How do you like to KISS? / Kiss principle --what do you think is necessary

[Frank]

well i ordered some new books based on what you all have said and based on what i found elsewhere on the forum:

"The Cruising Life: A Commonsense Guide for the Would-Be Voyager"

"Sea-Steading: A Life of Hope and Freedom on the Last Viable Frontier"

"The Cost Conscious Cruiser"...Great
"Self-Sufficient Sailor" great[b][/b]

"The Capable Cruiser" good
"Storm Tactics Handbook: Modern Methods of Heaving-to for Survival in Extreme Conditions, 3rd Edition"  good
anyone read any of these books? how do they rank in good information for a beginner???

Just my 2 cents  

[freeskier710]

thanks frank, any other suggestions on good/great books anyone??

[freeskier710]

thank you haidan, i didn't even think about having some way to beach the boat to do repairs, the small things that slip your mind are always the ones that bite you in the butt later, i looked on amazon for the celestial navigation book you recommended but i didn't add it since i already placed my order and won't be placing another one for a week or two

[Captain Smollett]

For almanac data, I use:

The Online Nautical Almanac

If you want sight reductions tables, NGA has HO 229 and HO 249 available for free download as pdf files.  Go to

NGA Home Page and click "Publications" in the menu at the left.  On the page that opens, click "Sight Reduction Tables for Marine Navigation" (or the one for Air Nav if you prefer that book).  You have to select the Volume you want, and then you can d/l each chapter as a pdf.

You can also find Bowditch "American Practical Navigator" on the same site, which is also very helpful.

I also use the base equations and a calculator (or slide rule) rather than the tables.  I think it is a good belt-n-suspenders approach to at least know how to solve the spherical triangle without the tables if the need arises.  The tables make the math a little easier (for some), but the equations themselves are not that complicated once you get used to using them.

Finally, if you are just practicing and you want easy sight reductions, you can use one of the many online reduction calculators.  I can dig up the link to the one I use if you cannot find a suitable one with Google.

Hope this helps.

JR

[maxiSwede]

@Thistle Cap

Amen! 

Couldn't agree more...(but is nowhere near your level of experience- yet)

Interesting to hear of your experienced problems with roller furlers.... I often feel very alone and backwards sticking to hanked on head-sails

 

[CharlieJ]

Don't feel all alone with your hanked on jibs.that's all we use also. Workhorse is a working jib with reef bank to take it almost to storm jib size. And yes, we've used the reef. I just hope we never need the third band in the main!!

Agree with most of what I've read here- couple of enlargments-

LED lighting is great- get all you can manage, particularly in the anchor
light (We use a BEBI from Fiji)

Kero or propane. We use kero but burn Mineral Spirits (also Sometimes called paint thinner) FORGET alcohol- it's horribly expensive. A quart. Of stove alcohol in the Bahamas will run you 8.50 or more.

Foot pumps are the only way to go

we have two bladder water tanks, one forward(13 gals), one under th cockpit where the inboard would go. (22 gals), plus half and one gal jugs stowed here and there.

Four stroke outboard- has been dead reliable four over 4000 miles f cruising now. And is very good on fuel.

We live totally on our 32 watt solar panel for all our electrics, including recharging phones and the netbook.

I'm typing this on Laura's Iphone, sitting on a mooring off Coconut Grove aat Miami after almost a year aboard full time. Our only gear failures have been an electric bilge pump- it died from disuse, and a depth sounder that crapper out and was replaced with a LowRance fishfinder. Don't even THINK about cruising the Bahamas or Keys without a sounder. A lead line is great , but the sounder let's you sneak through channels much easier.

We use two handheld GPS units, nEither are mapping units. Both have workd beautifully and are powered via cords to ships power. I'm sold on them. Celstial is great, but for navigating around the various keys, it's kinda useless.

Something no-one has mentioned- make or buy a GOOD easily installed and removed awning. Make a small one for over the forhatch so it can stay open in a rain. REAL life savers. Ours are sunbrella and held with bungees so they give a bit in a wind.

[freeskier710]

thank you Charlie, I will use every bit of information you have given, I've been keeping up with your travels on this forum and reading alot of posts this past week, everyone here is very helpful and I am glad to be a member of this forum, i plan on having a fishfinder/depth sounder and a few handheld lat/lon. gps units, water storage will be in a couple of bladders plus some 7 gal. water cans, lighting will all be led and as i learned on my last boat solar garden lamps and zip ties make for great deck lighting and make your boat very easy to find when the moon isn't out at night, I lived on my last boat for 6 weeks in Boot Key Harbor, FL. but it wasn't seaworthy, it was de-masted, the rigging was jacked up, interior needed replaced, and had soft spots on the foredeck, also was infested with insects and the rudder was broken in half, but it was a great learning experience and now i know what i need to look out for when purchasing my next boat

[CharlieJ]

We carry the. Five gallon collasible water jugs. Reliant is the name I think. Easy to stow folded up-we have five aboard. In fact I just came back from getting water in the dinghy. Used a hose and filled the jugs without having to carry them- grin. Ours have held up well for severL years now-just be careful of sharp objects, but sail repair tape makes a pretty fair patch

and just for info, we last watered in Nassau eight days ago. The tank took just under 15 gallons. That's for the two of us for eight days, without being particularly ccareful. Of course as the days warm, we'll use more each day. We do wash dishes in salt when it's clean, then rinse with our pump sprayer from Duckworks. We DONOT wash clothes in salt water- takes to much fresh to rinse the salt. Laura uses ammonia (usually no soap) in the laundry which doesn't require rinsing, or very little if it does. It evaporates with no smell at all.

[SV Wind Dancer]

I've washed clothes in salt water and Joy...give them a good sunny dry and then beat them, most of the salt gmes in the wind.  I only wear cottons, though~

[freeskier710]

the 5 gallon collapsable jugs are on my list now, thanks again, and as for washing clothes well lets just say i am still young and dumb so a serong will be all i wear most of the time probably, i like the suggestion about the companionway cover with bungee cords, and i will definitely have a tarp or something to cover the cockpit while anchored but i don't know if i can budget a collapsable cover, i haven't looked far into the subject yet though, also does anyone collect rain water to supplement their h2o supply while voyaging distances, if so how do you collect it and do you store it seperately? i know it rains alot in the tropics

[maxiSwede]

Re.: rain catchers

We've made an awning that goes from the boom gallow in front of the companionway to the mizzen mast (middle of cockpit) works both at anchor and underway if not too rough. Grommet in the middle and a garden hose. Fills jerry cans not main tank(s) just in case.

Also, at anchor the dink is a very good rain catcher, during the VERY rainy winter in teh Algarve-Portugal we regularly caught 20-30 liters per night in it. Used it for laundry mostly. Under way the goose neck is a good place to figure out a way of catching all that rain water that pours down the canvas...

[SV Wind Dancer]

At anchor I would raise the main leaving it a little baggy at bottom; the sail caught the rain and the end of the boom it comes pouring out like a spigot...downer is ya have to sit in the rain in your shorts holding the funnel and hose, or jerrycans as the case may be~

[CharlieJ]

Laura installed a through hull and hose under our foredeck awning- fills water cans that way(at anchor)

we also try to keep the dnghy clean so rain water can be saved for laundry or flush water
in the portapotty.

[marujo_sortudo]

Some other books for the library:

The Complete Rigger's Apprentice by Brion Toss (A must, IMHO)
The Sailmaker's Apprentice by Emiliano Marino (even if you never want to make your own sails)
Voyaging on a Small Income by Annie Hill
The Pleasures of Sailing by Alfred Stanford
The Compleat Cruiser by Francis L. Herreshoff
The Sailor's Assistant by John Vigor
The Pardey books already mentioned and Hiscock and others, of course



FIRST and FOREMOST, choose a boat that you can learn to repair and improve.  Always prefer equipment that you can fix yourself, make it if you can, and always carry tools and spares for anything and everything.  Naturally, this is much easier if you have fewer things on your boat.  Always hunt for things to cross off your essentials list, then pare it down some more.  Repeat.

[marujo_sortudo]

Oh, and how could I forget:

The Complete Book of Anchoring and Mooring by Earl Hinz

[freeskier710]

The Complete Book of Anchoring & Mooring is on my list of books I NEED for my library before I get my boat, thank you for the other suggestions also

[marujo_sortudo]

What's your library list look like so far?

[Tim]

What's your library list look like so far?

You all do realize that we have a section forum called "Book Locker" ?

http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php/board,12.0.html

[Frank]

One of the most useful items on a small boat is a water sprayer. Until last year I used a $3, 1/2 gallon pump up jug with a trigger. Wash dishs in salt...spay off with fresh. Take a dip in salt...quick spray with fresh. Wash cloths in salt, wring out well,spay with fresh and wring out again before hanging up. Really makes fresh water go a long way as much less is used in 'spray' mode.
 Then I got the pump-up solar shower from Duck-works. CJ praised them too. They are great for all the same things but use more water. Can't beat the lil 1/2 gallon one on a trailer boat.

[nowell]

Frank, good call! I have one of those on Aquila, and use it for everything you could imagine! Even to cool off when its hot! Love mine, many uses, and easy to fix/repair.