NUTS & BOATS
The twice monthly newsletter for to-be and already-are cruisers Issue #8 - October 15, 2003
Publisher: Trish Lambert
www.takehersailing.com
(C) P. Lambert 2003
Welcome to new subscribers who have signed up through www.takehersailing.com! IN THIS ISSUE
Skip and I again share the bylines! Pink, Blue, Purple Facing Winter Onboard
THIS ISSUE'S COOL CRUISING QUOTEYou have to do what you love to do,
not get stuck in that comfort zone of a regular job. Life is not a dress rehearsal. This is it. Lucinda Bassett
Send me your cool cruising quotes and I will include them in future issues!
Please forward this newsletter to anyone who is interested in the cruising lifestyle. If you are receiving this issue as a forward, and would like to get your own free subscription, send an email. OUR PRIVACY POLICY
THANKS TO THE GUINEA PIGS!!!! Thanks to all who volunteered to be my guinea pigs for my cruising teleconsultation offer. I had two "customers" within an hour! If you are interested in learning more about the service, the page is up on the web but not yet officially part of the site. Also, until November 1, I am offering a Nuts & Boats subscriber-only discount on any of the teleconsulting packages. So if you want to talk to me about specific aspects of your liveaboard or cruising life, buy now!
A LITTLE CONTROVERSY
Pink, Blue, Purple By Trish Lambert"Your propane tank is empty," I said. "Do you have a second tank we can switch over to?" "Yes, we do," said Elaine, "but I don't know how to switch. That's a blue job." Blue job? I was staying overnight with Elaine aboard Blue Moon, anchored in Puerto Escondido (Baja California). I was going to be taking my ham radio license upgrade test the next day, and had gotten a ride up to Puerto Escondido after Elaine had kindly offered to put me up. Her husband Tom was off delivering a boat for the Moorings charter outfit in La Paz, and she said she'd welcome the company. We had been in the middle of cooking dinner when the stove burners sputtered out. I raised my eyebrows in questioning response. Elaine explained that she and Tom had defined "blue jobs" and "pink jobs" - and, predictably, she did only the pink jobs. Also predictably, those jobs matched up pretty well with stereotypic "women's work". Cooking, provisioning, keeping the boat clean (including taking care of mold and mildew when it showed up), taking care of finances, and handling written and radio communications were some of the tasks that Elaine enumerated for me. Among other things, blue areas encompassed anything mechanical and metal with moving parts-putting such things as propane connections firmly in Tom's camp. "It works for us," she said. "We are very clear about who is responsible for what." At first I thought this division of labor ridiculous. Blue and pink? How sexist! Over time, though, as I thought about that conversation, I saw method in the surface madness. Thinking about Ciao Bella, the cruising vessel of my second phase as a first mate, I realized that Jim and I had implicitly divided our jobs along similar lines. I was responsible for basic homemaking stuff-like cooking, cleaning, laundry, keeping water tanks filled-as well as being the primary radio operator, family communicator, and business manager. Jim took care of the engine, the sailing systems, the outboard, the electrical system, and he made sure all of our electronics stayed in working order. We just hadn't acknowledged our division of labor like Tom and Elaine had. Looking back over my years as a first mate, I do see a pattern among the folks I got to know on my travels. To be sure, there is no hard and fast pattern-but it seems to me that cruising couples, especially those who are in their first couple of years in the lifestyle, do tend to divide chores along pink and blue lines, as much as I want to think otherwise. But I don't think it can stop there. I believe that on a cruising boat there have "purple jobs," tasks that both partners do. For example, on Ciao Bella, when it came to being underway, we, like Tom and Elaine, shared the duties. We both knew how to read the weather, set the sails, and navigate along the coast and in blue water. We rotated four-hour watches when at sea, and had equal responsibility for getting safely to port. The same is true on Nehalennia, where Skip and I share the load when it comes to passage planning and execution. From a safety standpoint, PURPLE is the color that ensures a successful cruising life...but I don't think we'll ever leave pink and blue behind!
OKAY, SO I LIED!!! But not intentionally! I told you that ebooklet #3 (MessingAbout with Boats, Part 2: Equipment) would be available as of today. Well it's not. I have been working diligently on it, but, there is SO MUCH to say about equipment. Even though I pared the list of items down to large (or high-cost) items that go aboard a cruising boat, it's still something of a "never-ending story." But the date won't slip by much! The booklet will be available for purchase NO LATER than Monday the 20th. And if you are on the notification list, I will send you an e-mail as soon as it's online. My apologies to all of you who have contacted me asking when this booklet will be ready. I underestimated the time it would take to finish, but at least I know that the finished product will be of value to you!!!
CRUISING STRATEGY
Dealing with the Seasons By Skip Randall=============================================== Note from Trish: This is an excerpt from Skip's latest set of tips, about coping with summer heat and winter cold. =============================================== I really love the transition months of the year, those weeks in spring and fall that bracket each equinox. Not too hot, not too cold, usually just right. As a year-around liveaboard, though, the extremes of midwinter call for some coping techniques to stay comfy. I'd like to share some of the ways that we have dealt with a frigid winter in Maryland and our nippy transit down the ICW last fall. Coping with winter will depend on whether you're in a slip or on the hook. In a slip, it's a no-brainer: Get a space heater or two. We have a West Marine model (around $45) that has served us well for three seasons. It's quiet, has multiple fan speeds and heat settings, and does well on our small boat. If it's really cold, we bundle up and use our electric blanket. It has dual controls, so Trish can make her side as hot as she wants without turning my side into a sweatbox! On the hook, it's more challenging to stay comfy. We have a diesel cabin heater (Dickinson Newport, around $700) that works well. It virtually sips fuel, about a tablespoon an hour, and we rarely move the metering needle off low. It was a real lifesaver coming down the ICW last fall; Trish said that it qualified as another crew member! We don't use it underway, so our main defense against the cold while on the move is layered clothing. Clothing strategies for thermoregulation could make up a whole article, but I'll save that for another time. Here I'll just say that we favor synthetics like Thermax and Polartec. They wick moisture away and you can dial in how much insulation you need by layering. We both have down gloves, down booties, and Trish has a down hood. In addition to the synthetic stuff, we have our venerable Aran Island wool fisherman sweaters; plush, very warm and beautiful to look at. In lieu of the electric blanket, we use a down comforter on the bunk plus a thick thermal blanket when away from the good old 110v. By the way, regarding the diesel heater: We have a carbon monoxide alarm that we use when we run it. Some boats have propane cabin heaters, and the CO risk for these is significantly higher than the diesel units. I have a friend who has a nearly new propane heater that he doesn't use because, even with a CO alarm, he's had incidents when he's felt woozy (he feels) due to CO toxicity. And, with our diesel heater, we usually shut it down at bedtime because of fire hazard concerns. Of course it's my morning duty to climb out of the bunk ahead of Trish and get that sucker fired up before she'll venture out from under the comforter!
BOAT SHOW SPECIAL In honor of all the fall boat shows, Paul Esterle and I are offering our own boat show special! Until October 31, you can purchase Paul's entire Basic Maintenance Series of ebooklets for $28.47, which is 40% off the price of buying each one individually. The series is comprised of five booklets, all downloadable PDF files: If you have read Paul's articles on the Take Her Sailing site, you know he is a real expert and excellent instructor when it comes to boat "how to's." These booklets are great reference guides! Purchase the entire series at the boat show special price here.
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