Folding Bike

If the dinghy is our car for s/v Honey Ryder, then this must be her.....bike. I have been hunting and hunting on area Craigslists for a folding bike. I have found many but most where already sold by the time I found them. *And by the way.....if you list something on Craigslist and you sell it - REMOVE THE LISTING!!! Argh!

Anywho, this little lovely popped up in Manhappiness so I had my cousin Steve go check it out. He says it's like brand new. He did some wheeling and dealing and now we have a aluminum folding bike for s/v Honey Ryder. Yay! Thank you cousin Steve. The checks in the mail. Now it just needs a name. What do you think....Goldfinger? Auric? Hummmmm?
















And yes, I know the math doesn't quite add up. Tom + Sabrina = 2. Number of folding bikes = 1. Which means someone is walking. We will start with one and see how much of a pain it is to store, how much we use it and how it holds up to the elements.

True Costs

So a question we get often is "how much does it cost to sail?" Well....it depends.














Getting started in sailing can be relatively inexpensive. Small, used day sailors can be found on local Craigslist, marina bone yards and forgotten slips for next to nothing. As the size goes up, so does the cost to some extent. Same is true for equipment. The more you have, the more upkeep, repair and expense. We try to do it all ourselves or with the help of fellow sailors, thus saving $$ and learning skills as we go.














For us, the cost is measured more in blood, sweat, tears and time.















Time - Sailing on various day sailors - a Starfish, Sweet 16 and two different Hobie 16's, we started planning and saving. The day we emptied out the "sailboat account" to pay for our new to us 1972 Catalina 22 s/v No Worries, we started saving again for our next boat. Approximately five years later we emptied it out again to purchase our 1988 Catalina 30 s/v Distant Drum and immediately started saving for our first blue water/ salt water cruiser, the lovely and strong s/v Honey Ryder.

Now all money and purchases are measured in boat dollars and need. Example - "Do we really need XXX for $$$ because that is equal to 1/75 of a months slip fees on s/v Honey Ryder." All presents to each other are actually boat presents of some sort. Honey Ryder had Xmas gifts before we even owned her.



















As for the blood, sweat and tears part- years of sacrificing nights and weekends to work on rental houses. The latest blood being Tom's attempt to cut off his thumb with a brand new, sharp hole saw while working on a rehab house.



















Additionally, long hours and hard work to develop each of our professional careers.



















Planned holidays that were learning, skill building, sailing holidays.














The ASA, SSCA, Diesel Marine, Kansas City Sailing classes and seminars. The hundreds of books and thousands of magazine articles.














For us, these are our true costs with just rewards!