Category: Learnin’ and Doin’

Equipping a Galley

Position: Over a Hot Stove The standard metric for sizing a kitchen is how may ‘butts’ it can accommodate. Butts equate to the number of working chefs in a kitchen. Most American houses have 2-3 butt kitchens. Most British kitchens …

S*ithead!

…the card game. Not what Carol calls me when I issue a direct order that may save the lives of all on board in a voice that some observers might deem (shall I say?) imperious. The game of S*ithead, known …

Notes on Travel

How do we decide where to go when we’re out exploring? This perfectly practical question was posed to us after a two-hour recounting of our adventures with Carol’s dad’s neighbours. They listened attentively as we waded through four years of …

Singing in the Shower

Position: Upright It’s the little things, Carol likes to remind me. I’ll finish her sentence for her: It’s the little things that separate the girls from the boys. Like washing. For the past three years Aleta’s shower has served as …

Let There Be Light

Sailors, the cruising kind, are split into two camps these days – monohull or catamarans. Each camp, no surprise, has its opinions and position on which is the better tool for crossing oceans. One of the criticisms leveled at monohulls …

Piss and Vinegar

If it ain’t broke… Sailboats require maintenance. Maintenance is something sailboats are not designed for. Perhaps because their designers never intended them to live as long as they do. Perhaps because aesthetics sell boats. Perhaps because the boat maintenance cartel …

It Ain’t The Heat!

Position: 41°12’57.9″N 13°34’23.5″E One of the joys of wintering on your boat in northern climes is condensation. (Not to be confused with that singular joy of having siblings: condescension. – ed.) Warm air rises and when it meets a colder …

Anchoring Anthropology

Context Setting the anchor is a skill. It is a combination of knowledge, practice, and technology. Entire books have been written about anchoring. Petabytes of online discussion forums have been consumed by the topic. Hundreds of thousands of seadog-years have …