There are times when you make decisions and the results make you ask “What if?” Those “What Ifs?” can drive you crazy. One such decision for me happened nearly 25 years ago, when my twin left on a drive back to San Diego, headed back to school. This is the first time I am writing [...]
The Serenity Prayer or Neibhur’s Prayer starts with an almost universally recongized: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. My friend Grant wrote that being a twin isn’t always easy, but he wouldn’t trade it [...]
I recently saw an ad on TV for a company that says they can protect you from “identity theft”. Identity, by definition, can not be stolen. Identity can be defined as: the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another. While someone can pretend to be you…they can not actually be you. Granted, if [...]
The rain has prevented me from working on s/v Pretty Gee as I was planning. So, instead, I thought I would write a bit about the amazing woman I love, to let my friends see who she is and why I love her so very much. Ellie is a beautiful, intelligent, selfless, stubborn, and fiery-tempered [...]
Over the past few weeks, I’ve received a lot of support and love from friends that I met via online sailing forums and through blogging. While many of these friendships started out on the Internet, I have been lucky to meet quite a few of them in real life as well. They range across a [...]
On the Sailfar.net sailing forum, there was a thread on the apparent prejudice that seems to exist against smaller sailboats, which seems to show up in some marinas. Over the last two decades, there seems to have been trend towards larger boats for the cruising market. Now, I can understand why the boat manufacturers have [...]
So, you’ve finally decided you want to buy a boat. Well, here is some advice on how to go about doing it. First, you need to decide what you want to do with the boat. Are you looking for a boat to weekend and daysail on the Chesapeake? Are you looking to cross oceans? [...]
As I am a member of some social networking sites and have a fairly high on-line presence, I thought I’d write a bit about security and social network sites. A lot of social networking sites, like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and such have a fair amount of personal information about anyone who is a member. This [...]
Again, E. Coli is in the news. There was an article in the New York Times about the most recent E. Coli outbreak, which has been traced back to ground beef from Fairbank Farms. When I was growing up, there weren’t E. Coli outbreaks of the lethal nature found today. Certainly, the food-processing procedures and [...]
There was a sailor asking me about his mainsheet setup on an on-line forum, and was thinking of using line clutches or line jammers for his mainsheet. I tried to explain that this was both unwise and dangerous. A line clutch or line jammer can take too long to release—and in the case of a [...]
One thing you have to do on boats is bed hardware. This has to be done on a regular basis, especially with hardware that is under heavy cycling loads, like cleats. However, using the right sealant can make this task much simpler. Most people are familiar with silicone caulk, since it is the most commonly [...]
Multihulls have some advantages and disadvantages compared to monohulls, and a lot of how severe those advantages/disadvantages are depends on the exact design you’re looking at. Whether one will be suitable for your purposes depends a lot on what you’re trying to do. For instance, a lot of the charter market catamarans have trouble sailing [...]
Currently, I am reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma. I am about halfway through the book. Thus far, this is a fascinating book that takes a look at America’s modern food supply chain and how it has been corrupted by the oil, chemical, pharmaceutical industries and government intervention because of political, corporate and military reasons. The [...]
I originally wrote the following post for the International Telstar Owners Association Forum. I’ve decided to re-publish it here as well, since many of the visitors to my blog are interested in the Telstar 28. ********************************************************* The Telstar 28 was introduced in late 2003. Since the boat was introduced, it has had some changes to [...]
Over on one of the sailing forums I participate in, there was a question about how to setup the bilge pumps on a boat. Here are my thoughts on that issue. Ideally, the a monohull sailboat should have at least four bilge pumps. Two would be electric, and two would be manual. The two manual [...]
George W. Bush’s plan to tap the TARP fund to bail out the big Three is short-sighted and irresponsible. It doesn’t matter where the money goes, it is throwing good money after bad. Letting the auto industry sink or swim on its own is the only way to get the UAW and the management of the big three automakers to accept a changed reality of the auto industry. Honda, Toyota, et al, all have factories in the USA now. Building cars that are fuel efficient is something that should have been done decades ago….
Right now, my thoughts are with an online friend, Mike, and his family. Mike is a fellow sailor, and I know him through one of the sailing forums I participate on. While I’ve never met Courtney, or her family, I have spoken and corresponded with them over the past year. His daughter Courtney is a [...]
Recently, I was asked why I have such an oversized anchor hanging off the bow roller on the Pretty Gee. That’s a good question. The primary anchor I have on the Pretty Gee is a New Zealand-designed Rocna 15. It weighs 33 lbs., and is the same anchor that an acquaintance of mine uses on [...]
Seven years, seven months and seven days ago was one of the happiest days of my life. It was November 4, 2000, and I married the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. I knew I was going to marry her the very first time I heard her voice. It is difficult to believe that today, [...]
Heather Neill announced her plans to circumnavigate the globe in s/v Flight of Years, a Pacific Seacraft Flicka last year. This was a rather unusual announcement, given that Heather was not a sailor, and had relatively little experience sailing at the time of her announcement. You can read about her and her preparations at her [...]
This season seems to be an unusually good one for New England sports fans. Last night, the Boston Red Sox just swept the Colorado Rockies to take the 2007 World Series. It does appear that the curse of the Bambino has finally been broken, as this is their second World Series victory in just four [...]
Six years ago today, I was cast Adrift At Sea. The amazing woman who had agreed to marry me in September 1999 finally lost her fight with pancreatic cancer. Gee passed away at 11:00 am, six years ago today, exactly seven months and seven days from the start of our wedding. Even today, I find [...]
Why give in to the criminals? Why give in to the terrorists? A while back, I wrote about one of the more sane responses to terrorism—you can read that post here. Why should we help the criminals and the terrorists achieve their goals? I think the media in this country has to re-think its approach [...]
One of my on-line friends, Alex, recently posted this message in response to the killings at Virginia Tech. I have been watching the news here in the US… What drives young people to go to a school and shoot people like that??? And its not the first time either… God help America….this is so crazy….. [...]
One of my favorite blogs to read is 37 Days, by Patti Digh. A recent post of her talks about the movie “March of the Penguins”, and talks about a young woman named Meta. The story really hit home for me, since Meta was about the same age as my identical twin and, like him, [...]
Jason over at Pelican in Her Piety has pointed out two excellent editorials in the Boston Globe. The first is on the right to privacy and the right to public safety and the recent policy of swabbing and searching bags on the MBTA. The second is on the Mass Turnpike Authority’s recent decision to lift [...]
Over on John Battelle’s Searchblog, is a post about the new Comcast HD DVR and how it compares to a Tivo. Some of the commenters have mentioned a few other technologies in their comments. One is the Windows Media Center-based Home Theater PCs. Another is the Macintosh computer. I commented on his blog, and this [...]
In an article from today’s New Zealand Herald, we see that the “War on Moisture” has claimed at least one casualty. A diabetic man fell into a coma because he wasn’t allowed to bring his insulin aboard the plane. Mr. Tui Peter Russell started feeling ill on the flight, and when he spoke to the [...]
Well, scientists are stating the obvious again. In a recent NYT article, they publish the results of a study, which concludes that listening to music at too loud a volume will lead to hearing damage. Umm…this is news?
Today’s quote of the day was from Kahlil Gibran. Kahlil Gibran wrote: “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” Some days I wonder about that. There are days, when I look back at what I’ve been through and wonder what effect it has had on who [...]