The GB

Improved Out Of Existence

One of my goals on the Blue Moon is to get really good at this sailing/cruising business. Ive sailed practically my whole life, first with my Uncle Marty (whos sailing the Newport-Bermuda race, right this minute), then with my father, and finally on my own boats, but sailing over 700 miles in a small boat has given me a whole new outlook.

Oddly enough, practically every improvement Ive made in how Im doing things has involved eliminating things. I call this process improving things out of existence.

At first, this was a no brainer, since I took waaaaaay to much stuff to begin with. But Im still finding things I dont need.

One of my latest discoveries involves food. Im a bit of a foodie on land, so I naturally envisioned cooking up marvelous meals on my tiny, one-burner gimbaled stove. I was so convinced of my cooking prowess that my initial stock of food was mainly basic ingredients -- the basic elements like red beans, beef stock, and brown rice -- that I would combine to create a variety of interesting and tasty dishes.

This was a really naive idea. Two reasons:

First, after sailing for 10 hours, finding an anchorage, dropping the anchor, and tidying the boat, I glance at the ships clock (a Big Ben wind up alarm clock) and, yup, its 8pm again.

At that point, Im usually so bushed that all I really want is a drink and a bit of a rest.

After dozing off for a bit, I discover that its already dark. My appetite is coming back, but Im really, really not in the mood to start cooking.

Moreover, as the sun goes down, the temperature drops with it. Maybe my all purpose tarp is sending a light breeze down the companionway. It feels great, but its still warm. The last thing I want to do is light the stove for an hour and drive the heat back up. If it takes 5 minutes of cooking, fine. Otherwise, the heat payment is too high.

My new Coleman Extreme cooler has been working great so recently Ive had a lot more fresh, cold food and drink.

In particular, ice tea tastes really good to me. I make 3 qts of sun tea every day simply by putting a few P&G Tips tea bags into a plastic pitcher, filling the pitcher with water, and leaving it on deck for an hour. I add some lemon juice, then decant the tea into 3 one liter bottles. I put one of these bottles in the cooler, and by lunch Ive got some ice cold tea. Fantastic.


But I diverge. The cooler lets me stock things like cold cuts, cheeses, salami, yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese, salad greens, carrots, etc. With the addition of some good bread, Triscuits, nuts, etc., I can assemble a meal in a few minutes without lighting the stove.

I still get the occasional craving for something hot and substantial, like the pasta with meat sauce that I whipped up last week, but this is the exception, not the rule. Once or twice a week, I find, is more than enough.

So, rather than stocking a large variety of canned and dried goods, which takes up a large amount of space on the boat, Ive trended towards buying smaller quanties of fresh foods -- just enough to last me a week or so. I think Im eating better, and being able to toss another storage box overboard (so to speak) frees up another large block of space.

Its hard to express how important that space is on a small boat. Im not claustrophobic (obviously!) but every bit of freed space makes a big difference in the usability of the boat.

Well, I got to Jacksonville on Sunday, called Atlantic Coastal Marine to come and pick up my beautiful Yamaha engine to do the 20 hour service on it. Im a bit beyond 20 hours, but I changed the oil myself when I was in St. Augustine, so thats okay.

I then made the Blue Moon ship shape, made sure she was tied up properly in the marina, and headed off to Jacksonville airport. Id missed Fathers Day and the Yankee game Id been hoping to see, but I certainly wasnt going to miss the big event of the year: the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic.


Id been hoping to show Cabin Boy at the "I built it myself" section of the show, but had to leave him behind, tied down to the dock. Thats okay. Hes still enjoying his big adventure.

But I am hoping to see Pat Atkin and lots of other people at the show. I plan on being there on Sunday (the only day that Helena can make it), so if you happen to see me there, please stop me and say hi!


Cant wait!

Next Episode: Wooden Boat Show - Bronze Casting

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Follow me on Twitter! My son Chris has been bugging me for a few weeks to use Twitter to make short, more frequent posts from my iPhone, for when I dont have the time for longer blog posts. I dont know how it will work out, but Im willing to give it a try! My Twitter ID is UnlikelyVoyager (UnlikelyBoatBuilder is too long, apparently), and the URL is http://twitter.com/UnlikelyVoyager. Twitter me back, or leave a comment below, if you think this is worth while. Thanks, Chris!

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