Years ago when we were running a large M/Y through the Bahamas we had a partially empty freezer, which I would fill with water jugs to eleminate air space. Whenever we shared an anchorage I would take the ice around to the other cruising boats. It always surprised me that several would refuse the ice! They were simply used to doing without.
Accept an invitation for a Gin 'n Tonic on an Englishboat. Expect 20 oz G'nT--no ice
__________________
so many projects--so little time !!
Perhaps he is happy.
If he is, he gets my vote to continue doing as he chooses.
I would like to +1 this as well. Good on him for 'not obeying the rules', but karma would state that he should have a better system to compensate those that have compensated him, this might be the only downside to 'his plan' that I can see.
Interesting, it looks like he's found a way to go cruising on a governmentfood stamp card and an EBT card. Will probably buy his new sail when the card reloads with benefit money. I'll bet he has a free cellphone.
Perhaps he is happy.
If he is, he gets my vote to continue doing as he chooses.
I'm always torn when I hear, or see, these people. On the one hand I say, good for them . They're out there doing it, the best way they are able. While some mumble "tut, tut" from the dock, they are out there -- doing it!
... however...
When I hear about people who have left without understanding simple things like how to sail, how to anchor, how to read charts, how to gauge weather, tides, currents ... this is when I start to cringe. None of these things are hard, and the information is easily available.
A person who leaves without learning these easily accessible basics is someone who is exhibiting poor judgment. They can quickly become a hazard, not just to themselves (which I'm fine with), but to others.
There once was a time in this country were grit and self reliance kept one from being eaten by the wolves. There once was a time where most of the things we take for granted did not exist. Lewis and Clark did not have a dieselengine. They had a leaky boat and bailed a stinking bilge everyday by hand. Shackelton's plans included eating dog biscuits and the dogs if necessary. Huckleberry Finn's raft, Davies and the Dulcibella off the Frisian islands. Most Americans would never entertain the kind of commitment sailing England demands. How many here would put up with 10' tides which routinely set your boat in the mud twice a day? I have linked to a video of a man with a dream.
It's been a 10 year plan for him with a few setbacks along the way. Look down upon those with a dream if it makes you feel better. To be human is to dream. And most important to be human is to act on that dream. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15289336/Brandon_Callooh.m4v
There once was a time in this country were grit and self reliance kept one from being eaten by the wolves. There once was a time where most of the things we take for granted did not exist. Lewis and Clark did not have a dieselengine. They had a leaky boat and bailed a stinking bilge everyday by hand. Shackelton's plans included eating dog biscuits and the dogs if necessary. Huckleberry Finn's raft, Davies and the Dulcibella off the Frisian islands. Most Americans would never entertain the kind of commitment sailing England demands. How many here would put up with 10' tides which routinely set your boat in the mud twice a day? I have linked to a video of a man with a dream.
It's been a 10 year plan for him with a few setbacks along the way. Look down upon those with a dream if it makes you feel better. To be human is to dream. And most important to be human is to act on that dream. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15289336/Brandon_Callooh.m4v
I think there is a fine, but distinct, line between dreaming with reality in mind and dreaming without. I admire people that are self-reliant and out there 'doing it'. But perhaps the majority of dreamers are not - there are a lot of silly people out there who have no business being there and who are a hazard to themselves and often to others, and quite often require others to bail them out of the mess they got themselves into. So I look up to some dreamers and down on others.
JO said: Fine.......line between dreaming with reality in mind......
Yes and who make you the arbiter? In this example, I see no hazard to others, and the risks one takes in life, such as sailing and open boat across an ocean, is really none of your concern.
My wife works weekends in a local chandlery. She's heard it all, and when someone comes in asking for "the yellow pushrope with the red flecks suitable for docking", she knows I've been sending business her way again.
Better sailing through experience. Better sailors through pranking!
Not that I value quantity over quality, but the "pioneer spirit" flourished in an era where splinters and cavities and minor cuts could and did kill millions, and you had 12 kids because maybe four would reach adulthood and reproduce (two dying in the process). My late grandmother, born in 1904 to middle-class status, was one of 13 children in her Scottish family. Nine made it past the age of one, and two died in war and two more of disease in their teens and 20s. So in real, evolutionary terms, she was one of five adult siblings, two of whom never reproduced. And now we have passed seven billion. It was under three billion when I was born, but we aren't in "pioneer times", either.
Shackleton and his men survived because they were, like the Apollo 13 astronauts, at the very edge of their knowledge and technology, which facilitated their hard work and bravery. They were not, in 1916, beyond it. They knew they had about one shot to live, and they worked and succeeded at it (again, like the Apollo 13 team in 1970).
We remember the lucky pioneers who saw the promised land. We do not always remember that they saw it from the vantage point of a heap of skulls belonging to the unlucky pioneers, dead Indians and starved slaves that didn't make it.
I understand the "romance of the unregulated life"; we are preparing to cruise to some far places, after all, but some broke joker driving a decrepit scow in unsafe conditions is as much a hazard as the libertarian driver who thinks blood alcohol limits are a Commie plot and that licences impinge on his Constitutional rights.
I wish freedom from some people on the waterways as much as I want to enjoy my "freedom to".
I was docked at a marina years ago where wealthy business executive bought a BIG 60 foot go fast Sea Raypower boat. He would come back to docks banging into things until he got it right. Finally the marina owners/sellers started to offer to give him some lessons because he was banging up his brand new boat and others as well. His response was well then I'll just by another boat when this one is unusable. I was just glad he was not docking near my boat.
Alchemy said:.....romance of unregulated life.....
Nice to hear how much you value diversity. Mine was not so much a libertarian rant as much as those who criticize those whose resources may not be equal to some. Yes, "the romance of the unregulated life" fits the stereotype perfectly. Nice you will fine comfort in some "regulated" cruising.
Accept an invitation for a Gin 'n Tonic on an English boat. Expect 20 oz G'nT--no ice
And the problem with that is?
We keep our gin in the freezer and the tonic in the fridge, and one frequent visitor gets all sputtery if I dare serve it without ice. Same guy will spend the rest of the day drinking room-temperature wine back on his own boat.
__________________ cruising is entirely about showing up--in boat shoes.
We keep our gin in the freezer and the tonic in the fridge, and one frequent visitor gets all sputtery if I dare serve it without ice.
One of my jobs in summer is to provide my wife with the perfect G&T "slushy". This requires precise timing, depending on ambient temperature etc the exact time for the tonic in the freezer is critical. The Tonic has to start just freezing. Pick the right time and the Tonic goes slushy. Too long and the tonic turns to ice, which is not acceptable , or worse still the can explodes
The technical difficulties cruising are never ending
... We keep our gin in the freezer and the tonic in the fridge, and one frequent visitor gets all sputtery if I dare serve it without ice. Same guy will spend the rest of the day drinking room-temperature wine back on his own boat.