THE COMPLETE SAILOR: A Review

Splash page from The Complete Sailor, 1st Edition
Joshua Slocum on SPRAY by Mark Whitcombe

Long before a wheel rolled, some shaggy fellow straddled a log or sat on a raft and held up something to catch the wind.

-- From The Complete Sailor

The Complete Sailor: Learning the Art of Sailing 
By David Seidman
Art by Kelly Mulford, Mark Whitcombe (1st Edition) and Jan Adkins (2nd Edition)
Review by Dave Zeiger

I'm a modular kind of a guy. 

I like to have things broken down into bite-size, manageable pieces that can be combined and compounded every which way, adapted to whatever situation presents itself. It's the way I think.

So does David Seidman.

The Complete Sailor presents sailing knowledge and skills ranging from essential basics through solid intermediate level, and touches on more advanced topics. 

Wind and water, sailing and anchoring and docking, marlinespike skills, charts and navigation... it's a long list of things to know. Each topic is covered in an easily digested page or two.

Seidman's prose is at once spare and flowing, covering the ground with a sure and easy stride. Mulford's illustrations are as evocative as they are informative. Together, they speak volumes in simple terms. Simple though it be, each time I open these pages I learn something new. Connect new dots and deepen my understanding.

This is one of the two friendliest how-to books on sailing I know (Jan Adkins' The Craft of Sail is a similar but less ambitious introduction, and now he's on board for the second edition). If you - like me - struggle through the dense and endless prose of such tomes as (the admittedly encyclopedic) Chapman's Piloting & Seamanship, you'll appreciate the lighter touch.

Another point I appreciate immensely is that examples are drawn from across a wide spectrum of vessels and their rigs. Not only the latest extrusions, but traditional and even funky boats are well represented. From balsa rafts to clipper ships. From Jeanneaus to JESTER. One can almost smell the pine tar!

This isn't a book written solely for trendsetters, but also - even primarily - for those of us going to sea by the means at hand.

So many books on sailing somehow manage to lose sight of the romance - the dream - of sail. Reading them, it's easy to imagine that seamanship is little more than another exercise in consumerism. That, with informed purchases and proper use of appliances, the world is your Disney. Or the other hand, perhaps worse, that the learning curve before us is so steep and long that one is discouraged to begin.

Dreams are delicate things. They often don't survive the necessary, accumulation of nuts and bolts and know-how that empower them. They get lost in data, overwhelmed by 'practicality', bogged down in tedium, abandoned in despair.

This book pilots us safely. In its care, we circumvent shoals of ennui and reefs of detail, enticed ever forward, eyes lifted at every league to the horizon...

The Complete Sailor is a gift to all of us who dream of water.

A sample of Kelly Mumford's excellent illustration

*****




PS. The first edition features gorgeous chapter headers (such as that leading this post) by the late Mark Whitcombe. In the second edition, his artwork has been replaced by the work of Jan Adkins. 

While I'm a big fan of Jan's, I miss Mark's touch. The extra materials - GPS, Racing and Trailering - aren't on my need-to-know list. For these reasons, I favor the first edition. 

But both are excellent.


PSS. If nothing else, keeping a copy on board for guests is something I highly recommend. Sitting down with this book between us beats the oakum out of my own, unaccompanied words and doodles.


PSSS. I just found out that Kelly Mulford passed away in 2011. You can read his cousin's memorial post, here.

Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales: A Review on Second Read

By Laurence Gonzales

If you're not afraid, you don't appreciate the situation.
-- Ambrose Curry, big surf instructor [Quoted in Deep Survival]

----

Most of us sleep through the test. We get in and out and never know what might have been demanded. Such an experience can make us even more vulnerable, for we comee away with the illusion of growing hardy, salty, knowledgeable: Been there, done that.

The maddening thing for someone with a Western scientific turn of mind is that it's not what's in your pack that separates the quick from the dead. It's not even what's in your mind. Corny as it sounds, it's what's in your heart.
-- From Deep Survival


Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why 
by Laurence  Gonzales
A Review on Second Read

Deep Survival explores what it is that survivors do in the approach to crisis, during and in its aftermath.

Via heart-stopping accounts of life, death and the sometimes hairbreadth boundary between, Gonzales guides us through vistas at once familiar and alien. Where children under six are a demographic with a high incidence of survival. Where 'Rambo types' are the first to go. It is a surprising journey.

We find ourselves, lost in the World. Vast and chaotic. At once predictable and utterly beyond prediction. Absolutely consequential, yet hinged on chance.

We map the world in our minds, plotting our futures as best we may. Yet correspondence between map and mapped is imperfect. Discrepancy alone can lead us astray. Under stress we tend to "bend the map", such as it is, imposing what we wish or fear upon the lay of our surrounds. Our very expertise can blind and mislead us with unwarranted assurance and unlooked for Pavlovian response.

We are introduced to conflict and accord between amygdalian imperatives - our ancient brain center urging freeze, flee or fight - versus neo-cortical overrides - more recently evolved, in hot pursuit of rational pattern. Gonzales writes, "The amygdala would urge instant action without thought. It has the chemical authority to do that, too. So it takes energy, balance and concentration to shift control to the executive functions of the neocortex."

Yet the 'rational' neocortex can be anything but... micro-managing, rationalizing, derailed, overloaded, distracted. Or dead wrong. It's a system whose bugs are still being worked out under the none too gentle hand of natural selection.

As Malcom Gladwell put it, "Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little." [Quoted from Deep Survival]

Somewhere in the mix - its nature and origins as yet mysterious - is the 'heart' to keep going in the face of overwhelming odds.

Heart is the the central theme in Gonzales' fugue on survival. Survivors may react by reflex to save themselves. They may override the blind and sometimes disastrous impulse to beeline for safety. They may let go of expectation to accept their situation. They may organize their resources and small steps toward survival. But it is what's in the heart that gets and keeps them going.

That's good news and bad news, maddening to this writer's Western scientific turn of mind.

The good news: with heart (and luck), anything is possible, to the point that survival may seem super-human. The bad news: heart isn't easily acquired if you don't already have it. Worse, one really doesn't know if one has it or not until crunch time.

Heart is habitual, according to Gonzales, and I have litttle reason to doubt him. It is the habit acquired in meeting the crises and challenges of everyday life. It may be sought and even cultivated. It can be acquired, but only through long practice. That weekend or week or month long survival course, of itself, won't do it. At best, heart is exercized and strengthed in each step of one's every day. At worst, we float half-alive through our days and our atrophied heart is AWOL in our hour of need.

So Deep Survival doesn't turn out to be a toolkit of strategies that can be learned, though it offers some of those. It doesn't impart skills though it values them. Nor resolve the conflicts within the mind, though it makes suggestions. It doesn't promise easy mastery or make guarantees. But it informs. It illuminates. It sets before us a series of koans to unfold. It encourages the accumulation of expertise without loss of  beginner's mind. A Tao of Survival as useful each day as it is in the pinch.

Gonzales leaves us with Rules of Adventure, his distillation of advice and survivor practice/attitudes. I've dumbed them down for my own use, and present them here, along with my strong recommendation that you read the book in it's full glory.

One day and every day, it might save your life.

*****

Be here now.
Prepare yourself as best ye may.
Be open to wonder.

Get busy living, or get busy dying.
Be confident, yet humble.
Be boldly cautious; cautiously bold.
Surrender, but don't give up.

Go get 'em, Grasshopper!

Eric Sloane's WEATHER BOOK: A Review

Right Turn... I GET it!
from Eric Sloane's WEATHER BOOK

Anyone who has known a sailor with "a weather eye" and who has also seen the inside of a weather bureau knows the difference between being weather-wise and being meteorologically accurate.

-- Eric Sloane

Eric Sloane's WEATHER BOOK: A Review

When I studied trigonometry, I memorized table after table of mind-numbing tables of ones, zeros and negative ones just long enough to regurgitate them for a test. In the blizzard of unanchored data, I struggled to make out the point of the exercise. Finally - in an afterword - the authors of the textbook condescended to mention the Unit Circle. The picture that generates all those piddly numbers in lean back, close your eyes and visualize the answer fashion!

I was thoroughly disgusted.

Weather mechanics had been a similar story. I slogged through book after book, nodding off over arcane terms and lists. Even classic pictures of clouds, with their names and meanings were mere creatures of rote.

For instance, high pressure winds spin one way; low pressure winds the other. But which is which? My mind just doesn't hang onto that kind of information without some underlying principle.

And trying to understand weather - arguably a good thing for a sailor - little came together. Like anyone, I could and did look to windward for trouble, but the whys and wherefores of weather eluded me. Neither the gestalt of real weather, nor the usual books were of any help for anything beyond the obvious.

Then along came Eric Sloane's WEATHER BOOK.

Mr. Sloane's gift is pictures (he's not bad at words, either). Every illustration from his hand is a wonder of clarity and apt information, succinctly delivered. He manages to capture motion and relationships in black and white sketches. His drawings are often beautiful, often humorous or whimsical... always educational.

Another aspect that appeals to me is that it's not merely about weather, but also its effects and affects.

For example, he presents an 'insect thermometer'; from the onset and quality of various insect sounds, one can estimate temperature pretty closely. Of course, no katydids (or katydidn'ts, for that matter) here in Alaska. But maybe the mosquitos?

He opens our eyes to the wonders of weather and the world enveloped in it. He draws out and entices the inner, junior scientist within his readers.

And there lies the beginning of weather-wisdom.

Lehman's Non-Electric Catalog: A Review

Dietz Lantern / Cooker

We're a strong handshake and a helping hand.
- From Lehman's Who We Are



Lehman's Non-Electric Catalog: A Review

You might think that the Amish are among the land lubbinest group of folk to be found anywhere, not to mention land-locked Kidron, Ohio and its environs. And you might be right.

But we Water Rats have a lot in common with them. Or, at least, a lot to learn from them.

The Amish are an enduring community who values simplicity, appropriate technology, independence, DIY, and one another... all themes near and dear to my heart.

More than most, they walk the walk.

So, Lehman's... a company who was originally created to serve Amish customers' interest in manual tools - for carpentry, the kitchen, the garden, for livin' -  but who has found a wider market. In their words:

Since 1955, we've offered simple products that simply work.

• We value locally made products
• We honor the past and respect tradition
• We sell low-tech items in a high-tech world
• We carry what others don't
• We stock non-electrical products that are dependable and reliable

Their prices tend to be somewhat on the high side, for any given item, but they are a single point source for a wide range of hard-to-find items. Between energy dissipated in shopping around and multiple shipping and handling charges, the difference is handily overcome.

Anke and I aren't exactly repeat customers. Why? 'Cuz nothing we've bought from them has worn out in a quarter century of hard use. 

Need I say more?

Sacred Coffee: A Review

The View out Front

Living on a homestead in Alaska is definitely a slower lifestyle, not because it's any less busy or full than others, but because our time is marked not so much in hours, minutes and seconds, as it is by the tides, the sun and the seasons.

From Sacred Coffee: A "Homesteader's" Paradigm by Mark Zeiger

Sacred Coffee: A "Homesteader's" Paradigm


Quite while back, now, my Brother's family was looking for land where they might settle, leaving a suburban home and lifestyle behind them.

One day, while reading the kindling paper I came across a picture of a log cabin on 10.6 acres, directly on Lynn Canal (northern SE Alaska), at a steal of a price. Ripped it out and got it to Mark.

Time passed, and they made inquiries. Turns out a misprint had dropped a zero from the price, but an accord was reached. They took possession of their new "homestead" (I'll let him explain the quotes), and it took possession of them.

Several more years have gone by, and Mark - who has been blogging about his experiences here - has collected a number of essays in his new book, Sacred Coffee: A "Homesteader's" Paradigm, available in hard-copy, digital or audio-book form.

And I'm proud to review it.

*****

I thoroughly enjoyed SACRED COFFEE: A Homesteader's Paradigm, and heartily recommend it to anyone who relates to home as more than a place to sleep. And all the more so to those who dream of crafting a way of life a little further afield.

Here are the capitals from the TABLE OF CONTENTS:

A Disclaimer
Attitude
Living Simply
Living Naturally
Living Frugally
Family
Resource Use
The Paradigm's Pay-Off
The Adventure Continues

From these alone, one learns a great deal of what homesteading is all about. It is these that guide us as we transition from dependent lifestyles to more self-reliant ones. Never mind the thousand skills involved... as seen in Mark's writing, those skills are acquired in due course, as naturally as we once learned to shop.

Mark's writing is entertaining and hopeful.

His 'how-to' isn't so much the nuts-and-bolts variety as how to shift one's paradigm for living, to open one's eyes and heart to new possibilities. In his paradigm, homesteading is a process that can begin today, in one's home of the moment. If we but look up and begin, we can leave the 'burbs as far behind us as we dream, one step at a time.

No need to be raised by wolves, no rule that says you have to wear buckskin, that you have to be some sort of mountaineer.

Mark writes of challenges, false leads and mistakes met with research, ingenuity and patience. And at the end of the day, the satisfaction of work with one's own two hands, of drawing upon one's own resources.

And why?

"...The essence of our decision to live the way we do", he writes, is "to live a better life."

"...Our main impetus is to live more fully, focusing on enjoying our brief time together as a family, and pursuing the adventure of a lifetime in the process."

Process. Adventure. Joy and togetherness.

Over the years, Anke and I have enjoyed their hospitality... seen their new(ish) life up-close and at-length. Mark isn't just talking the talk (which he does well, by the way), he's walking the walk.

His family has forged and continues to create this reality for themselves...

And that reality checks out!

Phil Bolger: In Memoriam

 

Susanne Altenburger and Phil Bolger

 “Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.”

― Woody Guthrie

“If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius. ”

― Michelangelo Buonarroti

Phillip C. Bolger: In Memorium

While I never met Phil and we only exchanged a couple of letters, I loved the man.

To me he is a font of ingenuity and inspiration. His love of KISS sailing and ultra-shoal draft inspired and informed my own.

I've heard him called arrogant, an iconoclast, lacking in aesthetics... I beg to differ. Folks of this persuasion have only usually  been exposed to some narrow slice of his extraordinarily rich spectrum. Taste a wider swathe, and one can't fail to see the humorful humility, reverence for tradition and passion for beauty that Phil personified.

That, and they have perhaps failed to adjust their reaction for EastCoast / Gloucester cultural modes of expression. Opinions are expressed forefully, in these parts. Phil had no more penetrating critic than himself, and he often turned his wry (Gloucesterian) humor on himself and his own works.

I'll also add that, while I'm writing solely of Phil, here, I'm thinking as well of his partner, Susanne Altenburger whom we had the pleasure to meet in 2012. She and Phil collaborated in his latter years and has earned much of the praise I'll be heaping, here.

*****

Phil's Square Boats garnered Phil derision and dismissal form traditionalists. In them he is like the first, classically trained painters exploring Cubist expression... vessels such as YARROW and ROSE and even the GLOUCESTER GULL attest to his mastery of traditional virtues, while his 'Cubist' vessels are works of ground-breaking genius.


Yarn 1:

Father/Daughter friends of ours built a Bolger BRICK (shaped about as it sounds). They brought it out to Tenakee, AK for a messabout. All day, they sailed circles around the rest of us, including respected designs of similar size by Devlin, Hess and a TORO!

Later, back East, our friend rowed up to the HMS ROSE (the Bolger tall ship used in the movie, Master and Commander). The Engineer (as it turns out) stuck his head over the side and began to run the BRICK and that Bolger down, down, down. Finally, my confused friend asked whether he was aware that HMS ROSE was herself a Bolger design? The poor man's still in therapy!

A picture was taken of the BRICK in HMS ROSE's foreground, and a T-shirt printed, captioned, "Which is the Bolger Boat?"


Yarn 2:

We launched ZOON (ex Bolger LONG MICRO) in Port Townsend, Washington during their annual Wooden Boat Festival.

Sailing forth, we trimmed in and picked up to a fast clip for our size.... woo hoo!  We soon zipped through a fleet of traditional yachts, glistening with varnish.

Among them, the ADVENTURESS -- one of the big schooners -- crossed tacks with us. Must've been a hundred or so people lining her rail, staring at us and... um... frowning.

But as she drew abreast, one guy in the middle hoists his fist and shouts, PHIL BOLGER FOREVER!!!  All heads snapped as one, as if choreographed, to this brave, lone soul.

We stood by for Man Over-Board! But fortunately, today's traditionalists are largely SNAGs (Sensitive New Age Guys/Gals), and he was spared.

*****

Phil's Works

Phil isn't one to let dogma (even his own!) get the upper hand, and he constantly reviewed, critiqued and expanded his ideas. He wrote many books containing complete designs, and articles -- many in the form of 'cartoons' (gedankenexperimenten, you might say) -- as well as a design portfolio in the neighborhood of eight hundred boats!

101 Small Boat Rigs stands out as an annotated survey for anyone contemplating a choice of rigging.

Boats with an Open Mind contains a broad range of Phil's later designs in which his concepts have been highly refined.

To get a glimps of the range of Phil's opus, check out Bruce Hallman's Facebook Page.

Bow Steering Keel Sharpie with Wheelchair Access

Technical Genius

How does one measure genius? Useful Innovation is a pretty good criterion.

Phil came up with a number of designs which combine more or less well known elements into revolutionary arrangements of high synergy. In other words, he gets these elements to work exceptionally well together with sum greater than parts. Many of these, in addition, incorporate entirely novel aspects.

The following represent what I feel to be Phil's Hall of Fame (a power boater might notice others I've missed):

Advanced Sharpie (AS) Concept -- I think of these as 'box sharpies'... they have rectangular sections which eliminate longitudinal bevels, simplifying construction immensely. Bottom and side curvature are matched in plan and profile view, reducing or eliminating cross-chine flow / turbulence, which in turn reduces drag. The bottom is carried well clear of the waterline, fore and aft; this reduces waterline length, when upright, for nimble tacks. As the hull heels, the waterline increases for higher hull speeds.

The AS concept -- incorportated in several of Phil's designs -- puts 'thoroughbred' performance in reach of the most ham-fisted builder!

To my mind, this approach improves on the intentions of the Herreschof MEADOWLARK, which was designed as a reasonably performing vessel in reach of the amateur builder. In comparison, AS hulls are much easier to build and perform better.

ST. VALERIE / VOLUNTEER Concept -- These designs feature a narrowish, rockered, plate bottom which can be built and armored with sheet materials. Sides are simple curves which may be simply built using, say, Reuel Parkers Quick- and New Cold-Molding approaches.

This approach benefits from flat and curvy advantages while keeping the latter in check.

ROMP / MANATEE Concept -- These are Curvy Dogs... rounded barge mid-sections drawn out to fine ends (as opposed to typically bluff barge ends). Ultra-shoal, very stable (a barge's form stability) and slippery fast (rounded chines and buttock lines).

In my opinion, as cruising hulls these eclipse the revered Monroe PRESTOs with increased stability and load-carrying capacity. Phil considered this type to be his successor to the Herreschoff MEADOWLARK, as a competent cruiser which could be built by amateurs.

I personally consider AS or VOLUNTEER types are even better candidates. But that's three Bolger upgrades to Herreshof's worthy goal!

BIRDWATCHER Concept -- In this type, the superstructure is composed largely of (plexi)glass and built water-tight to a midships, longitudinal gangway. This allows beam-ends knock-downs to be taken in stride, with self-righting by the crew from within the hull. Typically, such hulls can have little to no ballast, reducing overall weight for speed underway and trailering.

This concept has brought shelter, comfort and a quantum leap in safety to small, previously open cruisers. The approach may be applied to larger cruisers, as well.

Step-Sharpie Concept -- This approach stacks a wide sharpie hull over a narrow one (somewhat like a very wide, hollow keel). The lower hull acts as a cutwater, keel and provides headroom and storage.

Many have filled the lower space with battery banks to abet electric driven auxiliary power.

'Instant Boats' -- Collaborating with Dynamite Payson (Phil drew the designs; Dynamite prototyped them), he drew up a fleet of small boats requiring minimal lofting (plywood panel shapes are lofted directly on the material) and no jigs or molds (the frames and planking shape the boat).

Phil didn't like the term, but it did represent a big leap in construction ease. This has since become pretty much the norm for 'developed' hulls (made from sheet materials).

*****

HMS ROSE

Aesthetic Genius

Phil's aesthetics have been roundly derogated, in certain circles, and lauded to the skies in others.

There is common ground, however... I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't admire a GLOUCESTER GULL (the light, plywood rowing dory Phil considered his 'ticket to heaven'). At wooden boat festivals, YARROW draws appreciation from many who hold his square boats in contempt. And the HMS ROSE is, of course, a Hollywood Star.

Being a work-boat kind of a guy, the beauty of function appeals to me. Many of Phil's design aesthetics reflect the notion that handsome is as handsome does. When form fits function, I believe, a deeper beauty emerges, to which varnish and a 'sweet sheer' is only surface effect.

In my opinion, Phil mastered both aspects.

My Personal Debt

The first home we built was ZOON (AS19.5ft x 6.5ft x 10in), ex Phil's LONG MICRO. It was only s'posed to be a short-term, winter cruiser, but a long story moved us aboard for three happy years. Its simple lines gave us rank beginners the courage to build our own.

We liked the type so much, we drew up LUNA (AS31ft x 8ft x 1ft), which we built and lived aboard for twelve years. The AS hull concept gave us the courage to design our own.

My TRILOBYTE (T16x4) was based on the BIRDWATCHER concept, which adapted readily to a box-barge hull. This begat the line of TriloBoats, which also owes inspiration to AS concepts.

We've also built two GLOUCESTER GULLS and a NYMPH as tenders. We've used or adapted several of the concepts prominent in Phil's designs (right-angle construction, free-standing masts in tabernacles, sprit-boomed mizzens, boomkins, copper plate, large windows, parallel chine/sheer).

If this wasn't enough, my brother built SELKIE, ex MARTHA JANE, and my sister now owns THEGREATSEA, ex DOUBLE EAGLE. This doesn't even mention good times had aboard Phil's designs built by many other friends.

Fair Winds to a Friend

Toward the end, Phil felt his mind begin to slip. To one whose every waking moment was illuminated by intellect, this was intolerable, and he chose to lay down life by his own hand. Courageous and Libertarian to the end.

To me, Phil was a Mentor and Inspiration. In ways that are hard to express, I felt him to be a Friend. A fellow Wingnut in the Wide World of Boats. Someone I turn to with a problem, and find, if not an answer, at least an approach and the courage to attempt the solution.

Did I mention that I loved the man?

Innocents Abroad

Well, this one's kind of a sailing story... at least it's shot through with sailors:

We had a young friend from France who had just bought a sailboat, had never sailed, and could use some help taking it a ways south. Youth and passion should be encouraged, so we agreed to crew for him. He wanted to sail, as much as possible, which, in that place and season, meant long hours adrift on the tide.

To while away the time, he produced a battered copy of Le Grand Depart Et La Vie Sur L'Eau, from which he read us passages in rapturous and poetic sounding phrases. In French.

Anke and I both failed to catch the essence of the Lange d'Amour despite earnest effort in highschool. We can chisel meaning from basic parlez vous, especially if accompanied by lots of pointing and charades. But with a lot of help, we were getting the gist.

It is the story of Michka, a young, French woman and her partner, who built a ferrocement sailboat, sailed it to Alaska and back, with music and love and beauty on the way. Good advice, recipes and stories interwoven with drawings of the hippy take on the good life. Right up our alley!

But, as our friend constantly interrupted his readings to inform us, "GUYS! You ayre meesing ze POetree! Zee essance! I cannot translate zees!"

He seemed to think it was pretty well written, beyond the bare bones of the story... it was Michka who had inspired him to take to the sea, and this trip was his first voyage and GUYS! Eet ees sooo fantasteeek!

Well, we all got where we were going with only the right amount of excitement along the way.

*****

Years later, as a gift from Anke's parents, we found ourselves staying in the heart of Paris for a week.

Paris, I've got to admit, is a dazzling city, with layer upon layer of chaos and organization. Endless small corners where one delight or another - ranging from homely to exotic - presents itself in a parade of serendipity. We goggled and gawped like the yokels we are.

Lots of little bookshops drew us in. They were everything we could hope for in such a place... towering shelves sagging under the weight of dusty books, ancient and new. Funny little characters in berets going at it, chest to chest over a passage from Balzac. Cats sleeping in the windows. Amelie, would feel right at home. But all in French, of course...

"Hey," I say to Anke, "let's ask around for that book... Le Grand Depart!"

"Noooo," she says, because she's German, and that's a cultural reflex, "That's got to be way out of print."

But I ask around. And indeed, no one's heard of it, but they're all very kind and patient with my dog French and full of suggestions. Eventually, we wander into a shop with a computer.

"Weell, no... eet ees out of preent, but I see ze publisheer ees heere een Paree... whould you like ze address?"

Sure!  So we hop the metro and get off, go directement, a gauche, a droit and a gauche encore. GULP! We find ourselves standing in front of a glass and chrome building that looks more like a bank than a publishing house. Suddenly, we're feeling a bit shabby in our 'city clothes' which are what we always wear, but before the paint stains and patches... until now, they'd seemed pretty adequate.

But the address checked out, so we squared our shoulders and marched into... a room about four stories tall, continuing the glass and chrome theme from outside. I've heard that modern urban architecture is designed to make one feel small and submissive. This architect was earning his keep!

At one end, a stylish woman with a severe expression glared from behind a marble desk. We were the only people in the room. We were about to bolt, when she emitted a curt, "Venez." We slunk toward her, and, fear doing nothing for my fluency, explained our mission.

"Pardon, Madame, nous cherchon une livre - La Grand Depart et la Vie sur l'Eau - mais..." But...

She silenced me with a frosty stare. "Attendez." Wait.

She disappeared through what looked like vault doors. We waited nervously, like puppies learning to Sit. Stay. Had she got to fetch guards? Would we become personel disparu??

But then she returned, her face wreathed in smiles, and bearing our book in her hands.

"Vingt Franc, s'il vous plait, e merci!" Five bucks! Sold!

We fled the building, our treasure in hand.

*****

When we'd run as far as we could, we collapsed, and looked over the book. Yup. Still in French. Poetry still beyond us. Still full of great drawings, and... 'ELL-OOO... on the back cover, it says Michka returned to PARIS after her voyage where she now lives!

"Why don't we give her a call???" says I.

"Noooo," says Anke, because she's German, and that's a cultural reflex, "That was published twenty years ago, and besides, you can't just call up a stranger!"

So we look in the phonebook, and there are two Michka's.

BINGO, on the first try!

"Weel, I am a beet beesee, right now, but I can spare some time...", and we set up a date at a certain cafe for the next day.

We were there early, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Michka and her husband (who shot her photo for the back cover) arrived shortly after. We recognized her right away... 30 years don't change the eyes or hide a beautiful spirit.

First thing she wanted to know, was how we found her?

So we tell her the story of our friend and his new boat and the trip with her book. We told her of the hunt through the bookshops of Paris. We told her of the terrors at the publishers. We told her of the phone book... at which point they busted out laughing!

Anke and I looked at each other... they sounded a bit... hysterical.

Turns out, in the twenty some years since Michka had been living in Paris, she had become one of France's leading advocates for the legalization of cannabis. Marijuana. The Evil Weed, itself.

She had published, among other things, an article in Maintenant called "The Crusade of Gabriel Nahas - or the Art of Disinformation". This was a critique of a doctor who had done one of the early and very influential studies of the effects of cannibis, but who has been widely criticized for his methodologies.

Three years earlier, Dr. Nahas responded to this article by suing on grounds of libel. A subpoena was issued to be served, but the Paris police could not find her. They passed the buck to the national security police, who also failed. On to Interpol. They combed the gutters, the dives of Paris, of France, of Europe and beyond!

TWO YEARS after the suit was filed, she was finally located - a suburban soccer Mom living quietly, but not that quietly, considering she was still regularly publishing. Her trial was now about to commence, which was why she was "a beet beesy, right now."

And here we walk in - country bumpkins that we are - and find her listed in the phone book!

Who'd'a thunk it?

Michka
Sailor, writer, poet and Freedom Fighter

PS. Michka lost the suit, but in a QB VII manner. She was fined one Franc (about 20 cents). Her book, we've since found, is known and loved by a wide range of French sailors. They all insist, "GUYS! Zees ees POetry!"

PSS. Our young French friend is now a world class sailor.

PSSS. If you are French, please forgive my crude renditions of your delightful accent when speaking my language far better than I speak yours. Both the accent and the language itself are music to my ears!

Annotated List for KISS Living

If we're gonna be up a creek, we'd best have a paddle!
(Not sure of provenance, but found this image here)

Annotated List for KISS Living

In a recent post, A Stitch in Time, I wrote of TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know IT), and concluded with a list of skills and stuff to have on board. Not coincidentally, the same list applies to shoe-string living, on the water or off, and more generally to emergency preparedness.

The debate surrounding most anything, these days is highly polarized. Left/right, liberal/conservative, sane/insane, perpetrator/victim. Most of us are just trying to find our way among a few facts, and laying bets on those to which we give credence. 'Nuff said.

I take it you're reading this because you're interested - in practice or vicariously - in a simple life on or near the water. After all, that's all I got. The whys and wherefores aren't so important. We're all welcome, here.

It doesn't take TEOTWAWKI for this kind of information to be useful. Emergency situations can crop up out of nowhere. Katrina in New Orleans, flood or fire in California, snowstorms in Chicago, car breaks down in Texas. You're laid off, foreclosed upon or the ol' ticker skips a beat.

So this list can be approached 'Post Collapse', 'Emergency Preparedness' or 'Voluntary Simplicity'. Works for me, any which way, so suit yourself.

Much of the information given below can be found online. Rather than buy a stack of tomes with exhaustive, specialized detail, look for good, concise presentations. Print 'em out and organize them in a binder/notebook, and trade up whenever you stumble upon better.

The alternatives are good, general compendiums in book form, covering a range of subjects or important/complex subjects in greater detail.

We use both. Look for good presentation and information density. Don't let 'em collect dust... get that knowledge into your head and hands. Kids eat this stuff up... let 'em!

Main sources of information are books (Consider buying local, Libraries and Inter Library Loan); magazines; online articles, blogs, zines and websites; people (don't forget old-timers!). I've included links to many that we have onboard or have been helpful to us. But it's a wide world, and we don't get out, much.

Finally, don't undersell your own ability to figure things out. We don't want to spend our time re-inventing the wheel, but our own focus and tenacity can solve problems and resolve questions that are unique to us. That's a powerful tool perched on your neck... don't waste it!


Skills


Survival Training - Books, SAR (Search and Rescue), seminars, etc. provide training and education over quite a range of scenarios. Never know when you'll be separated from your base.

Basic Medical Training - I recommend Wilderness First Responder training, usually available through your local SAR. Sets you up for most anything that can be handled without access to medical facilities. Where There Is No Doctor and Pain Free are good, core references.

Pharmacopoea - Natural medicines and tinctures, aspirin, antibiotics, anaesthetic. Books should be available for medicinal plants in your locality. Ask around. Do be sure to find reliable sources, and cross-reference these to the best of your ability. Pay attention to cautions and dosage. This stuff is potent... like any medications, they can kill as well as cure.

Dentistry - Cavity stabilization and tooth extraction are emergency procedures (not standard DIY). But emergencies emerge. Teeth are right next to the brain and wired for extreme sensitivity. A bad tooth is red flag and left untreated or improperly handled can kill. Serious stuff. Try Where There Is No Dentist for an intro.

Basic Self Defense - This is an individual choice issue. Many books, classes and whole disciplines cover a range from 'empty hand' tactics to physical/spiritual mastery of martial arts. Weapons may or may not be part of your choice, but consider that they won't always be at hand. At a minimum, learn how to prevent and defend yourself from personal assault.


Engineless Sailing - The Complete Sailor is the best all-round book I know of. Consider Emergency Navigation, as well, in case you have to cover long distances.

Make Fire, Vinegar, Pine Tar, Charcoal, Tallow, Soap, Rope/twine, Leather, Weaving - I don't know of a single, good source for these, but all can be found online. Many libraries have the The Foxfire Book series (link is to first of many), a collection of mountain folk skills.

Alcohol - Recreational, medicinal (tictures), for fuel and potentially for trade. The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible is one comprehensive text among many. Be aware that many laws control the production and distribution of alcohol, and that it's an addictive toxin. Some forms are lethal toxins (learn the difference!). In emergency situations, consider that its consumption won't likely be in your best interest.

Metalworking - This is the skill that separates us from the Stone Age (not a bad age, but we may as well take advantage!). Lots of metal lying around, for our lifetimes. Being able to work it is a bootstrap skill. I recommend The Complete Modern Blacksmith, among others.

Forage / Gardening / Food Preservation (drying, smoking)/ /Beekeeping Animal Husbandry? - These are traditional farming skills and can be locale specific. Two general references are Country Wisdom & Know-How, and Back to Basics.

Fishing / Hunting (snares) - More local knowledge. Indian Fishing and Living Off the Sea are good places to start. Snare info can be found online (snares offer a great advantage to active hunting... they're on the hunt 24/7).

Leather tanning - Online info available. I'd recommend brain tanning, for starters, as ingredients are always on hand. Check out rawhide, while you're at it.
 
Stone-age (start-from-zero) skills - Flint-napping? Basketry? Pottery? - These skills might come in handy, but, for our lifetimes, there's a super-abundance of metals and containers lying around in piles, so this is pretty well covered, for now. But there are plenty that are useful in a pinch, and I'd recommend at least a survey of techniques. Neo-primitive, neolithic and wilderness survival online sites are good sources as are a variety of books.


Stuff

Sailboat, Gear and Outfit - DIY or BUY.

Full Set of Hand Tools - Quality tools are often available, second hand, at very good prices. I'm a little out-of-date, but solid tools at competitive prices are available through Frog Tools, WoodCraft and WoodWorker's Supply, among others. An ax and medium sized tool-box will hold everything needed to build a boat from standing timber, and shape metal. Not necessarily fast, but capable.

Non-Hybrid Seeds - Hybridized seed don't breed true (can't save seeds from this harvest for next). Non-hybrid seeds (sometimes called heirloom seeds) can be found online, in individual seed packets or garden- to farm-scale mixes, with a range of varieties. Many are packaged for long term storage, and can be kept in reserve for years.

Year's Supply of Food? - Some food on hand allows you to concentrate on emergencies and provides a cushion in changing conditions. No finite supply is a long term solution, however, and the ability to feed oneself and dependents from local and renewable sources is a more flexible approach. Azure Standard is one supplier of bulk food goods, both organic and non. Buy local where you can, and cut out middle-men.

Grinding/Processing Mills / Plant Oil Extraction- Many foods, wild or domesticated, benefit from processing. Plant oils are difficult to extract without tools. For a wide selection of these and related, non-electric tools, see Lehman's Non-Electric Catalog (Lehman's primarily serves Amish and Mennonite communities).

Clothing - Consider durable, flexible clothing with backups. Innermost and outermost layers get the most wear, so you may want to lay in more of these. Learn to darn those darn socks!

Firearms / Ammuniton, Weapons - Depending on your views on hunting and defense, firearms may be a part of your life. Consider that a flintlock using DIY black powder from field ingredients need not be replenished with manufactured ammuniton. Crossbows, blowguns, atlatls, slings and snares may all be more useful in the long run, and have their own degrees of fun and interest. Certainly, they can be DIY in a wider range of conditions. Remember that everything in this category is inherently dangerous, and all appropriate safe practices need be observed. Sources are various, with many books and online sites dedicated to each.

******

Okay... them's the basics as I see it, but the list is by no means complete. If more come to me (on my own or via readers), I'll come back and update this post.

Remember that this is just a start and tip of an iceberg. You'll find your own paths through the mountains of choice offered us, at present. Look for flexible solutions in keeping with your situation, beliefs and style. Get your family and friends involved for the sheer pleasure of it. More heads are better than one, and community is a crucial resource.

Don't panic, friends, but don't put this off... the times, they are a'changing, and not always for the better.

Allen and Sharie Farrell: Stars to Steer By

 China Cloud Under Sail
by Allen Farrell

When one has Good Wine,

A Graceful Junk,

And a Maiden's Love...

Why envy the Immortal Gods?

Li Po

Allen and Sharie Farrell: Stars to Steer By

Allen and Sharie Farrell, more than anyone I know of, lived the life to which Anke and I aspire.

I first heard of them via an article in WoodenBoat Magazine featuring their then new vessel, CHINA CLOUD. At seventy (!) Allen, with substantial help from Sharie, launched their 40+th boat, built from local lumber and driftwood, citing his ax as a prime tool.

CHINA CLOUD was engine free - they sculled her with a yuloh - shoal draft, copper clad and unballasted. They lived largely from forage, and managed on a shoe-string.

As one who had not yet set foot on a sailboat, much less built one, I was enthralled.

Over the years, more stories drifted in. More about the Farrells as people. Their love for one another. The warmth they exuded. Folks they mentored. Lives they touched. Their independence balanced with rich and complex social lives.

Anke and I sought out their biography, Salt on the Wind, by Dan Rubin. We read it aloud as we took our baby steps onto the water. We read of their struggles and triumphs. Of the difficult and wonderful times through which they lived. Of their lives lived simply, and full to bursting with doing and not doing.

Later, in Sailing Back in Time (by Maria Coffey and Dag Goering), we vicariously joined them in their poignant, penultimate voyage in CHINA CLOUD. It was heart-breaking to see, through their eyes, the development, privatization and gentrification of waterways once remote and but lightly touched. To read of their final journey - well into their eighties, and having given CHINA CLOUD away - to start anew in Mexico, leaving their beloved coast behind.

Allen and Sharie set before us an example; proof positive that such a life can be lived... made by hand and heart, learning underway. Days stretching to years spent in one another's company, interwoven with the lives of others by skeins of friendship and love, shared in celebrations of the many or the few. In gifts given and received. A love of place.

Our circumstances are different. Our story was picking up as theirs was drawing toward its end. We cruise in a world that much more subdued by the domestication of everything. Local, old growth timber for traditional vessels, if not gone, is endangered. Skills of those who mentored them are dispersed or lost. Free spirited communities from the Age of Aquarius came, and for the most part, went, staid in stead.

Yet wild corners remain. Fish still run and the deer leap. The Forest is diminished but stands, still, verdant with herb, bush and berry. The sea still laps at all the corners of our vast and complex coast.

We never had the good fortune to meet them, yet their example glimmers before us, shining over dark and troubled waters. Paired stars by which we - and many another - may yet set our course.

Allen (1912-2000 ) and Sharie (1907-1996) Farrell

PS. Here's another tribute to Allen and Sharie.

Floating Your Boat - Musings on Wherewithal (Income)

Well it comes in pretty handy on this planet, Pal!

Tony Rice, speaking of Money

Floating Your Boat - Musings on Wherewithal (Income)

Money. Moola. Filthy lucre. I hate it. I want some!

The chain linking our culture to subsistent lifestyles has been broken. We're left reinventing the wheel in diminished environments. We are distracted from this pursuit by the need to generate income. Income fills the belly, shelters and clothes us until we can learn old ways in this new world.

Anke and I work for money. We volunteer for like and love, on our own terms. You may love your job, but that's a lucky coincidence. Bottom line is, you're in it for the money.

I'm going to assume that you, like me, would rather be sailing.

So we grapple with how  to honestly generate income, without giving life over to its pursuit.

Gotta warn ya; I'm short on answers. What follows are a number of things that have influenced our thinking over the years. You'll notice that the terms aren't exactly dictionary defined. As a group, they aren't even consistent. A pinch of this and a dash of that.

I'll share what I've got.

*****

Useful Books:

Voyaging on a Small Income by Annie Hill

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin, Joe Domiquez and Monique Tilford

     [This book is associated with The New Road Map Foundation and Financial Integrity]

 

Economically, these books are identical. They both start with the same premises and arrive at the same conclusions. Their goal is financial freedom from return on capital, in order that you may get on with your life.

Annie's book is the more relevant (and fun!) for sailors, but I recommend them both. Together, they provide a backbone for thinking about money.

Both agree: Spend consciously!!!

YMoYL has a number of helpful methods and approaches, organized under Nine Steps:

Step 1. How much money has come into your life and what do you have to show for it?

Step 2. Being in the present: Tracking your life energy

Step 3. Where is it all going: Monthly tabulation

Step 4. Three questions that will transform your life

Step 5. Making life energy visible: Your wall chart

Step 6. Respecting your life energy: Minimizing spending

Step 7. Respecting your life energy: Maximizing income

Step 8. Capital and the crossover point

Step 9. Securing your financial independence

*****

In Your Money or Your Life,  money is defined as something for which we trade chunks of our finite life energy. Money can be traded in turn for goods and services, but it's sort of a middle man; we could also say that we're purchasing goods and services with life energy.

Point is, in any cost / benefit analysis, cost is always and only meaningful in terms of life energy. And we want, of course, the greatest return for life energy expended.

*****

The Seven Laws of Money by Michael Phillips and Sally Raspberry

1. Do it! Money will come when you are doing the right thing.

2. Money has its own rules: records, budgets, savings, borrowing.

3. Money is a dream - a fantasy as alluring as the Pied Piper.

4. Money is a nightmare - in jail, robbery, fears of poverty.

5. You can never give money away.

6. You can never really receive money as a gift.

7. There are worlds without money.

(Read the full version here.) 

*****

Supply and Demand, Baby!!! Don'tchoo forgit it!

*****

Useful Terms:

Gross Income - All money and resources which enter your possession.

Overheads - All money and resources required to provide Necessaries (vs. Electives).

Expenditures - All money spent for Overheads plus Electives.

Net Income = Gross Income minus income related Overheads.

Disposable aka Surplus Income = Net Income - Overheads.

I note that Net Income could be deemed Profit, and would agree at the venture level. At the household level, however, I'd rather think of Disposable Income as Profit, having subtracted necessary living Overheads. They are themselves income related for households, though they tend to be considered in separate accountings.

*****

Asset - Anything which increases net income.

Liability - Anything which decreases net income.

Capital - Assets which exclusively produce income.

The first two are from Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad and Poor Dad.

Under these definitions one could argue that Assets are Capital. I've drawn what I find to be a useful distinction for integrating the terms with others presented here.

*****

Return On Investment (ROI)

ROI can be positive, neutral or negative. This is a good standard from distinguishing Asset from Liability.

*****

Cost / Benefit  Analysis

Similar... used to clarify Returns.

Key concept: Costs and benefits are yin and yang... related opposites each containing the seed of the other!

*****

Three (honest) ways to come by what the Pardeys call Freedom Chips:

• Income from Hourly Wage / Salary
  
• Income from Piece-Work
  
• Income from Capital (invested).

The problem with the first two is that one directly trades life energy for income. When life energies wane or wander, income drops. In a full-blown emergency, it comes to an abrupt halt.

The enemy of all three is rising expectations. They tend to rise faster than income, leaving us racing to fall behind.

*****

Income from Hourly Wage / Salary

Two approaches:

• Do something you love, income secondary.
• Do what pays best, satisfaction secondary.

The first can be prolonged, but more satisfying.

The second can be less satisfying, but less prolonged.

Often that 'something you love' is not your dream aka 'what you most love'. It can be the seductive difference between living the dream and living something else. 

Either way, while working toward the dream, we can accumulate habits, addictions, obligations and encumbrances that prevent us from realizing the dream. Cave opararius! (Worker beware!)

Income from Piece-Work

Two approaches:

• Create art to sell, income secondary.
• Create what sells, art secondary.

Income from Capital

• Monetary capital (lending at interest (banked funds,  bonds, direct loans), securities, etc).
• Commodity capital (trade goods, exchange goods, property).
• Intellectual capital (copyrighted material, patents, licensing, reputation).

Both YMoYL and Voyaging on a Small Income both choose government bonds as being relatively stable and relatively easy to liquefy (cash out).

Note: Thanks to various economic crises, the interest returned by gov't bonds has tanked, crippling the compound interest aspect of this type of investment.

We are most interested interested in accumulating Intellectual Capital. It's big advantage is that it can be pursued on our own terms, and once created and producing income, needs little to no further investment from us. In particular, it's resistant against declining energies as we age.

*****

Subsistence Model

Subsistence farms worked for generations by three simple principles: 

1. Forage or grow all food, fuel and materials.
2. DIY what you can.
3. Find a 'cash cow' to generate cash income for what remains.

The 'cash cow' could be any asset in reach of the first two, which can be exchanged for cash. It might be an actual cow, wild chokecherry wine, herbs, etc..

In my great-grandfather's case, he had a good eye for skinny horses. Bought 'em cheap, fattened 'em up on his surplus corn and sold them at a good profit. This cash went to purchase metals and salt, mostly. Lived to 97 years, subsisting all the way.

*****

Commodity vs. Value Added

If one's cash 'cow' is a commodity, consider adding value with labor or synergy. 

For example, choke cherries are a commodity. Choke cherry wine is value added, and may well fetch a better price. Choke cherry liquor further adds synergy with, say, distilled alcohol from home-grown grain. 

[NOTE: These examples have legal issues!]

Depends on what the market will bear, which is itself a corollary of supply and demand.

*****

Compounded Returns

Compound - to re-invest Return On Investment as Capital.

Compounded Income (Returns on Capital) grow one's Capital exponentially.

Compounded Capital doubles (roughly) by the Rule of 70:

Doubling Time =  70 divided by Rate of Return

For example, any compounded pile of capital returning 5% in a year will double in about 14 years (70 divided by 5), all things being equal, and ignoring units.

*****

Trickle (or Micro) Streams of Income

Multiple small income producing assets or endeavors that each produce a little. Added up they contribute to, or even cover one's entire budget.
 

*****

Organizing Assets:

• Cash - Ready assets (cash) to cover monthly overhead and expenses (budgeted).
• Cushion - Readily liquifiable assets to cover living overheads for, say, six months.
• Capital - Income producing assets.