Eating for Free

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Dinner with the neighbours, Lata, S.I.

“Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”
– Alan Alda, Actor

Times have been hard for each generation and I am always interested to hear how people cope. As this blog is about traveling there is a desire to discover how to travel cheaply or as cheaply as possible. One of my favourite books on this subject is called Hard Times Handbook by Keith and Irene Smith (ISBN 0-670-90275-6). A collection of wisdom and experience from people who have done it hard and come out the other end. In a nutshell the book looks at ways to be frugal, prepared and open to opportunities. Nothing has changed much for today’s ‘battlers’, as we call them in Australia.

I have friends who, by choice, have sourced their food from excess that has been dumped. I am intrigued by their stories and tactics to find something to eat for free in the big city. Free food! For everything there is price to pay, even eating for free. It’s different for everyone. Pride, dignity, ridicule etc. Still it’s there for the taking, although I’m not sure of the legalities. But other than a hard hearted ‘B#%@’, who would deny a needy person something to eat if they are willing to fish it out of their waste.

Wade Shepard, in his blog, Vagabond Journey, has a great article that lists ten tips to get you started at dumpster diving (if your want to eat free food). They cover much of what I have discussed with friends who do it so I have included it here. (Thanks Wade).

1. Choose your location wisely. Chinese restaurants are not usually the best places to go eating out of the trash. The same goes for many other restaurants that do not make and discard single varieties of food in bulk — eating half eaten table scraps is not the best occupation for the traveler who wants to travel another day. The best places to dumpster dive at are those that make food in bulk at certain times of the day. Bakeries are good, donut and bagel shops often better. Pizza restaurants can often provide a traveler with a feast, and grocery stores with dumpsters, rather than compactors, provide the rudiments for a full three course meal.

2. Look for food that is boxed, packaged, or in garbage bags that only contain food. Bagel and donut shops often discard their food that did not sell in plastic bags that only contain edible materials — the day old bagels go in one bag, the real trash in another. Pizza restaurants often dispose of their uneaten slices and unclaimed pizzas in regular pizza boxes or in plastic bags that mostly only contain food. Grocery stores tend to distribute good, free food in mass at their back doors. Discarded boxed goods that are beyond their expiration date or whose packaging had been damaged, over ripe – though still edible – fruits and vegetables, and an entire host of snacks and treats often find their way into grocery store dumpsters in enormous quantities. It is interesting what a traveler can find to do with 200 twinkies.

3. Once you have found a suitable location, be as discrete as possible when digging through the trash. I have been arrested for dumpster diving before. In court, the judge just sort of laughed at me and told me to get out. “Why were you in the dumpster?” he asked. “I was looking for food,” could be my only reply. Though that fiasco did begin with me getting the shit kicked out of me by the police and hauled off to a jail cell for the night. So my advice is: get in, fill up, get out.

4. Approach potential dumpster diving locations after working hours or at night. Dumpster divers tend to be a nocturnal breed by nature. Usually, you do not want the business to know that you are taking their discarded food, and the dumpsters are generally filled up with “fresh trash” only after the closed sign is hung on the front door.

5. Put a red filter on your flashlight. A flashlight is often necessary equipment for dumpster diving, but an unfiltered light may attract unwanted attention. Use a red filter lens or cut out a translucent piece of red plastic (like the kind in 3-D glasses) and pop it over the glass on the torch end of your flashlight.

6. Be neat, don’t make a mess, or it will spoil the graft for future travelers. It is not uncommon for donut shops to pour bleach or another harsh solvent over their discard food if they fear that “bums” are going to make a mess out of it.

7. Food to look for when dumpster diving: Bagels, donuts, pizzas, boxed goods, over ripe vegetables that can be washed, canned goods, food in packages.

8. Food to avoid: Table scraps, anything that smells bad, food that is mixed with too much true garbage, food that is not in a container.

9. Good locations for dumpster diving:
Bagel or donut shops
Pizza shops
Supermarkets
Factories that either make or package boxed or wrapped food
Bottling plants

10. Not good locations for dumpster diving for food:
Restaurants – It is oftentimes just not worth it. Believe me.
Trash cans – In most circumstances, I try to avoid trashcans full of table scraps.
In home garages – Stay away from table scraps. Well, unless an old half eaten chicken wing sounds appetizing to you.

BON APPETITE!

Filmmaking At Sea

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Pigeon Island, Temotu Province, Solomon Islands

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
 Benjamin Franklin, Inventor
My CouchSurfing enquiries in Los Angeles have led to some interesting correspondence with people who have given me some valuable advice. One guy works in the filmmaking industry there and has helped out with processing how I will go about recording our voyage, At the moment I am trying to decide which type of camera to choose. Canon has always been highly rated in my opinion as they have had there own lens factory. Other Japanese cameras like Nikon, Minolta and Ricoh, I believe had lens factories too. The quality of the lens determines the quality of the image entering the camera body. It doesn’t matter how fancy or advanced the camera body is, all things being equal, in the end it is just a light proof box that holds the recording medium. I understand that things have changed a bit since photographic film days and the type, size, and number of electronic sensors do make a difference, but a poor quality lens on a fancy camera body will still give disappointing results.

Having narrowed the field to Canon (although Nikon is second only because of its higher price), the choice is between XH-A1 video

Canon XH A1

and EOS 5D still camera.

Each are excellent cameras for what they are designed for. The XH-A1 video: compact, semi professional producing excellent vision and audio, but, as my CouchSurfer friend points out, sticks out like a sore thumb when trying to film inconspicuously. The EOS 5D shoots both still and video, has higher resolution because of its single large colour sensor, shoots in low light, looks like any other camera so you can blend in easier, but cannot run video for a long period of time or damage to the camera can occur.

Past experience has proven that getting the best and right ‘tool’ for the job is the way to go, yet there are many people successfully using a multipurpose camera like the Canon EOS 5D to produce excellent movies. So I will have to mull this over some more. Although in a perfect world having both cameras would solve the dilemma allowing more flexibility and multiple camera angles, but then there is an added complexity creeping in on our voyage.

One project I have completed is a camera gimbal. What is a Gimbal you ask! One of the difficulties filming on a sailing boat is maintaining a horizontal horizon, The old saying of ‘one hand for you and one hand for the boat’ to avoid falling overboard can make filming a bit of a challenge on a heeling and heaving boat. The options therefore are, mount the camera on a fixed bracket on a rail or stanchion and have the boat level and the horizon sloping or set up a gimbal that moves and tilts with the motion of the boat due to a counterweight.

I have yet to fix a clamp to it but that will depend on the size of the stainless steel railing/tubing on the boat. The object in making it was to use easily obtainable materials at the cheapest price (I also like tinkering with stuff for the sake of curiousity).

Networking and Building Community

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Children swimming near Lata, Temotu Province, Solomon Islands

“One may be defeated, two can resist, but a cord of three strands cannot be broken.”Ecclesiastes
Logistically and time-wise the West Coast of the US looks like the place we will concentrate our efforts in finding the right boat. We have a ten month window to find the right boat, fit it out, and sail back home to Australia.

My old traveller friend came over on Sunday night to cook us up his own burrito recipe. Gleaned from his years in Central America and modified to suit local ingredients, I had trouble stopping at four. As he mixed and blended he asked where I was going to stay in Los Angeles. He suggested I would get away with a couple of days staying at the L.A. airport.
“What! You can’t sleep at the airport!” I exclaimed.
“Sure you can. Heaps of people do. I’ve done it before. No problems.” was the reply.
“Well what about food? Airports charge a fortune for food. I’ll go broke trying to feed myself.” I retorted.
“Not if you know where to go to eat. There is a spiders-web type structure in the middle of the airport, and downstairs there is a cafeteria for the workers. The prices are very reasonable. Just walk right in and order.”

It is good to have local knowledge for planning of contingencies. Sitting around an airport will not help find the right boat but the conversation encouraged me to think about how I will get my bearings when I get there. I sent a few emails off to fellow ‘couchsurfers’ ( http://www.couchsurfing.org/home ) in the L.A. area to explore the possibilities of a couple of nights camping on their couch.

What I didn’t consider was the power of the Couchsurfer (CS) network. Not only can I find hospitality nearby to the marinas, I never realised that a number of CS work in the film making industry. One of my desires is to film a documentary of our family’s sailing journey and the people we encounter. The opportunity to meet knowledgeable, experienced people and discuss the project is a valuable thing. Almost like a ‘master-class’ in a sense.

The Long Beach, San Pedro areas look like a good place to start as they are close to marinas. I think I will be a little overwhelmed by the size of L.A. when you consider that Orange County population alone is about the same size as all of Australia. So, at this stage, I intend to head to the beach and port areas to begin my search. An Aussie guy, now resident in California, who works in the boating industry, emailed me with the information that there are a huge amount of repossessed boats in the Los Angeles harbour area due to the GFC. Whilst I sympathise with fellow yachties who have had the rug pulled out from under their dream, I am hoping the banks now in possession are willing to do a deal should the case warrant it.

One thing that has dawned on me is the importance of networking and community in all aspects of life. Right from the beginning of God’s word He said, “It isn’t good for man to be alone. I will make a companion suitable for helping him.”
By extension we can say theirs, and ours, is strength in community that is made of individuals that seek to help and benefit their neighbour. Note that nowhere in that sentence is the word profit as in profit from their neighbour. Making a profit is fine in a business transaction, but I am talking about willingly giving of yourself to someone who is unable, perhaps, to repay.

Let me give an example where I did benefit on a spiritual level even though the person receiving gave nothing in return. My old friend mentioned in a previous post is very proficient in using a hand sling similar to King David. When he lets loose a stone from that sling it must get close to 300 mph and hits the target with a crack.
For a while now he has been asking me to record him on video using his sling, and the other day he came to me with a brainstorm. What if he constructed a package that exploded on impact – “why this could lead to a contact with the defence department!”

After multiple refusals to have anything to do with illegal activities that would result in his deportation and my brand new criminal record, he settled on a small vegetable instead. I mean, how much trouble can you get into with a disintegrating vegetable as it smashes into a cement wall. And if that is all it takes to make an old guy happy it can’t hurt can it?

Have you ever thought it a medical possibility that a 16 year old boy can be trapped in an aging 70 year old’s body? Well it is true and I have seen it! With camera recording the action in High Definition, I followed the latter day David as he swung his sling and let his projectile loose with such force the sling cracked like a whip. The ammunition of choice turned out to be a purple beet-root, soft enough to spray out and upwards, 20 feet from the impact zone. Purple spatter on yellow background is an interesting effect that is sure to rival the works of Australia’s famous artist, the late Pro Hart. What was truly precious was the huge grin on his face together with the swagger and pumping fists, like a teenager who had just scored a touch down or sunk a basket during the big game.

And I still benefit from that interaction. Every time I pause and remember my friends face and his little victory dance I get an endorphin hit (or a warm fuzzy feeling if you like). I benefit by receiving pleasure from his pleasure. The really good thing is we can both relive the moment and his distant family can enjoy the moment by playing the M4V format movie I created on my iMovie computer software.

Building community begins with a mindset. It starts with me choosing to benefit my neighbour without expectations so my actions are a gift not a transaction. It can’t be a formally sponsored program. It must not become an part of an organisation with endless committee meetings, like a cu-de-sac of swirling ideas going nowhere. At its most effective, it is about individuals open to the spirit of the creator, simply willing to respond to situations and others as their needs become apparent.
“One may be defeated, two can resist, but a cord of three strands cannot be broken.”

Wedding Bells

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This post has nothing to do with our upcoming voyage and yet it has everything to do with it. The marriage of my son to his new bride is about a “part of me” setting off on his own voyage. The anticipation and the excitement for all the possibilities that lie ahead together with the potential go anywhere their heart desires, is all about setting off on a voyage.
Bon Voyage Daniel and Rachel. And may God bless you in life’s adventures.

Traveling For Free or Traveling For Freedom?

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Artificial Island, Lunga Lunga, Solomon Islands

The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
Book Of Ecclesiastes
Christine Gilbert’s recent travel blog, almostfearless.com, addresses the question or proposition for those that want to travel overseas – How to travel for free. Traveling for free is possible for a period of time although it could be argued that there is always a price to pay no matter what we do. Just knowing the secret of how to travel cheaply, would be a bonus. Normally working out a plan to travel for free or travel cheaply requires a creative person to shake off the shackles of normality. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I don’t consider myself normal. Normal people do normal things and have a normal job and live a normal life… You get the picture. One of the joys in my life is to encounter people who aren’t normal. As a police sergeant told me 30 years ago, “Don’t prejudge the homeless man who is down on his luck, or treat them poorly. Everyone has their story to tell.” It’s in these precious moments of meeting people where they are in life that we can glean truths for ourselves and maybe discover their secrets of surviving and flourishing this journey.

Another perspective would be to recognise the importance of networking or building community. Not for material gain but in mutual respect of our neighbour and their place in God’s creation. For some reason I am reminded of these verses in Ecclesiastes’
13 I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14 There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.
17 The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner destroys much good.

My attention is drawn to the quiet words of those people who truly have wisdom. Today and perhaps throughout millenia, our lives and countries have been adversely impacted upon by the ‘shouts of a ruler of fools’, enriching themselves, their families and their friends whilst our impressionable young people are dragged into their wars and conflicts. Robbing the ‘little’ person of their child or their one true love. I try to keep my ears and heart open to the quiet words of the wise, wherever they find me.

We all have our ups and downs. If we live long enough then we will appreciate that all things are possible, both good and bad. However I have met people who appear to be down and out yet behind this veneer is a person that considers themselves more blessed than me. They have found contentment in their situation and would not change places for the world.

Now life’s travellers are abundant in Bundaberg and come from many different backgrounds. Many are from the ‘Grey Nomad’ tribe who travel the country before age and infirmity overtakes them. Although, I suppose, we would all qualify to some extent, no matter where we are in life. The grey nomad tribe is diverse in its methods with some spending a huge amount of their superannuation on a gas guzzling house on wheels with all the bells and whistles, Some have a small van with a mattress, milk crates for storage, and a cheap butane gas ring for a cooker, the emphasis being on minimalist. There are people I see all too regularly where life’s circumstances have them sleeping in their car with the front seat reclined, using public toilet and picnic facilities to fill the gap in their household needs. Bundaberg being situated on the banks of the Burnett River and just south of the Great Barrier Reef, means that it is host to many boat owners and seafarers that visit here throughout the year. Occassionally there is one who ‘runs aground’ and moves ashore for an extended period of time, or at least until their addiction finds them living onboard another boat.

One such traveller who blows in and out of my family’s life is not your normal 70 year old. He is a fit, strong minded, independant personality who possesses this youthful vigor so rare that it is, in some way, energising to those willing to take the time to get to know him. It is said that we are all products of our environment. If so, does that mean that we age and get older because of the company we keep and the standards we accept as being valid? My friend may be the antithesis to this in that first impressions are that he is Rip Van Winkle who went to sleep at Woodstock and just woke up complete with long ponytail hair and head band. Then again that theory may still ring true when you consider his chosen life adventure.

He tells me he first ran away from home around 1951 when he was ten because homelife was pretty tough. Realising this was what he truly wanted although he didn’t have all the resources to make this work, he returned home to regroup. It’s hard to imagine life in the 1950′s had the same social disfunction that continues unresolved today. As a small boy in California, he felt vulnerable and unprotected with threats of violence by gangs if he did not join them, and more violence and crime if he did join them. Later implicated in crime from gang related activities he faced jail or army service. Forced into the army by his parents and lawyers, it took him 7 months to find a way to be discharged upon which he ran away from the destructive influences of the society he knew.

His stories are truly amazing, yet they are merely life’s encounters that bumped into him along the way. Riding the perfect wave in Mexico, living with an authentic quick draw gunslinger, dodging soldiers in Central America, drifting from deserted island to deserted island in French Polynesia and the pacific until finally, nine years later he arrived in New Zealand. A Peter Pan lifestyle in some ways. Stories of beautiful women who shared the adventure until something drew them back to a ‘normal’ life on the treadmill of society. The most amazing thing perhaps was his ability to be resourceful, and trust that something would come along to help keep the adventure going. In many instances he made his own luck and it is the ‘action’ itself in doing something, attracts possibilities beyond our dreams if we are open to those possibilities.

The hardest thing in trying to travel cheaply is DECIDING to start to travel and DECIDING to trust the Lord when He promises -Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. Maybe one day, if my friend trusts me enough, he will let me share all his story with you.

No Reason

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'slow boat' at Reef Islands, Solomon Islands

“Think big thoughts, but relish small pleasures.”
– H. Jackson Brown, Author
I was browsing through the latest edition of the free online boating magazine “Coastal Passage” after someone pointed out an article on using parachutes for a downwind sail. Flicking through I came upon a story about Kris Longrass, a yachtsman and adventurer. I almost didn’t even stop to read as it was about his cycling expedition in outback Australia. After all, sailing and outback Australia couldn’t be more diametrically opposed, could they?

It wasn’t long before Kris’ story drew me in, particularly his cruising mindset/philosophy. The closing paragraph of the article caused me to pause and take stock of my motivation or reason I wanted to do what I wanted to do in going sailing. Kris answers the question for himself as to who he was and what was he doing it all for, and I have reproduced it for you here.

I was playing myself, Kris Longrass, ageing carpenter and navigator, having a time of his life. This whole ride from Darwin had no meaning for anyone besides myself. I achieved nothing worthy, yet it filled me with pride. It’s a shame that these days you can’t just put on your shoes and go on an expedition anymore. It has to have a socially relevant goal, it has to be in support of some charity, dedicated to some noble cause, well connected, word has to spread out, blog, website and school curriculum informed regularly by satellite phone, sponsors roped in.
Why can’t you just stand up and say: “I am going because I feel like it. Because I’ve been dreaming of it for years.” Instead of hiding behind an eight letter acronym starting with UN? As if everything we do needed logical reason behind it, as if pure wish of doing something or going somewhere wasn’t a justification enough.
To find out more about Kris Larsen go to: www.monsoondervish.com

Quarantine and Customs

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“You must do the things today that others will not do so that you can have the things tomorrow that others will not have.”
– Anonymous
As the search continues for the right boat, I have contacted various sellers who have their vessel listed online. I have just about given up on Australian boats as the price difference between them and overseas boats is (to me) too great.
Besides part of the reason is the adventure of bringing it home. That doesn’t preclude Aussie boats if there is one for the right price that comes to our notice.
Recently a particular boat, currently in the South Pacific, caught my eye. For a number of reasons mutually agreeable travel plans were not able to be coordinated with the vendor so I decided to make a few inquiries into import costs should the vessel come to Australia.
I found the Quarantine and Customs guys very helpful at the Bundaberg office and I thought I would post some of the main points of conversation.

Quarantine. During 2011 approximately 40 boats were imported into Australia through Bundaberg Port. A lot of these came from the USA. At least one of these had an insect infestation that required major pest control measures. In conversation, an example was given of a newish fibreglass boat that had additional timber work in an exotic port, was found to have termites on inspection. The upshot of all this, AQIS are particularly vigilant with vessels that have a high timber content. The older “classic plastic” (which I am interested in) were more like fine furniture with fitouts of teak and mahogany. So I am reading into this that quarantine pratique may be more onerous with these types of boats. Estimated costs for quarantine – Pratique $330 (mon-fri business hours only), Pest Inspection $450 or termite detector dog $1200+, Fumigation if required $7000. Potential (worst case scenario) total quarantine costs = $9000 approximately.

Customs. Boats imported by resident owners generally are taxed according to the price they paid in the country of origin plus costs involved in bringing it here. The vessel must be imported within 12 months of purchase or the tax will be calculated on the value of similar vessels in Australia.
The taxes are as follows: Import duty 5%, plus G.S.T. 10% of vessel price including the 5% duty.
Here is the interesting thing for visiting foreign yacht owners. If you enter an Australian port and your vessel is for sale (ie. listed online for sale) the customs will charge the full import taxes at the local Australian valuation on top of any other entry charges.
So from this discussion I gathered that it is necessary for foreign visitors to remove their boats from any for sale listings before arrival. Keep any correspondence to your broker with these instructions to remove it, and any answers to customs regarding it’s ‘for sale’ status need to emphasise the boat is not for sale.

Shipshape – Preparations and observations.

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Sunken cargo boat in Lata 2007

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity.”
― Gilda Radner
Our preparations take all forms and many are more about getting the home affairs in order rather than interesting nautical type things. The recent silence of the blog has more to do with straightening out home affairs well before hand, in preparation for next year. Still, local nautical life for some has been more exciting than they would wish. Very recently our fire and rescue crew attended a sunken sail boat in a Bundaberg marina to assist with pump out. Sadly it sunk to the gunwhales and our second portable pump slowly allowed the battle to shift in our favour. I am not in a position to give an opinion as to why it happened but I would like to comment on a number of observations that come to mind as I reflect.

It’s ‘dangerous’ to moor at a marina. If your intention is to use your boat for voyages then selecting a safe mooring means more than just avoiding lee shores. The danger to your voyaging lifestyle can relate to the proximity of land. Cruising yachtsmen/women when anchoring in a new harbour are more acutely attuned to potential hazards externally and internally. Besides the usual depth, anchor rode scope, swinging room and weather/wind direction concerns, the cruiser has their vessel ready to contend with most emergent situations. Boat and crew gear is stowed, spare anchor and rode is easily accessible, and vessel is located in a place where it can be moved to a new anchorage on short notice. When the cruising yachtsman moves to a more permanent arrangement like a mooring buoy, these preparations for readiness become more relaxed as their time of stay increases. The ‘dangerous’ phase can occur when the cruiser takes up semi permanent residence on a floating finger at a marina and lets his guard down. Speaking from personal experience and observation, this is where it is very tempting to accumulate ‘junk’ (bread makers, blenders etc.) that would inhibit your response to an emergent situation. As the water subsided inside the vessel I pumped out, it was interesting as an observer to see just what floats around in the living area inside the hull. It also revealed the hazards that any diver would encounter if required enter a sunken hull. The potential for entrapment by debris is huge and should not be taken lightly. NB. One almost sure sign that the cruiser may never set sail on a voyage again is the presence of potted plants growing on deck.

Bilge pump capabilities and alternatives. Purchasing and installing decent manual hand operated and 12 volt bilge pumps up to the task of saving your boat can be a large investment that you may never you use. When it comes to the time to use them they had better work. Regular testing, inspection and cleaning of bilge pumps and suction strainers is necessary to ensure that they will work when needed. The debris floating in the cabin and bilges of the sunken boat meant that pump and strainers had to be monitored and cleaned continually. Labels from canned food, plastic bags, clothing and even pages from books swirled around in a soup following the flow of water, in this case towards the bilge pumps. The comforts of a home that have accumulated on board can interfere with, and slow down your response in locating any problems that may arise.

Never criticize a person’s boat. The final point I want to comment on relates to well meaning advice given by a fellow resident trying to help that day. Whilst trying to access the bilges, I found timbers had swollen the floor hatches tightly shut. With the inward flow of water now well under control I tried to limit damage when prising the hatches open. “Just smash it open. The boats a heap of S#@T anyway,” I was told. Beside our preference to limit damage I could see that in her day this ferro cement boat had been fitted out with care using nice timbers and joinery. What ever opinion I or anyone else may have this boat was all the guy had – it was his home and meant something to him. It has long been an accepted lore that you never ever criticise another person’s boat as it is often the apple of their eye, and as I mentioned I saw qualities in her that perhaps are only appreciated only when one has to build and maintain their own boat.

I never did meet the owner although I did see some of his personal gear hanging on deck to dry as I walked along the river bank days later. It reminded me of the tenacity needed by those who choose a life afloat. A tenacious spirit that, after feeling the bottom fall out of your world, makes you to pick your self up off the deck and put one foot in front of the other, dealing with one task at a time until you overcome. Still when it comes to preparations for sailboat emergencies and the life afloat, the old adage rings true – Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

Thoughts from world cruisers about boat equipment

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“I base my calculation on the expectation that luck will be against me.” Napolean Bonaparte, French emperor
I always enjoy reading and listening to experienced cruisers to glean any wisdom that will make my travels safer and easier. Lin and Larry Pardey have been cruising since the 1960′s and still do. So when I received their latest newsletter I love to find out what they have to say. Part of their sailing philosophy is to keep the sailing life as simple as possible and not to be reliant on gizmos that can break down (as they do, when you most need them). And don’t believe everything portrayed in advertising. I have included a quote from that newsletter because it fits right in with my thoughts on the matter also:

“It’s a lot harder for these modern sailors to get away because they feel obligated to add so much equipment to their boats,” Noel said. “Then they have to keep it going. Too bad they didn’t get a chance to sail when all of us started out, then they’d be able to judge what they really needed for themselves.” Noel and Litara have been twice around the world, first on an engineless boat with no radio and just a sextant, then on Sina, their current 53 footer with Engine, GPS and simple radio gear so it is not just people like Larry and I who urge would be cruisers – avoid the trap being laid by cleverly worded equipment adverts.

The article on their webpage is found here:

http://www.landlpardey.com/january-2012.html

Distractions

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“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
– Johann von Goethe
There is a part of me that wants to pack as much into life as I can fit. Although voyage planning is going ahead, it seems there is always something to distract me or divert my energy. Part of my problem is I can get passionate and focused on things that really interest me. The positive aspect is that I tend to strive to do my best and I do produce excellent results. The negative is my O.C.D. tendencies and sometimes pedantic attention to process can drive loved ones around the twist.

Case in point. My wife and I enjoy the bush and have done a few extended walks in our early courting days. So when wedding bells rang, mister romantic (me) organised and planned a 7 day walk through world heritage, Cradle Mountain / Lake St. Clair National Park for our honeymoon.
Now most rational women (those not blinded by love) would have seen the writing on the wall and ran as far away as possible and not looked back.

Now back in the day, nature photography was my passion. We’re talking about tripods, time exposure, kodachrome positive film, light meters, bird hides, multiple flashes with slave units and reflectors for natural fill lighting. Macro photography with backlit florescent mushrooms and glistening raindrops about to run off. Now that might sound a normal part of a photographer’s hobby.
It is NOT normal to take all of that on your honeymoon, in your backpack whilst expecting your patient new bride to sit for hours waiting for you to capture the perfect shot, isolated in the middle of Tasmanian wilderness.

Dear readers, as you are aware we are planning on embarking on a fairly significant family voyage and I have recently rediscovered the creative joy of photography, albeit modern digital photography with real moving pictures and talking. My rationale is I would like to record the trip on DSLR if possible for family nostalgia and to encourage others who may dream but hesitate in taking the next step. But you can see where this scenario is possibly heading. Please someone come over and help my wife by holding me down so she can beat me with a great lump of wood before I get obsessive about it. I fear it may be too late. I’ve started to upload little movies to youtube and vimeo. I’ve studied the DIY movie equipment tutorials. Tonight (after destroying a child’s inline skates) I made a camera dolly so I can film some cool ‘slide shots’.

My wife just rolled her eyes, smiled weakly and hurried off to work. I hope she is not reliving the trauma of our honey moon.

Anyway I have included a photo of the contraption. I doesn’t yet have the base plate with fluid head but first things first.

And for those curious about what it does, here is a very short youtube clip.