Sailing Fizzgig
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In Boat Life

Don’t forget your towel.

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When I was in college I had the opportunity to hear Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, give a lecture on, of all things, environmentalism. At the end of the lecture there was a Q and A period with the audience. “Why a towel?” was asked by a burly gentleman with thick glasses and a fluffy towel tossed casually over his shoulder. Mr. Adams answered, his wife believed there were two types of people in this world, those who always know where their towel is and those who don’t. He is in the latter group. I am firmly in the first group. Waponi Woo had a towel problem. My extensive collection of luxurious, terry cloth towels followed me from our house on land to our home on the water. In Washington, attached to a dock with cheap power and dehumidifier, they served us well. In…

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In Boat Life

Life is good!

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6.3knots dead down wind with the parasailor. 88F with 65%RH. Whales 15 feet off the beam have stinky breath. We are in route to Santa Rosalita after an expensive evening on a dock washing off salt, salt and more salt. We also turned on the AC because 95+.

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In Boat Work

I wasn’t planning on doing that today…

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“India, is your holding tank full?” “No, it is just stinky when I flush.” Two days later… “Mom, I think my tank is full. The overboard discharge pipe is oozing.” This morning I requested a pump out. The crew arrives and goes to the port side first. A few moments later I see the pump out crew trying to get my attention. I go outside and the kind gentleman directs me to the port side sewer deck fitting where an oozing river of sludge is making its way down the port hull. The tank wasn’t full; the tank was testing the limits of molded plastic, bulging at the seams waiting for someone to release the pressure. When the cap was removed from the deck fitting, a brown geyser of epic proportions was released. The following conversation took place: Pumpout guy: It is full. Me: I know. Pumpout guy: It is…

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In Boat Work

Geek Post: Waponi Woo Communication Systems

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Ryan has a job, which requires Internet and phone connectivity wherever we happen to roam. As a result of this and my wireless ISP experience, we have sifted through most of the available consumer communications gadgets, gizmos and systems currently available. Here is a run-down of what communications devices we have aboard Waponi Woo, what they are supposed to do and how we use them. 1. Standard Marine VHF Radio Waponi Woo came with a Uniden UM525 VHF radio. A nice feature of this radio is Digital selective calling, or DSC, so we can hail other boats directly. As most of you with a boat already know, VHF works pretty well for line-of-site, short-range calling. We rarely turn our VHF off. In La Paz, and many other cruiser infested ports and anchorages, one can hail other boats on a designated “cruiser hailing channel.” There are also a few VHF cruiser…

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In Boat Life

Stanley and Phil

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You know you have been in the marina too long when you have developed a personal relationship with the large birds who frequent the dock. This is Phil. He likes to hunt from the starboard bow at night. We have made eye contact at 2AM on multiple occasions as I look up through the porthole in the starboard head. He likes to make it known my presence is a terrible inconvenience and I have no business being on his boat. I suspect he has anger issues but our pre-dawn talks haven’t led to him seeking the help he needs. This is Stanley. Unlike Phil, he is a pretty mellow dude who enjoys solitary walks on the dock at dawn and dusk. We like Stanley.

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In Boat Work

When you want to stay put…

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Waponi Woo came with two anchors. The one we used up in Puget Sound, a 22kg bruce, and a 40lbs Fortress, which we have never used. The bruce worked well in Puget Sound; we could usually get it set in one try without too much trauma. It held well on our way down the coast as well. We did a little bit of dragging in Santa Cruz and had to re-anchor, but it was a relatively empty bay and the conditions were calm. When we hit Cabo at the end of the Baja Ha-Ha and encountered our first time anchoring in a real sandy bottom, we discovered our old reliable bruce was not the anchor we need for Mexico. We turned to our fellow cruisers for advice and were told Rocna or Mantus was the way to go for what we would soon be encountering. After performing some additional independent…

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In Boat Dog

On Being a Boat Dog

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You have lived your life on land. Existence is good. There is yard, a nice bed, and a readily available, steady supply of food. Your humans take you for walks, you get to bark at the squirrels and reclaim your territory each new day. Then one day, your humans start putting stuff in boxes. It happens fast. There are more boxes and strange humans coming to the house and leaving with things that all smell like your humans. A few months go by and you are loaded into the truck and driven to a new den surrounded by water and new, unfamiliar smells. This den never stops moving. We will go days without shore. The first time this happened, I was scared to pee. They wanted me to go on the den but I didn’t want to be a bad dog. After two days, I finally gave in. My humans…

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