Reluctantly (as I have plenty to do otherwise), I engage our local wit with
banter:

"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
news.com...

Wilbur, you know I like your satires.

But, this one wasn't intended to be satire. It was intended to be
educational to show the difference between what sailing once was and what
it has degraded into of late.

Ehhhh. Said by the guy who rarely leaves his hook...


But at least get your facts straight before you stretch them.

You certainly know that Lydia's mother lives in England. You may have
missed, however, that she's visiting the son of her two dearest high
school friends.

Well, then who was it you two drove up and down the Interstate half a
dozen times to visit or stay with or watch her house? Was up in Tennessee
or Kentucky, wasn't it?

Nice try, but good foggy recollections. We house-sat for one of our dearest
friends, right down the road from where Lydia's rental (after she'd sold her
house) was, while they were gallivanting around the world (by air) - and
then went to Lydia's son's graduation from AFBT, then attended hers and my
older older daughters' first births, as well as went from NGA to NH to
attend my father's 85th birthday bash.

Any time we're in US waters, we take the opportunity to visit family and
friends. Kinda like visiting the locals when you're in foreign waters,
which we also do...

No connection whatsoever to her mom's flat in Manchester, Surrey UK...


That's until we get on the boat, with her - at, perhaps, 87 years old,
she having a birthday soon - aboard, to resume cruising.

That's pretty old. You should be more considerate of her and celebrate her
birthday in a nice air-conditioned hotel or resort.

Heh. The house she's visiting is sort of resort-ish. With my father having
just entered hospice (1-3 month ETD), we're not rushing this one (see
below), either. There's an outside possibility that we'll celebrate it
there. Otherwise, we'll spend it exploring a reef, or maybe at Nippers, as
she dearly loves her grog.


You also know that we don't do "schedules" - which is why we're still
here in the yard - the schedule to be at Stranded Naked, the schedule to
be out of the yard before hurricane season, and all the other "schedules"
which might have been interesting to achieve.

I'm talking about schedules while you are actually cruising like your rush
from the Bahamas primarily so you could make some wedding that was
scheduled in the U.S.

Yes, indeed. So, we chose a perfect window many weeks in advance - hardly a
"rush" from the Bahamas. Schedules with long lead times mean just choosing
your perfect travel dates. An 8 knot AVERAGE (top 12.3) over the 480 miles
showed we did reasonably well at that. Those sorts of determinations fix
our travel plans - whether just to move to another island, or making
passages.


As to "Poor" me, I'm having the time of my life.

Just goes to show you're way too easy to please. Being strapped with one
or two ball-and-chain's is certainly not MY idea of having the time of my
life. Nothing beats true freedom but I suppose you're too insecure to ever
experience the freedom of going it alone.

"Alone" is relative. I'm really sorry that you've not succeeded in finding
a life partner, illusory web fantasies notwithstanding. I, indeed, have a
winner. Lydia sands, puts on fiberglass, caulks, tapes (our latest
activities), paints, varnishes, yada, yada, nearly everything other than
engine maintenance, and loves doing it. We were talking with a new arrival
(well, the boat's been here, but he just bought it), last night, whose wife
will go for a max of a couple of weeks, and musing on how rare that
symbiotic relationship is among cruisers.

I'm blessed to have her, let alone be able to do what I'm doing, which is
exactly what I'd like to do, rather than being tied to anything with other
responsibilities, dress codes, and the like.


The boat's in better nick than it's ever been during our ownership, and
many very serious age-related (the boat, not mine!!) issues have been put
to bed not only professionally but beautifully.

Well, that's a worthwhile accomplishment, at least. Time spent bettering
one's vessel is time well spent.

Which is our philosophy, exactly. The work we're doing here should be
last-time-addressed over our ownership. If you don't have the time to do it
right, when are you going to have time to do it over (our first attempts -
hers, too small a tape gap, and mine, the learning curve for my fairing
tool - on the port inboard caulking excepted)??

Despite your caviling at our systems, they enable us to comfortably and
knowledgeably voyage. Yes, you could do it (much more cautiously, of
course) with a lead line, compass and a sextant, and hope you don't get
surprised by a weather system, but we don't have to, all the way to our
quadrafilic helical antenna, connected to a receiver with the proper
crystals, fed to our sound card and interpreted by a program which converts
REAL TIME weather satellite info to as many as 16 different presentations.
If you're traveling waters you know intimately, and never extend beyond them
(such as was the case when I lived on Lake Lanier), you don't need added
gear. We rather enjoy our support systems, and the boat's big enough to
support it without losing storage space.

The fact that this is our only home (visits to friends and family -
something else we're blessed with; I note there's never any commentary from
you about such experiences - excepted) keeps us interested and engaged in
keeping her in top nick, as well as improving her from time to time -
sometimes with new or better gear...


My apologies for not having gotten pictures of some of the latest up yet,
but I'll get to that some time soon, now that the time pressure of dry
weather (caulking) has passed...

You did a half-assed job on the toe rail, dude. Unless and until you
REMOVE it, scrape clean the bottom surface, check the fasteners that it
covers and replace/reseal those that need it, then calk and refasten the
toe rail so you have calk oozing out both both ways, you've not really
accomplished anything more than some amateur cosmetic work.

Heh. We effectively did that.

We were aggressive enough with our cleanout that (as proved by, in some
cases, our caulk coming through to the side which hadn't yet been done, due
to the pressure that I was exerting on the nipple and gun trigger) that we
have effectively rebed our toe rail - and, along the way, where it was
accessible, rebed the hull-to-deck joint. We've had a couple of
gulley-washers here recently which have proven our success.


I hope you're having as much fun as we are, and will, also, continue in
that vein as we again hit the high seas and continue our explorations. I
don't lament others' lifestyles, but you're sorely tempting me :{))

My lifestyle is that of a true sailor - a regular Joshua Slocum type -
while yours is that of a committe head organizer, a boat yard worker, a
husband, a son-in-law, kennel keeper, day laborer, a wannabe journalist
and socialite.

True sailors don't spend their entire time of life, interspersed with a day
or two elsewhere, on a hook or mooring. Joshua Slocum (a notable who I have
no interest in emulating - as, apparently you don't, either, or you'd be off
voyaging, and not here) spent next to no time on the hook in comparison to
his travels, let alone building his own boat, in comparison to your voyaging
history.


BTW, I've enjoyed all the chatter essentially off topic, and have not
responded until now to let it die down a bit...

Admit it, you were struck dumb by the many valid points made that did not
make you appear to be much of a sailor. LOL.

ROFL - reread them to know that none of the above sentence applies.

I'm off to the tool repair (under warranty) as I worked my Porter-Cable
DA/RO sander to the point that the attaching receiver worked its way out of
the bearing into which it had been pressed, the better to continue sanding
on the fiberglass and fairing we're still doing.

L8R

Skip and crew

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain