Boat Truths

[sailingunity]

Everything will work fine until the day you leave, then something will break.

[CaptTom]

- Make a perfect docking in challenging conditions, and there's not a soul around to see it.
- Botch a docking in calm conditions, and the whole marine is watching.

[settlednomad]

- You know that you need to crouch slightly when passing through the door to the aft cabin. You forget and bang your head. You exit the cabin a minute later and do the same on the way back!

[John_Trusty]

Like fish, parts have a natural affinity to jump into the water. The attraction increases with the cost, or rarity, of the part.

[sailorboy1]

A 10-14 day lead time is not as defined as it appears and is more a way to rope you in to ordering the part and waiting for it.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by John_Trusty

Like fish, parts have a natural affinity to jump into the water. The attraction increases with the cost, or rarity, of the part.

Only tool I have ever dropped into the water, I did yesterday.
It was of course the $150 Snap On ratcheting screwdriver that I so loved. I didn’t buy it, it was a gift of sorts.

[a64pilot]

Oh and Manana does not mean in the morning or tomorrow like you think it does, all it means is not today

[sailorboy1]

There’s no such thing as “too big” a margarita

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by settlednomad

- You know that you need to crouch slightly when passing through the door to the aft cabin. You forget and bang your head. You exit the cabin a minute later and do the same on the way back!

The core of the "boat truth" is that boats are members of something that is outside the canonical categories of animate and inanimate.

Whatever the name of that category to which boats belong, the relevant core truth is that boats demand blood.

In Europe, the tradition of smearing blood on parts of a boat at its first launch was foolishly discarded. What followed was pouring red wine over the boat. When the Roman church complained that smearing the boat in red wine was a mockery of its communion rite, white wine and bubbly white wine were substituted.

In the Maritime Continent, the home to the largest fleets under sail ever assembled on this planet, sacrificial blood (and squeals) were always seen as essential.

For that matter, blood is similarly seen as essential for airplanes (see: Nepal Airlines Sacrificed A Pair Of Goats It Fix Its Broken Jet - Business Insider ) and electronic games (see : https://www.cnet.com/news/sony-offer...to-god-of-war/ ).

To sum up:

your boat demands blood.

You can give blood freely, or your boat will take blood from your shins, your toes, your fingers, or your forehead at times your boat chooses.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

- The smallest and most important part will always slip out of your hand and hide in the most inaccessible part of the bilge.
- Whenever you're out of sight of land, and there's only one other vessel visible, it'll be on a collision course with you.

That happened to us in the middle of the Sea of Cortez in the middle of the night. I'm glad I was awake enough to catch it.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

There’s no such thing as “too big” a margarita

Oh, yes there is.
After 3 of them I could no longer speak English, only Spanish !
And English is my native language !!!

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Oh, yes there is.
After 3 of them I could no longer speak English, only Spanish !
And English is my native language !!!

If you can drink 3 margaritas, you need to invest in larger drinking glasses

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Oh, yes there is.
After 3 of them I could no longer speak English, only Spanish !
And English is my native language !!!

since you needed three - apparently they weren't big enough.................


you can be absolutely certain that anytime you feel the need to be somewhere at a specified day - you will be sailing upwind against 10 foot waves and minimum force 8 conditions.

If by some miracle the above is not true - then something absolutely essential on the boat will breakdown forcing you to stay at anchor

whoever anchors upwind of you is always an idiot who doesn't know how to back down on his anchor, causing you sleepless nights.

If you move - he (she) will also and still be in front of you

It doesn't matter how many or what kind of spares you pack for a circumnavigation - when you get all the way around you will discover that you didn't use any of them - they are still packed in the original packing. ON the other hand - all those things you said "nah-no way I'll a spare for that" will be the things that broke down.

The is no such thing as good WIFI in a marina

[Supers0nic]

I thought I had finished the last expensive repair on my boat.

[sailorboy1]

If you pull a wire out to recrimp the connection, you will never get the wire to go back through the run again to reinstall.