Unfortunate turn!

[Swan53]

I saw the first post and was interested in the problems with the boatyard. Then others mentioned the boneheaded antics so i have just wasted 45 minutes tears running down my face, splitting sides! Now I see that some of you are mad at each other re comments like this but I am sorry THIS IS GOOD STUFF.

My god! this stuff is priceless. I will be passing this on to everyone I know. (I am only in Columbia now, maybe he is ready for the AC by now, but I would be suprised...) I am starting a folder to quote from these logs for posterity.

They have been on the boat for 4 months (2 weeks in Panama trying to clear...)they see 5 MOVIES... that is their Panama experience.
---out toward Columbia, they decide to see IF THE OVEN WORKS...since they dont really cook! "we broke a line today..the one that goes from the mas to the end of the boom, it probably has a name, but I dont know what it is"

YAAAHHHHH wait I have to stop. OK there is a book here..defintely if they die, which is entirely possible, but damned if they aren't in AUS now! Maybe some nice aussies will get them ship shape. Talk about learn as you go!!

Where is the money coming from??? Mom must be proud. Kids go to Galapagos and basically buy keychains, keep a list of what they ate (IT's TRUE THEY CAN'T COOK!) and go shopping. "Let me make an observation about these islands they're Cold!" THATS IT!!?

If this is the next USA generation, heaven help us.

But it will make a great movie.

[Swan53]

"\And this afternoon the riggers came over and we all put the mast back up. She actually looks like a sailboat again. When the riggers came over today, one of them was putting the wind speed indicator and the antennaes and stuff back on the mast. He asked Ali for the "Wind-X", or at least to us that's what it sounded like he said. So obedient Ali, thinking he wanted to clean the mast went and grabbed him the "Windex" and a roll of paper towels. She came out of the boat and went to hand them to him, and you should have seen the look on his face before he burst out laughing. Priceless. Turns out he meant some thing that goes on top of the mast and shows you the wind direction. A manual wind direction indicator I guess. We just use the one on the cockpit controls that shows us a nice picture of the boat with a needle on it that indicates the wind direction. Who wants to look straight up at the top of the mast"

HE HAS MADE IT TO AUSTRALIA FROM FL.
SHOOT THIS CRUISING STUFF IS EASY!

[thor]

swan 53 ?

those are nice boats ... well you guys call em yachts, dont ja ?
did it come with one of those dark blue jackets with golden knobs on it ? Surely a white Captains hat ?




thor

[Swan53]

nice yes
no money for clothes now.

[CSY Man]

wow - what a thread - did i pick up that csyman is a commercial pilot? - never would have guessed that one.

And why not....?

Would rather be a full time cruiser actually.

As fir the thread, meh thinks CaptainJeff said it very well and I sure agree with his postings on the topic.

If somebody think that learning the basic's, then sail and live responsible is "Eliteist", then they are probably in the same boat as Pat and Ali: S/V Clueless

[CSY Man]

not surprised you are a pilot, just the corporate part.

Not a corporate pilot, as in flying for Coca Cola or IBM:

Presently hauling big planes around the world for some airline that does mostly cargo.

A real Boeing Cowboy...

Every other month I fly Africa then Korea, then South Americe.

Aye, did the island jumping years ago when I was a young and handsome live-aboard in them Virgin islands, even the wife flew DC-3s from Puerto Rico the St. Thomas..Good ole days.

Now bogged down in a mid-life crises with a mortgage and a sailboat that is all dressed up but has nowhere to go.
Shame, shame.

Uhm, as for the topic on hand:

Many young folks have bought a boat and sailed the planet, but not for the purpose of finding the next McDonalds or the next internet cafe....Shallow, shallow I'd say..Perhaps that is the future however: With GPS navigation, instant wealth, rollerfurlings and catamarans with no keel, ahd no heel, they can all go out there honking and hollering about crossing the seas and blogging their fast-food cravings.

Being old fashioned I would rather sail the other way and meet real cruisers over a quiet sundowner and quality conversation.

Not sure I have seen that from these here kids, but then again, they may be pulling our legs and the joke is on us for beleving all the BS they pump out...

Sure hope so.....

[capt lar]

hey - midlife is just midlife - avoid the crisis - long way to go. you may have heard of giffy full - well known new england surveyor - top dog - fly all over to look at top boats. his son is a yacht broker in maine and i have seen him a few times as i have looked for my next boat. i asked how his dad was, now easily in his 70's and he said fine - dad was sailing his boat back up from florida and they were a little worried because he was doing the second half outside and single handed. amazing - we are just warming up. capt. lar

[Mario]

I've been reading P&A's stories for some time now.

I'm also a sailor wannabe, although I have a motor boat for now.

What really impresses me is the intolerance people feel for others that don't share the same interests, or for those who are younger or richer or whatever.

I'm also 30, so I can readily identify with many of their views. I too would like to be in their shoes right now. Yet, if I were there, I would live it differently.

Nevertheless, I think they should live this experience like they wish to do it. For us readers, or at least for some of us, it's just great that someone did a diferent kind of website, with logs diferent from the normal stuff. Some of those normal sites are great, some are just boring. When some decides to go on such an adventure and share their experience with the whole world by the internet, I feel just great that someone does an innovative site, with a diferent than usual kind of writing.

And keep in mind: they were there, they did it, they saw it, they lived it. And they don't write everything they do, nor must they do it. They have absolutely no obligation to write about cultures or people or even the places they visit. They write about what they want. And that's great.

And because they are in their 30s and apparently have no mobey problems, they will probably do it again when they are older and they will have other interests and experiences.

To be able to go ou there without all the knowledge and experience is just great. I guess that's one of the biggest diference in atitude between us youngsters and the older people, who think they know it all and who are far to conservative to innovate this whole world.

It's incredibly sad to read posts from older guys who by now should know better than to give a jealous image of them, for not being able to have done the same thing when they were young.

Keep up Pat and Ali. For me, yours is definitely one of the best cruisers site around at the moment.


Mario

Cascais, Portugal

[CSY Man]

To be able to go ou there without all the knowledge and experience is just great. I guess that's one of the biggest diference in atitude between us youngsters and the older people, who think they know it all and who are far to conservative to innovate this whole world.

Huh..?

You may have that wrong junior:

Some of us have done similar things @ a young age.

At age 29 I bought a 44' yawl and lived aboard, sailing the Carribbean...Never been on a sailboat before in my life.

Learned the basics really fast, like splicing lines and cooking food.



I worked hard in Alaska several years to afford the boat, no daddy's money involved.

It's incredibly sad to read posts from older guys who by now should know better than to give a jealous image of them, for not being able to have done the same thing when they were young.

Ya may be barking up the wrong tree again, not many guys are jealous, but rather feel pity. I do.

[Mario]

Great for you man. I don't feel sorry for you nor for them!

I just feel it's good to turn on my laptop and read good stories, that make me laugh.

If I want to have the experience I go sailing through the world. I will never live my life through other peoples experiences. That's why I like their site.

And if sailing is an art, that´s just like writing or painting. I may do it and not be an artist anyway. But I'm free to do it as I want.

Fortunately that's the bottom question: we're free to do what we want whenever we want and don't have to care about what other people think about it.

[capt lar]

mario - if that is the way you operate your power driven vessel, i'll try to stay out of your way.

[Mario]

Fortunately we have the Atlantic ocean separating our waters!

And besides, that's not the way I face the ocean. I just respect that the ocean is free, and everybody has the same rights.

If you obey the laws, everything else is your problem. If you want to go around the world exploring mac donald's or pizza huts (all american icons, not mine) that's great. I wouldn't do it, but i respect those who do. And if reading their logs makes me laugh then that´s great, cause for serious sites we have all the others, get what I mean?

I just respect everybody and try to understand them.

Again, fortunately we are all different from each other, or life would just suck.

And just take a look at all the views this post has and all the hits their website has and I really guess that there is no doubt whatsoever that there are many people enjoying their site.

Take care you all.

[Alan Wheeler]

Mario, there are a couple of points you are not considering. Firstly, if you go back to the early days of this topic, you will see I mentioned the first one. That is, they are sailing the world, so why don't they see the world. My comment was, they may as weel sail round and around their home harbour till they clock up the same sea miles as their navigation takes them". Basicaly the achieve the same thing, without the stresses of ocean travel.
But here is the main point I am trying to make. Maybe you won't understand what we down here have as an ocean environment. Next time you get a Hurricane, go out and sail in it. That's what a lot of our weather is like most of the time. I have read with astonishment that Pat and Ali have so far had no winds stronger than 35knts. That's just a typical sailing day here. So being in an environment where weather can get horribly nasty, you need to be prepared and my argument is, they simply are not. I mean, painting the danbouy grey for goodness sake. I hope, seriousely hope Pat never falls overboard in bad weather. Ali will never see him again. See what I mean. We aren't talking about motoring around in a sheltered seaway here. This is the ocean where you may not see land for several weeks and have to fend for yourself if it goes horribly wrong.
At least, most of there extreme stuff seems to be over. Unless they consider taking on the lower Indian ocean. But if they head up through the higher lats to the Red sea, they should be safe, and the only fears to worry about are Pirates.
It's not any one or two thing they have done wrong, it's when you read the entire series of Logs and see the almost every day occuring situations they seem to ignorantly get away with, that the entire story makes you gasp. In fact, it has got so rediculouse, that if there Logs were turned into a movie script, it would be totaly unbelievable as a real life drama, and would be considered a "capt Ron" sequal.

[bobola]

"...One other thing Ali and I can't quite figure out is that nobody ever seems to think we are cruisers. The other day at lunch a cruiser from the table next to us said "you two must be backpackers, huh?" Then last night, where every guest there was a cruiser and we were sitting at a table with 8 cruisers at it, a guy asks us "So are you two guests at the hotel here?" So we are trying to figure out what makes us so different from the other cruisers out here. Is it the fact that Ali looks so young, or that I don't have a scraggly beard, or what? Whatever it is, we find it amusing and hope that it continues..."

Their log is a funny read.....if nothing else......

[austi012]

Here's a tasty snippet:

" The Coastal Patrol was 2 miles away but we still couldn't communicate on any station besides Ch. 16. So that's how we found out that our VHF isn't working very well. That really helps explain why nobody ever answers my calls until I am practically within yelling distance of them. Just another stupid boat thing to work on at some point."

Darwin award in the offing, I'd say.

Thaddeus