Offshore cruiser questions
 

You might also
consider joining the US Power Squadron.
yuk!

Lots of good courses,

nope.

very
reasonably priced,

cheap, maybe, but WAY overpriced for what you get.

nd you will meet others who have boats and will
probably be more than happy to share their boats and their experiences
with you.

yeah, maybe, could be an advantage, but wandering around boatyards is quicker,
more informative and you meet more people who actually go out on the water.
Still, you can have coffee in a USPS course as some grey haired old man or
woman in a blue uniform tells you what lights to show at night on a disabled
boat with no anchor in a channel with mist forming. You will also learn how to
hit rocks by blinding following a compass heading in a rocky channel in a fog.
And, of course, how many PFD's you need on board and how to put one on.

Offshore cruiser questions
 

Wendy, you have more seatime than I thought, but as I recall for a 100 ton
license you need 90 (?), 100 (?) days at sea in last year (?) or two (?) or
three (?). You also have to have it documented (notarized ?) if it is not your
boat. (I checked to see if I qualified for whatever license a bit ago [would
cost me about $500 to take six pack tests/etc, and utterly without value I
found out]. It seems I probably could legimately take the 100 ton tests
without ficitionalizing my experience, but again found that other than driving
a water taxi it didnt seem like I would gain much).

Again, Good Luck.

hey eh dude, she is not qualified for a "Six-Pack" license. Not enough
time.
Besides, a six pack license is as impressive to most sailors as a
Crackjack
ring.

Well, there is three and half more years of floating around in the US Navy.
I'm trying to forget that :) But the time counts; it and my time on the
90-footer are what qualifies me for the 100-ton ticket (unless they changed
the rules; I left the Caribbean in '96).

Wendy, very good luck to you and fair winds.

You gave very good advice; sincere thanks for taking the time to reply!

Wendy

Offshore cruiser questions
 

Wendy, you have more seatime than I thought, but as I recall for a 100 ton
license you need 90 (?), 100 (?) days at sea in last year (?) or two (?) or
three (?). You also have to have it documented (notarized ?) if it is not your
boat. (I checked to see if I qualified for whatever license a bit ago [would
cost me about $500 to take six pack tests/etc, and utterly without value I
found out]. It seems I probably could legimately take the 100 ton tests
without ficitionalizing my experience, but again found that other than driving
a water taxi it didnt seem like I would gain much).

Again, Good Luck.

hey eh dude, she is not qualified for a "Six-Pack" license. Not enough
time.
Besides, a six pack license is as impressive to most sailors as a
Crackjack
ring.

Well, there is three and half more years of floating around in the US Navy.
I'm trying to forget that :) But the time counts; it and my time on the
90-footer are what qualifies me for the 100-ton ticket (unless they changed
the rules; I left the Caribbean in '96).

Wendy, very good luck to you and fair winds.

You gave very good advice; sincere thanks for taking the time to reply!

Wendy

Offshore cruiser questions
 

Or, I suppose Wendy could just go straight to the oracle of all
knowledge, Jax, who believes that all one need do to answer any
question is to call the physics department of the local community
college. Did I say oracle? I meant orifice.

On 29 Jan 2004 18:36:36 GMT, (JAXAshby) wrote:

You might also
consider joining the US Power Squadron.
yuk!

Lots of good courses,

nope.

very
reasonably priced,

cheap, maybe, but WAY overpriced for what you get.

nd you will meet others who have boats and will
probably be more than happy to share their boats and their experiences
with you.

yeah, maybe, could be an advantage, but wandering around boatyards is quicker,
more informative and you meet more people who actually go out on the water.
Still, you can have coffee in a USPS course as some grey haired old man or
woman in a blue uniform tells you what lights to show at night on a disabled
boat with no anchor in a channel with mist forming. You will also learn how to
hit rocks by blinding following a compass heading in a rocky channel in a fog.
And, of course, how many PFD's you need on board and how to put one on.

Offshore cruiser questions
 

Or, I suppose Wendy could just go straight to the oracle of all
knowledge, Jax, who believes that all one need do to answer any
question is to call the physics department of the local community
college. Did I say oracle? I meant orifice.

On 29 Jan 2004 18:36:36 GMT, (JAXAshby) wrote:

You might also
consider joining the US Power Squadron.
yuk!

Lots of good courses,

nope.

very
reasonably priced,

cheap, maybe, but WAY overpriced for what you get.

nd you will meet others who have boats and will
probably be more than happy to share their boats and their experiences
with you.

yeah, maybe, could be an advantage, but wandering around boatyards is quicker,
more informative and you meet more people who actually go out on the water.
Still, you can have coffee in a USPS course as some grey haired old man or
woman in a blue uniform tells you what lights to show at night on a disabled
boat with no anchor in a channel with mist forming. You will also learn how to
hit rocks by blinding following a compass heading in a rocky channel in a fog.
And, of course, how many PFD's you need on board and how to put one on.

Offshore cruiser questions
 

felton, I gather you have grey hair and a USPS **Blue** uniform, and teach
newbies how to put on PFDs and hit rocks in foggy channels with a compass.

fleton, go sailing.

Or, I suppose Wendy could just go straight to the oracle of all
knowledge, Jax, who believes that all one need do to answer any
question is to call the physics department of the local community
college. Did I say oracle? I meant orifice.

On 29 Jan 2004 18:36:36 GMT, (JAXAshby) wrote:

You might also
consider joining the US Power Squadron.
yuk!

Lots of good courses,

nope.

very
reasonably priced,

cheap, maybe, but WAY overpriced for what you get.

nd you will meet others who have boats and will
probably be more than happy to share their boats and their experiences
with you.

yeah, maybe, could be an advantage, but wandering around boatyards is
quicker,
more informative and you meet more people who actually go out on the water.
Still, you can have coffee in a USPS course as some grey haired old man or
woman in a blue uniform tells you what lights to show at night on a disabled
boat with no anchor in a channel with mist forming. You will also learn how
to
hit rocks by blinding following a compass heading in a rocky channel in a
fog.
And, of course, how many PFD's you need on board and how to put one on.

Offshore cruiser questions
 

felton, I gather you have grey hair and a USPS **Blue** uniform, and teach
newbies how to put on PFDs and hit rocks in foggy channels with a compass.

fleton, go sailing.

Or, I suppose Wendy could just go straight to the oracle of all
knowledge, Jax, who believes that all one need do to answer any
question is to call the physics department of the local community
college. Did I say oracle? I meant orifice.

On 29 Jan 2004 18:36:36 GMT, (JAXAshby) wrote:

You might also
consider joining the US Power Squadron.
yuk!

Lots of good courses,

nope.

very
reasonably priced,

cheap, maybe, but WAY overpriced for what you get.

nd you will meet others who have boats and will
probably be more than happy to share their boats and their experiences
with you.

yeah, maybe, could be an advantage, but wandering around boatyards is
quicker,
more informative and you meet more people who actually go out on the water.
Still, you can have coffee in a USPS course as some grey haired old man or
woman in a blue uniform tells you what lights to show at night on a disabled
boat with no anchor in a channel with mist forming. You will also learn how
to
hit rocks by blinding following a compass heading in a rocky channel in a
fog.
And, of course, how many PFD's you need on board and how to put one on.

Offshore cruiser questions
 

"JAXAshby" wrote in message
...
You might also
consider joining the US Power Squadron.
yuk!

Yah, I'm not much of a joiner. Got involved with the local EAA chapter a
while back- went to one meeting; it was a bunch of retired airline pilots
with loads of cash to blow on airplane projects. I didn't fit in too well
:) While I am certainly no expert on sailboats, I'm kinda figuring I'll
just buy one and spend a year or so learning how to sail it. I think a lot
of these canned classes are simply designed as an introduction to a boat and
little more (other than money-makers); designed for people who want to do
something different over a weekend. That may be an over-generalization,
though. I feel that the "well here she is, she's yours, now what the hell
are you going to do?" approach, while drastic, will probably yield the best
results. Should be a lot of fun as well.

Yanno, when I got off the motor yacht (MV Little Cayman Diver II, there are
websites out there with pics), I swore I would never live on another boat.
Maybe waiting on guests hand and foot soured me on boats; I once did sixteen
weeks straight without a day off and simply got sick of it. That said, I
can't help but think that my own boat would be a different situation...

Wendy (at work and bored)

Offshore cruiser questions
 

"JAXAshby" wrote in message
...
You might also
consider joining the US Power Squadron.
yuk!

Yah, I'm not much of a joiner. Got involved with the local EAA chapter a
while back- went to one meeting; it was a bunch of retired airline pilots
with loads of cash to blow on airplane projects. I didn't fit in too well
:) While I am certainly no expert on sailboats, I'm kinda figuring I'll
just buy one and spend a year or so learning how to sail it. I think a lot
of these canned classes are simply designed as an introduction to a boat and
little more (other than money-makers); designed for people who want to do
something different over a weekend. That may be an over-generalization,
though. I feel that the "well here she is, she's yours, now what the hell
are you going to do?" approach, while drastic, will probably yield the best
results. Should be a lot of fun as well.

Yanno, when I got off the motor yacht (MV Little Cayman Diver II, there are
websites out there with pics), I swore I would never live on another boat.
Maybe waiting on guests hand and foot soured me on boats; I once did sixteen
weeks straight without a day off and simply got sick of it. That said, I
can't help but think that my own boat would be a different situation...

Wendy (at work and bored)

Offshore cruiser questions
 

just personal experience, but I find a smaller boat *much* better for going
somewhere, much easier to handle and underway all I needed was a place to
sleep, a way to fix food, and when anchored a place to take a shower and read a
book.

Staying tied to the dock, however, I found one hell of a lot less interesting
than staying in my apartment. Even large boats are tiny compared to even nyc
apartments, though large boats seem better suited to living tied to wood or
concrete than small boats.

It didn't escape me that every crewing op but two I got were for boats 40+ feet
(and of those two one was a guy planning on solo for 900+ who would rather have
crew and his boat was in my boatyard, and the other was a brand new owner of a
boat with no experience of sal****er outside a bay )

btw, I have been away from the EAA a long time, but my baby bro is and has been
actively involved. He has mentioned as well that those there now are more
interested in building masterpieces of flying beauty than of building flying
machines to go bore holes in the sky.

If the thought of purposely spinning an airplane is exciting to you, you will
do more than fine sailing.

You might also
consider joining the US Power Squadron.
yuk!

Yah, I'm not much of a joiner. Got involved with the local EAA chapter a
while back- went to one meeting; it was a bunch of retired airline pilots
with loads of cash to blow on airplane projects. I didn't fit in too well
:) While I am certainly no expert on sailboats, I'm kinda figuring I'll
just buy one and spend a year or so learning how to sail it. I think a lot
of these canned classes are simply designed as an introduction to a boat and
little more (other than money-makers); designed for people who want to do
something different over a weekend. That may be an over-generalization,
though. I feel that the "well here she is, she's yours, now what the hell
are you going to do?" approach, while drastic, will probably yield the best
results. Should be a lot of fun as well.

Yanno, when I got off the motor yacht (MV Little Cayman Diver II, there are
websites out there with pics), I swore I would never live on another boat.
Maybe waiting on guests hand and foot soured me on boats; I once did sixteen
weeks straight without a day off and simply got sick of it. That said, I
can't help but think that my own boat would be a different situation...

Wendy (at work and bored)