Aging Cruisers Choose Battles

[DumnMad]

Very nice Jolly Roger! You chose your battle and won.
Big project to provide the comfort you wanted and done quite quickly.

[sailpower]

Some say this is a more powerful alternative to the Winch Buddy:

M28

If you go that route then you also need something like this:

WINCH BIT HOME

[sailpower]

Originally Posted by Teknav

...No one has ever returned from being dead...

Rumor has it that one guy did but that was some time ago.

[Blue Crab]

Please PM me if anyone has this gal's #.

[zeehag]

¨Stay on your boat and be safe -- 'cuz most accidents happen in the home! Really -- if you can't do something the way you used to -- figure out another way to do it.¨


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA silly-ness.
life is transition. i have been in transition since age 7. funny how i also started sailing that year.

advice or alleged advice from folks who dont know what is going on is not advice.
is more like harrassment or useless words.


people with real disabilities that drastically change their lives early are better at adapting than are most allegedly normal souls, ESPECIALLY if they knew normal for a time, and especially if they were granted a condition with somewhat extreme flexibility.
the more rigidity or spasticity in ones movements, the more prone they will be toward debilitating accidents.
thank the gods my disabilities were due to repetitive injuries of a long and pretty much selfless career saving lives and improving the health of others...and for this awesomest lifestyle not everyone will find out about first hand.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by jkindredpdx

Just wondering, would a 2:1 halyard help?

I'm not sure how that would be rigged, but my "boat guy" (the good kind!) is coming tomorrow and I will ask him about it. The major source of the irritation is the SI joint, which doesn't move much but can raise a lot of cain!

It is unlikely to go away completely, but I' not ready to go away from sailing yet. Thanks.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by casual

What happens if the power tool breaks? Are you able to handle the main? If you have others on board can they assist or are they inexperienced? As an ageing sailor I ask myself these questions do I have the right to put others in "Harms Way" just to satisfy myself. I read post frequently of people abandoning ship for IMO no good reason other than they were over there head. Not being critical just realistic. We all have breaking points as we age we may throw in the towel quicker. Who knows when that back injury may act up worsen and leave you immobile. Food for thought.

I'm not proud. I have lazy jacks, and I can drop the sail and motor. What I have is chronic irritation in the SI joint, which often doesn't go away completely, but when this started, provided me with the worst pain I have ever felt in my life -- including labor.

So I'm feeling my way back and am to the point where I'm ready to attempt to sail her double-reefed and with a storm headsail. But I ain't too proud to turn that engine on, and I will in a heartbeat rather than get those muscles in an uproar again.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by JamuJoe

I have a Winch Buddy and love it. Raising the heavy full batten main on our Leopard 42 is now easy, rather that the workout that it is without the Buddy. I've used it to hoist a man up the mast - there is no safety issue as long as you have a secondary halyard - just as you should when manually cranking. You're using the same winch, just a with power handle.

Safe Sailing,
JamuJoe

Thank you so much, JamuJoe!

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by zeehag

¨Stay on your boat and be safe -- 'cuz most accidents happen in the home! Really -- if you can't do something the way you used to -- figure out another way to do it.¨


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA silly-ness.
life is transition. i have been in transition since age 7. funny how i also started sailing that year.

advice or alleged advice from folks who dont know what is going on is not advice.
is more like harrassment or useless words.


people with real disabilities that drastically change their lives early are better at adapting than are most allegedly normal souls, ESPECIALLY if they knew normal for a time, and especially if they were granted a condition with somewhat extreme flexibility.
the more rigidity or spasticity in ones movements, the more prone they will be toward debilitating accidents.
thank the gods my disabilities were due to repetitive injuries of a long and pretty much selfless career saving lives and improving the health of others...and for this awesomest lifestyle not everyone will find out about first hand.

I guess you're right up to a point. I was born with CP but (truly) didn't know until I was 30, so I had learned all sorts of work-arounds. I'm lucky in that it only affects my legs (well, it contributed to my recent back problems; SI difficulties are more common in people with one leg shorter than the other, and that would be .. me).

I learned rock climbing, and I use those skills to move around the boat when it's bouncy. It works very well and is safe for me. I'm just "alternatively coordinated." People sometimes get nervous when they see me getting on and off a boat, for instance if the tide is high and it's not a floating dock. But it works for me.

[bobconnie]

Racu, Connie uses one all the time! I even use it sometimes, ya know everyone has rough days LOL We have a 28 volt, thinking about a 36 next time !

[Celestialsailor]

While cruising down the coast this time around, I have been contemplating a few things. One was that I wish I had gone cruising 25 years ago. Not so much about my age but the cost and hassle of owning a sailboat these days. Maintenance is outlandish, Regulations, out of control. My body says go but my pocket book groans.
I have other hobbies aside from this one that involves adventure. A little less expensive. To my credit and luck, I own a nice home in Ca., 45 minutes from the snow and 90 minutes from the beautiful Pacific Ocean. So no matter what, I'll be ok. I'm seriously leaning towards not bringing my boat back to the US...ever. I just don't see the point in it if I can find nice (cheap) marinas in other countries.
As I mentioned earlier in post #7 that I have had a few set backs with health as well as a few bike wrecks along the way. It has not stopped me from pursuing my dreams.
As mentioned earlier Imagine2frolic was an icon around here. We all watched his bttle with cancer to the end. He and others will always be an inspiration.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

Racu, Connie uses one all the time! I even use it sometimes, ya know everyone has rough days LOL We have a 28 volt, thinking about a 36 next time !

Thank you so much. I looked at the thing and thought, this may be too good to be true ...

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

While cruising down the coast this time around, I have been contemplating a few things. One was that I wish I had gone cruising 25 years ago. Not so much about my age but the cost and hassle of owning a sailboat these days. Maintenance is outlandish, Regulations, out of control. My body says go but my pocket book groans.
I have other hobbies aside from this one that involves adventure. A little less expensive. To my credit and luck, I own a nice home in Ca., 45 minutes from the snow and 90 minutes from the beautiful Pacific Ocean. So no matter what, I'll be ok. I'm seriously leaning towards not bringing my boat back to the US...ever. I just don't see the point in it if I can find nice (cheap) marinas in other countries.
As I mentioned earlier in post #7 that I have had a few set backs with health as well as a few bike wrecks along the way. It has not stopped me from pursuing my dreams.
As mentioned earlier Imagine2frolic was an icon around here. We all watched his bttle with cancer to the end. He and others will always be an inspiration.

I am always sorry to hear of the death of a friend, but that makes it more important to live the life you can live, while you can live it. The truth is that a proverbial refrigerator could fall on any of us at any time, and as time passes, there are more and more of them up there, and they get closer and closer. Sooner or later one of 'em is gonna get me -- and you -- and everyone else here.

I feel quite blessed. I've dodged death four times now, the first time when I was born; the time I almost drowned (or got eaten by a shark, or drowned and then got eaten by a shark, there were several possibilities!); I almost died when my second daughter was born; and I didn't have to be successful at beating breast cancer back. That backache scared the heck out of me because it could have been the cancer announcing that it had set up housekeeping in my vertebrae. But that wasn't it, not this time, anyway.

Something will stop me from sailing sooner or later. I always said that a back injury might force me off the boat, and this one came close. I'm not recommending that anyone be financially foolish, but my parents waited for my dad to retire to start doing the things they'd always wanted to do. Two months before he reitred my mother took a bad fall down some terrazzo steps and essentially never walked again. She could hobble a few feet with a walker, but mostly it was a wheel chair.

Some of us will die too soon. It would be a shame if we hadn't gotten enough sailing in at that point.

[zeehag]

stuff happens.
crossing a street could be suddenly stopped by a bus or a car hitting ye. lol if ifs and ands, and alladat.....

ye can worry about the what ifs or ye can live.

back injury doesnt necessarily mean no more sailing. before i even bought this boat i fell in it and broke my back..lol...so i had to stay on board for 5 weeks..i didnt die.
i avoided death by ex hubby 3 times that i i know of in my second marriage alone-

-yes, jerrymc, he was not a nice man, your friend.


but none of this is relevant to this day. every day is a new one.
live each day and leave the baggage home or wherever you dump it off.
if your health is a problem--deal with it. learn how to live with your body´s changes and go forward.
thing is--each of us is able to do that which we each WANT to do. nothing more nothing less. it is the gremlinsin ones brain that slow down th eactivity--¨old folks shouldnt be able to do that..¨ rodlmao. do it anyway... why limit self.
if you really WANT to live a cruising life, you can, as long as your brain isnt on make excuses mode.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by zeehag

stuff happens.
crossing a street could be suddenly stopped by a bus or a car hitting ye. lol if ifs and ands, and alladat.....

ye can worry about the what ifs or ye can live.

back injury doesnt necessarily mean no more sailing. before i even bought this boat i fell in it and broke my back..lol...so i had to stay on board for 5 weeks..i didnt die.
i avoided death by ex hubby 3 times that i i know of in my second marriage alone-

-yes, jerrymc, he was not a nice man, your friend.


but none of this is relevant to this day. every day is a new one.
live each day and leave the baggage home or wherever you dump it off.
if your health is a problem--deal with it. learn how to live with your body´s changes and go forward.
thing is--each of us is able to do that which we each WANT to do. nothing more nothing less. it is the gremlinsin ones brain that slow down th eactivity--¨old folks shouldnt be able to do that..¨ rodlmao. do it anyway... why limit self.
if you really WANT to live a cruising life, you can, as long as your brain isnt on make excuses mode.

You're absolutely right. Any one of us could be killed crossing the street. As for back problems, I'm taking the attitude that I've already learned to compensate, as you have, for a whole lot more than that. I've gotten some great suggestions both in this thread and in PM's. I said that back problems MIGHT force me off the boat. What it did was force me into the cockpit. For more than a month, I limited the bending and twisting I had to do, and I spent the great majority of my time on the boat in the cockpit, including sleeping. It was actually quite comfy. I did leave the boat for a week to give it even more of a break, and it seems to have paid off.

I know you won't go down easily. I guess you know how much people here admire you.