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.

Rally the troops

While I am on the "save the ocean " wagon, here is another good clip called Ocean Story.

Do your bit and sign the petition & send your message across the ocean. Click Here
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Adventure at night

South Africa is the place to be in April.  We have so many public holidays that one almost don't need to take a day off to have a good short holiday.

If only I could've slept like them

BUT somehow my short holiday left me more tired.  With the rain season finally here, I have spent a lot of time researching boats that I can build in my garage and this left me with night long adventures, rolling around in my sleep.

Every night I would dream of a new adventure : Sailing the high seas in a Paradox, Wining the Mykonos pursuit race on board an I550 and just kicking it old school in a Pathfinder


Waking up in the morning I would be tired stretching for that first cup of coffee, but felt like I had the time of my life on the water.


Am I weird, or are there more "sleep sailors" out there?
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Lets declare war!!

Sailors we need to unite against the war on waste in our precious oceans !!

The plastic pollution is ever in creasing and there has been numerous accounts of sea life struggling to survive due to mankind's slow poising of the earth.  The latest - turtle poop plastic for a month 

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All kinds of crazy

The Burque Brothers 

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