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The Sailboat Cruiser
The Sailboat Cruiser is the occasional newsletter of sailboat-cruising.com and sets out to bring you the news, views and general musings of the writer - Dick McClary, a sailboat cruiser and creator/owner of sailboat-cruising.com.
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The Sailboat Cruiser #76
October '23
Thanks to everyone for their best wishes on my continued recovery from the illness we all dread - I'm sure Mary and I will be back aboard Alacazam for some Caribbean cruising before too long.
And thanks too to all of you who let me have your view on what the identity of last month's Mystery Boat might be - but more of that later...
What's in This Issue:
'Honcho-dori' is a street in Yokohama, Japan that was popular among US sailors on shore leave back in the day.
It is said that the street was so popular among sailors that 'Honcho-dori' entered naval slang as “hunky-dory,” a synonym for 'Easy Street', or a state of well-being and comfort, but I've no idea of the nature of the services provided that proved so emotionally satisfying.
Suffice to say that there are many more such nautical terms and phrases whose origins relate to the square-rigged merchant and naval ships of the past -
here are a few more of them...
At some time in our lives, usually after a particularly bad day at the office, many of us dream of a new lifestyle that would release us from the tedium of the status quo and the stress of worrying about things that don't really matter, replacing it with a life of freedom, challenge and adventure - clearly things that really do matter.
For most it remains a recurring pipedream, but a few - people like the American couple George Kent Kedl and Pamela Thompson Kedl - have the drive and courage to make it happen.
Kent (a philosophy professor) and Pam (a potter) had a comfortable but unfulfilling life in the United States. With a midlife crisis looming, they craved a new alternative lifestyle and despite having no experience of the sea or sailing, decided that a live-aboard bluewater sailboat was the ideal accoutrement to help them find it.
With the capital released from the sale of their house and shoreside possessions, they found their ideal sailboat in
the UK - 'Jacana' a Nicholson 38 ketch - and set off on an Atlantic crossing and their new life afloat.
Kent soon becomes an experienced and proficient yachtsman and finds total contentment in their new lifestyle experience but for Pam, things are less than idyllic. Torn between her husband, her home, her family, her art, and life on the boat it all becomes too much.
As a result, they reluctantly agree to sell 'Jacana' and move back to a house in the US. After several years, and with life ashore now following a similar pattern to the one they had chosen to abandon, the discontent and frustration that had led them to run away to sea returned to haunt them. Predictably, they bought another boat, 'Coot', a steel Dutch-built Breewijd 31 sloop - and set out to sea again...
What follows is a captivating account of their cruising adventures in the Caribbean and their often risky excursions into the Central American interior.
Sadly,
Pam died before this book was published. Kent has incorporated Pam's letters to friends and family in which she eloquently expresses her views and experiences, which don't always align with Kent's. This book would be much less moving and meaningful without them.
Kent certainly knows how to write. He has that envious ability to say what he means in no more words than is necessary to get his point across whilst holding the reader's attention throughout.
Thank you Pam and Kent, I enjoyed 'We Ran Away to Sea' immensely and can recommend it to all sailors, particularly those with that recurring pipedream who might one day 'just do it'...
You can find it on Amazon in both Paperback and Kindle format. Just search for We Ran Away to Sea: A Memoir and Letters
Given the choice I'll always choose to anchor rather than to pick up a mooring buoy, but sometimes there's no choice - it's a mooring buoy or sail on.
Some mooring buoys come with a pick-up line attached; others, like the one illustrated below, with just a ring for you to attach your own line to.
With the latter kind we cruisers always use two separate mooring lines to provide back-up if and when one of them chafes through. We don't wait for them to chafe right through of course, but replace one as soon as it shows signs of wear.
On some buoys of this kind, the ring can develop some surface corrosion which is really bad news for your mooring line. Replacing these on a regular basis is an expensive hobby and best avoided. And here's how...
By splicing a length of chain into the middle of your mooring line you can be sure that there'll be no rope chafing going on at the buoy end, providing you bring both ends aboard through your bow roller.
Cheap and simple to make up, I can't think of one single reason not to have one aboard.
But here's a tip - If you're thinking of looking at a secondhand sailboat, or just want to be aware of what to look for - and when to walk away no matter what - then you really ought to take a look at
The Boat Buyer's Bundle...
There were several suggestions for the identity of the Mystery Boat 'Blue Whale' in the previous issue - various Oysters and Nautor Swans, a Ted Hood design, a Hylas 60 etc - but it was none of those.
Alexander Rabinovich confirmed that 'Blue Whale' is a 60-foot Cape Fear performance cruiser designed by David Pedrick, and is based in Newport, Rhode Island.
Thank you Alexander.
Let's see how you all get on with this one...
Does anyone recognise the make/model of this handsome cruiser 'Plane to Sea'?
If so, please let me know
by clicking here...
And remember, the first person to convince me of the correct identification of the boat, gets a free eBook of their choice!
We provide a free platform for owners (but not brokers) to advertise their sailboats for sale on our website. These are the latest submissions:
The full list of monohulls and multihulls currently for sale can be seen at
cruising-sailboats-for-sale.
It's always worth taking a look at what visitors to sailboat-cruising.com are getting rid of. Remember that one man's junk is another man's gold!
Among the latest items listed, we have:
- 45lb CQR Anchor & Chain;
- Gill Foul Weather Gear;
- Yanmar Fuel Filters;
- Luff Hanked Dacron Staysail;
- Loos Tensioning Gauges;
- Mast & Whisker Pole;
- Winch Handles;
- Monitor Windvane Self-Steering Gear;
- Spinlock Deckvest 150 Lifejackets & Tethers;
- Parachute Anchor;
- New Harken Triple Block;
- Galvanised Turnbuckles;
- 35lb CQR Anchor;
Take a look at these and all the other stuff at
used cruising gear for sale...
And finally...
If you know anyone who might be interested in the contents of this newsletter, please forward it to them. It's not secret!
And this newsletter can be a two-way thing. If you've read anything you'd like to comment on, or perhaps there's an event you'd like to see announced in a future newsletter, then please let me know.
See you next month!
Dick McClary
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