in the Mom said it department

Heres a reason you might want to AVOID Nestle products till the day after hell freezes over, one reason why Bernie would get my vote (if I were not a US Virgin Islander and unable to vote for Presidentof the US of A), and in the "you just cant make this shit up" department...

As it happens, I tend to get a lot of email from boaty folks and a not insignificant number of which who include pithy slogans or quotes as part of their signature.

Like this one...

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didnt do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Point of fact: Just yesterday I had a bakers dozen of emails from different folks who all had that quote as part of their signature ... Which I can understand because its a great quote and speaks volumes for folks of the nautically obsessed sort.

That said, the problem with this quote is not the content but the fact that all those people who have adopted it dont know who said it and think its from Samuel Langhorne Clemens (AKA Mark Twain).

Really.

The actual source of the quote is from the 1991 book "P.S. I Love You: When Mom Wrote, She Always Saved the Best for Last" by H. Jackson Brown in which the quote is attributed to his mother.

Thats right, Mark Twain never said or wrote it but Mr Browns mother did.

Offhand, the quote in question never sounded to me like something Twain would have written or said because it had that upbeat (bordering on saccharine) vibe and seemed to be somewhat out of character for a man known for his caustic edged wit.

Which just goes to show that before you adopt something as the basis for your personal philosophy, a pithy quote to add substance to your signature, or something you want to have tattood to part of your body, that a quick fact check might actually be in order.

Watching/listening to Brandi Carlile

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in the I need some polka music and I need it fast department

Something interesting about a goldfishs attention span, a worthwhile read (especially the last paragraph), and a survey you might want to take...

A couple of days ago, our cat Willow started growling and a few seconds later I heard an anchor splash a few feet off our beam.

At the time I was in a bay that hosted a half-dozen boats with plenty of room to anchor anywhere and no need at all for a 48-foot cat to drop an anchor ten feet off my starboard side on a very short scope. Which, obviously, was pissing off Willow greatly, had me looking for fenders, and wondering just when did folks cruising start anchoring like it was a downtown parking lot.

The answer to the question remains somewhat hazy but I distinctly remember that in the early 90s the SOP was to anchor as far as humanly possible away from any boats already anchored...

Sure there were the odd exceptions of up close and way too personal anchoring tactics. One that stands out was when friends of ours on a Simpson cat had a bowspritted boat come up behind them so close that when they actually dropped the anchor it landed in one of their sugarscoop transoms (apparently caused by excessive imbibing of Funador brandy).

Of course, even back then bareboats already had a pretty horrible reputation for anchoring way too close but somewhere along the line it would seem the practice has become the norm and not just among bareboat folks but with term charter crews (who really should know better) and the general population of cruisers.

These days its not unusual to see a big bay, mostly empty and a small knot of boats anchored one atop the other to the point that some of the boats are putting out fenders.

It makes me wonder...

...where I can find a CD of a heavy metal polka band covering Captain Beefheart.

Listening to Temperance Movement

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In the buyer beware department

Some hardcore Dazzle, cleaning up trash in Patagonia, and its funny how when I read this I found myself thinking of current trends in yacht design, boat building, and the cruising community...

Yesterday I came across someone who was selling a mounting bracket for a self-steering gear and asking $1000 for it as it was "new" and if you were to buy it from the company who made it youd be out of pocket for nearly $1600.

I found the quoted retail price to be doubtful so trundled over to the companies site and lo and behold the part in question cost $1593... OUCH!

I then check my various materials catalogs and price lists to see what the actual cost of said bracket amounted to and came up with a number of around $150 for materials and labor so with a 100% markup lets say a fair price would be somewhere around $300. Of course, those figures are based with me going out and building one bracket and we really should factor in that a company building many gears would have the added advantage of bulk buying materials, labor saving tooling, and systematic production so the cost should really be a whole lot less...

Which tells me theyre either inept, greedy, or a combination of the two. Pretty normal for a marine business in the year 2015.

I hear a lot of excuses on why marine businesses have to price stuff at silly prices... small market, niche market, and so on but every time I look at silly expensive products I still find that theres a certain aroma akin to five-day old mackerel festering in the sun somewhere in the mix...

That said, the fault is really not with the builders and providers of said gear because faced with consumers who will blindly pay silly money for gear simply because its for a boat, even the most honorable person will be hard pressed not to take advantage and price their products accordingly.

Just something to think about while youre catching your breath from your Black Friday adventures,,,

Listening to the Battlefield

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