On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:32:34 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:

Bruce,
I thought I had sent this but it appears that the news server I
subscribe to had crashed. I have just come back home (in Sydney) from
home (Penang - the centre of the universe).

Snipped a bunch.

I then said to the Customs officer "See, she is irrational - what
should I do?" He began to stamp my papers and quietly said "Go with
God brother" (he is a fellow Moslem and that is what people say upon
departing company). I, being rather thick as is my normal custom,
replied "Yes, but what do I do now?" He looked at me as he handed back
the papers with the port clearance and said "Brother, GO with God".


No I believe that your passport can be seized with the purpose of
making sure that you stay around until the trial, although perhaps
"seized" is the improper term; perhaps something like "retained" would
be the proper term.

There was a 'german guy arrested at the Satuan Immigrations -
apparently on a German warrant. In any event they took his passport
away right on the spot. But perhaps they then turned it over to the
German embassy.


I got the hint, fueled up the boat picked up the refilled scuba tanks,
said good-bye to friends (no lovers unfortunately) and left - minus an
exit stamp in our passports which I was supposed to have prior to
getting port clearance.

First time something like this has happened.

It's an interesting world isn't it?

By the way, I am thinking of asking your friend Wilbur to accompany me
across the Pacific after Christmas with a two fold benefit. I could
learn about sailing and have amusing compay (I prefer not to sail
alone) and also give the newsgroup a break for a while from his
pathetic "life is tough, it's tougher if you're stupid" (John Wayne)
anti-anything-I-cannot afford-or-don't-have-the-guts-to-do attitude.
As he displays the obvious symptons of short man's disease, at 5' 10"
I am bigger than he and thus could thump him occasionally to keep him
in line.

I am unsure if he would be comfortable on my 41 footer after the
luxury of his Swan 68 though.

What do you think?

cheers
Peter

That is quite a haul are you stopping along the way or essentially
doing a delivery? If the latter it is a damned long trip. Are you
heading for N.Z. or Australia?

Forty-one feet might seem like a lot when you are trying to maneuver
in a crowded marina with the tide running 3 - 4 knots and the wind
blowing but it would get awful small with our friend aboard. To be
frank there are a very limited number of people I would sail with
longer then an overnight run to Langkawi or a Sunday sail and as I
said, it is a long trip..........

There was a guy, Frank the American, here for a year or so. He has a
45 ft. boat and does these deals where you get four or five people and
pay him to help sail his boat from, say, Honolulu to Auckland. No
autopilot, hanked on sails, real old fashioned sailing. I guess he
makes a dollar because he is still at it. Anyway, on the stern "roll
bar" where the solar panels, wind generator and all that junk is
mounted there is a comfortable looking seat mounted about as high as
you can get on this structure. One day I asked him what it was for as
it is obviously too far aft to con the boat from and he said it was
for people who were feeling grumpy. If you were a bit out of sorts
they sent you up on that seat for your watch -- about like spending
half the day half way up the mast. He said it really helped to keep
people friendly...

Sounds like you are one of those Paid Captains, talking abut "Owners"
and all. I assume the wide legged white shorts and knee socks and
epaulets. How did you get this position?

You are going to get a bad reputation leaving the boat just because
the typhoon season is approaching. Absolutely no question about
lubberness. You are supposed to forge ahead, hell, a month or two of
upwind sailing will make a sailor out of you.

Write when you get time. Or e-mail if you can decipher my address.

Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:35:29 +0700, wrote:

Sounds like you are one of those Paid Captains, talking abut "Owners"
and all. I assume the wide legged white shorts and knee socks and
epaulets. How did you get this position?


Bruce. You surprise me. I assume that you have been married for a few
years and should know better. Here in Sydney when I say "I'll just ask
my owner", most long married men and women smile and readily
understand what I am refering to. Even though I have been in IT and
telecommunications for 30 odd years, my major at university was in
Zoology, specifically fisheries and I can't but help see people in
terms of animal behaviour. It's just an acknowledgement that in most
societies I have been in, the wife is usually the "head" of the home
in practical terms - even if it is only the power behind the throne.

No, I am not a paid captain. It is my boat that I built myself from
bare timber (sheathed in GRP) - hence wooden mast, poured sockets for
the rigging and other bronze fittings cast from my own patterns, etc.,
and launched in '93 in New Zealand. The 'owner' refered to is "the"
wife.

Yes it is a long way and there are few people I would sail such a
distance with. Unfortunately these all have job commitments, get sea
sick or are in poor health. A lot of the solo sailors I have met have
tried taking on crew in the past and finally decided it was easier to
sail alone.

As to final landfall, not sure but have been invited to stop and stay
at Haiphong, Vietnam as a guest of Customs. I may however end in
Sydney and later sail through Indonesia again to Malaysia. Still
deciding.

cheers
Peter

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:52:09 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:35:29 +0700, wrote:



Sounds like you are one of those Paid Captains, talking abut "Owners"
and all. I assume the wide legged white shorts and knee socks and
epaulets. How did you get this position?


Bruce. You surprise me. I assume that you have been married for a few
years and should know better. Here in Sydney when I say "I'll just ask
my owner", most long married men and women smile and readily
understand what I am referring to. Even though I have been in IT and
telecommunications for 30 odd years, my major at university was in
Zoology, specifically fisheries and I can't but help see people in
terms of animal behavior. It's just an acknowledgement that in most
societies I have been in, the wife is usually the "head" of the home
in practical terms - even if it is only the power behind the throne.


Ah! Different society. When I was brought up a fellow might say, "I'll
ask my wife", but the more manly answer was "let me think about it and
get back to you", which of course meant that he'd ask his wife if they
could go to the clam bake?

I usually just say we....

No, I am not a paid captain. It is my boat that I built myself from
bare timber (sheathed in GRP) - hence wooden mast, poured sockets for
the rigging and other bronze fittings cast from my own patterns, etc.,
and launched in '93 in New Zealand. The 'owner' referred to is "the"
wife.

Yes it is a long way and there are few people I would sail such a
distance with. Unfortunately these all have job commitments, get sea
sick or are in poor health. A lot of the solo sailors I have met have
tried taking on crew in the past and finally decided it was easier to
sail alone.

One way to get your wife to come along is co call from where ever the
boat is and say something like, "Honey, I've been looking for a crew
all over and the only one I can find is this 30 year old Dutch
girl......" A mate of mine did that and I swear his Missus must have
ridden her broom to have gotten to Phuket as fast as she did.

As to final landfall, not sure but have been invited to stop and stay
at Haiphong, Vietnam as a guest of Customs. I may however end in
Sydney and later sail through Indonesia again to Malaysia. Still
deciding.

cheers
Peter

You are in the Caribbean and headed for Vietnam? That is kind of the
long way round isn't it? Or are you going east?


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:16:21 +0700, wrote:

One way to get your wife to come along is co call from where ever the
boat is and say something like, "Honey, I've been looking for a crew
all over and the only one I can find is this 30 year old Dutch
girl......" A mate of mine did that and I swear his Missus must have
ridden her broom to have gotten to Phuket as fast as she did.

It's not a case of her not wanting to come. She does as I have been
fortunate enough to have a wife who loves the sea. It's just that our
son needs to attend High School and therefore she has to remain in
Sydney for a while.

Have you ever read D.H. Lawrence? In "The Sea and Sardinia" (I think
that is the title), one of his books about his travels through Italy
with his wife Frieda von Richthofen, he constantly refers to her as
"she", never by name. As an aside (my mind wanders off very easily),
whilst at Taormina in Sicily he wrote one of my favorite poems "The
Snake". It is very beautiful.

As to final landfall, not sure but have been invited to stop and stay
at Haiphong, Vietnam as a guest of Customs. I may however end in
Sydney and later sail through Indonesia again to Malaysia. Still
deciding.

cheers
Peter

You are in the Caribbean and headed for Vietnam? That is kind of the
long way round isn't it? Or are you going east?

Yes, a faster trip would possibly be down the South Atlantic to Cape
Town and either across to Australia or up to South East Asia but I'd
like to do the Pacific. I have friends who sailed through the Beagle
Channel with a quick trip to Cape Horn Island. It is so very tempting
to do this and then head up to say, Easter Island and French Polynesia
from Chile, but it would be nicer with a companion. They said that
Argentina and Chile are great places to sail through. As there are few
foreign boats and no "water Winnebagos" the yacht clubs are inviting
and generally charge no fees which seems a positive sign of their
hospitality. But, as I said, I prefer to have a companion to share the
experiences with. I can handle the being alone bit as there are
lonelier situations within a crowded city or amongst a group of
people. It is also nice to be able to get longer sleep periods when
one does not have to worry about other vessels. Things are still
fluid at the moment.

cheers
Peter


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:38:10 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:16:21 +0700, wrote:

One way to get your wife to come along is co call from where ever the
boat is and say something like, "Honey, I've been looking for a crew
all over and the only one I can find is this 30 year old Dutch
girl......" A mate of mine did that and I swear his Missus must have
ridden her broom to have gotten to Phuket as fast as she did.

It's not a case of her not wanting to come. She does as I have been
fortunate enough to have a wife who loves the sea. It's just that our
son needs to attend High School and therefore she has to remain in
Sydney for a while.

Have you ever read D.H. Lawrence? In "The Sea and Sardinia" (I think
that is the title), one of his books about his travels through Italy
with his wife Frieda von Richthofen, he constantly refers to her as
"she", never by name. As an aside (my mind wanders off very easily),
whilst at Taormina in Sicily he wrote one of my favorite poems "The
Snake". It is very beautiful.


Nope, the only Lawrence I read was the guy running about in Arabia
during the first World War and I don;' think that he had a wife.


As to final landfall, not sure but have been invited to stop and stay
at Haiphong, Vietnam as a guest of Customs. I may however end in
Sydney and later sail through Indonesia again to Malaysia. Still
deciding.

cheers
Peter

You are in the Caribbean and headed for Vietnam? That is kind of the
long way round isn't it? Or are you going east?

Yes, a faster trip would possibly be down the South Atlantic to Cape
Town and either across to Australia or up to South East Asia but I'd
like to do the Pacific. I have friends who sailed through the Beagle
Channel with a quick trip to Cape Horn Island. It is so very tempting
to do this and then head up to say, Easter Island and French Polynesia
from Chile, but it would be nicer with a companion. They said that
Argentina and Chile are great places to sail through. As there are few
foreign boats and no "water Winnebagos" the yacht clubs are inviting
and generally charge no fees which seems a positive sign of their
hospitality. But, as I said, I prefer to have a companion to share the
experiences with. I can handle the being alone bit as there are
lonelier situations within a crowded city or amongst a group of
people. It is also nice to be able to get longer sleep periods when
one does not have to worry about other vessels. Things are still
fluid at the moment.

cheers
Peter


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

Being of British heritage - New Zealand was conquered by the British
you know -- you should follow custom and put the boy in a good
boarding school, a proper education you know.

On a less frivolous aside I have some friends (from N.Z. also) that
actually did place their son in a boarding school after having decided
that the curriculum and teaching quality were vastly superior to that
in public school.

However, as a good Moslem you are allowed four wives. Of course, If I
remember correctly, you must treat each wife equally so if you built
another boat......


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:04:01 +0700, wrote:



However, as a good Moslem you are allowed four wives. Of course, If I
remember correctly, you must treat each wife equally so if you built
another boat......


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

Bruce, Bruce, don't even suggest it. Another Englishman, Oscar Wilde
said that "The definition of bigamy is one wife too many; monogamy is
the same thing."

Sorry that you have missed out on reading any D H Lawrence. Surely you
must have heard of "Lady Chatterly's Lover', "Sons and Lovers" and
"Women in Love"? I know that I meet few Americans who have read any of
Hemmingway or Mark Twain apart from "Tom Sawyer", but I imagined that
you were of an earlier generation. A great American, Carnegie, gave a
lot of money to build libraries in places such as little N.Z. I used
to believe as a kid that therefore (kid logic) Americans were a very
well read people. This was reinforced when I was about 10 and somebody
bought me the 52 volume set of Encyclopedia Britannica - 'Great Books
of the Western World" - produced, not in the UK, but by the University
of Chicago. everything from Homer to Freud including Plato, Euripides,
Descartes, Shakespeare, Euclid and so on including my own Uncle
Herodotus after whom I named my boat. At 10 I believed that Americans
must be reading these. Pretty dumb huh!

cheers
Peter

Herodotus wrote:

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:04:01 +0700, wrote:



However, as a good Moslem you are allowed four wives. Of course, If I
remember correctly, you must treat each wife equally so if you built
another boat......


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)


Bruce, Bruce, don't even suggest it. Another Englishman, Oscar Wilde
said that "The definition of bigamy is one wife too many; monogamy is
the same thing."

Sorry that you have missed out on reading any D H Lawrence. Surely you
must have heard of "Lady Chatterly's Lover', "Sons and Lovers" and
"Women in Love"? I know that I meet few Americans who have read any of
Hemmingway or Mark Twain apart from "Tom Sawyer", but I imagined that
you were of an earlier generation. A great American, Carnegie, gave a
lot of money to build libraries in places such as little N.Z. I used
to believe as a kid that therefore (kid logic) Americans were a very
well read people. This was reinforced when I was about 10 and somebody
bought me the 52 volume set of Encyclopedia Britannica - 'Great Books
of the Western World" - produced, not in the UK, but by the University
of Chicago. everything from Homer to Freud including Plato, Euripides,
Descartes, Shakespeare, Euclid and so on including my own Uncle
Herodotus after whom I named my boat. At 10 I believed that Americans
must be reading these. Pretty dumb huh!

cheers
Peter

Well, maybe the great unwashed masses?
But I personally tend to read libraries by the stack.
And use the interlibrary loan system constantly!

You can find a good book on Amazon for 85 cents.
But it costs $4 for shipping.

Mr., Carnegie's legacy is still free - except for late fees.

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:02:02 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:04:01 +0700, wrote:



However, as a good Moslem you are allowed four wives. Of course, If I
remember correctly, you must treat each wife equally so if you built
another boat......


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

Bruce, Bruce, don't even suggest it. Another Englishman, Oscar Wilde
said that "The definition of bigamy is one wife too many; monogamy is
the same thing."

Sorry that you have missed out on reading any D H Lawrence. Surely you
must have heard of "Lady Chatterly's Lover', "Sons and Lovers" and
"Women in Love"? I know that I meet few Americans who have read any of
Hemmingway or Mark Twain apart from "Tom Sawyer", but I imagined that
you were of an earlier generation. A great American, Carnegie, gave a
lot of money to build libraries in places such as little N.Z. I used
to believe as a kid that therefore (kid logic) Americans were a very
well read people. This was reinforced when I was about 10 and somebody
bought me the 52 volume set of Encyclopedia Britannica - 'Great Books
of the Western World" - produced, not in the UK, but by the University
of Chicago. everything from Homer to Freud including Plato, Euripides,
Descartes, Shakespeare, Euclid and so on including my own Uncle
Herodotus after whom I named my boat. At 10 I believed that Americans
must be reading these. Pretty dumb huh!

cheers
Peter

Ah Peter, the last work iin morning after remarks, "I'd like to marry
you but I'd have to build a boat first...."

Probably in self defense, my mother introduced me to the public
library as soon as I could read. My Goodness, there was a lot of
information in that building and right on the way home from school --
if I took a bit of a detour. At one time I was the youngest person in
my home town to possess a "library card".

I guess I have read D.H. Lawrence, at least the more lurid parts of
Lady Chatterly. Really hard core stuff in my youth.

Hemingway, is good and bad. Most of the bull fighting books were great
on detail but dwelled, and dwelled, and dwelled, and dwelled on the
tension and fear building up before the matador enters the ring. I
found them tedious. On the other hand the old man and the sea, was, I
believe, one of the best books about small time commercial fishing
that has been written.

Mark Twain (which, by the way, is 12 feet) is a writer that I enjoy as
I do Kipling. Neither of them would be published in the present day of
"political correctness" which seems a puzzle as it is neither
political nor correct, but that is another story. I keep a copy of Kim
and re-read it at least once a year.

Most of my reading lately is trash. I work on the boat; I eat supper;
it's too early to go to bed; I read a book, the last thing I want to
do is read a good book because I've got to get up tomorrow and do it
all again, so I read trash. Science Fiction; Fantasy; Detective
stories, etc.

Well, given that you have a boy in high school it might have been
correct, when you were ten, that Americans read, but it certainly
isn't true now. I have no contact with the U.S. except for the
internet so can't say from experience but when I read some idiot's
remarks about something he saw on TV that is physically impossible it
really makes me wonder.

But then have political leaders who are old enough to remember the
last time we got ourselves into a situation where we didn' know how to
get out of it and did it again. Truly, Those who cannot learn from
history are doomed to repeat it.

Enough for this evening.


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:38:10 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:

Have you ever read D.H. Lawrence? In "The Sea and Sardinia" (I think
that is the title), one of his books about his travels through Italy
with his wife Frieda von Richthofen, he constantly refers to her as
"she", never by name. As an aside (my mind wanders off very easily),
whilst at Taormina in Sicily he wrote one of my favorite poems "The
Snake". It is very beautiful.

He later joined the RAF as an a/c two. Died in a motorbike crash.
Horribly mundane way to go for El Lawrence. of Arabia.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

Brian Whatcott wrote:
:On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:38:10 +1000, Herodotus
:wrote:

:Have you ever read D.H. Lawrence? In "The Sea and Sardinia" (I think
:that is the title), one of his books about his travels through Italy
:with his wife Frieda von Richthofen, he constantly refers to her as
:"she", never by name. As an aside (my mind wanders off very easily),
:whilst at Taormina in Sicily he wrote one of my favorite poems "The
:Snake". It is very beautiful.

:He later joined the RAF as an a/c two. Died in a motorbike crash.
:Horribly mundane way to go for El Lawrence. of Arabia.

That's T.E. Lawrence, not D.H. Lawrence. Different people.