Why not just eliminate everything unnecessary...?

Wow... these are great articles by Don Street... a real gem of discovery for me. These are the kinds of writings I read as a child and what I thought sailing was all about. The problem is in my life the path was different and the complications more. Now I am too old to go back and start over with too many responsibilities... But the heart is still there. Ladies universally, especially as they age, are not game for this sort of adventure... but like like the seeing beautiful places and the comfort travel aspect... just the boating complications... they could do without.

http://www.cruisingworld.com/how/stay-board

http://www.cruisingworld.com/how/sailing-south-forget-bermuda

Even my grandparents this was an issue and my German grandmother was game for pretty much anything... she married a Scottish Sailor after all... "his no-good brothers and him drank there guts out by time they were 30" was her quote. When my grandfather retired just before I was born his plan was a sailboat... his reasons were silence and lack of mechanical complications... why is he liked the quiet and it was not mechanically inclined both eliminating things he did not like or like to tolerate. Why he did not have the sail boat was he was impatient as hell... and over a lifetime of commercial responsibility for a ship wanted to get where he was going directly... stay a short time and leave for the next place. He but did not like the below decks engineering complications of a motor boat... advice when I was going in the Naval Service: "DON'T GO INTO ENGINEERING... its hot, oily, sweaty hell down there and something always is breaking." He distrusted and detested engineers for that lack of confidence he had in them... of course engineering is what I liked and was interested and good at. As a child I knew more about the engines than he did... and even at 11 years old could on his boat prime and clear an airlock in Gardner injectors or set the valves etc. The airlock would most likely be caused by his running a tank dry until the fuel pickup failed! He did not follow his own advice as to the sail boat ending up with the motor yacht eventually... because he was impatient. He was impatient in his business life and would make fortunes quickly and lose them quickly due to lack of attention and patience... liked to enjoy life. Often grandmother did not go and stayed home. But great guy to be on the water with and the best dead reckoning and natural sense of the marine environment navigator ever... he was alike a natural walking GPS and depth sounder ... but as a kid you did not complain or interfere... once I fractured my arm and had a nasty contusion in a mishap casting off as we were setting out for a day cruise and some fishing... I managed to get it set immediately and spend the day in huge agony hiding the injury until we got back and told my mother "I need to go to the doctor I broke my arm"... perfectly set too!

I am lucky... but not a good seaman... even get sea sick ( a person defect of character in my grandfather's believe system)... am very poor at boat handling... nervous at the helm in a regatta... very good at sailing tactics... very good a sail trim but if there is something really off the wall wrong in the engine room that no one can figure out... I can.

Old Phart,

We are not interested in commercial vacations... due to our love of privacy... and control... and freedom... I suppose that this is why many of us are drawn to boating. I get a lot of enjoyment of K1W1's suggestion of the platform on legs... it reminds me of some floating houses on concrete bases we saw in the Netherlands awhile ago... on a larger scale.... but that is not something that interest would be drawn to.

I support it all goes back to the times with my grandfather and family long time ago now... perhaps those are times past... to be remembered and not relived rather than visions of the future.

Old Phart that Grand Le Bleu.... is a stupendous service ship!

I always enjoy the crew talks videos... its funny I have NEVER found a chef that can make my oatmeal breakfast the proper way... so I always make it and I always have tea. This horrifies the French members of the family as their breakfasts are much different. I never have lunch... they always do. But I am at my office so whatever the ladies do is their business. I expect a nice dinner but in my situation I have no input on the menu... so eat whatever... which is usually amazingly good.

This is a favorite video... I have posted before... life onboard a sailboat at sea... though I am considered an old man (behind my back)... unfortunately the ladies do not find this anything they like.