Change of Address

After I have tried on numerous blogs, I finally found the one that fits me perfectly:

Sailing on Elbow Grease

Visit my new blog

Sailing Province

Change of Address

Please note: I have a new blog, smilicus' blog 

Hope to see you all on my new blog.

Island Lake

Sunrise

Holiday time, finally!

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Stocking Filler

Dear Santa


If you have not yet wrapped my yacht, can you please put one of these in there too?


Sincerely 


smilicus

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Harbour reflections

Lunch at the Local Fish & Chips joint

Seagulls resting at Biblia

An oldie getting some new paint

One of the old fishing boat wrecks

And another one

Fisherman going out to catch

Nav Light

Came across this very smart and useful nav light for small craft.

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Sailor's Anatomy

click picture for larger version

from GCaptian's Maritime Monday

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Get seasick much?

In all my years of sailing I have never felt the queasiness of the sea (touch wood, touch wood, touch wood).  But many of my fellow crew have.  How do you avoid seasickness?

Click for - How to avoid seasickness on Messing-About-In-Boats

Or is it only in your head?  gCaptain has just posted a new post on seasickness and 50 ways of preventing/curing it.  But mainly they say it is all in your head. If so, get cured and go sailing.

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Anchoring system for tidal areas

There has been a lot of chatter on the John Welsford Yahoo group about a anchoring system fro tidal areas,  Here is a system short description of a system we used when I was younger.

We used to camp next to a tidal river and we used a system similar to this to change the  position of our boat (reel in to board at high tide or move the boat further out at low tide.  It worked pretty well and you could almost get in without your feet getting wet.

Click to see full size

The System - drop your anchor in deeper water with enough anchor chain and a small length of rope.  At the end of the rope secure a good quality marine pulley.  Then you create a loop of rope with two hook clips on (boat length apart on that loop - to clip you boat on to)

Then there is another anchor on the beach with a line that is connected with a pulley to the loop. This way you can reel your boat in and out from the boat or from the beach.  You use the free side of the loop (the side where no hook clips are) to cleat it off at the correct position you want your boat. 

It sounds complicated, but once you set it up once it is a piece of cake.

USE AT OWN RISK

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What's on the pond?

In the winter I was building a scale model ship and enjoyed it so much that I decided to start doing small model boats out of Balsa wood just for the fun of it. No works of art, just something to get my mind off work.

Meet Frederik, he is now the local fisherman on my Goldfish pond and hopefully he will soon catch the "big one" for supper. 

More detail - Boat - 4 inches / 10 cm    Frederik 2 inches / 5 cm

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Aloha Joe

FINALLY my postcard came that Joe sent me on his last trip to Hawaii.  Living in South Africa, one gets used to waiting some time for your mail, but luckily it is always reliable even thou it is sooooo slow.

Thanks Joe, your postcard is on its way, might be there by Xmas.

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Aaargghhh!!

Aye me matey, its talk like a pirate day. 

Come on all ya scallywags, join the fun on sailinganarchy forum

P.S. Talk like a Pirate, meaning the fun times we had as children, not the current problems we are having near Somalia.  Our thoughts are with the kidnapped sailors and their families today


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Sailing Yin Yang

So here I am fighting the age old struggle of yin and yang, but more so “sailor's yin yang”. I have been putting some time into deciding what kind of sailor I am, but the more I read about boats and sailing, the more confused I get. I once heard in an old western the following line: Outlaw “Are you a bad dog or a good dog?” Hero “You have both in you, it depends on which one you feed most.”

So am I a racing sailor or am I a cruising sailor? The more I feed my need for speed and to outsmart the next sailor, I feel I am a racing sailor, all guts and glory. BUT the more I read about other sailors adventures over the horizon I become a cruising sailor again.


So what to do? Maybe only time will tell, but for now maybe I should race, since I am still young and don’t want to be the odd one out on a laser when I am 70 trying to cheat the nursing home.

B-O-A-B

We all know that BOAT stands for Bail-Out-Another-Thousand, btu the Yacht History Supreme takes it to a whole new level that one would need to use BOAB - Bail-Out-Another-Billion.

The 100 ft yacht has a price tag of $4,8 Billion and one can believe it if you look at the following trimmings:

• 100 000 Kilograms gold & platinum 
• Meteoric Stone wall inlays
• Petrified T Rex Bone

For more visit G Captain

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Over the Top

Part of my winter hibernation routine is getting a good "yachting" biography, this year it is Over the Top.  It's the story of Adrian Flanagan, the first ever person to sail solo Vertically around the world.

 Adrian, like most of the solo sailors, could feel the ocean calling him from a young age, but other than most of us, he took the plunge and made his dream a reality....hats off to you Mr Falangan

This is quite an interesting read about a guys obsession of sailing the seas alone and challenging the conventional sailing routes. It reads more like a story than a boring biography sand I would definitely recommend it for some arm chair sailing this winter with a glass of port or red in hand.

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The Ice Dream

What would be better than a glass of pure icy water with a good measure of bourbon?

A glass of pure icy water with a good measure of bourbon enjoyed on your yacht in Greenland while the sun sets.

.....now, that would be a perfect ending to a good day sailing.
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Bad Weather Sailing

J.S. Elcano 1:250 scale

Every year when winter approaches and the rain starts falling, I start building model boats. It keeps my hand steady and me day dreaming of the days of old square riggers and majestic clippers.

The one I am busy with currently was a present from the wife and is a 1:250 scale relica of the J.S. Elcano that was launched in 1927 at Cadiz.  It was a Spanish Navy training vessel and was capable of 15knts.  She was 94.13 meter and could carry 36 Officers, 143 Sailor trainees and 70 marines.

This model has many small bits and pieces and very, VERY tiny intrinsic rigging work, so hopefully I will finish before the summer time.

Taxman

..Let me tel you how it will be

Theres 1 for you, 19 for me

'cause I'm the Taxman

Yeah, I'm the Taxman..

~ from Taxman by The Beatles ~

The Beatles knew and so do we....Damn the Taxman.  These days there is Tax on everything, even when you are on your boat, in the middle of the ocean visiting the head, Readers Digest in hand, you are reminded in bold letters VAT incl.  You cant escape him, not him, not the Taxman.

But if you are so lucky to escape the Taxman at sea,  you still hear "theres 1 for you, 19 for me".  

Davy Jones takes as he wants and has no need for forms, records or formalities. His locker has claimed quite a few items from me over the years, there was my favorite baseball cap, a few anchors, dive mask , etc. But the worst was the last bottle of beer on a hot South African day.  I still wake up some nights in a cold sweat and scream:"No, not the Heineken!!!"

Out of what have Davy Jones conned you?

in reply to Tillerman's writing project

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Fitness? What Fitness?

In summer time we all have our own ways of keeping down the weight and staying fit.  Tillerman likes to run (away from the nursing home I presume);  O Dock does an ever increasing list of repairs on his yacht (thanks to Sir Neptune); Joe likes to, well, I actually don’t know what he does. Me, well I like to do some Mountain biking and gym’ing.

As winter creeps up on us, there will be less duelling it out around the cans and more sitting in doors than is good for us. But this post is not about physical fitness but rather mental fitness and what one does to remain sharp for the coming summer’s regattas.

So how does one keep ones wits up during the winter?.  I guess everyone has their own method. I presume Tillerman keeps “fit” by duelling an online game of Nautical Chess with Kasparov.  O Dock on the other hand likes a bit more mischief and keeps  “fit” by finding new clever ways of yanking Tillerman’s chain in the comment section of Propercourse.  Doc Häagen-Dazs is like usual keeping himself busy on Virtual Regatta.  Joe, well again, I don’t actually know what he does, but then again, do they have a winter season in paradise?

What will I be doing this winter?  Well, I still don't have the faintest idea.