Vic Smith wrote:

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:11:43 -0400, Rosalie B.
wrote:

Vic wrote:
I *do* believe that everything breaks, but that was part of my
training, and my nature.
But many people don't have that training and experience, and many
don't have the nature to ever really pay close attention to never
making a mistake and always having a backup plan.

As you may or may not know, Bob was a Navy pilot (off an aircraft
carrier) and as part of that, he graduated from the USN Test Pilot
School. He's way better at the helm than I am. But I do most of the
planning, and whenever I made a plan, I almost always have a backup or
alternate plan in mind.

I didn't know that about Bob, but wasn't referring to you guys in my
comment above. It's pretty evident you're more on top of things
than the average cruisers, if there is such a thing.

I was responding somewhat to Wilbur's comments.

It's possible my destroyer served as plane guard for some of Bob's
flights if he was with the 6th Fleet '64-'67, so tell him I said Hi!

We moved from Norfolk where he was on the Intrepid or the Essex to the
Monterey California USNPG School in Dec 1964, and in 1966 he went to
VX1 in Key West and was there for three years. So probably not unless
the Intrepid was it in '64. He really thought he had made the last
trip on the Essex, which had the keel broken in the North Sea (in the
waves, bits of the ceiling would come down in the ward room and the
engineers that flew out to look, refused the offer to stay aboard and
flew back home), but apparently it did some stuff after that.

As for the throttle cable - I've never heard of another one breaking.
It is almost completely concealed inside the binnacle and engine room,
so not very accessible.

Yes, understandable. It's easy to say that the location and route of
every wire, cable, pipe/hose, etc should be known and they be
inspected on a schedule, but quite another matter to do that when it
requires disassembly to do it, or squeezing yourself into tight
spaces. Large people are at a disadvantage. I'm medium in all ways
myself, and fairly nimble, but the thought of turning myself into a
pretzel in steamy heat no longer appeals to me.
But maybe I'm just too used to A/C. When I try to acclimate to the
heat by foregoing A/C, it's not bad - but I get no peace from my wife
and soon give in and crank it up again.

We don't have A/C on the boat, and until about 7 years ago we didn't
have it in Leonardtown either, nor did most of our cars have it.

Thanks again for the interesting logs.
I'll echo Roger's comment by saying cruisers must be a special breed.
I really believe Bob suffered less stress while catapulting from a
flight deck than he did during some of the incidents you recount.
Not sure I could handle cruising - at least if it involves too many
marinas.

They say single handing is easy as long as you don't ever have to go
into a marina.

Our problem is that we have a modified full keel - so very susceptible
to current, and a lot of windage, and the boat is 37000 lbs so it is
quite heavy. If there is a strong current, the two of us together can
just about move it a foot or so in a slip. And I'm always a little
afraid that if we actually DID run into someone, we would smash the
other boat to kindling.