"Sir Thomas of Cannondale" wrote in
news:CAevj.20178$eg3.7989@trndny05:


"Bruce in Bangkok" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:30:11 -0800 (PST), Skip Gundlach
wrote:

On Feb 20, 6:42 pm, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:
"Skip Gundlach" wrote in message

news:4ef13d3f-d5d1-4e60-ad28-6a00e27b8e08
@p73g2000hsd.googlegroups.c
om...

Unfortunately, Hawk Channel is very narrow, so tacking was out of
the question, and, worse, has day marks only to show where we
should be staying, even if we were to "drive" (motor vs. sail)
it. That meant that we'd not be able to navigate it in the dark.

Hawk Channel is anything but narrow. You obviously weren't even IN
Hawk Channel if you make such a stupid claim. For everybody's
information, Hawk
Channel is anything from three to five miles wide the entire way
from Miami
to Key West with the exception of a small choke point of a couple
of miles
in and around Fowey Rocks light. It consists of the area between
the outlying barrier reef and the Keys. Plenty of water there to
tack to one's
heart's desire. Skippy is a liar! Obviously makes up more sailing
tales than he actually lives. And, for your further edification,
the Gulf Stream
current rarely comes to within three to five miles of the barrier
reef. And,
in most places, the reef itself is no barrier to a sailboat that
draws five
feet or so. One can tack his way across the reef back and forth in
most places. In many places the reef is ten to twelve feet beneath
the surface at
MLW. It's a hazard to shipping but to small sailing yachts it's not
much of
a problem. Time to get real Skippy. Your lies about the Florida
Keys will be
exposed by yours truly because, like many places up and down the
East Coast
and the Gulf Coast and the Florida Keys and the entire Bahamas
chain, I've
spent years being there doing that.

Wilbur Hubbard

You've obviously not been paying attention to my prior posts. Our
yacht draws well over 6 feet, and the destination we were attempting
was just beyond Fowey Rocks.

The combination caused us to make an easier landfall and sailing
destination. As the later portion of my post indicates, we did indeed
transit that area later, with great results.

As before, I invite you to tell us of where you've cruised in the
last - say - year...

We're out doing it...

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its
hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."
(Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah)

Ah Skip, don't pay poor old Willie-boy no mind. He just sits there in
his Lazy-boy recliner, down there at the trailer park, reading his
books and magazines and imagining he is sailing the Spanish Main. He
rides a bicycle to work, don't even have a car, never mind a boat --
except for the rubber duck there in the bathtub.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(Note:remove underscores
from address for reply)

========================

In my opinion, Wibur makes some valid points.. he certainly seems to
know the channel he posted about.

As for Skips "As before, I invite you to tell us of where you've
cruised in the last
- say - year...We're out doing it..."

Skip is living part time on a boat, to call what he has been doing
"cruising" is a very big stretch.

Since his ill-fated launch, ship wreck, repair, rebuild, depression,
.. blah blah .. about all the cruising he has
done is along the coast, and even this was short hops with long anchor
hanging time in between.

It is February, very cold where I live, snow up the *&^%. If I was
"living" on my boat, "living" the
cruising lifestyle as many do .. I would be in the island, Bahama's,
Cuba.. who knows ... but I would
not be sitting at some "good guy let me use it" dock in FLA. That
isn't cruising, that is houseboat
time.

I enjoy Skips postings, in a weird way they are like a bad tv show
with a predictable plot, but I keep
watching anyway. He speaks of his life, health, relatives, etc...
very enjoyable. But .. not in any
way, or stretch of the imagination is what he has been doing ...
CRUISING.

The key thing to remember is that the vast majority of the people who
respond in this group have never cruised. Most of the people have
sailed at some time in their lives and have owned, or own, sailboats.
You also have the people who race, but that has virtually nothing do to
with cruising.

But as far as doing anything more than long vacations on their boats,
they've never sailed more than a few hundred miles from their home port.
Oh, excuse me, they've also chartered in the BVIs or somewhere similiar.

The fact of the matter is that most cruisers move from port to port, or
anchorage to anchorage, in much the same manner that people move their
RVs between RV parks. There's nothing the matter with this, other than
it doesn't fit the image that some of you have of a "real" cruiser.

It's also interesting that many of you think that you can only cruise on
a sailboat. I know lots of people who cruise on their trawlers and we
are often jealous of their space and comfort. Simply because they're
not cruising using wind power, doesn't mean that they're not cruising.
Look at the title of this group: reg.boats.cruising. Do you notice
that it's not rec.sailing.cruising? Maybe you should take a hint from
that.

It seems like some of you think that if you're cruising, that you need
to be constantly moving the boat. I've done that, and found that I've
missed a lot along the way. You need to stop and get to know an area to
truly experience a culture. I much prefer to find an area that I like
and hang around for an extended period of time.

We found that we really liked the NW Caribbean (Belize, Guatemala &
Honduras) and spent 4 seasons exploring the area and giving me my diving
fixes. I had absolutely no problem spending the majority of a season
anchored at Lighthouse Reef in Belize diving 2 times a day. Some of you
might not call that cruising, but it makes me happy.

You'll also note that you rarely see posts from the standard
contributors about their cruising. Most of them post year round from
the comfort of their homes and spend most of their time bashing others.

Skip certainly has had his fair share of problems, many of them self
generated, but he is out there learning and doing it. I wish him well
and hope that the reality lives up to the dream. So until you start
posting from your boat that you're moving from port to port, don't you
dare claim that Skip isn't cruising.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org