NUTS & BOATS
The twice monthly newsletter for to-be and already-are cruisers Volume 2, Issue #8 - April 15, 2004
Publisher: Trish Lambert
www.takehersailing.com
(C) P. Lambert 2004
Welcome to our new subscribers! IN THIS ISSUE
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THE LAST 2 WEEKS OF THE SPRING SALE! Buy and download Capt'n Pauley's e-book "Using Epoxy" for $2 off the regular price! For information about all of Paul’s booklets, go to: http://www.takehersailing.com/CP-Booklets.htm
WORDS FROM THE ANCHORAGE
Little Things That Mattered compiled by Trish Lambert One of the many great threads on The Virtual Anchorage caught my eye the other day. Folks have contributed some of the little things they do around their boats that make a difference. Here, with kudos to the tars and barnacles who "live" at the anchorage, is a sampling of their contributions (in no particular order): "I hang a cheap set of 'Speedo' type racing goggles on the throttle shift lever. They are always right at hand to use when the weather comes up and visibility goes down. A little thing I wish I'd thought of sooner!" "Many boiling instructions require 'salted water.' We use a mixture of seawater and fresh. A simple & obvious conservation of fresh water, a precious resource." "We put bungee cord from bulkhead to head lid so it won't close on us when it's rough and rolly!" "Need to change a motor mount? Instead of hoisting the engine by the boom, deflate a basketball or a fender, slide it under the engine, and begin reinflating. You'll get enough lift to remove the mount." "The local dump can be a treasure trove of useful stuff. When selecting a brand of outboard, you might add 'what's in the dump(s) where I'll cruise?' to your selection criteria list. For example, the preponderance of OMC brands (Johnson, Evinrude, OMC) in Bahamanian dumps makes for productive scavenging - and may be one small advantage to those brands in that locale." "I used duct tape for a while to keep my Dish box from sliding off my DVD player while on a heel. Now I use Velcro strips to hold the whole mess in place." "I'd hang two carabiner clips on my bow rail, put the rod part of the anchor extending from the flukes through the clips (one per side), and bungee the clips together to keep the anchor accessible, but also secure." "When it's dark out there, it's REALLY dark. We've put reflective tape on our pulpit, stanchions, & pushpit to differentiate our boat from her neighbours when it is too dark see anything but vague shapes on the water." "We made macrame plant hangers with 3 tiers to hang in the galley. We have two of them: One holds a variety of root vegetables - potatoes, onions, carrots; the other holds tomato plants in 3 stages of development."
If any of these tips caught your attention, there's more where they came from! Come on by the anchorage any time and browse the collective "wisdom" of the motley crew that converses regularly.
A CRUISER'S EYE VIEW
Looking Back with Wonder by Trish Lambert As I get older, I get more pensive about how I got here. Nothing about my growing up years indicated that I would end up a cruising first mate. I am a child of a series of land bound suburbs, and in my young adult years I thought my Eden was in the mountains, not on the ocean. It never ceases to amaze me that I have spent nearly half my life in the cruising community. The following is a journal entry from earlier this year, when Skip and I were sitting at a bar in Kemah, Texas, notebooks in front of us, beers at our elbows. We were pursuing one of our favorite pastimes when on land: watching and commenting on the boats going by. I got to thinking about my early days as a first mate, and how overwhelming it all was as I learned about boats and sailing. I'm sure there are many of you who either are or are married to apprentice first mates. This is for you - in hopes that it will make the process of mastering a new lifestyle a little less daunting. ---------------------------- It is hard to believe that it has been over twenty years since I entered the cruising life. I swear it was just a few years ago that I sat at a waterside bar (more than one waterside bar, actually) with Husband #1, getting a short course on sailboats. "Okay, that one over there with the two masts and blue canvas. That's a ketch. Do you know why?" Stupid question. Of course I didn't know why. I figured I was doing good to recognize it as a sailboat. I shook my head and slurped some beer. "It's because the mizzen - that's the mast to the rear - is shorter than the one in front. And it's in front of the steering post. If it was behind the steering post, it would be a yawl." I nodded my head as if I understood, letting the words wash over me. Ketches, yawls, schooners, cutters, sloops - it was too much to figure out. How would I ever get them straight? And that wasn't all: Staysails, spinnakers, jennies, trysails - good heavens, even if I ever did get my head around the types of sailboats, would I ever master the arcane vocabulary of the yards of cloth that got hung from those poles sticking up in the air? Fast forward twenty-plus years, and here I sit, again at a bar, watching boats pass below me in the Kemah channel. As the vessels go by, either out to Galveston Bay or in toward their slips, I have no problem telling the ketches from the sloops. In fact, I can recognize certain designs and manufacturers. I know a Catalina from a Cal, a Perry design from a Crealock, and I can unerringly spot a Bristol Channel Cutter. This may not sound like much, but it's enough for me. Granted, I don't know much about power boats, and though I can tell a catamaran from a trimaran, that's where my knowledge of multihulls ends. My familiarity with sails has likewise grown. I know the difference between a gaff and a Marconi rig, and I am well acquainted with the types of sails that I have needed through the years to get me where I needed to go. I haven't delved into the "cult of the cloth" much further than that, so I still have no idea what a gollywobbler, spanker, or topgallant does, or what conditions to hoist it in. So while there's no way I will claim to be a sailboat expert, I do know enough to know what works for me and what doesn't work for me. Even more important for sitting around bars, I can easily participate in the conversations that cruisers inevitably embark upon over beers and margaritas. "Check out that cool schooner coming down the channel," Husband #3 just said to me. I look up, easily spotting the classic yacht with the raked masts that had caught his attention. It's behind the Garden ketch with the green canvas, and in front of the spiffy Beneteau 331 with all-furling sails. I take a swig of my beer and smile. What a long strange trip it's been. And it ain't over!!! | 
