No biggie – ho hum, just another 2000 miles of sailing in the open ocean. We did evolve from pollywogs to shellbacks and observed all ceremonies and honors to Neptune. Along the way, we saw some wildlife and ate some wildlife.
Continue reading “Equator Crossing”
The best way to learn advanced coastal cruising skills is to sail the coasts of the lovely Caribbean Islands. And, if you are going to sail the Caribbean, then Wild Rumpus is the boat to do it on under the gentle tutelage of yours truly!
Continue reading “Learn Advanced Coastal Cruising on Wild Rumpus!”
Some locals were kind enough to take us sailing. Unfortunately, as a self-absorbed dopey American, I cannot pronounce (or spell) most of their names!! But we got some lovely pics of sailing outside of Cape Town.
Continue reading “A Cape Town Evening Sail”
“Roger Roger. What’s my vector Victor?” Not quite checklists, but I do love Airplane, and this seemed like a reasonable place to cram it into the blog. This entry I’ll post a couple of checklists under development for Wild Rumpus (with credit given to the folks I stole the idea from and a whole lot of disclaimers).
Oh, and I’ll share some news about being asked to review a book for the blog — see Ma, I told you someday people would covet my stupid opinions!!
This post will focus on the “where of it all.” Wild Rumpus will cover a lot of territory between the shakedown cruise and the passage itself, so I’ll focus on those distances, destinations, and make an effort to put it all in perspective. And, the passage plan changed a bit since the earlier planning post, which I’ll cover as well.
Continue reading “Passage Planning Part 3”
This is a short entry about safety. I just finished watching a fantastic production about safety on a YouTube channel that I want to share with you sailors. Ryan and Sophie‘s videos were produced in conjunction with Andy Schell of 59 North– an offshore sailing instructor. I defer to their video to explain the swiss cheese mentioned above. Trust me, these are great videos and well worth watching. Even day-sailors will benefit from this discussion.
Here is video #1. Video #2 should be public soon. It is currently available on The Quarterdeck, a pretty cool sailors social media platform.
As the Grandest of Grand Poobahs of The Lodge of the Dense and Mentally Questionable– once I learn even a rudimentary skill, the best way for me to make it stick in my sugarless-gummy-bear of a brain is to find some poor soul to whom I can teach that skill.
So, having had basic sailing skills beat into my brain by repetition, and several ego-bruising incidents, I got it in my thick head that I want to teach others to sail.
Continue reading “The Best Way to Learn is by Teaching”
I’ve got nothing to do and all day to do it. [any Styx fans?]. The COVID pandemic and resulting lockdown have taken me– and I suspect most people– through a series of moods that are finally culminating in pure and simple boredom. This blog itself is an archeological record of initial boredom resulting in experimental cooking, premature planning for future events, and general musings by somebody entirely unqualified to share musings.
But the truth is that the unqualified musings were only a small part of what has actually been a relatively pleasant period without much airplane travel, a lot of family time, and some cool developments.
Continue reading “Surplus of Time=Scarcity of Motivation”
Looking out at the bay and watching the sailboats often leads me to be jealous of the sailors on those boats. Then, because I am a cynical jackass, I find myself wondering if they really are sailors. That is, do they meet my imagined qualification of practicing good seamanship, or are they just an accident waiting to happen.
Does size really matter or is it all just up to the motion of the ocean?
