The one big thing I like about sailing ....

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BlueSkyNick

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..... is the total freedom to do as I please, in my own time, in my own way, within reasonable limits of safety and regulation.

On this forum, there seems to be more and more do-gooders, law-enforcers, law-creators, safety advisors, and other know it alls. They insist on telling us how to judge when to give way to ships, wear lifejackets, not to drink, get fully qualified, don't swim in the surf to rescue your boat, etc etc.

The vast majority of sailors and motor boaters (no difference) are sufficiently sensible to decide how to behave on the water, and have every right and privelege to be left alone to do so.

OK, so there are a few prats about, accidents can happen, and things go wrong. This applies to everybody - Dee Cafari being a recent example. Dealing them requires skill, experience and most of all common sense.

SO GIVE US A BREAK !! I am quite happy doing it my way, in my time, and will continue to do so, whatever the preachers on here have to say.

[rant over]
 
Pick over the whole dish and take from it what is of interest and leave the bones on the side of the plate - your choice , or don't bother coming to the table at all.
 
The trouble starts when people ask for advice like "Should I wear a lifejacket". That brings out the preachers.

If they don't know the answers then they shouldn't go on a boat. What happened to common sense?

Anyway, who's going tell someone called BIG NICK what to do
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Happy escapes in 2008
 
Ooo ... I don't know about saying all that lot ... you really should've checked that it was ok to post such a rant to start with... I hope you had your spell checker installed? When was the last time you checked that it was working ok? One little mistake and you'll have all the pedants out telling you about it.

Geeze - some ppl just go about doing as they please these days ... its just not on you know !! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Well said
Some of the comments made must surely come from people who either never leave the safety of their marina or they have never even been out on a boat . If it carries on like this we'll end up wearing LJ's in our bunks , in the marina . Ridiculous
Unbelievably I now see two of the most safety aware sailors I know , slated by someone for not wearing LJ's . Get a life FFS /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
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Anyway, who's going tell someone called BIG NICK what to do
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Happy escapes in 2008

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Mrs BIG NICK ?
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Ah , but they were bouyancy aids /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

If you were in her bunk , would you rather she left them on ? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I wrote this in my November blog, it seems relevant to this thread, which I strongly agree with!

Heads up. This is a rant!

Sailing is one of the final freedoms in this over-regulated world of ours. Cruising the Seven Seas, self-sufficient, independent, taking responsibility for our actions, depending on no one else. Anyway that’s what I’m out here for.

Part of its attraction is the unpredictability, the excitement, the danger and the reality of living on the edge.

Yet more and more “cruisers” seem to be seeking exactly the kind of hand holding by service and support agencies that I left my land-based life to avoid. I just picked up a February 2007 edition of Cruising Compass in the laundry. Yes, it takes a while for the latest news to catch up with us here! What's the first piece I read? A group of cruisers in Cartagena are liaising with the Colombian authorities to agree a “safe route” from Cartagena down the coast to Panama. It made me so angry that I am still hyper-ventilating!

If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I’m similarly annoyed by some cruisers’ demands that the Guatemalan Navy put a stop to dinghy thefts. It’s not that I don’t understand a desire for more safety in the trailer park; it’s just that I had hoped more of my fellow cruisers might have chosen this existence out of a desire to take command of their own lives. Where in the world is free from theft? Where in the world can personal safety be guaranteed? And what comes next? More paperwork, more regulation, more bureaucracy, a request for 2,100 Quetzales to put a new propeller on the launch. And who is going to pay? The cruisers. Then maybe a higher cruising permit fee to fund “the improved security,” fines for not anchoring in designated safe anchorages... and so on until this wonderful, wild place becomes just another extension of Florida or Texas.

But more than this is fueling my anger. It is the growing feeling that these minor irritations are symptoms of a much deeper malaise: denial of the sometimes harsh realities of a seafaring life. You see it in the way that boats are bought, like a car or caravan, to just hop in and drive away.

If you are scared of pirates, drug runners, being alone, heavy weather, running out of fuel, don’t come here. Stay close to home in safe, patrolled waters.

What I would like to see is more realistic assessment of our own levels of competence and a greater readiness to invest the time and effort to build the skills needed to face the wilder ocean passages. Honestly recognizing our limitations.

Many have been there before and survived to tell the tale, let’s pay greater attention to what they have to say. Take precautions; prepare our boats and ourselves fully. If we feel the need, file a float plan. There are plenty of SSB nets to check on us as many times a day as we want. Have an emergency plan prepared and actionable. Above all PREPARE FOR THE WORST, it’s an insurance that we will hopefully never have to cash in!

But if you are not comfortable with your level of competence stay where you are happy, practice, gain knowledge, only then venture out to the untamed places. But please don’t require that everywhere else becomes as friendly and familiar as home. Becoming comfortable with our own level of self-sufficiency and competence isn’t about developing a gung-ho attitude, it’s the exact opposite. Because, let's face it, in extreme conditions, high seas, big winds, mechanical malfunction we are on our own out there. No amount of Navy patrols, bits of paper or dollars in the bank may be able come to our rescue in time.

If we are not more honest with ourselves, then we risk channeling our fears into misplaced efforts to dumb down the excitement and challenge of sailing for everyone.

What makes me so angry is to see my freedom and self-sufficiency compromised by individuals who do not own up to the problems that they have with this way of life. I don't care how you want to sail. What risks and inappropriate actions you want to experience, but I really, really feel passionate about any attempts to dumb down my experience of the wild places that we have left on this planet of ours.

www.gerryantics.blogspot.com
 
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Anyway, who's going tell someone called BIG NICK what to do
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Happy escapes in 2008

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Mrs BIG NICK ?
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Spot on BigWow. she is a lot shorter me than but can still punch in some pretty sensitive places!!

In order to maintain harmony on board, I generally concede to her requests to reduce canvass when the wind picks up, even though I am comfortable or even enjoying the conditions myself.
 
Only if I were diving /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Gerry , very well put , where's that thumbs up smiley when you need him ? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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I am quite happy doing it my way, in my time, and will continue to do so, whatever the preachers on here have to say.

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Only one response to that: Amen!
 
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OK, so there are a few prats about, accidents can happen, and things go wrong. This applies to everybody - Dee Cafari being a recent example.

[/ QUOTE ]

How dare you call Dee Cafari a prat!!

(continuing a long tradition of wilful misinterpretation on these fora)
 
There aren't many yottie magazines or books that advocate KISS and sort-it-out-yourself anymore......
If anything I wonder if technology and shorepower convenience are making peeps actually more neurotic about staying in touch at all times and adopting one 'approved'way of doing anything boaty, afraid of stepping off the beaten cruising and weekend stomping grounds?
I have always sailed with the-tools-that-built-the-boat plus patience and conservative techniques and good old fashioned overkill and backups and redundant overbuilt stuff like ground tackle and winches and lots and lots of sails..
All of us remain,whether it is an inconvenient fact or not-just one lightening strike away from the independent spirit of Chichester,Knox-Johnson,Slocum,ShaneActon and Chay Blythe..
But by its very nature this is a techsavvy forum and open to opinions like er mine!
 
I sometimes wonder if the increased amounts of 'safety' gear and electronics are maybe encouraging people to go straight into big boats offshore without learning their craft, as it were, on smaller boats with no gadgets.

Having been away from the sea for 20years, I was amazed to come back to find people looking aghast if you don't have enough electronics for a spacecraft on board, a liferaft, vhf etc etc. and the RNLI being used as a 'get you home' rather than an emergency service and a forty footer is a 'first boat'. Now, I know technology has moved on but it is there to help us, not to lead us.

Perhaps if the timid and those who rely on technology were to take up a 'safer' pastime, like computer games and virtual reality, those who enjoy the peace and challenges of the real world would be allowed to get on with it in peace. Get used to the idea, once you're out there, you're on your own, you stand and fall, live and die by your own decisions. There is no safety net, that's the joy of it.


I sailed the Atlantic three times in my youth, once single handed. I accepted that if I fell overboard, I was dead. No ifs, no buts, no EPIRB, no rescue. It's called 'adventure'

SWMBO is happy to sail with me because I always reef early, know my limitations and err on the side of caution. A state of constant healthy paranioa is a skippers friend.

And yes, I do sometimes wear a lifejacket but when and where is my business.
 
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