, ways for everyone to communicate, room for the fun stuff, like books, music, and sports equipment. I’m learning life goes on without TV, since ours died, and maybe even<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>better. The boat must have power, who wants to live without lights, refrigeration, or hot water for long periods of time? Figure out what each person must have or can learn to live without before you commit to long term cruising. Sometimes one person must have their time away from the boat, or they don’t want to make the long passages; you would be surprised how many boats are out there cruising for years, but making the accommodations so each stays within their comfort zone. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">We have learned that equipment keeps improving. We all know that it is hard to keep up with the advances in computers and cell phones. The same is true of so much of our major equipment. I wish we had never spent the money we did trying to maintain our old windlass, and having the two years of aggravations we had in the process. At its best the old one was half the tool the new one is. Same was true of our old generator; years of putting up with soot and smell, and repeated failures to find all the money spent trying to keep the old one going might as well have gone immediately into replacing it. The only time we were smart was when we listened to someone older and wiser tell us we didn’t have the time to be messing around with an old main engine, and we replaced it after the first big failure. We’ve had ten years and about 40,000 miles of trouble free running. We are about to replace our autopilot, probably designed 15 to 20 years ago. It’s beginning to have some faults, and we know a new one has got to be so much better. Beside, getting parts for older equipment no longer made only works for antique restorers.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Get rid of everything you aren’t using, or are carrying because someday, you might need it and maybe it will work. Usually it won’t. Nothing makes living easier in tight spaces as getting rid of the clutter. How many small boats do we see carrying a small hard dinghy, the one they never use, and a small inflatable they do use. Better one good inflatable, and one good storage method-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>out of the water. Unless you really make long offshore passages, you don’t need extra sails. Keep the ones you have well maintained, check them out with a sailmaker every year, treat them right. Give the clothes you haven’t worn in years to someone who needs them. Don’t keep foodstuffs you aren’t using around for long periods of time. It isn’t that they get bad, though some do, but they lose their food value, just like old medicines can lose their efficacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As Dave always says when asked by someone what their needs, “A dumptser.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The learning process never ends, I am sure a month from now or a year from now, I could add a host of other things, which I will try to do, if I can remember.</p> <!--EndFragment-->B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-29824819079489719052010-12-25T15:19:00.005-05:002010-12-25T16:57:06.817-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipc7UOgoB3adJGG1_uMMS7NEgfDLWZ7ODx4VsizsF8Z0yqgjckeDfsM-1ipiBT8x6K0Trjp_oOHmySokt_6UoUZ0sG25otfFeIs8HqootCeWA5WUaSMMZ1Q4t3WrxPN2HZbng3Dw/s1600/DSCF5030.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipc7UOgoB3adJGG1_uMMS7NEgfDLWZ7ODx4VsizsF8Z0yqgjckeDfsM-1ipiBT8x6K0Trjp_oOHmySokt_6UoUZ0sG25otfFeIs8HqootCeWA5WUaSMMZ1Q4t3WrxPN2HZbng3Dw/s320/DSCF5030.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554741021044830578" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5QcYEqpLTqoAGYp0ac8THyjMNdCVJYMW15tmbydAPLltnzJeCW97_kEVPDZ71qKtq18wQDFfyja_kJJOHlLMwqcHKSbUSzvbJ2CMdsU0C-c3LOKVvbKlb9f7TeuUSVzTgSgltUw/s1600/DSCF5028.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5QcYEqpLTqoAGYp0ac8THyjMNdCVJYMW15tmbydAPLltnzJeCW97_kEVPDZ71qKtq18wQDFfyja_kJJOHlLMwqcHKSbUSzvbJ2CMdsU0C-c3LOKVvbKlb9f7TeuUSVzTgSgltUw/s320/DSCF5028.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554741017051496530" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPg8fLHAEzHcI8EpI76iZ6ifX28CjJf7XwMTmZnDR_DvZNrPpm5Bv5xZk39Qt9Fw6Ll6WD4THMiDlhV8BZuOF5KNSYaqskuilowx7ckZN2hPuJzsAwV64mjcndavjGr_QSDERMDA/s1600/DSCF5025.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPg8fLHAEzHcI8EpI76iZ6ifX28CjJf7XwMTmZnDR_DvZNrPpm5Bv5xZk39Qt9Fw6Ll6WD4THMiDlhV8BZuOF5KNSYaqskuilowx7ckZN2hPuJzsAwV64mjcndavjGr_QSDERMDA/s320/DSCF5025.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554741012521585634" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>NEW ANCHOR WINDLASS<div><br /></div><div>After three frustrating years of anchor windlass problems, involving money spent at marinas when we normally would have been anchoring, and money spent trying to fix the problems, even taking the boat to the door step of Ideal Windlass in Narragansett Bay, we finally got smart and put the money and effort where we should have in the first place, and bought a new Maxwell Windlass. </div><div><br /></div><div>Any anchor windlass is going to get a major work out with our life style, which means moving constantly, usually a new anchorage every day or three, and anchoring as many times at it takes in any one spot to satisfy us that the anchor is truly and properly set. Our anchors weigh 200 pounds each and the chain is very heavy, and the boat is even heavier, close to seventy tons, so our windlass must be a workhorse. </div><div><br /></div><div>We looked for a model that fit as closely as possible our existing holes in the deck for our hawse pipes, where the anchors are pulled in and the chain goes over the roller and travels <i>forward</i> to the holes where the chain runs down into the chain locker. This is contrary to how most systems are run, so we had to check out everything. We also wanted to deal with a company that was not just a one man operation, a lesson learned form our past experience. Doesn't matter how good the product is or was, eventually the one man can't keep up.</div><div><br /></div><div>We met the salesman for Maxwell at the 2010 SSCA Gam in Melbourne this November, and his product looked like a good fit both for our existing structure, and had what we desired, a separate horizontal gypsy for each of our different sized anchor chains, and a rope windlass to sit on top of the housing of the horizontal motors. His firm, Florida Rigging was based in Riviera Beach Florida, and we decided to go Cracker Boy Marina there, and let them do the installation. Having someone experienced with the product is bound to save time and money.</div><div><br /></div><div>While we waited for the windlass to come, we shipped off our anchors and chain for re-galvanizing. That went slick as can be, and saved a lot of money over buying new chain. So what is the outcome?</div><div><br /></div><div>We are pleased punch! The speed of deployment and retrieval is so fast compared to the old windlass, 44 seconds instead of 2 minutes for 50 feet, that the job seems over before it's really begun. The re-falvanizing has eliminated most of the clean up. Now if we can just have a couple of trouble free years. so I can relax like I did for the eight years of infallible service, (add this to the 10 years it worked for the previous owner) we had with the old Ideal. I think this is also an example of how most all our equipment improves over the years, and if you can afford to replace any of your old stuff, chances are you will be glad you did.</div><div><br /></div><div>PICTURES ON TOP- NOT WHERE I WANTED- ARE OF THE DECK PREPARED, THE WINDLASS BEING LIFTED ABOARD, AND DAVE AND THE INSTALLER FINISHING UP THE JOB.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div>B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-38653787818595646472010-08-23T18:45:00.005-04:002010-08-25T17:57:22.262-04:00<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>SURVIVING AND ENJOYING A MAINE CRUISE<div><br /></div><div>I seem to be alone in this, but Maine is not one of my favorite places to cruise. I have always had three objections:</div><div>1. The water is too cold for comfortable daily swimming. Since this is my favorite form of exercising, swimming is important to me.</div><div>2. Fog. I have never enjoyed the adventure of groping through the fog, and now it is even more stressful.</div><div>3. Lobster pots. While I enjoy eating lobster, weaving between the swarms of pots that now exist, means there is no relaxing, no chance to enjoy the scenery, just total concentration on what is immediately ahead of you.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why go to Maine at all? You may be the one among the multitude that falls in love with the scenery, the uniqueness that is Maine. You may want to spend a cool summer and not battle the heat. You may enjoy the challenges of navigating in fog and dodging the obstacles. You just might want something different. Why do I go? Because so many friends are cruising there, Because my son and family, which includes my youngest grandchildren spend two weeks there every summer. Because the local people are simply wonderful, and I do love lobster, especially when the price is so right. I certainly suggest you give a Maine cruise a try if you have never been, and here are my suggestions for surviving the challenges that can make it all too much if you are like me.</div><div><br /></div><div>THE COLD WATER. It's cold for sure, has averaged 62 degrees most of the time we have been here. There are differences in locales; far up the rivers or n shallower pools, you may find warmer water, water that makes it up to 68 degrees, my lower limit. Have a wet suit of some type if you are totally determined. Find a resort with a heated pool, like Linekin Bay Resort, where you can anchor and pay a day fee, or take a mooring, if you prefer. Not too many places like this, but they do exist, enquire around. Substitute walking in the comfortable weather as your major exercise. </div><div><br /></div><div>THE FOG: The first law for cruising in foggy country, if you are a wuss like me, is AVOID WHENEVER POSSIBLE. The weather in Maine is mostly fine, mostly light to no winds, never too hot, but fog can form. Listen closely to the forecasts; when you hear those words patchy fog or fog possible, stay put, or move during the part of the day that they are not calling for fog. Prime rule for surviving the Maine cruise and <i>enjoying</i> it, is be flexible, and do not have a tight schedule, so you can wait for the sunny days to travel. If you do get caught, and sooner or later you will, have a radar, and know how to use it, have a fog horn and have your radio tuned to 16, so you can broadcast your position, and listen to those who are giving theirs. Plot your course as far off the beaten path as possible to avoid the majority of traffic, skip the wiggling through the island obstacle courses that can be fun on a clear day, and try to plan your passage to stay as much inland as possible, since it may be clear there. Go slow, have two of you at the helm, one running the boat, the other the radar man, with his, or her eyes glued to the radar set. If you go ashore in the evening, leave plenty of lights on in the mother ship, know what direction you took going to shore, and have a compass in the dinghy if you find yourself groping your way back. A radio is a good thing also. Nothing beats just waiting out the fog, plan your cruise so this is possible.</div><div><br /></div><div>THE LOBSTER POTS: If you enjoy lobster where the price is right, then you have to have a positive attitude toward most of the pots. I see no excuse for placing them in a channel going under a bridge, or a narrow, tricky passage, but they are usually there. So start by protecting your boat. A long keel with either a small space between the back of the keel and the rudder, or a shoe that runs from the keel to the rudder post will prevent most lines from getting wound up in your prop, the worst scenario. If this does happen to you, I've been told reversing may back the line off. Don't know for sure, never happened to us so far. If you have stabilizers, put something in front of them to keep the lines from getting between the stabilizer and the hull, and then keep the stabilizer in standby if possible. This has worked for us. We did catch pots on our stabilizers three times in the past. This year our score is zip. Thirdly learn to use your binoculars to look ahead, and figure out where there is a clear channel, though it may be narrow, or the area with far fewer pots than others. Sometimes this is along the shore, sometimes it is close to a course around a buoy that everyone must round, and sometimes you simply get out of phase and can't find anything but a web of pots. That's where you <i>press on regardless,</i> and hope for the best.</div><div><br /></div><div>A big change in cruising Maine from our first time thirty years ago is the impossibility of anchoring in so many places, because of the proliferation of moorings and pots. Study your guides, pick brains, use internet sites and identify where you can anchor, if that is your preference, or where there is a possibility that you can get a mooring, or a marina berth if the pocketbook allows. It really helps to do some planning. It seems to be a routine to take any empty mooring, and if the owner comes along, you relinquish it. We don't do this. You never know what size boat the mooring was designed to handle, and how well it has been maintained. Granted it is calm about 95% of the time at night, which is why most people get away with this.</div><div><br /></div><div> So back to the planning board, the backbone of your survival tools for your Maine cruise. If you want to anchor, know the places where anchoring is no problem. If there are places you just must go to and can't anchor, make sure you can get a mooring or a slip. Plan your cruise to stay longer in fewer places, so you have plenty of time to wait out bad conditions, and less time spent traveling. It is not the joy of relaxing and appreciating the scenery it once was, so make what is is, work for you. Join a group cruise of some sort. We were part of two groups, and participated in two rendezvous. The planning that goes into these cruises multiples your enjoyment, and the sociability can't be beat. We would never have known the pleasure of seeing the Maine Botanical Gardens, or enjoyed an evening at the Acadia Theater at the head of Soames Sound, or found some of the great restaurants we did, if someone else hadn't done their homework. If we come back next year to join friends and family, I will enjoy it more knowing what to expect and how to plan where we will go and how to keep the frustrations to a minimum.</div><div><br /></div><div>. </div>B.R. Feigeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00412606126253683669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-9073861737717985272010-05-11T10:53:00.000-04:002010-05-11T10:53:39.293-04:00CRUISING INTO THE GOLDEN YEARS: PART TWO<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>CRUISING INTO THE GOLDEN YEARS:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PART TWO</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Compensating for Health Issues</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Okay, we are on the downhill slide, but think of these as your “coasting years”, like with sledding or skiing, coasting, going with the flow, can be the easy part. You just relax, take the bumps when they come, but don’t stop going. You do have to dress for the weather, choose the easier path, and keep you equipment, i.e. your body, in as good shape as possible. All these things are related.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One of the things we do as active cruisers, always on the move, is practice “catch me if you can” medical care. We would drop in to see our doctor, and I can’t tell you how many different doctors in different places, tell him or her we would be in the area for anything from a week to a month, and let them give us a hurried up exam to make sure the sword of Damocles wasn’t hanging over our heads. If you are a likely candidate for a heart attack or stroke, something that would leave your partner or crew in a potentially dangerous situation, you want to know about it, and choose where you cruise differently, (the easiest path). You want to tend to things you can help, like joints that may make you more prone to falls, and for sure you want to get really serious about how much, and what you eat and drink. This is the voice of wisdom learned a bit too late. Be very serious about this; my favorite self help book on the subject, Mindless Eating.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you grow older, and if more things crop up, you will have to give more time to taking care of yourself, just like you do your boat, as it ages. But like the boat, know what your doctor is recommending you take, why, and what are its downsides. You are your own best defense, against bad work on the boat and bad advice from your doctor, especially if you aren’t on the scene for the follow up exams. It isn’t his entire fault when you are asking him to do things in a hurry. If things get more serious, you may have to cruise with a short leash, but it doesn’t mean you can’t still roam the world, just not all at once. The cruising life is by its nature about as healthy a life style as you can choose. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You have to think of medical issues even harder the further you go from home waters, especially if you go foreign, but as Dave loves to say, “You don’t fall off the edge of the world when you leave the United States.” All over the world you will find medical care on a par or even better than our own. If you are on Medicare, or insurance that will only cover you in the USA, you will find yourself weighing the decision of which costs more, a standard check up somewhere else that may be less than your air line ticket, or pay for the ticket and see the kids and grandkids at the same time. If it is an emergency, requiring long time care, it is very nice to have bought DAN insurance, an acronym that stands for Divers Alert Network. Look into what they have to offer, in terms of transporting you back, or what else might be out there. You have to think about these things, and be prepared for more things possibly going wrong; just think of it as part of the adventure. To quote from Ulysses again:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 18.0pt;">How dull it is to pause, to make an end,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 18.0pt;">To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 18.0pt;">I know you are familiar with “Use it or lose it”, and it’s true of our minds, our bodies and our boats.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Choosing the Easier Path</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">To get back to choosing the easier path, where are you going to cruise? I don’t think too many of you are thinking of motoring yourself around the world, and chances are very good, you shouldn’t. But that does not mean you can’t see the whole world. That is the function of yacht transporters, like Dockwise, or Yacht Path, to get you to those far off places, that are so fascinating, where you can see a whole other part of the world, while still staying in more protected waters, needing only short passage times. To me, short used to be 48 hours; last year I decided 36 hours was a long enough stretch. We can travel three hundred miles in thirty-six hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of territory can be covered in these short chunks, more than is required in most of the great cruising grounds. That is what defines great cruising grounds, lots of places to explore, close together, minimal passage time between protected anchorages or harbors. We crossed the whole Med with just two overnights. We could get all the way to Trinidad without any passage being as much as twenty four hours, and only a few of those or do it the easy way; ship it down and come back with the seas behind you. Years ago a book was written about doing just that called Isles to Windward, the author, a great sailor, but still looking for that downhill sleigh ride. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As we get older and everything seems to take more time, a very simple day can be exciting enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can keep the tire out of the re-tire-ment years. Unless we have company, we often lie in bed until eight, listening or watching the news, (our favorites, Morning Joe and NPR, then a leisurely breakfast, usually on the back deck, admiring our container grown flowers, and reading aloud a chapter in a book. Right now it’s one of our David Sedaris books, the second one this month. By ten we are ready to go to work on whatever projects are at hand. Today was a writing day for me; it was an all day Labor Day for Dave changing the watermaker membranes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yesterday it was a second round of coffee with old cruising buddies, and then some simple projects, and a lovely snorkel on the reefs on the outside of our island anchorage. The day before that was a minimal work day, fixing the wash machine for Dave so I could get some laundry done, and then a long afternoon’s lunch in a new and lovely setting ashore with a group of sailing friends, old and new. Each day has been a joy, in a quiet and relaxing manner. Mix these up with company weeks, weeks with children and grand children, and old friends, 18 people so far since the beginning of the year, when days are much more adventurous, seeing and doing whatever is interesting, wherever we are. Then there are the longer distance traveling days, the days spent playing motorboat captain and crew as we travel our usual couple thousand miles a year, and then the time spent exploring areas new to us. </div><div class="MsoNormal">In hindsight we realize we had a great winter just staying at the marina in Florida last winter, in spite of the health issues that kept us there, and the cold weather that made even using our heated pool impossible. There is just so much on offer in a larger, vibrant community, when just walking beaches hunting shells has lost its luster. No matter where we are, on a boat, life is always interesting.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>DRESSING FOR THE WEATHER</div><div class="MsoNormal">By dressing for the weather I mean, keeping yourself comfortable. Another favorite Dave expression is, “To me, well dressed is warm and dry.” I covered a lot of this in section one, the need for heat of some sort when it is cold, and air conditioning when it is hot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your tolerance for weather extremes goes way south, as you should, when you grow older. You know how you used to make fun of the old ladies saying they have to change seats in a restaurant because they feel a draft? Well now, we are they.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We get by comfortably on our boat with a reverse cycle air conditioner, and a couple of heat cubes. Most times we are at anchor so if it is a hot, sticky time, we save our generation time, usually two to three hours daily, for the evenings, when we can keep the bugs out, (especially no see’ums) we get the boat cooled down and dried out, and often with the edition of fans, this will keep us comfortable most of the night. Most times when we have needed heat, like our winters aboard in the Med, we have been in a marina with power, so the reverse cycle worked great to give us a quick shot of heat in the early morning, and then our heat cubes would keep us warm enough during the day. The point is, if you aren’t comfortable, you are not going to enjoy the life style, or you will not want to live aboard full time. This is a perfectly acceptable option, and actually the choice most people make. Even my mother would never give up her condo ashore to live full time on their boat. It was her safety net. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Keep in mind the devastating effects of too much sun. Sunscreen, hats, sleeves and pant legs, (they also protect from bugs) are your friends. Also awnings, and mesh sunshades covering whatever windows they will work on, and as drop down shades on your covered decks. Please remember to put UVA and UVB blocking film on your large inside windows, even if they are tinted. You can’t believe the difference this can make, in terms of protecting you, your furniture, and just keeping you cooler.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Choose your clothes wisely. Keep them simple, preferably not needing dry cleaning or ironing. If at all possible, have a washer and dryer aboard. Impossible to calculate how much time and energy that will save you. Choose clothes that can be layered up and down, and as few as possible. The space you can save in a hanging locker can be used for that washer /dryer. Don’t forget to have aboard that one item that will take you to a funeral, a sudden meeting, or anything else where you won’t have time to shop but must make a nice appearance. Unlike shore life where you don’t want to be seen in the same thing over and over again, the same people will rarely see you over and over again, and they won’t care anyway. Forget the foul weather gear you associated with sail boating. You are going to be steering from inside some sot of shelter, whether up or down, and if up isn’t protected now, make it so.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Protect yourself from insects. Their bites may make you very uncomfortable and also spread some nasty diseases. Have screens for all openings, use bug repellant where you must, learn some tricks for keeping them away, like burning mosquito coils when you want dinner on the back deck, or burning a bit of coffee in a saucer as a deterrent to bees. Amazing how well this works. If you like to get in the water as a daily form of exercise, and you are going to be where there are “stingers” in the water, get s fully covering nylon suit, or “skin”. Mine unfortunately is not quite thick enough, and the nasty flies that like to attack me can bite right through it. I would also look for a lighter color, mosquitoes and flies like darker clothes.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Most of what I am saying applies to boaters of any age; it’s just even more important when your tolerance levels, and your energy levels go lower, and everything requires more effort. You are cruising for adventure, for a chance to see and experience and taste new things, and don’t forget, for the FUN OF IT. If you have to give up all the things that made life easier and comfortable back home, you may quickly lose the fun of it, and this is even truer in the golden years. Keep compensating, the Golden Rule, for what you’ve lost, so that you can keep on cruising, keep on enjoying, keep on living.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment-->Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-8943468133504577642010-05-01T16:35:00.001-04:002010-05-01T16:37:13.986-04:00CRUISING INTO THE GOLDEN YEARS<div class="MsoNormal"> CRUISING INTO THE GOLDEN YEARS</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Who says there is a time limit to when you can start or must stop cruising? It’s like anything else in life, if you feel like doing it, if you are willing to compensate for whatever handicaps age has brought you, you can go cruising. You can do it well and comfortably, you just have to make the right choices. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">First thing is to be realistic about the changes that living long years have probably dealt you. In the words of my favorite poem, Ulysses by Tennyson</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">We are not now that strength which in old days<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">One equal temper of heroic hearts,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.</span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">You are not going to be as strong, or as agile, or as indefatigueable, you are not going to see as well or hear as well, you will not tolerate extreme heat or cold, or too much sun. You want and need more of your creature comforts, so how do you compensate? Just like you don’t sleep on the ground in a pup tent anymore, but can still enjoy being in the great outdoors traveling in an RV. Forget you were passionate about sailing, unless you have a full time crew, or an occasional berth on someone else’s boat. I went into detail about this in an article in PassageMaker magazine, but it boils down to your inability to handle a mast that fell over and is trying to punch a hole in your boat, or going up to the top of the mast to change a necessary light or repair a halyard, or scrunching into the essential mechanical places that always need maintenance and repairs. If you do scrunch and bend and spend long periods on your knees one day, you are going to be shot down for the next three. If you already own a sailboat, you can compensate by motoring, which is what so many sailors do anyway. My good friend Ruth, whose husband is ninety says, “Just think of us as a trawler with masts”. But what I am saying is, if you are buying a boat, BUY YOURSELF A MOTOR BOAT!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In cruising, it doesn’t matter how you got to paradise, and the great cruising grounds are truly paradise, it’s the fact that you are there. You could have sailed all your life, and loved nothing more than the “wheel’s kick, and the wind’s song”, but there is a life, a cruising life, a messing about in boat’s life after sailing. Most of us on trawlers are a case in point. You will have more space, at a time in life when you need more space, you will have more of the creature comforts, when these can become necessities, you will have a dedicated engine room, and don’t cheat on the size of the engine room or cram it full with more than you need in an engine. Remember scrunching days are over. You will not have to risk your life going out on deck to reef a sail in adverse conditions when your sense of balance is less than it once was, you won’t have to be wet, or cold, or too hot, or swatting flies. Instead, you will sit in your dry, heated or cooled pilot house, turning on the wipers if it rains, all your controls at your finger tips, and life, your cruising life, goes happily on. When it’s dinner time you won’t have to dumpster dive into your top loading refrigerator, and when it’s bed time, you won’t have to hoist yourself up into a small bunk, or crawl over your partner if your lucky enough to still have one. Your engine room will be easy to get into, around and about and out of, as you do your daily checks, and you should be able to see all sides of your engine. Granted, you will have more of all the goodies, meaning not just a nicer life style, but more things to maintain and fix, but it will be so much easier to do.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I hope I have convinced you, that if you are into the ‘golden years”, over 65, to think only of what kind of <span style="font-family: 'Arial Bold Italic';"><i>motor boat</i></span> you are going to get. I know at 65 you can be quite capable of the sailing life, but if you look ahead, by 70 to 75, it will be difficult, and changing to another type of boat at that point is really tough. Don’t think a motor boat is necessarily simple. Generally speaking, you will have more mechanical features, meaning more stuff to learn how to use and to maintain, although the maintenance does not require strength and agility, just keeping your mind nimble.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now what kind of boat will you buy, or what should you do to your present boat to compensate for those years? Let’s start with the second question first., what to do with what you have, to keep you cruising, because these are the same things you may have to add to any new boat you buy.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">1.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Simplify: Dave’s usual answer when asked. “What does my boat need?” is short and sweet, “A dumpster.” Don’t make your boat a repository for everything you might possibly need someday. A cluttered boat, cluttered lockers, and cluttered workspace, only makes it difficult to move around, to find anything when you need it, and to keep your boat ship shape. You probably wear less than half the clothes you have aboard, use less than half the towels and sheets, have more books than you can read in a year or two, extra pots and pans that seldom or never get used, and enough food to keep you going for six months. Get rid of what you are not using, get rid of everything seldom used that will make it easier to find what you do need, and easier to keep clean and organized. Really assess your spare parts and tools; whittle to the essentials. Fan belts and hoses have a shorter life span than you think in a hot boat, don’t carry a life time supply. Assess what can break that will put you out of business, and have that aboard. In other words, carry what you need to get to the nearest port that has supplies or a Fed Ex, or a rental car. Chances are you will have no long off shore passages, you will not be alone in some deserted island, (try and find one these days), those were dreams of younger years. Don’t burden yourself as if you were going to be.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">2.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Handholds everywhere. Put a grab rail everywhere you find yourself gripping at a wall, or at nothing, trying to gain some support. You may be able to do a balancing act now, even though that is always dangerous in a boat, but we are talking about carrying on when you won’t be able to get out of that dinghy bouncing around off the stern of your boat, without something to easily grab onto on the mother ship, and even to help you maneuver inside the dinghy. Look at my pictures of my “Granny Rail”, in an earlier blog. We even have a grab rail outside the head compartment to steady us as we swing onto and then off the seat. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">3.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span> Get some simple exercise equiment, from bicycle like pedals you sit in a chair to push, to a simple to use swim ladder, rubber bands, even a dance tape you can keep up with. I used to use two canes, then went to Nordic hiking poles, after my second knee replacement and now the light of my life is a walker with four 8 inch wheels and a seat, and a carrying basket. Suddenly I can walk places again, enjoy going sight seeing and shopping, and being the “mule” who hauls home the groceries. We put as much as we can in the basket on the front, and tie one of our big canvas bags loaded full, on the seat. Amazing what I can carry now with ease, when I had trouble just making the walk in the past. You need what ever it takes to maintain physical movement, because like most people in the golden years, it’s a couch potato life.<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">4.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>To make sure you enjoy the couch potato part of it, I highly recommend a TV and some sort of a dish. Try to limit how much time you spend, never give up a social hour, or a chance to explore, or doing necessary or creative things to watch the tube, but it does compensate for the movies we never get to the theaters to see, and the news and weather, and all the other great programming that is out there. This, with computers for e-mail, Face book, and Internet, cell phones, sattelite adio and Single Side Band Radio, (less important than it used to be)you will keep in touch with the modern world. You’re going to know more than you need to know, maybe even more than you want to know, but I still suggest, if you don’t already have these things, get them.<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">5.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Make sure your lighting is improved, not just more energy efficient, but more light. Did I tell you your vision will go downhill along with everything else? We just compensated by putting a long florescent tube above the area where our favorite chairs sit in the main salon. We can now read with ease any time of the day or night. Speaking of chairs<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">6.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Get yourself some Lazy Boys, or any kind of chairs that allow you to rock, recline and put your legs up. This last feature gets more important if you find your legs swelling, which is so often another gift of the golden years. You do what you can to compensate, remember?<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">7.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Protect yourself from too much sun. Put ultra violet blocking film on your interior windows where you spend your daylight hours. Ditto blinds; they will save you and the furnishings. Put sunshades you can lower to screen your outside living area, and a bimini top, permanent or retractable if you have open outside seating, upper or lower.<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">8.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Upgrade your navigational equipment, or if you don’t have some of the newer gizmos, get them. We don’t have one of these magic viewers that let you see at night, but then traveling at night breaks my cardinal rule, “never, never sail at night, always keep the land in sight.” I break the rules a few times of the year, but never plan night time entrances unless to a wide open harbor with no hazards, like Great Sale Cay in the Bahamas, where the radar will show me what I need to know-other boats. I used to use nav programs, but since using C-Maps with their own built in program, and now my touch screen Garmin, which is simplicity itself, I find my old Max Sea incredibly difficult. Get new equipment, you know how rapid the improvements come down the line, keep up with the times. On my wish list is one of the new generation radars that show targets that are up close, (the ones you are more likely to hit) and possibly replace the ten year old auto pilot. Unless you stay very close to home, like never leave the ICW, get an AIS.<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">9.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Unless your mattress is totally comfortable, get a new one, of either memory foam or one that incorporates a layer of memory foam into the top. If you have stools you sit on, make sure they have a back. Get rid of throw rugs that have any potential of being trippers, and if you have a hatch in the floor to access you engine room, be certain it is blocked off when open. Open hatches are as dangerous as missing man hole covers. A fall in the golden years is to be avoided like the plague.<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">10.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Check over your appliances. If you don’t have a washer and dryer, find a place and put them in. Also a water maker unless you spend a lot of time in marinas. Actually spending time in marinas is another compensation to help carry on cruising into the golden years, but one we haven’t turned to at almost 80. One day we will. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">11.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>If you are really having problems doing everything but really want to continue the cruising life, make a guest cabin into crew’s quarters and hire crew, maybe just for longer passages, maybe to deliver the boat, and maybe just to make life easier. I will never forget the Hatteras we saw in Ft. Pierce, with a walker and a wheel chair sitting on the dock next to it. Good on them, I said. What ever you have to do to carry on, if it is your desire, do it.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">I am sure there are more things, there are always more things, but this is a s far as I can go now. I will carry on in my next blog, about what to look for if you are buying, and where to cruise, and dealing with medical issues.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Keep enjoying, keep looking up, as the star gazer likes to say.</div>Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-60779619429955820472010-02-15T15:21:00.000-05:002010-02-15T15:21:31.805-05:00MEN AND SHIPS ROT IN PORT<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>MEN AND SHIPS ROT IN PORT</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We had a friend who you to say this in deep sonorous tones, that lent an air of veracity to what at the time just seemed funny to us. A lot of years have since</div><div class="MsoNormal">drifted by, a lot of water has passed under our keel, and I am now facing the rotting in port<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>part, and realizing how true it is.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This year we took a break in our normal never stop moving life style, and instead of just rushing into Ft. Lauderdale for instant maintenance on our selves and our boat, we decided to give everyone, the boat yard and the doctors, time to really do their thing. I’m now convinced that you give either one long enough, you let the boat sit still long enough, and the list of things to fix never grows any shorter. And are we really ever any better for the heavy maintenance? I guess we could say yes to many things.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We don’t think Dave will have to worry about prostate problems in the near future, after traveling for years with the equipment and the knowledge of how to take care of a shut down if that occurred in some remote anchorage. I have had to face up to some age and weight related issues that have led to a healthier life style, and I hope a few more years of being able to keep wandering on both our parts. The boat finally has a proper windshield wiper blade and a heavier duty motor to drive it, our transom lockers have been sealed so hopefully we won’t pick up a load of water when we push hard enough to sink the stern,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and we are also hoping some of the paint problems from our Turkish paint job have been finally fixed. The dinghy got some minor adjustments to its ten year old body, like a new towing plate in front and a new internal gas tank, plus the awkward handles that stuck out much too far, and made a smooth landing almost impossible for me, have been replaced. We love our old Carib, and haven’t seen a layout in its size we like any better, so keeping it in great shape seems worth the effort. Niftiest new thing, Dave is most proud of and I most appreciate, are his newly designed door handles for our forward facing wing doors, that make those doors easily have a positive seal, and should last the life of the boat, instead of needing replacing every year like the old Perkos.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So in many ways things are better, but I know, when we start moving again, in just a few short weeks, all sorts of problems will rear their ugly heads. Sit still in one spot long enough and the gremlins move aboard, or so it seems. That’s just another way of saying, “rot in port.” You could also use the old truism, “Use it or lose it”, and that’s true for the bodies as well. So ladies and gents, if you love your boat and love the boating life, keep on moving, as long as you can. Don’t ignore the maintenance, but an amazing amount of things can be done, especially if you’re good at fixing things, on the fly. Either West Marine or Fed Ex is everywhere, and so are good people to help, if you do a little homework. Ditto for good doctors and dentists, not as good as having real follow up care with the same person, just a small price to pay if you want to be a sea gypsy. Keep telling yourself, “MEN AND SIPS ROT IN PORT, even if you don’t tealize it, and keep on moving.</div><!--EndFragment-->Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-13572303958129607242009-12-16T14:01:00.001-05:002010-04-28T18:01:06.988-04:00DOOR HANDLESAfter suffering with countless sets of door handles on our forward facing, dutch stye wing doors, which could never be closed tightly enough and were always blowing open or closed, Dave finally decided to make his own. He wanted the type that pulled shut and tightened against the weatherstripping, that you 'dogged" down, that had the capability of locking and he wanted imporvement on the piece that secured the top of our dutch door to the bottom. the one we had would jiggle loose, and the old handles would eventually break down, and refuse to either open or stay closed. He is so proud of the beauties he designed, and had the men at Cable Marine cut out and polish for him.<br />
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</div>Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-7262852831869572122009-11-16T13:56:00.000-05:002009-11-16T13:56:35.366-05:00THE MIAMI BOOK FAIRI don't very often write about where we have been or what we are doing, but for this I will make an exception. It is that time of year when so many of you boaters are "heading south", and so many of you end up in Miami or someplace close by. I am urging you to give consideration to the Miami book Fair, as a <i>must stop</i>, on you way to where ever. Unfortunately, this year the dates coincided with the Seven Seas Cruising Association's annual Gam in Melbourne, but I am hoping this won't happen again.<br />
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I have always loved the Gam, and the one we attended in Annapolis, in October was superb. I always credit the Gam with giving us the impetus to go to the Med, one of our life's happier decisions, but are we sorry we missed it this year? Not on your life. Will we go to the Book Fair again next year? You bet!<br />
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</div><div>Our only disappointments were Barbara Kingsolver and Orhan Pamuk, who basically read from their books, and we decided, unless you are truly funny, like Wally Lamb, and Susie Essman, reading on in a droning voice is a quick inducement to sleep, at least for me. But everyone else, from Al Gore, (standing ovation), to Ralph Nader, Sam Tanenhaus, Don Senor, Chris Hedges, Norman Podhoretz, Gwen Ifill, and the dozens and dozens more, gave us something to think about, something to laugh about, something to cheer about, and something to worry about. The world is full of great writers and deep thinkers, and this was a feast of so many of this year's best. Dave's comments as we left each all day session on the week ends, was, he didn't miss hearing another Bob Smith talk on diesel engines one bit.<br />
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</div><div> I would love to go into details about each and every session, but I think you can find it on U-Tube. Sooner or later it will appear on C-Span's Book program on the weekends. For my grandchildren and their mother's, try to see Susie Essman reading the first chapter of her book, What Would Susie Say?, about how teen agers know it all, eye roll, eye roll, and then how the roles are reversed. I don't know if it is as funny just being read, because she is a master comedienne, so if it comes in a talking book, get it. We feel that way about Wally Lamb's latest, and he does do the talking book himself. I also want to read Al Gore's latest. That along with Friedman's book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, may give you a different perspective about what is possible, nay necessary, for our country's energy needs, including some of the downsides of nuclear you may not have thought about. Actually I want all my family and especially the youngest to read this book. it is the world they are inheriting, and if they don't get the generation in power to do something now, they are going to be inheriting maybe more than can be fixed.<br />
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Google the Miami book Fair web site for details, you will be amazed at what was included. Vendors selling street food from around the world were on site, along with hundreds of booksellers, from new to old and every genre.<br />
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</div><div>Best thing about all of this, was a five dollar admission fee, ten if you are not a senior, on the week end days, and other than the big names that spoke during the weeknights, for ten dollars a ticket, which also bought you a drink and appetizers, the rest was free. Even parking was free. There were people who drove down from many parts of the state. They hired buses, or came as a group, staying overnight at a local hotel like Holiday Inn, on the doorstep of Miami Dade College. So all of you who live anywhere in the vicinity, put in your next year's November Calendar, to get the information on the Miami Book Fair. For the big name speakers, you must apply for tickets, (on line) which are free, but the room only seats about a thousand people, and they do run out of space. If you come by boat, anchoring by the Miami Yacht Club is very handy, a walk for the vigorous, or a short taxi ride for us lame ducks. Maybe some sort of deal could be made with them to use their dinghy dock for this occasion, without paying a fortune. When something this great is on your path of travel, it is a pity to miss it.<br />
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</div><div>SSCA, I hope you try not to schedule on the same weekend next year. The week before would be perfect. For those who may not know, Seven Seas Cruising Association welcomes all boaters, or wannabees, or has beens, to join or even just participate in any and all affairs. Check out their web site, <a href="http://209.88.141.226:8002/Portal?Portal=Harbour&?res=success&uamip=192.168.2.1&uamport=3990&challenge=&uid=hb15h99&timeleft=580705&userurl=&nasid=perez&mac=00-0E-2E-D1-65-99">http://ssca.org/</a><br />
</div>Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-10933350561344193462009-10-26T17:58:00.005-04:002009-10-26T19:39:06.462-04:00THE C HOOK, A MUST HAVE<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbuZCepqw5URswO3O8Z9bZv5BGRVGcnlwJgLe199hfNGW2L6D0CKGYnQGewgFxCcUOCr-Bg_yNGnpHyyBW3LITSKdrQ0r8__pygn6GduUXUdDGoX2QKX2fyKbW7xhdgl70E7R/s1600-h/DSCF5842.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbuZCepqw5URswO3O8Z9bZv5BGRVGcnlwJgLe199hfNGW2L6D0CKGYnQGewgFxCcUOCr-Bg_yNGnpHyyBW3LITSKdrQ0r8__pygn6GduUXUdDGoX2QKX2fyKbW7xhdgl70E7R/s320/DSCF5842.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397049787496659618" /></a>THIS IS A MUST HAVE FOR US<div><br /></div><div>We call this a C hook, and it saved our bacon again today. We were anchored in an out of the way side creek off the Waccamaw river in South Carolina, out of touch with the world, when we tried to raise our anchor on this rainy cold morning, only to bring up a massive tree stump hung on the anchor chain. Dave tried knocking it off with the boat hook, then driving with it and lowering the chain again, nothing worked. Ta-dah, trumpets blare, C-hook to the rescue. I wrote about this before, but didn't have the pictures to show you what it looks like. We bought this in Turkey, but you can make your own. Dave simply grabbed the chain with the C, hooked the heavier line around our windlass and cranked it up so the stump- larger than he could have bear hugged -was about four feet out of the water, then let the line slide quickly on the winch which, was enough to shake the stump loose. Most times, when he has another anchor he is trying to get off ours, he hooks it on the offending anchor line, ties the heavier line on a cleat, then trips the smaller line, and the other anchor drops loose from ours. It sounds simple and it is simple, but I can't think of any simple way it could be done without this little miracle gadget.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMWmZWk-pXDyGJGcBQS5z28NN-DOz-7qJjGLnXk0NMzBCCHbFTDIb1-UGGmbQ0hkiQtyXCGP4dL4Vam9vfqNtiwZkihGZ3aX4YSWyg1r6REqcIZQZv43cFf64gwaczovf0Ilpm/s1600-h/DSCF5839.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMWmZWk-pXDyGJGcBQS5z28NN-DOz-7qJjGLnXk0NMzBCCHbFTDIb1-UGGmbQ0hkiQtyXCGP4dL4Vam9vfqNtiwZkihGZ3aX4YSWyg1r6REqcIZQZv43cFf64gwaczovf0Ilpm/s320/DSCF5839.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397049777256868338" /></a><i>DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT!</i></div>Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-61692078539964740652009-10-17T17:36:00.005-04:002009-10-18T19:47:53.285-04:00FLASH, SERIOUS ANCHOR TIP<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>DON'T BE A DRAG<div><br /></div><div>Our very best tip about not dragging, is BE SURE YOU HAVE PUT OUT ADEQUATE SCOPE! This can't be repeated often enough or emphatically enough! What is adequate scope? You could use the formulas of three to one, seven to one, etc, but I say use this only as a guide line. It is not a religious imperative, and don't forget, when you apply the formula, add your bow height above water to the depth, AT HIGH TIDE to get the suggested amount. Deep water, you can reduce the proportion, shallower water, increase it. If wind is predicted, or a chance of wind, I can't believe that anything under 100 feet, even in the shallowest water, is not leaving yourself vulnerable. Bigger and heavier, put out more, anchorage too crowded, get out and find someplace else. Doesn't matter if you are the dragger or the draggee, the damage can be the same. You are safer in a more exposed anchorage, where you can put out the maximum, than to be in a tight place surrounded by other boats, all with limited scope.</div><div><br /></div><div>Enter the anchorage, take a serious look around and choose the spot that keeps you clear of other boats if possible. Having the best protection is not as important as having a well set anchor with maximum scope. Drop the anchor, put out the amount you need to set it best, (every anchor has a different length at which it digs in best) and make sure it is set by slowly increasing the RPM to what you know is necessary to dig that anchor in. How do you know what this is? Get in and look at the anchor after it is set; if it isn't perfect, have the person left on the boat turn on the motor and again take up the RPMs slowly and keep pulling until you have achieved what you want. Note what the RPMs were and you have a base line. Did you ever watch a live sand dollar bury itself.? It slowly wiggles itself , almost just vibrates itself, and it literally wiggles itself into the sand. Your anchor will do the same thing, if it is a burying type. Some anchors simply pull up a mound to a size that they can pull up no more, and you are held, but you know that if there is a major wind shift, they will need to repeat this from the other direction. Which is why you want to allow yourself some dragging room. If you start your anchoring life in conditions where you can't get in and see the process, than pull on it with enough intensity that the person on the bow should see water coming by at a brisk rate. From there it is experience, if you never drag, especially when others around you do, you are probably doing it right. Every time you drag, you should KNOW you did something wrong. Once it is well set, then put out the scope you will need to keep you there, even in storm conditions.</div><div><br /></div><div> Ask yourself, how many times you have dragged in the last year, the last five years, the last ten years. If you can't remember each and every time, (because there should be so few incidents) if it is more than a couple of times, even in ten years, you are doing something wrong. Dave says if you drag even once, you have failed anchoring. Even in squall conditions, unless 8 out of 10 drag, you better not blame the bottom. Compare your anchor to someone near who didn't move, compare the type and weight of chain, compare scope and technique. Figure out what you are doing wrong, so you will get it right, and go for years without incident, and so you don't have to run to a dock every time wind is predicted.</div>Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-89012164020969349592009-10-06T11:49:00.004-04:002009-10-06T12:24:19.062-04:00A HATCH FOR ALL WINDS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia5XTfTCnfdPaDHKl__0_JC8uUAFmQuJVMl8bEkdXgkMaswiMibeHkMCAHH8rgT9YURNT_ZuCCi4KHVQ8zTQsGEVFWooSQODBK0eJUmcB11AweQ9Pa7Dn10mjYVeWshHIe4Z9E/s1600-h/boat+in+turkey,+August+Sept,+2005+031_2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia5XTfTCnfdPaDHKl__0_JC8uUAFmQuJVMl8bEkdXgkMaswiMibeHkMCAHH8rgT9YURNT_ZuCCi4KHVQ8zTQsGEVFWooSQODBK0eJUmcB11AweQ9Pa7Dn10mjYVeWshHIe4Z9E/s320/boat+in+turkey,+August+Sept,+2005+031_2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389521195587235202" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ12wrDMR6fb_6hg54xGsPV_T9rWVwbfGj87mX2n9lEsgCi7RtgzbUZDfALSQUY_UBII5O_busoszZ_x-9-aw2V26w8v7eJbuIkAhIqfbHp82T82HF2RGcRLBPtY-sqcIKkmRX/s1600-h/boat+in+turkey,+August+Sept,+2005+026.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ12wrDMR6fb_6hg54xGsPV_T9rWVwbfGj87mX2n9lEsgCi7RtgzbUZDfALSQUY_UBII5O_busoszZ_x-9-aw2V26w8v7eJbuIkAhIqfbHp82T82HF2RGcRLBPtY-sqcIKkmRX/s320/boat+in+turkey,+August+Sept,+2005+026.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389516699945391314" /></a>This unique boat hatch is truly for all seasons and all winds. As you can see, it is a large round hatch made of Lexan, which is strong enough to stand on, easy to open and close and has never leaked. but what makes it so unique, is the ability to swivel it in any direction, to match the direction the wind is blowing over your boat, which may not be from the front of the boat when it is tied to a dock, or riding to the tide, and not the wind. You can even face it backwards, to extract air; what ever works best for the conditions. To raise it, just loosen the fitting as Dave is doing in the picture, raise it to the desired height, and tighten up the fitting. Yo change directions, put your fingers on the small fitting you see in the top of the picture, pull it loose from the wall of the hatch, swivel it where you wish the hatch to face and put it back in place. It is ridiculously simple and amazingly useful.<div><br /></div><div>As you can see from the upper picture, we have five of these hatches, two in the galley, two in the forward cabin, and one in the forward head. We can snap on plastic covers to keep out sun when no one is staying up forward, and we have mosquito netting that quickly snaps on all the hatches. This is not manufactured by any maker, although I think they are missing a chance in a lifetime, but we would be glad to give any further information for those wanting to make their own.<br /> <div><br /><div><br /></div><div> <div><br /></div></div></div></div>Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-78062588739648338912009-10-03T17:22:00.001-04:002009-10-03T17:47:35.130-04:00MARINA BAY IN FT. LAUDERDALEA marina not to be missed if you plan to spend any time in Ft. Lauderdale, is Marina Bay. It is located in the upper reaches of the New River, beyond the I-95 bridge, where 95 intersects with Highway 84, making getting anywhere a snap. It has new floating docks, a country club like atmosphere, with a gorgeous heated swimming pool, (essential in the winter time), hot tub, indoor lounge with coffee always available, handball court, small exercise room, internet room, and even a small theater where movies are shown. The restaurant on site has what I think is the greatest hamburger to be had, with indoor and outdoor dining. It is surrounded by new condos that are all rental units, which makes it handy when your boat is out of the water in a nearby boat yard, to rent an apartment, and walk to the boat. Rates are reasonable compared to any comparable marina, like the ones near the beach, and long term rates, particulary in the summer, and this is considered a safe marina by our insurance company, are really reasonable. To me, the only downsides, are the long trip up the New River, so I wouldn't choose it for a weekend, and the soot in the air, which is a problem all over that part of the coast. I can live with it, because it is such a pleasant place to be, and handy for shopping, medical, and boat work, all things we do while there. It presupposes you rent a car, and again, the helpful staff at the marina will point you in the direction of an affordable rental car. Do think of it, especially if you are going to be tied up for any length of time.Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-22206108898482037842009-09-30T16:21:00.006-04:002009-10-04T19:43:30.003-04:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>BOOKMARK THIS LINK<br /></span><div> I found a web site full of invaluable information, especially on how to communicate from a boat. The creators, Jeff and Karen, are the kind of cruisers you want to meet, so if you see them on their boat, aCapella, give them a hail. Meanwhile, take the time to find the web page, and save some time to take in all the information there is posted.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <a href="http://www.activecaptain.com/"> http://www.activecaptain.com/ </a> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div>Take a look, you are bound to learn things about communication from a boat you never knew. And if you have dogs aboard, or want cruising information on the east coast, you will have found a home.</div>Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-6728495182675485592009-09-07T15:57:00.008-04:002009-09-12T16:19:48.645-04:00THE PERFECT CRUISING MOTOR BOAT<div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">THE PERFECT CRUISING BOAT </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Is there really such a thing as the perfect cruising boat? Yes, if you have a boat that fulfills your needs, and you love her, and you are not thinking about another boat, you have the perfect cruising boat---for you. Is there a boat built that would be perfect for everyone? Absolutely not! Couple of examples: Mary and Joe want to make that Great Circle Loop that everyone talks about. They want to buy a boat, ready to go, that will allow them to do this one long trip, and sell her afterwards. Of course they go to the used market, best source of a ready to go boat, at a price that will be easy to unload when the passage is over, since it will have already taken that big dip. They choose a boat that meets the depth, and most importantly, the height requirements. They don't need stabilizers, massive storage space for food, but the ability to keep warm and cold, and keep the bugs out is important. A turn of speed, while still being fuel efficient, meaning a light weight, well designed hull, would be a priority. They will always be in civilization, so they need only the most necessary spares, a dinghy can be their life raft, good dock lines and anchoring gear are still important. <br /><br />Fred and Alice, on the other hand, want to cross an ocean; they want to be real passage makers. They carefully shop both the new and used market, since they plan to keep the boat for many years, and they don't mind taking that new boat hit. They want stout, safe, and comfortable, for all the varied conditions the ocean can throw at them. The boat must have some stabilization method; they must have massive storage for food, fuel, spares, and a good life raft. They will want room for extra people, since most insurance companies require you take at least three for an ocean crossing.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then there is Hank and Sarah, who live near a big city and just want an affordable weekend cottage. They may never leave their marina, maybe an occasional picnic cruise so the kids can go swimming. If they are social, they need lots of entertaining space, if it is for a personal get away, just big enough for them will do. Only enough equipment to get from boat yard to marina, and some very short hops; anything more, including giant powerful engines, is a waste of money.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Different boats, for different blokes.<br /> <br />I know you have read all this before, but it needs to be repeated over and over again. Fit the boat to where you are going to cruise, and how you like to cruise. Every night at a marina, fuel always handy, restaurants and grocery stores all about, that's one kind of boat. If living at anchor in remote places is your dream, that's another kind of boat. Buy the boat that fits your needs now, and in the immediate future. If your plans are to retire in eight years, and cross the ocean at that time, but right now you are cruising the Chesapeake, where you live, then buy and enjoy that nice Chesapeake Bay boat that will get you about faster, so you can cover more territory, in the short time frames you have, while still working. When you start crossing oceans, full displacement, slow speed is the only way to go.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> We call our boat a "perfect liveaboard cruising boat". Key word here is liveaboard. The boat is our only home, other than a few things left in storage at our son's home, she must carry all our clothes, books, gadgets and gillhickies that we feel are essential for comfort and pleasure. We still had to cull. Too much "stuff", can ruin any boat. When people ask Dave what their boat needs, he most always answers, "A dumpster". If you can't store it, and retrieve it easily, if your lockers are so jammed pack you don't know what is at the bottom of them, and you've got as big a boat as you can handle, get that dumpster. <br /><br />We fall into the category of liveaboards who want to spend most of their time at anchor. We are mainly in warm climates, we are often away from shoreside amenities, and we figured our longest off shore passages would be one to three days. We had dreams of cruising the Med, but any ocean crossings would be done using one of the yacht transport companies. To sum it up: If you want to cruise long distances in short steps, keeping yourself within fairly reliable weather windows, and spending most of your time at anchor, do the following: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> 1. Get as large a boat as you can manage, both physically and financially. You pay dearly for the extra size, maybe not in purchase price, but in every other way. But the benefits are greater comfort underway and at anchor, and plenty of storage space if the boat is your only home. If guests are rare, have only one extra cabin that serves another purpose, such as an office, or hobby room, with something that converts into a bed. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">2.Look carefully at how the boat ventilates, at anchor, and underway. If the main cabin is forward, where the best breeze will be, make sure the noise level is tolerable. If you are mostly going to be in a marina, this is a non-issue. Have an air conditioner, just making sure it runs quietly, and the extra electric costs are okay with the budget.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> 3. You will be much safer, (from the sun's damaging rays), and more comfortable when the spray is flying or its cold, if you can steer from inside. If she is a semi displacement boat she will lift her bow as the speed goes up; choose one with an enclosed upper station. 4. Having the labor saving devices a woman is used to, is as important to her, as your engine room is to you. Everybody will be happy there is a washer/dryer aboard, especially if you like having company. When our kids come, they travel light, and the machines are running constantly. I also love my built in vacuum, and having every thing in the galley I would want in a house ashore. One of the big annoyances, a chest type refrigerator and freezer, like I had on the sail boat, is a thing of the past, thank goodness. 5. Don't be afraid of a steel hull. It will give you a lot of peace of mind. I have hit the bricks twice, once when the new engine, not properly tuned, quit as we were coming around a tight corner in the New River, and I slammed into a concrete wall; once a rock reef in Maine, that I hit so hard, it lifted the bow. No damage to report. The new coatings are fantastic, but you do have to check for any bad spots, and fix what you find. With all her insulation, the boat is so quiet, and sits so well that I'm constantly fooled in windy periods, thinking the wind has settled as I get up each morning, only to see it is still blowing stink. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">6.The boat is rigged so that one person can do any chore. Dave can easily drop and raise the dinghy from her nest on the upper deck. Raising and lowering the anchor, navigating, driving the boat, all these tasks can be done alone. It would make a fine boat for a single hander.Even the passarelle, a fancy name for a gang plank, can be raised and lowered by one person. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">7. Make sure you can board the boat easily, whether from high docks, floating docks, the dinghy, or from the water. Steps, ladders, a passarelle, if you are going foreign, and lots of grab rails are essential. We have a variety of ways to get aboard. Along side a fixed dock with usual tidal range, we go out the middle or rear side openings using a folding ladder with grab rail on the dock, and a set of hanging steps on the boat, one or the other or both, depending on tidal range. With floating docks, we generally go out on the back deck and down the nice wide steps, onto the swim platform, and off. Everywhere I go, there are either banisters, or grab rails. I stress this, because I can't tell you how many boats I have been aboard that have stairwells with no room for a grab rail. That was number one reason for crossing so many boats off my list, the other big reason, not being able to see the back of the boat from the steering station. The swim platform is part of the hull, which makes getting aboard from the dinghy easy and safe. Picture the trouble you can get in when conditions are rough, and the bolted on swim platform wants to rise up and crush your dinghy under it. From the swim platform, with its outside shower, we can also enter directly into our shower, through a rear door. This not only keeps wet bodies from trailing through the boat, but makes unloading the groceries from the dinghy a snap, and it is vital to our ventilation</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">8.If you are going out onto larger bodies of water, and your boat is slow, you will need stabilizers for comfort. Be sure the boat has them or can have them put aboard, or think of the newer, but possibly still pricey, gyroscopic method, which has to be the cat's meow. It works even at anchor.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> 9. Dave feels so much of our love affair with our two boats, was having the incredible luck of getting boats designed by great naval architects. Bill Lapworth didn't know how to design a slow sailboat, and Jim Krogen didn't know how to do an uncomfortable motor boat. Talk to any owner of a Lapworth or Krogen designed boat, and you will see what we mean. So look at the designer, with some idea of what he was trying to achieve, and does this fit with what you are trying to achieve.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">10. If you plan to anchor, look hard at the anchors and anchoring gear. No such thing as too heavy, no such thing as too much chain, but be sure the windlass can handle it. Don't forget all those dock lines and fenders for marina times, and at least one extra long floating line for towing or tying to shore.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">11. You want all the latest gear when t comes to chartplotters, (the plural is deliberate), depth sounders, (ditto deliberate), radar, autopilot, and radios. A radio at each steering station, a portable VHF, and one in the dinghy, although the portable will work for this, and don't forget the Single Side Band radio. Cell phones and at least one that is unlocked, so you can buy local SIM cards if you go foreign. I suggest you look at www.activecaptain.com web site, for every thing about communications. One of our latest additions, well worth the price is a rear mounted video cam. I'm so grateful for it every time I back into a dock. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Once you own the boat, the list of things you need may overwhelm you, and I have hit only the major ones, trying to give you an idea of how to look at the boat and how much more you are going to have to spend, if the necessary stuff isn't there, or is out of date, or inadequate. Don't think the builder, or the guy who commissioned the boat really knew that much about what works and what doesn't, or was thinking about how you are going to use the boat. Get educated yourself.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Back to the starting premise, there is no perfect cruising boat, everything is a compromise, but do the best you can to buy what is perfect for how you are going to use it, and what you can comfortably afford. Dave adds, "Leave your ego at home."</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';font-size:14px;"><br /></span></div>Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11430574.post-18321242952018456542009-09-07T15:51:00.002-04:002009-09-08T15:19:19.708-04:00MEDITERRANEAN CRUISING-USING AN AGENTAGENTS, ANGELS IN PARADISE<br /><br /> So we are on our dream cruise, we are seeing our "newer world " in the Mediterranean, but let's face it, certain elements pertain to all cruisers everywhere, what I call the nitty gritty. If you are on an owner operated boat, the same tasks face you, shopping, cooking, cleaning, fixing and fussing, that face you what ever your boat and where ever you cruise. The big difference is, doing them in another language, another culture, and always in another strange port. We tend to do only the immediately important things on days we are passage making, or on days we go off touring, or when we have guests aboard. Sooner or later, we must pause and play catch-up, such as we are doing here in Malta. It is all part of the cruising package. If you are a boat owner, you know how things fail. If you are thinking of becoming a boat owner, be prepared to find fun in the fixing, or get a boat with a captain, or learn to utilize the shore support, in the form of specific boat yards, or agents, who will find the help you need, and see that the jobs get done.<br /> Using an agent is new for us and in a country where English is the second language, like Malta, maybe not as essential. But oh how much he, Darius Goodwin, took the burden of organizing, of hours we would have spent on the phone, or running here and there by foot, bus or taxi, away from us. We got his name from a cruiser we met in Italy, who explained, that for a price, usually a percentage of what you spend, the agent will save you a lot of time, and a lot of hustling. How right he was. We called Darius at RLR Ltd., while still in Sicily, for information on how and where to ship spare parts. He said DHL was the best in Malta, and they were hugely efficient. The parts arrived before we did, almost overnight. He arranged for berthing, and was in the harbor by dinghy to lead us to our spot along the wall on Manoel Island, when we arrived. He then whisked Dave off to customs, helped with the clearing, delivered Dave back to the boat, and made a date in the morning to go through our list of what we wanted to accomplish. He arranged our fueling, by tanker truck right at our slip, that next day, duty free, with the customs man standing by, and took both of us on our shopping forays, me to an excellent grocery store, and Dave for pumps, fittings, nuts and bolts. We could have left the next day, certainly a tremendous time savings, but we took two extra days, one for fixing the stabilizer fin with the broken fitting, and one for a tour of Malta, which he also arranged. Tomorrow he will deliver our jerry cans of gas for the dinghy, saving Dave some heavy carrying, clear us out, and we will be on our way, quickest, easiest turnaround we've ever had. With the great savings in fuel prices, about a quarter of what we would have paid in Italy for the thousand gallons we needed, well worth the passage down here.<br /> So now we have discovered a way to simplify our lives when time is short, or we don't want to struggle with a foreign language, and I am sure we will use the services of agents in the future. There are agents in Italy who own or control a lot of the marina space, and also have men who will help you find what you need from taxis to spares. Using their services will allow you to reserve space in marinas that are always tight, you will know ahead of time that you have the space, and you don't have to make all the phone calls, or faxes yourself. I am thinking specifically of J. Luise and Sons of Naples, and next time we pass through middle Italy, I would use their services. Then we could probably have had space at Sannazzaro Marina, instead of rocking and rolling at anchor outside. They also have an office at Porto Touristico de Roma. Not necessary for all, certainly not necessary if the budget is tight and the time frame is not, but it sure worked for us.<br />As an addendum, without an agent in Athens, we never would have got space in a well located marina, when our generator failed. We didn't need his help for the fixing, but he was Johnny on the spot when we needed a diver to find our anchor when another yacht tore it loose. We also used Gino Marine for all our arrangements in Turkey, from clearing in, berthing, to getting plane tickets home, (over the phone while we were still in Greece), to arraigning tours, and doing cosmetics. We have since discovered that agents, maybe called by another name, are there to help you in ports in the U.S. also. If you are a stranger, in a strange place, and pressed for time, and uncertain as to where to go for what you need, getting an agent can be very good solution.<div><br /></div><div>Late summer, 2003</div>Boater Bevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07638104389653582921noreply@blogger.com