Nomadness blog

“Microship on Steroids” August 13, 2006 Hello from Pender Harbour… I finally made the 34-mile run across the Strait from Nanaimo after the wind moderated a bit earlier this week. Today, north toward Lund (although Environment Canada predicts 15-25 knots on the nose early this evening… hence this quick update so I can get moving!)…

This is just a quickie; I’m on a 1-hour clock in the local library. The trip is going beautifully… since the last post I have made the passage through the San Juan channel then west to Tsehum Harbor at Sidney BC (to check in with Canadian customs), then on to Cowichan Bay. The next day…

Hello from Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island, the Lats & Atts cruiser party! I’m on a solo adventure to get to know my new magic carpet, and today was the first day out… starting on the north end of Camano Island where Nomadness has been moored for the past few days. Packing for three weeks…

There is a kind of buzzing energy that comes from an abrupt course change… the apparent wind clocks around, the waves lap a whole new song on the hull, and the view off the bow is all different. That’s more or less what happened on the scale of my life over the past week. It…

Yarrrrrh, what is it about these salty vessels that maketh us to take leave of our senses, overlook obvious incompatibilities, and spend days in frenetic and impassioned research? Yup, I did it again: got myself seduced by a ship with character, style, superb construction, solid design, and a level of WQ (Weirdness Quotient) somewhere way…

I suppose I should take the long view here, and be happy that I got a good education for a mere $3K. I’m now much better equipped to contemplate potential ships, though I must admit that there is a strong sense of letdown along with the unavoidable “what-if” feeling. I’ll always wonder… Gypsy Spirit is…

It seems insane that I’m already out $3K on the “decision support” aspects of this project; I’ve paid for overall survey, haulout and audio gauge, rigging inspection, engine and power system audits, and oil analysis. This is rather a lot of expense, but hopefully, by hiring trusted experts, I am either saving myself from my…

The first truly traumatic experience with this boat that I don’t even own yet was a couple of days ago… the full survey with haulout. Alain Vilage was wonderful and a wealth of information, and he spent the day examining her from stem to stern. Late in the morning, it was time to cast off…

Before even acquiring the ship, I knew I had to have this bit of gizmology; it automates what I did for a couple of years with the maplets of local kayak jaunts aboard Bubba. In the photo, you can see my simple and expedient packaging job: I just nestled the hardware into a carved foam…

Tomorrow is perhaps the pivotal event in the acquisition (or avoidance) of this ship… a full-scale Condition & Valuation (C&V;) survey by Alain Vilage. It was a bit of a scramble getting to this point, as the fellow originally scheduled to do the survey turned out not to be a SAMS or NAMS member. While…