Moving Too Fast

Sorry about the sound of the wind. Wish I could get the sound of the waves with out the wind!

Sailing to the Jumentos

Short video of a nice day of sailing. Heading south to the Jumentos Islands one or two hundred miles North of Cuba.

Spear Fishing in the Bahamas

Being from Michigan, I was raised around hunting and fishing, but I never really took to it. Fishing is too boring. You just sit around hoping the fish will start to bite.

Deer hunting is about the same, except that if you do shoot a deer, you are pretty much done hunting considering the rest of your day is going to be spent cleaning the deer and dragging it back to your camp or where ever.

Spear fishing is the best form of hunting for several reasons:

• If there are no fish, you move on to the next spot. There is no guessing about it.
• You can shoot more than one fish in a day (unlike deer hunting).
• Fish can swim better than people, and breath underwater, so it's more fair.
• Sharks can eat people, so it's more interesting!

Here is a video of a lobster wishing he had found a better hiding spot. We were anchored with Side x Side who had plenty of lobsters for everyone, so this guy was left alone.

Barracudas are a common sight when spear fishing. They are curious about people, attracted to shiny objects (like the stainless steel spear in your hand), and also attracted to the vibration of a speared fish.

They "stalk" divers. Which is really eerie. I typically just stare them down, and hope they go away. I've seen people charge at them to scare them off. Which I think takes balls of steel, considering they are more likely to get defensive when they feel threatened.

Normally whenever a barracuda came around, we would just go fish elsewhere. I've heard stories of barracudas attacking speared fish. Not a situation I ever wanted to experience.

This video shows a small barracuda. I tried to get a little closer but he started to swim off. As you can see in the video, they blend in pretty well. You generally don't see them until they are pretty close:

Here are a few videos of fishing with Chris and my Dad who was down for our wedding. I was after a spiny lobster. Took me a few shots:

Marc from Side by Side on the prowl:

Brian Snead from Miakoda makes a cameo as well

How to turn your laptop into a Chartplotter

Chartplotters are so COOL!!

Especially the satellite radio enabled units that have weather and radar!

One of these babies will quickly make you one of the coolest people on the VHF. Call out the weather every evening, and you will be loved.

Why didn't I buy one of these?!?!

Oh yeah! because they are ... a little pricy ...



What would a HoboSailor do?

Well there is always the old standby: a paper chart. The major benefits are that they don't require batteries, and they are very cheap compared to a chart plotter. But there is another option...

If you have a laptop, then you are in luck. For about $40 you can turn your computer into a fully functional chart-plotter. Here's how:

Step One: Download this FREE program called SeaClear

Step Two: Buy one of these awesome GPS antennas that plug into your computers USB port.

Step Three: Download all of the US charts from NOAA for FREE. Your Tax dollars paid for them! How awesome of NOAA to allow us to download charts!!




The USB antenna will be plug and play. SeaClear provides instructions for how to install the charts. It's pretty easy. Look through the SeaClear user manual for the keyboard shortcuts. Those will be a big help for using the program.

That's it! A chartplotter for $40. HoboSailor style!

Cooking on a cruising sailboat

When it comes to cooking on a sailboat, a propane stove-top and oven is the popular way to go. It is also probably the best thing to cook with. Propane burns pretty hot.

Here are the major drawbacks:

1. It is an EXPENSIVE setup. The oven alone is going to set you back a few thousand. Not to mention the special connections you will need to make your propane system "boat safe" - which brings me to point number 2:

2. Propose is heavier than air = BOOM! If you are going to go with propane, don't skimp. Take the proper precautions. If you have a leak, the propane will accumulate in the bilge of the boat, building higher and higher until one day you unsuspectingly light a watermelon scented candle and KABOOM! The bottom of your boat blows off.

All I am trying to say is that if you go with propane, spend the cash to do it right.

So what are the options for a poor HoboSailor? Well this is what we did....

We used a non-pressurized alcohol stove-top made by Cookmate.

The two biggest benefits to these guys are that they don't blow up, and they are cheap! They typically cost about $250.00 - which is pretty cheap compared to the $1,000+ you will spend on a propane range, not including the hose and connections.

The cookmate uses re-fillable wicks. You simply pour in more alcohol when the wicks stop burning.

Alcohol can be purchased at hardware stores or painting supply stores. Don't believe me? Read the back of the can! You will see a section titled "cooking fuel"

A lot of sailing books recommend buying high grade cooking alcohol because it burns "clean". We never had a problem with standard hardware store alcohol. I recommend you experiment and do whatever works best for you. If your pots and pans are all turning black, you have probably gotten a hold of some crappy alcohol.

If you are going for a long cruise... make sure you buy just one can to test out house it burns before you stock up with a 5 gallon jug.

The alcohol you pour into the wick will evaporate, so it is worth your while to buy these little rubber seals for the stove. These seals might come standard on a new stove. Our stove came with the boat... and it was missing it's seals, so we bought new ones.




The major draw back to an alcohol stove is that they don't burn very hot, so it takes a little longer to boil water for Ramen noodles :)












Another item that was missing from our inherited stove were these little flame diffusers.

Clearly labeled "do not remove" - the flame diffusers from our stove were missing! These probably come standard on a new stove. We ordered a pair while we were holed up during bad weather in Annapolis. I was so excited to be able to cook more than one pancake at a time!








Ready for a shameless plug?

All these things can be purchased from my friends at Mackin Marine - Why buy from a corporate bigwig when you can get what you need while supporting a few cruisers!