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

Skippy seems to make Wi-Fi his main concern when visiting ports of call.

To me this seems rather pitiful. Whatever happened to cruising for the
sake of the simple and enjoyable cruising life which is NOT to be had if
one motors from one port to the next where one can connect to the Internet
to run one's mouth for hours and hours each day?

What kind of mentality tells a sailor that his audience can't get along
without him or he can't get along without his audience?

I couldn't cruise that way. I wouldn't cruise that way. That's not
cruising. I couldn't live that way. That's not living That's going around
yelling, "Hey lookit meeeeee!"


Wilbur Hubbard


Now, Willie, you know that's not quite right...

I can't comment on others, but we sail, using the motor only as a last
resort. It's true that we "shop for internet" while we shop for water as we
anchor, but that's driven by 2 things.

The first and foremost, a condition I knew about when I married her, is that
Lydia has stainless steel hawsers rather than apron strings, enhanced and
confounded by her relatively recent awareness of grandparent(well, I guess I
should say grandmother, as, if it's not of her bloodline, the interest in
FTF or telephony/video contact is nearly invisible)hood, which make the need
for reasonably reliable contact, either via email or video skype, paramount.
It's (the hawsers) one of the conditions I accepted as the cost of
cruising - and, even our relationship, which preceded our splash by a long
time.

Second is that, unlike a huge majority of cruisers (not necessarily here),
we don't return to our home port, with all the attendant benefits of a
landside connection, transportation and a fixed location for a base, after
each trip or voyage. As a result, anything we need is hugely more
effectively done over the internet rather than on an expensive shore card
(see the Ragged subthread) or even more expensive cell connection.

FWIW, we also have Ham, SSB, VHF and other connectivity - but the internet
works any time we're within a league of shore, for the most part (there have
been only a less-than-handfuil of times we've not found open access in our
three years plus of cruising, much of it done under way).

So, weather is the prime concern, navigation the second, provisioning and
safety the third, and on and on. WiFi is only one of the primary concerns
:{)) - but once the others are resolved, item 1 above trumps most other
stuff...

Yah, I know, you'll get off on your rant about women on a boat. However,
that part aside, those of our sexual orientation usually prefer to have a
companion if she's up to, enthusiastic about and reasonably (I only put that
label on myself; "highly" may come one day...) skilled at seamanship. So,
there you have it...

As to the last, in a check of the archives, I think one would find that
you've had orders of magnitude more presence here, usually to stir up
something (and which, as we've discussed, with some mutual amusement, I
usually won't take the bait on). Ergo, Pot, Kettle.

But I love you anyway :{))

L8R

Skip

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In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's
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Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
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anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and
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