| The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day |
Drive Your Dinghy - We've already talked about our thoughts on the size of your dinghy. Bigger is better. It's your lifeline to shore. Even
if you don't have dogs, you will spend a lot of time in your dink. We see many people perfectly happy in a very small inflatable with a 2 or 3 hp
outboard and you will even see a few with no outboard at all. That's fine, but it will severely limit your life. However, there's one particular
hazard we see with a bigger dinghy.
There's no reason to get into a basic safety discussion, we'll leave that to another time and another place. What we feel compelled to write
about is the disturbing trend of driving while standing up. It makes no sense to us. If it makes sense to you, then fine; to each his own. Just
please don't injure us. We would just as soon not be run over by a runaway dinghy. The only reason for this behavior, that we can determine,
is the follow-the-leader compulsion that we see so many in the cruising community afflicted with.
How could anyone believe it's safe? Fitting your throttle with a short length of PVC makes sense if you want flexibility in where you sit while
driving. But standing up (whether conditions are calm or not) and holding onto a rope tied to the bow, is just an accident waiting to happen.
Every year, you will hear of accidents, especially in Georgetown, where the "George Washington crossing the Potomac pose", goes horribly
wrong, the occupant (or occupants) fall overboard and their dink runs them over. All could have been avoided had the occupants been sitting.
Maybe your butt gets wet, but you don't have to cut (no pun intended) your cruising short due to severe injuries. You may fall over anyway
and get hurt severely, but the odds are infinitely better sitting down. There are enough dangers out here already.
Blow Your Conch - We also see another disturbing trend. About dusk everyday at many of the Bahamian anchorages, you will hear this
strange sort of horn sound in the distance, one after another. It's guys blowing their conchs. First of all, I believe it is illegal to possess your
own conch in the Bahamas, because the Bahamians want to protect their conchs. Of course, that doesn't stop this behavior, the illegality
probably makes it more exciting. We heard this behavior time and time again and on one occasion we saw it with our own eyes. One day, at a
beautiful anchorage, another boat was fairly close to ours. At about conch time, we can see this guy pull out his conch (it's sort of a pink curly
thing) and blow it. Of course, by now, we were used to the sound of this behavior and tried to take it in stride and not look. Then, to our
surprise, the guy's wife grabs the husbands conch, then blows it. That has to be some sort of conch violation; blowing someone else's conch
and all. I don't think we'll ever be the same.
Anchor Your Boat - We take anchoring very seriously. Our boat is our home. Time and time again, we see anchoring techniques that
frankly scare us. No matter how well we anchor, if someone close to us anchors poorly, it could jeopardize our boat. On more than one
occasion, we have picked up anchor and gone elsewhere. I will also yell at you if you drop anchor too close to ours.
Some guy comes into the anchorage at 4 or 5 knots. The undersized anchor goes over the side while still going forward. The guy yells at his
wife and she puts it hard in reverse. The guy starts throwing out scope to try to keep up with the increasing reverse speed. The guy decides
it's enough scope and stops paying out the rode (no more than a 3 to 1 scope, sometimes 1 or 2). The rode is not snubbed and is still on the
gypsy. By now the boat is going about 4 or 5 knots in reverse. The guy yells at his wife to slow down. About the same time, the rode becomes
taut. The guy almost falls overboard when it yanks hard. The anchor is dragging. After dragging awhile, they somehow conclude that holding
is good and shut her down. They retire to the cockpit for cocktails, or worse, they jump in the dink and join another couple (in another poorly
anchored boat nearby) for cocktails.
Just in case you take anchoring as seriously as we do and wonder about how well we are anchored when you anchor close to us, our technique
follows. We don't have all the answers, but maybe you'll feel more secure not wondering about what we have done.
First of all, we use headsets. It's pretty good happy hour entertainment, but husbands and wives yelling at each other gets old (more times
than none I feel sorry for the wife and hope she gets pissed enough to throw the guy overboard - that would really be good entertainment). We
might be doing some serious cursing, but at least you won't be able to hear it. We circle the spot that we have picked to anchor, just to make
sure there's plenty of water no matter what the wind decides to do. Once we decide the spot is okay, Leta drives to the center of the circle
with the goal of just stopping into the wind or current at the same time I let the anchor go. I attempt to stop the chain about the time the
anchor hits bottom and let the wind (or current) gently ease the anchor in. If there is no current or wind, Leta gives it a few seconds of
reverse, then back to idle, just to get the boat moving backwards slowly. If there is too much wind, Leta gives it a little forward so we don't
put a load on the windlass. Once the anchor is sort of in the right mindset, I let out enough rode for the boat to go backwards, but not enough
that the chain piles up on the bottom. After about a third to a half of the rode is paid out, we let the anchor dig in a bit more, but we make sure
that there is still not much load on the windlass (the operative word is gently). Once we get close to the intended scope, I tie a snubber to the
chain and tie the other end to a cleat. I use about 30 feet of three quarter inch three strand nylon rope for the snubber. If for some reason we
are in a marginal anchorage, and the wind is up, giving us serious fetch induced waves, I have a 100 foot length nylon rope close at hand. We
would just as soon keep our chain stoppers and windlass on board. I use about 3 or 4 round turns with a half hitch on the chain. That
eliminates the possibility of mechanical failure of a snap shackle or something of the like. If the wind is really up, I will put a safety snubber
on the chain in case the first one fails. Once enough rode is let out and snubbed, we begin backing down gently at first and ultimately at 2200
to 2500 rpm's. Once we have decided we are going nowhere, Leta slowly reduces rpm's so we don't play the slingshot routine. Only then is it
time for cocktails. If we drag at all, we start over. We never use less than a 5 to 1 scope and we generally use a 7 to 1 scope. Yeah, I know
we use chain ,and theoretically, we could use less, but we sleep at night. If the wind is up, we are not bashful about putting chain in the water.
The chain can't help if it's nice and snug in the anchor locker.
Happy anchoring.
Use Your Radio (VHF) - I guess this topic is about our idea of VHF etiquette. In crowded places like the Chesapeake Bay and parts of the
Bahamas the VHF chatter never ceases to amaze. Other than obvious things like thou shalt not fake a Mayday (which you hear from time to
time), the following are the McKinley ten commandments of VHF etiquette.
Commandment No. 1 - Thou shalt not use the VHF like a CB (10-4 good buddy doesn't work)
Commandment No. 2 - Thou shalt not state the channel you are broadcasting from (Gigi, Gigi, Gigi, this is Wind Driven on channel 16 - If we
are listening, we know what channel you are on)
Commandment No. 3 - Thou shalt not use the exact format you learned in Basic Keelboat Training (hailing another vessel using the name a
couple of times will suffice, adding that you are motor vessel or sailing vessel, is usually not necessary, etc.)
Commandment No. 4 - Thou shalt not hail the same vessel 43 times when they don't answer
Commandment No. 5 - Thou shalt not talk like the Coast Guard when communicating with them (you can talk to them without saying "break"
between sentences)
Commandment No. 6 - Thou shalt not be Chatty Cathy (many times a day hailing the same boats over and over - it's amazing how the same
three or four women, men occasionally, pollute the airways in anchorage after anchorage) (this is not sexist - it
happens)
Commandment No. 7 - Thou shalt not use VHF lingo, be clear (up and up may not mean channel 17, then 18 if busy)
Commandment No. 8 - Thou shalt not carry on a conversation on channel 16 (go immediately to a working channel)
Commandment No. 9 - Thou shalt not make it easy for you children to carry on conversations on channel 16 (especially, if they are under 10)
Commandment No.10 - Thou shalt not imitate tug captains if you don't truly know the ICW lingo ("Pass you on the one" or "one whistle"
means something completely different when approaching than when overtaking a barge)
Obviously, the goal of the commandments is to reduce the radio clutter that has absolutely nothing to do with efficiently hailing others. Clutter
also clearly interferes with distress calls. We hear distress calls get stomped on time and time again, even when vessels in distress are
talking to the Coast Guard. It's really just common sense.
Use Your Radio (SSB) - The McKinley SSB etiquette is similar to the VHF etiquette. However, one significant irritating behavior should
be added. When listening to the Chris Parker weather broadcasts each morning, please don't hail him to repeat a forecast just so you can
hear yourself talk or to make sure everyone else knows where you are. It's just useless clutter, that robs someone else of needed time with
Chris.
Bring Your Dish - From time to time, usually in the larger anchorages, all cruisers get invited to happy hours organized on the closest
beach. When invited (you get the invitation by monitoring your VHF), the organizer always asks that you bring your favorite beverage and a
dish or appetiser. What's with the food. We are basically afraid of eating something that comes out of some of the boats we see; not to
mention the fact that happy hour food is sometimes hard to come by in the islands. We don't want to be rude, but we'll pass on the food and we
won't bring anything for someone else to be afraid of.
Pick Up Your Mooring - If there is no happy hour on the beach and no food to be afraid of, happy hour is usually in our cockpit (with
ourselves or maybe another cruising couple on occasion). One of the great happy hour pastimes is watching others coming into the anchorage
and witnessing their perfect anchoring technique. You can also learn a lot about wife yelling techniques.
However, the all time best happy hour activity is watching others come into a mooring field to pick up a mooring.
Some guy comes into the mooring field looking for the assigned mooring ball. You know you are in for a treat when it takes ten minutes to find
the assigned mooring. He circles around the ball coming perilously close to other boats. He yells something unintelligible to his wife. The
wife gets into position on the bow hanging over the side with boat pole in hand. The guy aims for the ball. The wife yells something
unintelligible to the husband, aiming the boat pole at the ball. Deciding that he missed, he shoots past the ball at two or three knots. They
circle again while the wife goes back to the cockpit for a discussion. She goes back to position. He approaches at two or three knots. Upon
some unintelligible cue, he puts it in hard reverse. The wife aims the boat pole. The boat falls off to the wind. Back to circle, then the same
approach. This time the wife snags the painter. The boat falls off to the wind. She can't hold the painter long enough to get a line through it.
She almost goes overboard. Back to circle. Someone nearby goes over in their dinghy to help. The helper holds the painter in the air. The
boat almost runs over the dinghy. The wife grabs the painter. She decides she can't tie off to the painter - she puts the painter on the cleat.
But the ball is snagged. The husband comes forward, and after another ten minutes of debate on the bow, they somehow get the lines on the
painter and retire to the cockpit. They declare a success.
The entire affair could have been much easier by slowly approaching the mooring ball into the wind. There is no reason to be in a hurry. You
can line up on the mooring ball slightly to one side by taking a few cues from the bow person pointing the boat pole . The goal is to come to a
stop within boat pole reach of the ball. The key is to keep steerage by continuing to point into the wind under power with no speed over
ground, long enough to pick up the painter. With any wind at all, it's easy. If current is in play, it's a simple matter to figure out whether the
wind or the current is strongest (just a quick look at how the other boats are lying to the wind)and drive the boat accordingly.
Happy mooring.
Wear Your Clothes - Attire and cruising is an interesting combination.
Clothing becomes an exercise in what is comfortable in relation to what is easy to wash. Some cruisers don't wear much at all, but that's way
over the top. Middle age bodies are something that should be covered. Even if no one else is around, you still offend yourself and your boat
mate. And then, of course, there is the cancer thing you have to worry about. If you work at it you can cover yourself properly with shorts and
tee shirts that really look fine. Proper bathing suits work for shorts as well. Except, in absolutely no circumstance, should men wear those
little black speedos that poor Focker wore in Meet the Parents. That should be grounds for immediate banishment from the anchorage. No
one wants to see that little thing that the speedo covers. It's also kind of amusing that guys who wear those little speedos all have little things
to cover which also seems to go with really hairy backs. Anyway. For those more formal times, like going ashore for provisioning or the rare
restaurant or bar, you can still cover yourself with your nice tee shirts and shorts (maybe even a shirt with a collar). It's really not that hard.
Washing, on the other hand, is hard - even for the tee shirt and swim suit stuff. Most cruisers do not have washers or dryers aboard (sailboats
are rare - some trawlers do). The washers and dryers are just too bulky. We have researched the possibility on several occasions, but in the
end, installing a combo washer and dryer would take a major modification of the boat that we are unwilling to do. So, we do what everyone
else does. Occasionally, you are in an area that may have a laundry facility close by (we're talking using quarters stuff), but most of the time
it's hand washing. We have a couple of five gallon buckets with a toilet plunger (we've tried other ways, but the bucket and plunger works the
best by far). I know it sounds primitive (which it is) but washing by hand is just one of those prices you pay for doing what we are doing. Of
course, when I'm talking we here, I mean Leta. It's funny how cruising tasks get divided into traditional male and female roles. That's just
the way it works. But that's a topic for another time.
We also believe grooming falls under the category of attire. In general, women seem to groom themselves in a manner consistent with their
old land living ways, except that you don't see much make up and the hair is usually short (it takes much less water to wash). Men, on the
other hand, seem to let their hair and beard grow long. I guess that's okay, but when you see longer hair on a guy, there is no hair up top and
a ponytail ensues. A lot of time the ponytail gets braided. Call us traditional, but that's ridiculous. It reminds you of the 70's, hippie, drop-out
days. Buy a cheap, Wal-Mart set of clippers and cut your hair. Some guys actually cut their hair but still have a couple of inches of hair on
their necks. Just enough to take a rubber band and get what we call a puss tail out of it. Cute. When it comes to your beard, keep it trimmed.
There's nothing worse than seeing some guy munch on beard hairs as he's feeding himself. Oh well.
Jewelry is another attire thing. Women give up their big jewelry (it's in a lock box somewhere) for security reasons, but tend to start wearing
things like ankle bracelets and goofy adolescence stuff like that (remember - these women are in their late forties and fifties, maybe even
older). Please. Toe rings are also big players for women. Double please. You will see a lot of men wear ear rings. There is just something
wrong about a mid-fifties kind of guy with ear rings. But the all time no, no is men with toe rings. Just picture a knarly old man toe with a ring
somehow stuck on it. Triple and quadruple please!!
Hide Your Weenie - Okay. We finally have to talk about it. Some people just take their clothes off while on boats for some reason we can't
fathom. We even ran into a very large sailboat a couple of weeks ago from Dallas. They had picked up a national park mooring ball in St.
Barts right next to us. We just had to hail them and chat for a minute because you don't see many boats like ours with a hailing port of Dallas.
Anyway. This boat was your basic two or three million dollar boat. The owner couple had another couple on board and the boat was crewed
by another young couple. The two couples (not the crew) snorkeled for a while and about cocktail hour everyone goes below (presumably to
shower before cocktails) except for the male owner part of the couple. He proceeds to get naked and take a shower on the swim platform with
absolutely no modesty at all. Now this guy is from Dallas. People don't act that way in Dallas. Not to mention the fact that his boat had
plenty of showers and lots of water - trust me on that. I tell this story because it is so typical of what you see from a large portion the cruising
group. We just don't get it.
The nakedness has gotten progressively worse the further south we have gone, especially in the French islands. We are at anchor one day
and this nice big catamaran comes in with at least five or six guys on board; all of them naked. In my wildest dreams I can't imagine having a
guys day out all naked. One naked guy just walks up front to anchor and bends over to get the anchor ready - and yes you get the picture.
Too bad Leta didn't get a picture of that (had we gotten that shot we promise that we wouldn't ruin your day with it). She did at least get the
following so you can get the flavor of what we are dealing with out here.
It's not only being naked, it's what people do when naked. Many times we have seen (most flying French flags - not that we have anything
against the French) guys just whup out their weenie and pee off their boat looking right at us. Then, a few minutes later, you see a five or six
year old kid doing the same thing except they manage to pee all over the boat. I guess they are just learning from Dad.
The other day, a boat anchors way too close to us. It was clear there were guests on the boat. As soon as the anchor was set one of the guys
stands on the side of the boat towards us (there were no boats on the other side) and whups out the pud. You could almost stab it with a boat
pole - that close. Next day the guests leave and the male kid (about five or six) runs around on the boat all day without a stitch. The little girl
(about the same age) at least had panties on but nothing else. Then, of course, at cocktail hour, the entire family takes a shower on the swim
platform.
In our current anchorage in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe there are five boats anchored within five or six boat lengths. On three of them, the
guys come out a few times a day and whup it out with no regard to anyone.
Leta swears she will begin taking pictures of these guys and posting them here. We'll see about that. She does look at them with binoculars -
she says she is trying to shame them - I just try to ignore the whole thing. There is no pun intended here at all.
Wear Your Speedo - Leta says that speedos don't work. Ever. For anyone. (We thought about putting this one under "Things That Work
and Some That Don't", but we thought it better under ridiculous items for obvious reasons).
Maintain Your Boat - Whoever defined cruising as "repairing your boat in exotic places" was pretty much right on. Don't get me wrong,
we're not complaining. We could be working for a living. It's just that maintaining and repairing your boat is much more time consuming than
one might initially think.
For instance. It's August 2008. We began cruising in April 2006. The boat was new. Since then, we have made the following repairs. The
Raymarine hydraulic autopilot drive had a faulty selenoid and was replaced. One of our Raymarine E Series chartplotters was doing weird
things at the worst possible times and was replaced (it's still doing weird things but we have a work around that we can live with). After a
catastrophic DC failure we traced the problem to a faulty Perko battery selection switch. We replaced several ShurFlo pumps. Ellis (notice
that Leta has nothing to do with this) rebuilt one of the VacuFlush toilets and replaced joker valves in one of the vacuum generators. The
Spectra water maker had a blowout of a ShurFlo accumulator. We replaced the Clark pump (high pressure pump) on the water maker. A
motor mount on our Yanmar engine broke. We had an oil explosion while underway due to a faulty O-ring on a Yanmar oil filter. We blew a
Yanmar engine raw water impeller while underway. The MasPower generator has had two fresh water pumps replaced. The generator
battery was replaced with a larger one. We have had a couple of sail repairs and are currently waiting on a batten to replace a missing one
(how we lost a batten is another story). Ellis rebuilt and replaced our air conditioning raw water manifold. The holding tank overboard
discharge vent loop quit working properly (head problems are always fun) and was replaced. The list is not exhaustive but I think
representative. Stuff just breaks.
Then there's the maintenance. Every one hundred hours we change engine oil, transmission oil and Racor fuel filters on our Yanmar engine
and generator. Every two hundred hours we change the engine mounted fuel filters on both diesel engines. The Yamaha outboard gets new
engine oil and lower unit oil every hundred hours or every six months, whichever is shorter. The generator needs a new zinc every couple of
hundred hours. Every year, the diesel engines get new anti-freeze and cleaned air filters (if not sooner). Impellers get changed every year (if
not forced to do so sooner, as mentioned above). The prop, the prop shaft, the strut and the bow thruster all have zincs that need replacing
periodically. The bottom and running gear needs periodic cleaning and anti-fouling paint every couple of years. Our air conditioning raw
water strainer and the hoses that connect our three AC units need cleaning once a week while we are docked or anchored during hurricane
season (because it runs 24 hours a day). The other strainers (deck wash, engine and generator) get cleaned as needed. All the stainless,
including all the blocks and rigging, gets polished at least every couple of months and sometimes more frequently. The boat gets washed when
we have fresh water. The boat gets waxed at least once every six months. The teak gets a few coats of varnish every four to six months. The
mast gets climbed at least once a year to clean and polish all the things up there and to look for possible problems before they happen. When
we are at anchor the hatches are open which means dusting the interior is a constant chore. I could go on for a while, but you get the picture.
Is this the most ridiculous item of the day? Maybe not. There are much worse things to endure than maintaining your boat. And we wouldn't
trade it for anything. Just be prepared.
Consume Your Time - Everything about cruising is time consuming. We still get the occasional "Don't you get bored" question from
people back home. We try to explain what it's like out here, but most of the time you get that blank, glazed-over stare which means that they
don't really understand what your talking about.
Of course, that's to be expected. Land-based living is just so different. How many times does it take you all day to go to the grocery store or
to put fuel in your car?
Let's just go through a couple of typical days.
Let's say you decide to sail a few hours to the next island. Most of the time you are up before dawn to get the anchor up and be underway at
first light. Why so early? Well. Two reasons. You want to time your arrival at the new anchorage at midday so you can see the bad things
under water, like reefs and shoals ready to snag your hull. Reason number two (even if you decide to take your chances with the reef); things
happen. If you time your arrival late in the day and say you blow an impeller, you get to find the anchorage in the dark. Not a good
proposition.
Once you get there, anchoring takes a while. Then you secure the boat.
By now it's cocktail hour and you talk about what to do the next day. You also talk about whether to get the dinghy down and take the dog
ashore (assuming there is a decent shore) or whether to take the dog on the swim platform. And then you have to do it. If you decide to go
ashore, you have to get the dinghy up for the night. Now it's time to eat. Leta likes to make sure we eat well, so it takes a couple of hours to
cook and clean up.
Next day, let's assume we stay at the anchorage. There are boat maintenance items or repairs to contend with (see above). Cleaning inside
the boat takes a while, because it's always dusty from the hatches being open and, no matter what you do you track sand inside. Leta might
decide to make bread which takes awhile. If there is any kind of store close by, you get in the dinghy, take a ride, walk to the store, walk back
carrying your plunder, take a dinghy ride, get the dinghy up for the night. Somehow, you manage a little snorkeling or hiking or maybe some
fishing during the day and by the time happy hour is underway you're only good for dinner and maybe a movie before bed time.
Let's say you stay another day. Maybe it's time to do laundry. We've tried on several occasions to figure out how to get a washing machine
on board but can't figure out how to do so without major surgery on the boat. So. That means your basic bucket and toilet plunger comes out.
Then there's wringing by hand, then hanging the clothes on a rigged clothesline around the mast and shrouds. All time consuming stuff.
Maybe it's also time to find diesel. There might be a service station on land or possibly a small marina within dinghy reach. So the jerry cans
come out and you make a few trips back and forth topping off your fuel tank. You might have to do the same thing with water if you happen to
be in a harbor where you wouldn't want to run the water maker. By now it's time for happy hour and dinner again.
But you know what. All this happens in places that we could only dream of a few years earlier. Yes it's time consuming. There's always
something to do. But we don't plan to go back to that easy, land-based living any time soon.
Bathe Your Self - Okay. Another subject we finally have to talk about. A lot of cruisers just stink.
Please take a bath. You can even take a small shower just to get the bad stuff under control, but please just do it. Maybe you don't mind
offending yourself, but you offend others. What happened to basic hygiene. The kind of stuff you learned in grade school. No matter what
country you are from, you were taught better. Frankly, we smell more cruisers from the US than from anywhere else. Oh, and don't wear
stinky clothes. Once they stink, it's time to put on clean ones (I guess this is a different subject).
We understand the problems. Not everybody has a water maker. Sometimes water is hard to come by. But you can figure it out. A wash in
salt water with a fresh water rinse works wonders. If you are in a nasty harbor and can't get in the water, get off your ass and jerry jug water
to your boat or find a shower on shore. It might take a while, but it ain't that hard. Niger Calder, in his cruising handbook, devotes an entire
section to personal hygiene. He says take two showers a day. He didn't have a water maker.
Is this tirade going to convince people to bathe? Probably not. But we got it off our chests. I think we'll take showers now.
Organize Your Self - It's hard to decide where to start on this topic. We've talked before about not liking anchorages such as Georgetown,
Bahamas, where during the season it becomes a floating city governed by a clickish few. This topic is slightly different than that. However,
the same characteristics that you see in the people participating in that scene (the herders as well as the sheep) manifest themselves
everywhere. It seems like anywhere more than a couple of cruisers congregate for any period of time those characteristics come creeping
out. The congregation area can be an anchorage, a marina, a city, an island group or a country; it matters not. Some people desperately want
to follow and some people, even more desperately, want to lead. I'm not sure which is worse; follow or lead.
I guess following is easy. Just shut up and do what you are told or asked to do. There are lots of people out here who want to follow. The
ones that do all seem unsure of themselves and seem to be looking for someone else to tell them how to act, how to think, how to provision,
how to maintain and repair their boat, how to pick weather windows, which anchorages to go to, etc. You get the picture. They don't appear to
be able to think for themselves or make decisions without consulting others. This behavior, of course, is the root of herd mentality which is
potentially dangerous. You see so many times a group of boats trying to decide when to take a weather window. Usually, one decides to go
for it and the entire group goes stampeding over the edge of the cliff. Followers could be harmless, but if there were no followers there would
be no leaders. Followers enable the really dangerous.
In every venue you will see people who are trying to lead. There is usually competition for the job so the would be leaders are easy to spot.
They are everyone's friend and try to be the life of the party. They tell you what to like and what not to like. They've been there and done
that. They are the ones inviting others to happy hour, to dinghy jaunts, to shopping, you name it. All in an effort to influence you. They never
do anything by themselves. They want to be consulted on everything. They have all the answers. They try to organize everything. Once they
get a couple of followers, they are relentless about keeping those and search for others with even more glee.
Based on our experience, the majority of cruisers are one of the two: followers or leaders. Once this little group gets large enough (it really
only takes two or three) you begin to see organized activities, the VHF chatter increases, cruiser nets are set up (VHF and SSB), trips ashore
are in groups, and so on. You will see some people that never do anything without others. Sometimes, there are more would be leaders than
followers - then it really gets amusing.
There is however, a sizable group of cruisers that are cruising for the sheer joy and adventure of doing things themselves. You won't hear
them very often on the cruisers nets, you won't hear them very often on VHF, you won't see them consult (ask permission) to do anything
(especially about weather decisions), you won't see them congregating in large anchorages, you won't see them making happy hours on every
boat in every anchorage every single day and you won't see them following or leading. We are in this group.
Not that we don't like other cruisers, we do. We also lend a hand when anyone needs it. We like talking to others about their experiences.
Information is a good thing. We like making the occasional happy hour and doing things occasionally with others. But not everyday. We
don't like joining the groups. We don't like feeling obligated. We don't like the feeling of having to say no time after time.
We do not understand why cruisers can't revel each and every day in their own accomplishments. Here we are in exotic locations,
self-sufficient and confident in ourselves. We don't need anything else. Especially organization. We have spent countless years organizing
our land-based lives; at work, at home, at play. We have put up with leaders who can't lead and followers who can't follow. We have also
spent years getting rid of all that to be free to take ourselves and our boat where the wind will take us. We lead and follow ourselves.
Control Your Dog - We go to great lengths to make sure our dog does not offend anyone. Even when we take Bogey to a deserted beach,
we cover up his residue. We also have a lifetime supply of doggy bags, so when we are at a marina we can pick up after him and deposit it in
the nearest trash can. Male dogs, like Bogey, also have a tendency to mark their territory when they are walking down the dock; on the
electrical boxes, water hoses, anything else sitting on the dock. We always have Bogey on a leash and make sure he doesn't do that. We
can't say that Bogey has never marked a dock, but it was either an accident or he was quicker than we were - and then very rarely. And if he
does, we make sure we get a water hose and clean the area thoroughly. We think controlling Bogey is just being considerate of others.
We stayed at a marina for a couple of months where another dog owner never cleaned up after their dog - never. They didn't care who
witnessed the transgression, they would just not clean up. The particular marina was in a urban setting where the dog walk area was very
small. These people would have let it pile up until you couldn't walk at all without stepping in it. Luckily, the marina staff would clean it up
after it got really bad. The people were nice, but the dog thing is a clear indicator of what they think of others. Completely inconsiderate.
Unfortunately, there are lots of dog owners just like them.
But wait. We have now seen it all. We are staying for a few weeks at another marina. One of the dog owners takes their dog on the dock.
Yes, you heard it right. They do not take their dog in the very large grassy areas around the marina, they take him up and down the dock.
They let the mutt go anywhere he wants, even all over ours and others electrical cords and water hose. The poop is not picked up, it's just sort
of shoved off the dock into the water. We have to make sure we are in the cockpit during the morning and afternoon walks to keep it from
happening to us repeatedly, basically shaming the owner into keeping the dog off our stuff. It has only happened once and if it happens again I
swear I'm going to wander down to their boat and pee on it. The people have apparently heard from others that we are incredulous since they
now make sure they take the dog down to the very end of the dock where there are currently no boats. But sooner or later there will be boats.
The unwary boat owner will step off their boat and walk back and forth on the dog soaked and smeared dock, taking it right down into their
boat on their shoes. I'm still in awe of the inconsiderate owners. Another boat owner said something to the dog owners about their and the
dog's behavior. Their response was that the dog had to go somewhere. Not - sorry. Not - we'll start taking him on the grass. Not - we'll
make sure we clean up after him. Not - we're idiots and you can pee on our boat. Nothing. This is definitely the most ridiculous item of the
day. Oh. Gotta go. It's time to go sit in the cockpit.
More to come
if you don't have dogs, you will spend a lot of time in your dink. We see many people perfectly happy in a very small inflatable with a 2 or 3 hp
outboard and you will even see a few with no outboard at all. That's fine, but it will severely limit your life. However, there's one particular
hazard we see with a bigger dinghy.
There's no reason to get into a basic safety discussion, we'll leave that to another time and another place. What we feel compelled to write
about is the disturbing trend of driving while standing up. It makes no sense to us. If it makes sense to you, then fine; to each his own. Just
please don't injure us. We would just as soon not be run over by a runaway dinghy. The only reason for this behavior, that we can determine,
is the follow-the-leader compulsion that we see so many in the cruising community afflicted with.
How could anyone believe it's safe? Fitting your throttle with a short length of PVC makes sense if you want flexibility in where you sit while
driving. But standing up (whether conditions are calm or not) and holding onto a rope tied to the bow, is just an accident waiting to happen.
Every year, you will hear of accidents, especially in Georgetown, where the "George Washington crossing the Potomac pose", goes horribly
wrong, the occupant (or occupants) fall overboard and their dink runs them over. All could have been avoided had the occupants been sitting.
Maybe your butt gets wet, but you don't have to cut (no pun intended) your cruising short due to severe injuries. You may fall over anyway
and get hurt severely, but the odds are infinitely better sitting down. There are enough dangers out here already.
Blow Your Conch - We also see another disturbing trend. About dusk everyday at many of the Bahamian anchorages, you will hear this
strange sort of horn sound in the distance, one after another. It's guys blowing their conchs. First of all, I believe it is illegal to possess your
own conch in the Bahamas, because the Bahamians want to protect their conchs. Of course, that doesn't stop this behavior, the illegality
probably makes it more exciting. We heard this behavior time and time again and on one occasion we saw it with our own eyes. One day, at a
beautiful anchorage, another boat was fairly close to ours. At about conch time, we can see this guy pull out his conch (it's sort of a pink curly
thing) and blow it. Of course, by now, we were used to the sound of this behavior and tried to take it in stride and not look. Then, to our
surprise, the guy's wife grabs the husbands conch, then blows it. That has to be some sort of conch violation; blowing someone else's conch
and all. I don't think we'll ever be the same.
Anchor Your Boat - We take anchoring very seriously. Our boat is our home. Time and time again, we see anchoring techniques that
frankly scare us. No matter how well we anchor, if someone close to us anchors poorly, it could jeopardize our boat. On more than one
occasion, we have picked up anchor and gone elsewhere. I will also yell at you if you drop anchor too close to ours.
Some guy comes into the anchorage at 4 or 5 knots. The undersized anchor goes over the side while still going forward. The guy yells at his
wife and she puts it hard in reverse. The guy starts throwing out scope to try to keep up with the increasing reverse speed. The guy decides
it's enough scope and stops paying out the rode (no more than a 3 to 1 scope, sometimes 1 or 2). The rode is not snubbed and is still on the
gypsy. By now the boat is going about 4 or 5 knots in reverse. The guy yells at his wife to slow down. About the same time, the rode becomes
taut. The guy almost falls overboard when it yanks hard. The anchor is dragging. After dragging awhile, they somehow conclude that holding
is good and shut her down. They retire to the cockpit for cocktails, or worse, they jump in the dink and join another couple (in another poorly
anchored boat nearby) for cocktails.
Just in case you take anchoring as seriously as we do and wonder about how well we are anchored when you anchor close to us, our technique
follows. We don't have all the answers, but maybe you'll feel more secure not wondering about what we have done.
First of all, we use headsets. It's pretty good happy hour entertainment, but husbands and wives yelling at each other gets old (more times
than none I feel sorry for the wife and hope she gets pissed enough to throw the guy overboard - that would really be good entertainment). We
might be doing some serious cursing, but at least you won't be able to hear it. We circle the spot that we have picked to anchor, just to make
sure there's plenty of water no matter what the wind decides to do. Once we decide the spot is okay, Leta drives to the center of the circle
with the goal of just stopping into the wind or current at the same time I let the anchor go. I attempt to stop the chain about the time the
anchor hits bottom and let the wind (or current) gently ease the anchor in. If there is no current or wind, Leta gives it a few seconds of
reverse, then back to idle, just to get the boat moving backwards slowly. If there is too much wind, Leta gives it a little forward so we don't
put a load on the windlass. Once the anchor is sort of in the right mindset, I let out enough rode for the boat to go backwards, but not enough
that the chain piles up on the bottom. After about a third to a half of the rode is paid out, we let the anchor dig in a bit more, but we make sure
that there is still not much load on the windlass (the operative word is gently). Once we get close to the intended scope, I tie a snubber to the
chain and tie the other end to a cleat. I use about 30 feet of three quarter inch three strand nylon rope for the snubber. If for some reason we
are in a marginal anchorage, and the wind is up, giving us serious fetch induced waves, I have a 100 foot length nylon rope close at hand. We
would just as soon keep our chain stoppers and windlass on board. I use about 3 or 4 round turns with a half hitch on the chain. That
eliminates the possibility of mechanical failure of a snap shackle or something of the like. If the wind is really up, I will put a safety snubber
on the chain in case the first one fails. Once enough rode is let out and snubbed, we begin backing down gently at first and ultimately at 2200
to 2500 rpm's. Once we have decided we are going nowhere, Leta slowly reduces rpm's so we don't play the slingshot routine. Only then is it
time for cocktails. If we drag at all, we start over. We never use less than a 5 to 1 scope and we generally use a 7 to 1 scope. Yeah, I know
we use chain ,and theoretically, we could use less, but we sleep at night. If the wind is up, we are not bashful about putting chain in the water.
The chain can't help if it's nice and snug in the anchor locker.
Happy anchoring.
Use Your Radio (VHF) - I guess this topic is about our idea of VHF etiquette. In crowded places like the Chesapeake Bay and parts of the
Bahamas the VHF chatter never ceases to amaze. Other than obvious things like thou shalt not fake a Mayday (which you hear from time to
time), the following are the McKinley ten commandments of VHF etiquette.
Commandment No. 1 - Thou shalt not use the VHF like a CB (10-4 good buddy doesn't work)
Commandment No. 2 - Thou shalt not state the channel you are broadcasting from (Gigi, Gigi, Gigi, this is Wind Driven on channel 16 - If we
are listening, we know what channel you are on)
Commandment No. 3 - Thou shalt not use the exact format you learned in Basic Keelboat Training (hailing another vessel using the name a
couple of times will suffice, adding that you are motor vessel or sailing vessel, is usually not necessary, etc.)
Commandment No. 4 - Thou shalt not hail the same vessel 43 times when they don't answer
Commandment No. 5 - Thou shalt not talk like the Coast Guard when communicating with them (you can talk to them without saying "break"
between sentences)
Commandment No. 6 - Thou shalt not be Chatty Cathy (many times a day hailing the same boats over and over - it's amazing how the same
three or four women, men occasionally, pollute the airways in anchorage after anchorage) (this is not sexist - it
happens)
Commandment No. 7 - Thou shalt not use VHF lingo, be clear (up and up may not mean channel 17, then 18 if busy)
Commandment No. 8 - Thou shalt not carry on a conversation on channel 16 (go immediately to a working channel)
Commandment No. 9 - Thou shalt not make it easy for you children to carry on conversations on channel 16 (especially, if they are under 10)
Commandment No.10 - Thou shalt not imitate tug captains if you don't truly know the ICW lingo ("Pass you on the one" or "one whistle"
means something completely different when approaching than when overtaking a barge)
Obviously, the goal of the commandments is to reduce the radio clutter that has absolutely nothing to do with efficiently hailing others. Clutter
also clearly interferes with distress calls. We hear distress calls get stomped on time and time again, even when vessels in distress are
talking to the Coast Guard. It's really just common sense.
Use Your Radio (SSB) - The McKinley SSB etiquette is similar to the VHF etiquette. However, one significant irritating behavior should
be added. When listening to the Chris Parker weather broadcasts each morning, please don't hail him to repeat a forecast just so you can
hear yourself talk or to make sure everyone else knows where you are. It's just useless clutter, that robs someone else of needed time with
Chris.
Bring Your Dish - From time to time, usually in the larger anchorages, all cruisers get invited to happy hours organized on the closest
beach. When invited (you get the invitation by monitoring your VHF), the organizer always asks that you bring your favorite beverage and a
dish or appetiser. What's with the food. We are basically afraid of eating something that comes out of some of the boats we see; not to
mention the fact that happy hour food is sometimes hard to come by in the islands. We don't want to be rude, but we'll pass on the food and we
won't bring anything for someone else to be afraid of.
Pick Up Your Mooring - If there is no happy hour on the beach and no food to be afraid of, happy hour is usually in our cockpit (with
ourselves or maybe another cruising couple on occasion). One of the great happy hour pastimes is watching others coming into the anchorage
and witnessing their perfect anchoring technique. You can also learn a lot about wife yelling techniques.
However, the all time best happy hour activity is watching others come into a mooring field to pick up a mooring.
Some guy comes into the mooring field looking for the assigned mooring ball. You know you are in for a treat when it takes ten minutes to find
the assigned mooring. He circles around the ball coming perilously close to other boats. He yells something unintelligible to his wife. The
wife gets into position on the bow hanging over the side with boat pole in hand. The guy aims for the ball. The wife yells something
unintelligible to the husband, aiming the boat pole at the ball. Deciding that he missed, he shoots past the ball at two or three knots. They
circle again while the wife goes back to the cockpit for a discussion. She goes back to position. He approaches at two or three knots. Upon
some unintelligible cue, he puts it in hard reverse. The wife aims the boat pole. The boat falls off to the wind. Back to circle, then the same
approach. This time the wife snags the painter. The boat falls off to the wind. She can't hold the painter long enough to get a line through it.
She almost goes overboard. Back to circle. Someone nearby goes over in their dinghy to help. The helper holds the painter in the air. The
boat almost runs over the dinghy. The wife grabs the painter. She decides she can't tie off to the painter - she puts the painter on the cleat.
But the ball is snagged. The husband comes forward, and after another ten minutes of debate on the bow, they somehow get the lines on the
painter and retire to the cockpit. They declare a success.
The entire affair could have been much easier by slowly approaching the mooring ball into the wind. There is no reason to be in a hurry. You
can line up on the mooring ball slightly to one side by taking a few cues from the bow person pointing the boat pole . The goal is to come to a
stop within boat pole reach of the ball. The key is to keep steerage by continuing to point into the wind under power with no speed over
ground, long enough to pick up the painter. With any wind at all, it's easy. If current is in play, it's a simple matter to figure out whether the
wind or the current is strongest (just a quick look at how the other boats are lying to the wind)and drive the boat accordingly.
Happy mooring.
Wear Your Clothes - Attire and cruising is an interesting combination.
Clothing becomes an exercise in what is comfortable in relation to what is easy to wash. Some cruisers don't wear much at all, but that's way
over the top. Middle age bodies are something that should be covered. Even if no one else is around, you still offend yourself and your boat
mate. And then, of course, there is the cancer thing you have to worry about. If you work at it you can cover yourself properly with shorts and
tee shirts that really look fine. Proper bathing suits work for shorts as well. Except, in absolutely no circumstance, should men wear those
little black speedos that poor Focker wore in Meet the Parents. That should be grounds for immediate banishment from the anchorage. No
one wants to see that little thing that the speedo covers. It's also kind of amusing that guys who wear those little speedos all have little things
to cover which also seems to go with really hairy backs. Anyway. For those more formal times, like going ashore for provisioning or the rare
restaurant or bar, you can still cover yourself with your nice tee shirts and shorts (maybe even a shirt with a collar). It's really not that hard.
Washing, on the other hand, is hard - even for the tee shirt and swim suit stuff. Most cruisers do not have washers or dryers aboard (sailboats
are rare - some trawlers do). The washers and dryers are just too bulky. We have researched the possibility on several occasions, but in the
end, installing a combo washer and dryer would take a major modification of the boat that we are unwilling to do. So, we do what everyone
else does. Occasionally, you are in an area that may have a laundry facility close by (we're talking using quarters stuff), but most of the time
it's hand washing. We have a couple of five gallon buckets with a toilet plunger (we've tried other ways, but the bucket and plunger works the
best by far). I know it sounds primitive (which it is) but washing by hand is just one of those prices you pay for doing what we are doing. Of
course, when I'm talking we here, I mean Leta. It's funny how cruising tasks get divided into traditional male and female roles. That's just
the way it works. But that's a topic for another time.
We also believe grooming falls under the category of attire. In general, women seem to groom themselves in a manner consistent with their
old land living ways, except that you don't see much make up and the hair is usually short (it takes much less water to wash). Men, on the
other hand, seem to let their hair and beard grow long. I guess that's okay, but when you see longer hair on a guy, there is no hair up top and
a ponytail ensues. A lot of time the ponytail gets braided. Call us traditional, but that's ridiculous. It reminds you of the 70's, hippie, drop-out
days. Buy a cheap, Wal-Mart set of clippers and cut your hair. Some guys actually cut their hair but still have a couple of inches of hair on
their necks. Just enough to take a rubber band and get what we call a puss tail out of it. Cute. When it comes to your beard, keep it trimmed.
There's nothing worse than seeing some guy munch on beard hairs as he's feeding himself. Oh well.
Jewelry is another attire thing. Women give up their big jewelry (it's in a lock box somewhere) for security reasons, but tend to start wearing
things like ankle bracelets and goofy adolescence stuff like that (remember - these women are in their late forties and fifties, maybe even
older). Please. Toe rings are also big players for women. Double please. You will see a lot of men wear ear rings. There is just something
wrong about a mid-fifties kind of guy with ear rings. But the all time no, no is men with toe rings. Just picture a knarly old man toe with a ring
somehow stuck on it. Triple and quadruple please!!
Hide Your Weenie - Okay. We finally have to talk about it. Some people just take their clothes off while on boats for some reason we can't
fathom. We even ran into a very large sailboat a couple of weeks ago from Dallas. They had picked up a national park mooring ball in St.
Barts right next to us. We just had to hail them and chat for a minute because you don't see many boats like ours with a hailing port of Dallas.
Anyway. This boat was your basic two or three million dollar boat. The owner couple had another couple on board and the boat was crewed
by another young couple. The two couples (not the crew) snorkeled for a while and about cocktail hour everyone goes below (presumably to
shower before cocktails) except for the male owner part of the couple. He proceeds to get naked and take a shower on the swim platform with
absolutely no modesty at all. Now this guy is from Dallas. People don't act that way in Dallas. Not to mention the fact that his boat had
plenty of showers and lots of water - trust me on that. I tell this story because it is so typical of what you see from a large portion the cruising
group. We just don't get it.
The nakedness has gotten progressively worse the further south we have gone, especially in the French islands. We are at anchor one day
and this nice big catamaran comes in with at least five or six guys on board; all of them naked. In my wildest dreams I can't imagine having a
guys day out all naked. One naked guy just walks up front to anchor and bends over to get the anchor ready - and yes you get the picture.
Too bad Leta didn't get a picture of that (had we gotten that shot we promise that we wouldn't ruin your day with it). She did at least get the
following so you can get the flavor of what we are dealing with out here.
It's not only being naked, it's what people do when naked. Many times we have seen (most flying French flags - not that we have anything
against the French) guys just whup out their weenie and pee off their boat looking right at us. Then, a few minutes later, you see a five or six
year old kid doing the same thing except they manage to pee all over the boat. I guess they are just learning from Dad.
The other day, a boat anchors way too close to us. It was clear there were guests on the boat. As soon as the anchor was set one of the guys
stands on the side of the boat towards us (there were no boats on the other side) and whups out the pud. You could almost stab it with a boat
pole - that close. Next day the guests leave and the male kid (about five or six) runs around on the boat all day without a stitch. The little girl
(about the same age) at least had panties on but nothing else. Then, of course, at cocktail hour, the entire family takes a shower on the swim
platform.
In our current anchorage in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe there are five boats anchored within five or six boat lengths. On three of them, the
guys come out a few times a day and whup it out with no regard to anyone.
Leta swears she will begin taking pictures of these guys and posting them here. We'll see about that. She does look at them with binoculars -
she says she is trying to shame them - I just try to ignore the whole thing. There is no pun intended here at all.
Wear Your Speedo - Leta says that speedos don't work. Ever. For anyone. (We thought about putting this one under "Things That Work
and Some That Don't", but we thought it better under ridiculous items for obvious reasons).
Maintain Your Boat - Whoever defined cruising as "repairing your boat in exotic places" was pretty much right on. Don't get me wrong,
we're not complaining. We could be working for a living. It's just that maintaining and repairing your boat is much more time consuming than
one might initially think.
For instance. It's August 2008. We began cruising in April 2006. The boat was new. Since then, we have made the following repairs. The
Raymarine hydraulic autopilot drive had a faulty selenoid and was replaced. One of our Raymarine E Series chartplotters was doing weird
things at the worst possible times and was replaced (it's still doing weird things but we have a work around that we can live with). After a
catastrophic DC failure we traced the problem to a faulty Perko battery selection switch. We replaced several ShurFlo pumps. Ellis (notice
that Leta has nothing to do with this) rebuilt one of the VacuFlush toilets and replaced joker valves in one of the vacuum generators. The
Spectra water maker had a blowout of a ShurFlo accumulator. We replaced the Clark pump (high pressure pump) on the water maker. A
motor mount on our Yanmar engine broke. We had an oil explosion while underway due to a faulty O-ring on a Yanmar oil filter. We blew a
Yanmar engine raw water impeller while underway. The MasPower generator has had two fresh water pumps replaced. The generator
battery was replaced with a larger one. We have had a couple of sail repairs and are currently waiting on a batten to replace a missing one
(how we lost a batten is another story). Ellis rebuilt and replaced our air conditioning raw water manifold. The holding tank overboard
discharge vent loop quit working properly (head problems are always fun) and was replaced. The list is not exhaustive but I think
representative. Stuff just breaks.
Then there's the maintenance. Every one hundred hours we change engine oil, transmission oil and Racor fuel filters on our Yanmar engine
and generator. Every two hundred hours we change the engine mounted fuel filters on both diesel engines. The Yamaha outboard gets new
engine oil and lower unit oil every hundred hours or every six months, whichever is shorter. The generator needs a new zinc every couple of
hundred hours. Every year, the diesel engines get new anti-freeze and cleaned air filters (if not sooner). Impellers get changed every year (if
not forced to do so sooner, as mentioned above). The prop, the prop shaft, the strut and the bow thruster all have zincs that need replacing
periodically. The bottom and running gear needs periodic cleaning and anti-fouling paint every couple of years. Our air conditioning raw
water strainer and the hoses that connect our three AC units need cleaning once a week while we are docked or anchored during hurricane
season (because it runs 24 hours a day). The other strainers (deck wash, engine and generator) get cleaned as needed. All the stainless,
including all the blocks and rigging, gets polished at least every couple of months and sometimes more frequently. The boat gets washed when
we have fresh water. The boat gets waxed at least once every six months. The teak gets a few coats of varnish every four to six months. The
mast gets climbed at least once a year to clean and polish all the things up there and to look for possible problems before they happen. When
we are at anchor the hatches are open which means dusting the interior is a constant chore. I could go on for a while, but you get the picture.
Is this the most ridiculous item of the day? Maybe not. There are much worse things to endure than maintaining your boat. And we wouldn't
trade it for anything. Just be prepared.
Consume Your Time - Everything about cruising is time consuming. We still get the occasional "Don't you get bored" question from
people back home. We try to explain what it's like out here, but most of the time you get that blank, glazed-over stare which means that they
don't really understand what your talking about.
Of course, that's to be expected. Land-based living is just so different. How many times does it take you all day to go to the grocery store or
to put fuel in your car?
Let's just go through a couple of typical days.
Let's say you decide to sail a few hours to the next island. Most of the time you are up before dawn to get the anchor up and be underway at
first light. Why so early? Well. Two reasons. You want to time your arrival at the new anchorage at midday so you can see the bad things
under water, like reefs and shoals ready to snag your hull. Reason number two (even if you decide to take your chances with the reef); things
happen. If you time your arrival late in the day and say you blow an impeller, you get to find the anchorage in the dark. Not a good
proposition.
Once you get there, anchoring takes a while. Then you secure the boat.
By now it's cocktail hour and you talk about what to do the next day. You also talk about whether to get the dinghy down and take the dog
ashore (assuming there is a decent shore) or whether to take the dog on the swim platform. And then you have to do it. If you decide to go
ashore, you have to get the dinghy up for the night. Now it's time to eat. Leta likes to make sure we eat well, so it takes a couple of hours to
cook and clean up.
Next day, let's assume we stay at the anchorage. There are boat maintenance items or repairs to contend with (see above). Cleaning inside
the boat takes a while, because it's always dusty from the hatches being open and, no matter what you do you track sand inside. Leta might
decide to make bread which takes awhile. If there is any kind of store close by, you get in the dinghy, take a ride, walk to the store, walk back
carrying your plunder, take a dinghy ride, get the dinghy up for the night. Somehow, you manage a little snorkeling or hiking or maybe some
fishing during the day and by the time happy hour is underway you're only good for dinner and maybe a movie before bed time.
Let's say you stay another day. Maybe it's time to do laundry. We've tried on several occasions to figure out how to get a washing machine
on board but can't figure out how to do so without major surgery on the boat. So. That means your basic bucket and toilet plunger comes out.
Then there's wringing by hand, then hanging the clothes on a rigged clothesline around the mast and shrouds. All time consuming stuff.
Maybe it's also time to find diesel. There might be a service station on land or possibly a small marina within dinghy reach. So the jerry cans
come out and you make a few trips back and forth topping off your fuel tank. You might have to do the same thing with water if you happen to
be in a harbor where you wouldn't want to run the water maker. By now it's time for happy hour and dinner again.
But you know what. All this happens in places that we could only dream of a few years earlier. Yes it's time consuming. There's always
something to do. But we don't plan to go back to that easy, land-based living any time soon.
Bathe Your Self - Okay. Another subject we finally have to talk about. A lot of cruisers just stink.
Please take a bath. You can even take a small shower just to get the bad stuff under control, but please just do it. Maybe you don't mind
offending yourself, but you offend others. What happened to basic hygiene. The kind of stuff you learned in grade school. No matter what
country you are from, you were taught better. Frankly, we smell more cruisers from the US than from anywhere else. Oh, and don't wear
stinky clothes. Once they stink, it's time to put on clean ones (I guess this is a different subject).
We understand the problems. Not everybody has a water maker. Sometimes water is hard to come by. But you can figure it out. A wash in
salt water with a fresh water rinse works wonders. If you are in a nasty harbor and can't get in the water, get off your ass and jerry jug water
to your boat or find a shower on shore. It might take a while, but it ain't that hard. Niger Calder, in his cruising handbook, devotes an entire
section to personal hygiene. He says take two showers a day. He didn't have a water maker.
Is this tirade going to convince people to bathe? Probably not. But we got it off our chests. I think we'll take showers now.
Organize Your Self - It's hard to decide where to start on this topic. We've talked before about not liking anchorages such as Georgetown,
Bahamas, where during the season it becomes a floating city governed by a clickish few. This topic is slightly different than that. However,
the same characteristics that you see in the people participating in that scene (the herders as well as the sheep) manifest themselves
everywhere. It seems like anywhere more than a couple of cruisers congregate for any period of time those characteristics come creeping
out. The congregation area can be an anchorage, a marina, a city, an island group or a country; it matters not. Some people desperately want
to follow and some people, even more desperately, want to lead. I'm not sure which is worse; follow or lead.
I guess following is easy. Just shut up and do what you are told or asked to do. There are lots of people out here who want to follow. The
ones that do all seem unsure of themselves and seem to be looking for someone else to tell them how to act, how to think, how to provision,
how to maintain and repair their boat, how to pick weather windows, which anchorages to go to, etc. You get the picture. They don't appear to
be able to think for themselves or make decisions without consulting others. This behavior, of course, is the root of herd mentality which is
potentially dangerous. You see so many times a group of boats trying to decide when to take a weather window. Usually, one decides to go
for it and the entire group goes stampeding over the edge of the cliff. Followers could be harmless, but if there were no followers there would
be no leaders. Followers enable the really dangerous.
In every venue you will see people who are trying to lead. There is usually competition for the job so the would be leaders are easy to spot.
They are everyone's friend and try to be the life of the party. They tell you what to like and what not to like. They've been there and done
that. They are the ones inviting others to happy hour, to dinghy jaunts, to shopping, you name it. All in an effort to influence you. They never
do anything by themselves. They want to be consulted on everything. They have all the answers. They try to organize everything. Once they
get a couple of followers, they are relentless about keeping those and search for others with even more glee.
Based on our experience, the majority of cruisers are one of the two: followers or leaders. Once this little group gets large enough (it really
only takes two or three) you begin to see organized activities, the VHF chatter increases, cruiser nets are set up (VHF and SSB), trips ashore
are in groups, and so on. You will see some people that never do anything without others. Sometimes, there are more would be leaders than
followers - then it really gets amusing.
There is however, a sizable group of cruisers that are cruising for the sheer joy and adventure of doing things themselves. You won't hear
them very often on the cruisers nets, you won't hear them very often on VHF, you won't see them consult (ask permission) to do anything
(especially about weather decisions), you won't see them congregating in large anchorages, you won't see them making happy hours on every
boat in every anchorage every single day and you won't see them following or leading. We are in this group.
Not that we don't like other cruisers, we do. We also lend a hand when anyone needs it. We like talking to others about their experiences.
Information is a good thing. We like making the occasional happy hour and doing things occasionally with others. But not everyday. We
don't like joining the groups. We don't like feeling obligated. We don't like the feeling of having to say no time after time.
We do not understand why cruisers can't revel each and every day in their own accomplishments. Here we are in exotic locations,
self-sufficient and confident in ourselves. We don't need anything else. Especially organization. We have spent countless years organizing
our land-based lives; at work, at home, at play. We have put up with leaders who can't lead and followers who can't follow. We have also
spent years getting rid of all that to be free to take ourselves and our boat where the wind will take us. We lead and follow ourselves.
Control Your Dog - We go to great lengths to make sure our dog does not offend anyone. Even when we take Bogey to a deserted beach,
we cover up his residue. We also have a lifetime supply of doggy bags, so when we are at a marina we can pick up after him and deposit it in
the nearest trash can. Male dogs, like Bogey, also have a tendency to mark their territory when they are walking down the dock; on the
electrical boxes, water hoses, anything else sitting on the dock. We always have Bogey on a leash and make sure he doesn't do that. We
can't say that Bogey has never marked a dock, but it was either an accident or he was quicker than we were - and then very rarely. And if he
does, we make sure we get a water hose and clean the area thoroughly. We think controlling Bogey is just being considerate of others.
We stayed at a marina for a couple of months where another dog owner never cleaned up after their dog - never. They didn't care who
witnessed the transgression, they would just not clean up. The particular marina was in a urban setting where the dog walk area was very
small. These people would have let it pile up until you couldn't walk at all without stepping in it. Luckily, the marina staff would clean it up
after it got really bad. The people were nice, but the dog thing is a clear indicator of what they think of others. Completely inconsiderate.
Unfortunately, there are lots of dog owners just like them.
But wait. We have now seen it all. We are staying for a few weeks at another marina. One of the dog owners takes their dog on the dock.
Yes, you heard it right. They do not take their dog in the very large grassy areas around the marina, they take him up and down the dock.
They let the mutt go anywhere he wants, even all over ours and others electrical cords and water hose. The poop is not picked up, it's just sort
of shoved off the dock into the water. We have to make sure we are in the cockpit during the morning and afternoon walks to keep it from
happening to us repeatedly, basically shaming the owner into keeping the dog off our stuff. It has only happened once and if it happens again I
swear I'm going to wander down to their boat and pee on it. The people have apparently heard from others that we are incredulous since they
now make sure they take the dog down to the very end of the dock where there are currently no boats. But sooner or later there will be boats.
The unwary boat owner will step off their boat and walk back and forth on the dog soaked and smeared dock, taking it right down into their
boat on their shoes. I'm still in awe of the inconsiderate owners. Another boat owner said something to the dog owners about their and the
dog's behavior. Their response was that the dog had to go somewhere. Not - sorry. Not - we'll start taking him on the grass. Not - we'll
make sure we clean up after him. Not - we're idiots and you can pee on our boat. Nothing. This is definitely the most ridiculous item of the
day. Oh. Gotta go. It's time to go sit in the cockpit.
More to come
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| Guys day out! |