Saturday, November 22, 2008 |
Author: Jacob
We get a fair amount of "you don't have an ________?! You absolutely have to have an ______ or your boat will sink the minute your masthead crosses under the Golden Gate!" While we value everyone's input, sometimes we get the sneaking suspicion that a good portion of these exhortations are based solely on (sometimes limited) personal experience, rather than an objective assessment of need.
The frustration level that we feel during these conversations is inversely proportional to the time left before departure. And since we are now extremely close to departure, we present our list of the Top 5 Things We 'Have to Have' that we don't have!
Now, before you get all outraged, let me say that we would like to have some of the things on this list, but because of time or money we don't have them yet. In fact, we completely reserve the right to add anything on this list as soon as we realize just how wise your advice was :)
1. SSB - Generally people use a SSB or Ham radio for ship-to-ship communication as well as email. We are going with an alternate approach to communications, that used by Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger. We have a simple stand-alone SSB receiver that we can use to listen to cruising nets, or receive weatherfax, and a satellite phone for data.
2. Chartplotter - We have plenty of GPS units (1 built in, 2 handheld), plenty of paper charts, but no chartplotter...actually this is the thing on the list that I want most. Coincidence that I am also the one who is in charge of navigation?
3. Inflatable Dinghy + Outboard - Don't have them, in fact, we went out of our way to sell a perfectly good rigid inflatable and a somewhat problematic outboard. We do however have a beautiful hard dinghy, that rows great and has a sail kit. Sitting here now I can say that I really like rowing. Ask me again in 3 months.
4. Head - Oh my god! A return to the middle ages! We have no head, instead using the tried, true, and gracefully named 'bucket-and-chuck-it' method.
5. Roller Furling - Pisces originally had a Furlex 200s roller furling unit on the jib. According to the manufacturer this unit is undersized for a boat of Pisces' size, and we can attest to that based on our experience. After spending a memorable hour out on the bowsprit in a good size swell with the jib jammed half-way up the foil, we knew that we needed a new furling unit. Unfortunately, it turns out that furlers are much more expensive than we had envisioned in our happy internal universe. Expensive on the order of many months of living without working. Hence, no furler.
Those are the 5 we hear the most, but I'm sure if you are creative you could add a few to this list.
The frustration level that we feel during these conversations is inversely proportional to the time left before departure. And since we are now extremely close to departure, we present our list of the Top 5 Things We 'Have to Have' that we don't have!
Now, before you get all outraged, let me say that we would like to have some of the things on this list, but because of time or money we don't have them yet. In fact, we completely reserve the right to add anything on this list as soon as we realize just how wise your advice was :)
1. SSB - Generally people use a SSB or Ham radio for ship-to-ship communication as well as email. We are going with an alternate approach to communications, that used by Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger. We have a simple stand-alone SSB receiver that we can use to listen to cruising nets, or receive weatherfax, and a satellite phone for data.
2. Chartplotter - We have plenty of GPS units (1 built in, 2 handheld), plenty of paper charts, but no chartplotter...actually this is the thing on the list that I want most. Coincidence that I am also the one who is in charge of navigation?
3. Inflatable Dinghy + Outboard - Don't have them, in fact, we went out of our way to sell a perfectly good rigid inflatable and a somewhat problematic outboard. We do however have a beautiful hard dinghy, that rows great and has a sail kit. Sitting here now I can say that I really like rowing. Ask me again in 3 months.
4. Head - Oh my god! A return to the middle ages! We have no head, instead using the tried, true, and gracefully named 'bucket-and-chuck-it' method.
5. Roller Furling - Pisces originally had a Furlex 200s roller furling unit on the jib. According to the manufacturer this unit is undersized for a boat of Pisces' size, and we can attest to that based on our experience. After spending a memorable hour out on the bowsprit in a good size swell with the jib jammed half-way up the foil, we knew that we needed a new furling unit. Unfortunately, it turns out that furlers are much more expensive than we had envisioned in our happy internal universe. Expensive on the order of many months of living without working. Hence, no furler.
Those are the 5 we hear the most, but I'm sure if you are creative you could add a few to this list.
1 comments:
Well said. We also struggle with well-meaning advice of things that we can't possibly do without...generator, wind generator, freezer, shower, autopilot, outboard, inflatable, satellite phone, etc, etc. Although many of these would be lovely, we'd be stuck at port for another five years until we could save enough to purchase it all. In fact, you've inspired me...I think I'll have to dedicate a post to this in the near future! Good luck - I'm enjoying reading of your adventure.