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 01:04:24 -0500, cavelamb himself
wrote:



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.

Thanks for this. I didn't mean to imply that Americans were illiterate
or unread. Someone must be buying books from Amazon.

Do you know the background to the Carnegie libraries?
Do they still exist in the US? In New Zealand, unless I am mistaken,
they have all been taken over by the local councils (county and town
local government as opposed to central government).

The building are still there and are almost all identical in
construction - red brick with concrete or plastered lintels and
pediments.

Peter

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 2007-08-16 07:56:08 -0400, said:

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".

My father introduced me to the public library -- after I read
everything in the children's library and was too young to get a library
car in the adult library, he gave me his library card to use. Then he
walked me to the library, introduced me to the head librarian and told
her "Let Ruby read anything she wants to read. If she has questions,
or if you're really concerned about whether it's appropriate for her,
call me." It was a small town. I think the only call my father ever
received wasn't from the librarian, but from my high school English
teacher who had a problem with me doing a book report on "The
Godfather." He threatened me with detention (and I had a job to get
to!) and demanded to know what my parents would think of me reading
such trash. (It was in the early 70s.) My father had given me the
book! The English teacher called my father, and it was the last time
he ever questioned my reading choices!


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.

I feel the same way about much of Hemingway's work. But the old man
and the sea was good. And Lady Chatterly was quite interesting -- at
least the lurid bits. I was too young when I read it to really
understand the story, though. I ought to give it another try.


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.

I enjoyed Mark Twain. And Kipling, but I loved Jack London. And Steinbeck.


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.

It's hard not to enjoy trash like sci fi, fantasy and detective
stories. That makes up the majority of my reading these days, and for
the same reasons. (Not working on a boat, per se, but working.) I
read to relax, and I don't want to have to work at it.

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.

Americans do read -- although I think that it's the women reading while
the men control the TV remote and watch one idiotic thing after the
next.


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.

Ruby Vee, in the US working to build up a cruising kitty.

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:56:08 +0700, wrote:


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.

It seems that we have similar reading habits. "The Old Man and the
Sea" is one of my favourites. I probably read it once a year. I would
very much like to have the fortitude and calmness under difficult
situations of Santiago. Kipling's "Kim" is also and fired my
imagination as a child. I bought the audiobook of it from Naxos and
listen to it during night watch. I have also reduced it to MP3. If you
want a copy I could send a copy to you by snailmail if you should so
wish. Listening to it is not the same as reading but it is still
excellent. I am amassing quite a lot of audiobooks, some of which I
buy and other which I download from Project Gutenberg. They are a
great way to pass the time at night if you want to stay awake. My
cockpit stereo can play MP3s but I normally load everything on my
little 6 Gig. iRiver which has a 32 hour battery life and doesn't have
the battery problems etc of iPods. I also download podcasts from time
to time and store them for later (I use Limewire - free) to keep
abreast and stimulated.

http://www.gutenberg.org

As for Lady Chatterly, I first read "her" at age 13 - the book was
smuggled into N.Z. as it was banned there. Today, we would wonder what
all the fuss was about. I recall that my friends and I were sorely
disappointed when we read it. There was much better titilation (no pun
intended) in the African articles of National Geographic. Just shows
how societies' mores have changed (I will be 60 in November). I much
prefer his other works and especially some of his poems such as
"Don'ts" which for a long time was my Ten Commandments and 'Snake".
Did you know that his remains are interred in the US? He was a great
friend of Aldous Huxley who wrote "Brave New World", another Britain
who lived and died in the US. Huxley wanted to become an American
citizen after living there for years but objected to the part of the
oath that he would take up arms in its defense - like Lawrence and
many others of the time, he was a pacifist, a belief strengthened by
the insane slaughter in WWI..

I think I have searched out and read nearly all of Mark Twain's
writings. Apart from his descriptions of life and the world about him,
I like his humility, humour and his ability to see things in a cynical
manner. I don't mean in a negative way but in the true meaning of the
word - to see things as they are.

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.

At the risk of being flamed again, I really feel for the families of
those getting killed in this generation's Vietnam. I have met a lot of
servicemen, mainly navy, around the world and many of them are from
economically disadvantaged backgrounds who joined the military to get
an education or a trade. Perhaps if those who decided to send the
troops to conflicts that are not directly in defense of the homeland
had their sons in the ranks and in the front line, Vietnam and Iraq
would not have happened. Vietnam now seems so pointless and such a
terrible waste of life.

A Japanese Haiku best sums it up for me.

Of twenty thousand warriors life and sword and shield
Naught hath remained but the summer grass
Growing over the old battlefield

By the way, when we stopped off at Hawaii on the way back to Sydney,
we took our son to Pearl Harbour to see the Arizona Memorial and the
WWII submarine that the owner and I had visited in 1982. To our
delight we discovered that the Battleship Missouri was now a permanent
exhibit. It is one "big mother" of a ship. One link of the stud-link
anchor chain would serve well as a storm anchor for Herodotus. I
didn't know that it was refurbished and was used in the First Gulf
War. The spot on the aft port side deck where the Japanese surrender
was signed in Tokyo Bay is marked and fenced off with ropes. I always
regretted that the Japanese Yamato, the largest battleship with the
biggest guns ever built was sunk by US planes. It would have been good
to see it today. I wonder how the two, Missouri and Yamato, without
intervening air power, would have fared in a standoff. I have an
excellent recent Australian SBS documentary "Battleships" if you would
like a copy (Do they have electricity in Bangkok to use your DVD
player?).

Enough for this evening.


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

cheers,
Peter