We seem to live in a world of absolutes these days and, just between you and me, it drives me batshit crazy. Take two words that come up a lot where sailing and cruising are concerned… Easy Hard Now, in the world I grew up in those were just two words on a scale but …
So, let’s say you went out and bought an old cheap plastic boat, rehabbed it a bit, and are ready to cruise… But you’re a little worried about being some sort of pariah because your boat, while seashape and freshly painted, is not as expensive or hip as some of those other boats you’ll come …
The recent quest for that ill-fated airliner over the last weeks should be something of a wake-up call for those who think speed is a goodly thing in a cruising boat, To be more precise, a huge problem in the airliner search has been the plethora of debris viewable from satellite. There’s so much of …
There has been something of a spike in dinghy and outboard thefts in the BVI of late… The thing is, there always seems to be a spike of dinghy and outboard theft at any given moment somewhere in the Caribbean so it deserves a certain amount of thought. Outboards are expensive these days, times are …
I often wonder what sort of sound a vampire makes when you drive that wooden stake through his or her heart… I expect it is not too unlike the shrill screams of consumerist junkie rage I’ve been hearing lately when I suggest that you don’t have to spend more than $100K for a boat to …
“The more you know, the less you need.” -Yvon Chouinard Is it just me or does that quote pretty much give away the secret of successful VolksCruising?
I’m pretty sure what appeals to a lot of people in the whole sailing off into the sunset scenario has a lot to do with, depending on your social perspective, either freedom or escape. What was it Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster had to say on the subject of freedom? “Freedom’s just another word for …
The other day I noticed there was a Bolger sharpie for sale up in Alaska on Craig’s list… It got me thinking. First the idea of buying a boat for cheap up in Alaska, sailing it around for the season, and then selling it or even giving it away makes for an extremely cheap five …
Dave Z and I were just having a discussion about the downside of standing out… Back when I was in college I had a job building snowshoes and one of my tasks was painting the snowshoes with an international orange paint. It was really bright paint. As it was also a linear polyurethane paint, we …
Lin Pardey recently took to a cruising forum to counter some of the misunderstanding going on regarding the whole engineless thing… The thread is actually worth reading as Ms Pardey makes sense and reading a lot of the posts will give you some understanding about how elusive common sense is when discussion of engines, basic …
a couple of notes regarding engines and suchlike… Read More »
