Longitudinal Attitude

Everyone loves to talk about Latitude(s).  Generally it's closely associated with attitude. You've probably heard a ton of catch phrases or sayings regarding attitude.  Heck, Jimmy Buffet even sang about it in "Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude."  While that is all very good and well, don't disregard the importance of Longitudinal Attitude.
We often hear "your boat is...where?"  We answer "Brunswick" and usually get blank stares back.  So why Brunswick?  If you talk to cruisers you will find it's a terrific hurricane/storm hole.  One of the best on the east coast.  But why?  Look at the map.  The longitude is approximately the same as Cuyahoga Falls Ohio which is WAY inland.  Brunswick is one of the western most harbors on the eastern seaboard.  Yeah, it's the same longitude of many other places but Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders made Cuyahoga Falls kewl in "Back to Ohio".  I always loved that song as a kid (Chrissie Rocks!) and wondered where in the hell Cuyahoga Falls is.  Now I know, same longitude as Brunswick GA.

Boat Girl Oddity

Every so often an odd thing occurs and I would be interested in your thoughts.   As an equal partner in the sailing life, I have always been involved.  I actually grew up sailing.  Tom didn't take his first sail until high school.  Sometimes we are together sailing, teaching lessons, working on various projects or boat socializing. Other times, we are solo on the boat(s).  Me included.  However I find that if I am alone working on a boat project, it's fairly common to get a comment (whether it's to me or Tom) that is a congratulations of some sort TO Tom.....like "Congrats! I can never get my wife to _fill in the blank_"  Or  "Cap10 Tom, awesome with the wax job.  I wish my wife would wax the boat."

I just find it weird that fellow sailors congratulate Tom on my work on the boat.  ?????  I understand that my gender as a whole is not always as involved in boating.  But it still strikes me as odd.  I don't recall that anyone has complemented me on Tom's work, other than to say "Wow, Tom is really a terrific craftsman when it comes to rehabbing a house" or "Tom can sure smoke up some fabulous ribs."  Is that different?  It feels different.  Hum?  How about it my sailing sistas out there, has it happened to you?  Guys, do you get these complements on the work/projects your sailing chicks accomplish? 

Happy New Year 2013

We wish everyone the very best in 2013

Xmas 2012 - The Trip Home

We decided to stop on the way home and see Ruby Falls in Chattanooga TN. 

Located over 1120 feet beneath the surface of Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls is the nation’s largest and deepest waterfall open to the public. Hundreds of gallons of water rush over by the minute.

We took an elevator down into the cave where a guide took us through the lite cave, stopping at various places along the way to educate us.

The whole excursion took a little over an hour and was a great way for us to stretch out legs.

Back in the car we headed NW again towards home.  After driving cross the Ohio River, (out of Kentucky into Illinois) we soon begin to see piles of snow along the road.  Big piles - remnants of last weeks snow storm that blew across the country.  Checking the forecast and seeing the next snow storm approaching, we decided to push on through to KC vs stopping overnight.  Our regiment for passages (one on, one off) was good training for this - ha!  1 1/2 hours east of KC, I begin to see salt/sand trucks. OUR exit ramp off I-35 was already salted when I took the final turn for home around 3:15am.  We awoke (around 8am) to BIG, fluffy flakes quietly falling straight down.  Even though we were tired, we were glad we powered on through to beat the snow.
Total round trip miles = 2343

Xmas 2012 Trip Wrap Up

Ooohh, shiny!

Progress was obtained on several projects this week.  First was re-installing of the galley faucet with new parts.  Yeah, water.  Boo, dishes to scrub!

Installation of the modified cabinet for the Fusion Stereo.

Removal of old GPS and installation of starboard panel to cover the gaping hole in the instrument panel.  Looks good.

New projects were started as well this week - some of these are in the early conception stage.  Some of these projects are necessary MUST DOs. Others are WANT TO projects.  We also have a few new WANT TO projects from meeting other cruisers and seeing how they have their boats set up.  This trip we were able to meet fellow Caliber 40 LRC owners Fred and Debbie on s/v Early Out.  They have done a couple of really kewl modifications for more storage on their boat.  Debbie also made wonderful cushion covers - which I have as a WANT TO project from the last visit to s/v Honey Ryder.  We raced back from their boat and begin immediately measuring to figure out how to incorporate some of their modifications into s/v Honey Ryder.  That is part of the fun and benefit of having our boat in Brunswick and meeting other cruisers - the wealth of information we gain from knowledgeable cruisers each trip is immense!  Big plus in SO many ways!!

Treasure hunting boat....seriously!

We also continued exploring the area.  We popped by Golden Isles Marina just to check it out.  There were some strange boats in that marina.  

It was a terrific week but all to soon it was time to pack up the car, bundle up (burrrrrr) and head northwest towards home.