wrote in message
...
On Thu, 2 Aug 2007 13:20:25 -0400, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

Goodness Wilbur you certainly draw some strange deductions from what
you read. I really thing a reading comprehensive course (they do offer
these as adult education courses) would be a great advantage to you.

But just this one last time I'll try to explain the facts of living on
a boat in Asia to you but I'm warning you that if you get it wrong
again you'll just have to remain stupid old Wilbur who's Daddy taught
him not to try to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Poor Bruce P. has fallen into the trap of moving up in his choice of
boats until he's finally ended up in a boat that's too big for him to
handle or afford.

Too big - I've owned this boat for about 10 years and have been
sailing it either single handed or with only my wife for crew for that
entire period.

Can't afford - Actually I own two boats. The forty foot sailboat (for
cruising) and a 35 foot power boat (not a Grand Banks, but similar in
design to one) for short trips, day trips to some of the islands in
Phang Nga Bay, etc. Both paid for in cash I might add.

This is illustrated by the fact Bruce languishes on a marina in
Thailand
when he could be out doing some serious coastal cruising in what many
consider one of the world's premiere cruising grounds. Why does he
languish in a marina? There are probably at least several different
reasons. I'll list a few of the more prominent . . .

Well no, I do not cruise 360 days a year so during the periods I'm in
port I do keep the boats in a Marina. One of the main advantages is
that we have 24 hour a day security so things don't walk away nearly
as quickly as they do when you are anchored out.

1) Boat is too big and cumbersome and draft too deep for coastal
cruising and exploring the local backwaters where all the action takes
place and where all the things worth exploring are.

As I mentioned, I've had this boat for 10 years and during that period
sailed it either single handed or with my wife as crew. We've cruised
both the east and west coasts of Malaysia from Singapore north to the
Thai border and all the islands on both coasts; the west coast of
Thailand and all the islands from the Thai Border to the Myanma
border, and all the islands in Phang Nga bay.

The boat draws 6 feet and for this part of the world is a very nominal
draft. Most of the fishing boats here draw that much.

I'm not sure what you mean by "action" in local backwaters. Frog
gigging?

2) Boat has too many systems that are always breaking down and provide
a
convenient excuse to stay tied up at the dock.

Other then a complete overhaul on the Perkins 4-107 engine that I did
in Singapore have done no major maintenance on the boat since I owned
it. Oh yes! Sorry, we painted it about five years ago.

3) Bruce is really not cut out for cruising. He's not a strong
individual but somebody who prefers the company of like-minded
(dependent) people, which people also like to sit around their boats
tied to a dock and bull**** about where they'll go next - year after
year while their boats become even more trouble-prone and decrepit.

Well, I suppose I'm not as strong as I once was, after all I'm 75
years old but certainly still active enough to sail. We made a trip
from Singapore to Phuket last September, at the end of the N.E.
Monsoons and will probably plan at least one longish trip, maybe
around the peninsular and up the river to Bangkok, once the rains stop
this year.

4) Too worried about expenses to properly upkeep his vessel. He
probably
never considered how a bigger boat escalates expenses geometrically to
the point he really cannot afford to cruise anymore.

You are correct - I believe that I read that boat expense increase as
a square of the length. But without going into details I can assure
you that I have sufficient where-with-all to keep the boats going.


5) Knows voyaging across oceans is not really a passion of his but
won't
admit it. Grasps at straws for any excuse to stay put.

What's to admit? I recently bought the power boat in Singapore and
brought it back to Phuket on its own bottom. Boats go on the water. If
you want to go somewhere where there is water you just go.

6) Addicted to telephones and Internet connections. Is a landlubber at
heart.

Hubby - do one thing for me. Check the archives and report back how
many posts have been made by you, in your various guises, and how many
have been made by me. Then we can intelligently discuss Internet
addiction.

Hand phones? Yes I own a hand phone - you want to know a secret?
Because hand phone calls in Thailand are cheaper then land line calls
so it makes economic sense to own a hand phone rather then a land
line.

Let this be a lesson to everybody else who's not got a realistic
vision
of what's involved with long-distance voyaging. Furthermore, let it be
a
lesson in knowing when to throw in the towel and admit voyaging is not
really for you. Few things are more pathetic than 'voyagers' and their
vessels rotting away in marinas.

I certainly agree, let it be a lesson! Come to Thailand and enjoy one
of the most pleasant countries in the world and cruise in some of the
most spectacular waters on God's green earth.

Half a year of rain?? What's so spectacular about that? I'd want out of
there immediately, if not before and sooner than that if possible.
Those mosquitoes probably even carry malaria. And I hear they have bird
flu there too.

Internet addiction? You've probably posted far more than I (Wilbur
Hubbard) have. Just because some idiot people think I'm Capt. Neal
doesn't make it so.

Two boats? And one a power boat. That proves it, you're a dock rat. A
lubber. A voyaging sailor no more. But 75 is getting old, really old.
Too old to safely be voyaging. I think the best sailor ever, old Josh
Slocum, was 75 when he sailed off and was never heard from again. But,
I'll give you some credit for getting out there and doing it while you
could. It's no shame on you for knowing when to toss in the old towel.

And, if you don't know what "action" in the local backwaters means you
really ARE getting too old. ;-)

Six-foot draft is dumb, really dumb. It's a bad compromise. For open
ocean voyaging, eight or ten feet of draft is what it takes. And I bet
your boat has an old-fashioned, inefficient full-length keel with barn
door rudder. Get with it man, real savvy voyagers sail deep fin keel
boats with balanced space rudders. They go about twice as fast as your
old-school design and they go to weather ten to twenty degrees higher
and they go downwind without so much rolling from gunnel to gunnel. For
gunkholing and coastal cruising six feet of draft is dumb too. It's just
too much. Why people sail boats like yours that amount to just another
dumb compromise constantly amazes me considering all the choices one has
these days.

My Swan 68 will sail circles around your whatever? BTW, what is it that
you sail. Errrrr, or should I say, what is it that you've got tied up in
that marina there and I don't mean the motorboat.

Wilbur Hubbard