Is this the Simple Life or is this just simply life? A question I’ve been asking myself lately. The fact that we got rid of so much ‘stuff’ when we moved from the house to aboard the boat would seem to indicate that we have simplified our lives. But have we really? Somehow, I think we’ve managed to bring all the things that clutter up our minds and lives and packed them into a wee little boat.

For instance, the internet connection has been horrible here for about a week now. I called twice before getting a message back that they are working on it. What does that mean? Simplified? I don’t think so.

The fridge needs defrosting. If we had simplified our lives we would not have a fridge. But who can live without a fridge? Cold drinks and well kept food seems to be sort of essential to me. But does having a fridge that needs to be defrosted every month or so during the summer mean that our lives have been simplified? Not in my books.

Light bulb burnt out in the v-berth, broken hinge on a cockpit locker, a bit of soft floor in the cockpit sole that needs repair … and on, and on, and on.

Life is no simpler – the actual jobs have changed but the work is the same. Would I give up the boat and go back to the house? Not on your life – I love it here – life is so much simpler…

(I know that does not make sense, but that is the way it really is here aboard H.M.S. Strathgowan.)

We now have A/C on our Alberg. I got to feeling guilty about leaving my wife and child to stifle at the boat while I went off to work in the luxury of my air conditioned service van. So, to resolve my internal dissonance, I picked up a nice little 5200 btu window rattler and installed it in the companionway. I had been trying to figure out how to install a marine A/C unit on our little boat but was having problems getting by the cost of them much less where to install one. KISS (keep it simple stupid) came into play and for $150.00 cdn we are way cool. In fact, during the day A. has had to turn it down because it was getting too cold for comfort. I set it up on a rolling platform so that when we want to leave through the companionway, we simply roll it to the side and out we go. It will get left on the dock when we go sailing unless we are going for the night in which case I will put it in the lazarette for storage. I figure that for something that I might use for 4 or 5 weeks a year, I could not justify the expense of a permanently mounted unit plus the loss of space which on our boat is a precious commodity.

As we move through the stresses of life – A. and I have developed a little saying that we say to each other when we see the other getting too stressed about something. It is, “relax, we live on a boat.” This simple reminder has become a bit of a mantra for me especially when customers are pounding away or when something is stressing me to point of it boiling over into our family life. Relax, you live on a boat – just a reminder that we are living something that other people often dream of but rarely get to the point of actually doing. To us, it is easy to forget that we live in an unusual circumstance, one that others find adventurous and exciting but to us is just life – you know – normal. There are others that we look to for our dreams and wonder at their adventures and exciting lives. For instance this young couple who are currently sailing around the world on their catamaran. Now they are living an exciting and adventurous life! However, we too are living our own little adventure, so just to remind myself – one more time – “relax, we live on a boat!”

Ahhh, the Canada Goose. That bird that wears the moniker of our great country – flying majestically in extended V’s across the spring and autumn skies, often heard before they are seen. The mother goose who is willing to defend her eggs and chicks even to death if necessary. Their stark contrasting colors that separate them from the other geese making them instantly recognizable. What a beautiful stately bird that so represents the aquatic life.

And then there is the city goose!

A dirty mongrel of a bird – too stupid to fly south for the winter – eating pesticide infested grasses – crapping everywhere and generally a nuisance. Arrogant too! Drive toward one and rather than moving they will try to stare you down; only moving when the outcome of the stare down will obviously result in a bad situation of bird on bumper.

We have some lovely parks and marina areas around here that are virtually useless due to the disgusting accumulation of slippery city goose poop.

This one has forgotten how to fly properly. Rather than landing into a headwind as per the Gander Manual, he decided to attempt the difficult and somewhat dangerous crosswind landing. Things went well right up to the loss of control inherent to crosswind landings that resulted in an uncoordinated careen into dock A. Net result: a broken wing. (Later in the day after this photo was taken, this city goose was collected and brought to a local animal hospital. Current condition – unknown.)

Now what do we do with them? Can’t ‘remove’ them – send them on a permanent vacation so to speak as this would offend those with a love for animals (no matter how much their love hurts the animal.) Can’t just move them – they can fly – and eventually do so – right back to your dock. So what is the answer? Birth control for birds? Maybe… but until some solution is found – our waterways and shorelines will be partly ruined by their unsightly mess and the strut of the City Goose.

There are some things that are part of the living aboard experience that those who live on dirt know little about. For instance, during a bit of a wind storm a couple of nights ago:

• Watching your drink and dinner plate sliding around the table and hoping that they don’t go too far too fast and end up on the floor.

• After putting up with the infernal slap of loose lines on your mast as long as you can – crawling out into the wind and rain to tighten them only to realize that all your neighbours both up and down the dock are slapping and banging as well.

• Homeowners on dirt pick up leaves and branches from their yard after a wind storm. Live aboards pick up canvas panels that have blown out, wind indicators that have come loose from the top of masts and floating fenders that have come away and floated into your slip.

• Watching the masts of all the sailboats around you bending and waving in unison as the next gust comes towards you.

• Not having to rock the boy to sleep as the boat is doing it for you – albeit somewhat violently and with little rhythm (unless you call the lines slapping on the mast – rhythm.)

• Picking up the pieces while watching the sheet lightening move off into the distance.

I worry that after living on a boat and being so close to the power of nature and God’s great creation, that living in a good solid house in a ‘burb somewhere would be, well… boring.

P.S. Oh ya, I forgot this one: feeling somewhat sickish after spending too much time inside the boat during a wind storm.

I just finished sitting out in the cockpit under the tarp watching a great lightening storm blow right over top of the boat. Lots of great thunder and tons of bright flashes – such power and regal majesty yet ultimately one of the more dangerous things to those living on a sail boat. Basically, you’ve got lots of lightening flashing all over while you are sitting under a large metal pole that rises some 40 or 50 feet into the air. Does this really sound safe?

This brings me to the topic of lightening dissipaters and grounding plates.

A lightening dissipater is a brush like appendage that is attached to the top the mast. It actually looks like the metal brushes that are used on top of signs and under bridges to keep the pigeons off. The idea is that the many bristles of the brush allow the positively charged ions to dissipate into the air thus preventing the completion of a circuit between the clouds and earth. (Most lightening is the movement of energy from a negatively charged cloud to a positively charged earth. See more information at Wikipedia.)

A grounding plate is a large area of metal bonded to the bottom of the boat which is connected to a lightning rod which is at the top of the mast. The theory is that the lightning strike will move down the rod/mast to the grounding plate which will dissipate the charge into the surrounding water.

There are problems with both these systems. Basically – sometimes they don’t work. The lightning dissipaters often cannot discharge a large enough amount of energy or are not fast enough to prevent the flow of electricity. Grounding plates can only handle so much electricity. There are many stories of grounding plates that have been vaporized during a strike with the result being a hole in the boat below the waterline (or water in the basement so to speak.) So, what to do?

Well, you can do what I do – nothing.

Sit out in the cockpit, enjoy the show and hope that your neighbors mast (you know, the goldplater with the mast that’s 20 feet taller than yours) attracts all the lightning. Another bit of joy and wonder that you get to experience while living aboard a boat.
-Weather

The crowds assembled, police policing, photographers poised and in a series of muted booms down they came. The metered explosions reminiscent of an orchestra with the ‘sisters’ doing their final dance – and with a graceful pirouette they are gone. Nothing but a pile of rubble and a rapidly disappearing dust cloud.

Tomorrow morning, a local sailing landmark will be destroyed. Known by sailors as the “4 sisters”, the smoke stacks of the now defunct Lakeview Generating Station will be demolished. We will have a first hand view of the destruction as our dock is the first one on the warm water outlet of Lakeview. The “sisters” have been used for navigation on the lake for many years as they were visible from many miles away. In fact, except for the CN Tower they were often the first thing you could see coming across the lake. They were visible (on clear days) from Niagara and even when they were out of site you could see the smudge of smoke they put out. They were also well lit at night which made night sailing so much easier. But, for environmental reasons – down they must come.

Hmmm…

Something seems to be happening here. The longer we live aboard the less sailing we seem to be doing. Others had told me that when you live aboard that your sailing habits would change but I did not believe them. And here we are – the second week of June and I have not actually sailed this boat yet this year. I have motored around a couple of times – once to bring the boat over from our winter marina and a couple of times to do pump-outs but sailing just for the pleasure of sailing we have not done.

Why?

Well, I’m not exactly sure but I think it has something to do with the boat also being our home. When you live aboard you tend to operate just like when you live in a house. Dishes from dinner get stacked in the sink for washing later. Books are left out on the settee (couch) and the kettle sits on the stove. Now, in order to go sailing all this stuff must be cleaned up and tied down or it will be everywhere. The only real solution that I can think of is to designate a specific spot for everything and when you are done using it – put it back. That way when the sailing bug hits, all you do is a quick check down below and off you go. But what fun is that? I don’t want to live in such a regimented manner. I want to go with the flow – you know – I’ll do it later. Living aboard … who would have thought it would generate such a tough dilemma?

So here we are – going with the flow, doing stuff later – but not sailing. There’s got to be a happy medium somewhere. Any suggestions?

The concept of safety at sea is a complex one. I don’t really have any experience with seagoing safety as I’ve never been off the Great Lakes. I have no experience especially when compared with others who both live on board and have sailed away. Nevertheless, I would like to add my 2 cents worth. I read a about a great concept ….

John Vigor’s Invisible Black Box.

This is taken from John’s book called The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat – A Guide to Essential Features, Gear, and Handling. I have written this out word for word because I think the idea is so important. However, if John or anyone associated with his book reads this and feels that it is a violation of some copyright law, please contact me and I will rewrite it or remove it.

“Vigor’s Black Box Theory states that there is an invisible Black Box aboard every boat. Whenever you take the trouble to consult the chart, inspect the diesel filters, go forward on a cold and rainy night to check the running lights, or take any other seamanlike precaution, you earn a point that goes into the Black Box.

When things start to go wrong in bad weather, when you get to the stage where you can accomplish nothing more through your own skill and physical effort, the points are cashed in as protection. You don’t have any control over their withdrawal: They withdraw themselves, as appropriate.

If you have no points in the Black Box, you will suffer the fate the sea decides. You may be one of those later described as unlucky.

If you have sufficient points to spend, you’ll survive the storm – but you’ll have to begin replenishing your savings immediately because the sea offers no credit.

Your initial deposit in the Black Box is the result of thinking about safety before you ever go to sea. More points come when you actually acquire some safety equipment, and even more when you learn how to operate it under emergency conditions. After that, it’s a question of listening to your conscience telling you to get on with those necessary little acts of seamanship, and continually topping up your balance.

Your Black Box is probably the most valuable safety aid you can own. If you’ve only just discovered you’ve got one, don’t hesitate. Start filling it with points straight away.”

Safety at sea is about preparation. The more you prepare for any and all eventualities that might occur, the better you will be able to weather and withstand them.

In some future post, I will break down some of the things that I have done or plan to do to fill my Black Box.