Real Reality TV

Kevin has a quote of the day up on his blog regarding Reality TV. Call it a quiet day but I'm going to jump on his coattails on the subject and ride along.

I don't watch "reality TV" because, frankly, it isn't "real". At least not "real" in the sense of "real life". Kevin's quote highlights the difference. I'd like to expand on it.

My wife loves reality TV. Regularly watches the various Survivor and Amazing Race incarnations. I don't. To me, they are glorified games. Now, admittedly, if I got chosen for either game, I'd play but I have no illusions about it being anything other than that. They only interact with reality as in terms of day-to-day life in matters of travel, food and sleep. Everything else is scripted and constructed to entertain the masses.

Who serious believes assembling an over-sized puzzle on a sandy beach or digging through a pile of manure to find a coin constitutes reality? I've been to many places where these shows could be and I have never seen an over-sized orange puzzle piece being carried by a woman in a do-rag running from one place to another.

Amazing Race is simply travel hassles writ-large. Any business traveler, especially a salesman worth their salt, should be able to whip the asses of any of these couples handily. What these people on this show stress over is par for the course in any busy world business traveler on a weekly basis.

Then there's Survivor. Other than the locations, which can be beautiful, this show holds no attraction to me. The utter fakeness of it just turns me away. First, who in their right mind decides to spend 40 odd days living on an island in a pair of shorts or a bikini, a pair of sandals and a do-rag and somehow think that's enough? End result is the highly entertaining aspect of watching these idiots shiver in the rain hiding under large leaves.

Right. It's why lots of people can't take it seriously as some kind of life challenge. Do you honestly believe these people are going to experience anything beyond mild discomfort? Sure, the players complain about hunger and lose weight over the play time but the studio isn't going to let them starve. Or get into distress due to dehydration. They're just griping and whining like spoiled children.

Hell, I'd go on the show just as a weight loss exercise. At least it would be peaceful and have good scenery. Kind of hard to take it seriously as "Survivor" in the commonly understood meaning of the term when there's no serious threat of harm or death.

Anyone who's been a Boy Scout would have had shelter built, a fire pit dug and a fire burning and some kind of water source identified before the sun set on the first day. These people sit and shiver for weeks on end and somehow think they're tough and "surviving".

If I landed on this show, I'd be bringing a rain poncho, a good set of military fatigues (for durability), a pair of broken in boots, a pair of shorts and a long sleeved white shirt, suntan lotion, a good sized pocket knife and a flint or a 9 volt and some steel wool (to start fires). It might be hot but long pants and long sleeves will make you infinitely more comfortable over the long haul and keep the worst effects of the sun off. Then I can play the game properly. I suspect a lot of readers and other bloggers would be doing similar things. A lot of us have been Boy or Girl Scouts, been in the military and/or have been raised with practical skills.

Alas, I think the studio arranges it so these people are more photogenic and deliberately suppress such intelligence. Wouldn't look good on TV to see a guy sitting by a fire in a floppy hat shrugging off the rain as "no big deal". And where would the ratings be if male viewers didn't have an abundance female skin to look at? Screw practicality, this is Reality!

The best part of it is the players have such low expectations when they say the game changes them fundamentally. Apparently these folks have never had the pleasure of doing a Boy Scout camp or survival weekend. Or done a forced march for 6 or 8 hours in 100 degree heat wearing a wool uniform. Yet these folks think they're doing something extraordinary.

Pussies, the lot of them. They need to get out more.

Here's my version of "Survivor"....

Find an old 70-100 foot wooden schooner. Equip it with sails, charts, GPS, tools, spares, manuals on boat handling, navigation and seamanship and a full set of provisions for a dozen people for 2 weeks. But no engine or generator but a battery bank and human-powered charger. Then we sail or tow said schooner into the middle of the Atlantic off the coast of Florida half-way to the Cape Verde Islands in the middle of the hurricane season. The boat will be equipped with remote cameras and satellite tracking for the viewers. No life rafts but one life vest per person and a water-activated 406Mhz EPIRB bolted to the topside in a floating breakaway box that cannot be opened but will let water into when immersed.

Then you fly our lucky "Survivors" out to the schooner and drop them into the water with a simple set of instructions: Get the schooner back to Florida. Then fly off, tune into the cameras and watch the fun! If they make it back, they win.

Now that's a proper game of Survivor!

No contrived contests, no pecking order, no voting people off unless you count throwing them overboard. They'll learn the proper meaning of "Reality TV" the first time they encounter a tropical storm at sea and 20 foot seas. Then they'll understand the meaning of the word "reality". If the boat breaks, they'll have the means to repair it and keep it afloat. If they fail, the EPIRB will activate and give them a fighting chance at being rescued assuming they stay together and hold onto the EPIRB. No guarantees of a successful rescue but very few things in life are guaranteed either. So it will be a natural reflection of reality as the rest of us perceive it.

If they get low on food or store it improperly, better learn to fish quickly or ration what's left. Freshwater supply gets contaminated? Learn to catch rainwater. Rudder breaks? Brush up on your jury rigging and swimming skills. Lights or GPS go dark? Learn to pedal.

Somehow, I don't think any networks will like my idea. Too raw and dangerous. Yet, many people sail off over the horizon and do such things with some regularity. Not a lot of people but enough. It isn't an extraordinary feat or a game. It is merely one path in the journey of life. Yet some of the so-called "Survivors" would find it life changing and at least then, they'd be somewhat correct from their perspective. If nothing else, it would be a true challenge with real consequences for failure or due to a simple intervention of Fate against them.

In other words, true reality. And that would never sell. But I bet a lot of people would tune in to watch. I would.

Stuff Going On

Here's what's going on....

Getting the Catalina ready for the winter. I'm having a rig inspection performed this week and the mechanic coming by to pull the outboard, service it and store it for the winter. Assuming the rig passes inspection and doesn't require the mast to be dropped (unstepped in sailing terminology), we'll pull the batteries off and have the boat shrink-wrapped for the winter. Then we'll pick back up in the Spring with the restoration work for a March or April launch. And there will be much rejoicing.

I'm tinkering at home with some new toys. I love eBay. $50 or $100 and I can be entertained for months. However, I think most regular folks would question my desire to tinker with older computers to not constitute "fun". In this case, a pair of Netra X1s, a Netra T1 105 and a Netra T1 AC200 accessed via a Cisco 2509 access router and a Cisco 3620 router so I can play with network routing because I can. Plus, the 3620 can run Linux so I simply may use that to tinker with embedded Linux on known hardware.

Yup, I'd say weird definitely covers it. And it is cheap. Plus I learn new things. Always useful in a technical field.

Trying to get my post(s) done on Canadian gun laws. I keep reworking it. Sigh.

If anyone in the Washington DC area attending the Smithsonian "Air and Scare" event at the Udvar-Hazy Museum, I hope you enjoyed yourself and had your picture taken with the Star Wars characters. I was one of the two TIE Pilots there. So odds are very good if you spotted a TIE Pilot with a Stormtrooper and a Clone Trooper, it was me. Fabulous event overall!

Glad to hear that Olympia Snowe (until next week) has stepped away from assisting the Democrats on health care "reform". While her motives are certainly not pure, it does now make the issue solely belong to the Democrats and her departure from the table doesn't allow Obama the ability to claim a "bi-partisan solution" on this issue even though only one Republican defected. It's all on them. Remember that come next year's mid-terms.

I hold out hope this issue will collapse under the weight of competing ideologies and power grasping. It's the best we can hope for.

Lastly, trying to get a couple chapters of writing done. First chapter for my sci-fi novel and another for another work I've been nursing along for a long time. Feeling inspired so I'm trying to get the words down while I can. I suspect it will be one of my winter activities along with boat planning.

Baby Pictures

Since posts are worthless without pics, here are the "baby pictures" I promised yesterday.

This was taken Sunday before I went aboard. A worn but solid looking Catalina 27. Bimini, dodger and roller furling are clearly visible. The name will go, of course. But it was prophetic.

Yesterday morning. You can see they've started to wax the hull already. This gives you a good profile of this classic 27 footer. Note the front of the keel is solid lacking the "Catalina Smile". I want to keep it that way.

Close up of the aft hull where the waxing has started. You can clearly seen the waxed portion versus the rest by the faded bootstripe. She's going to clean up nicely. You can also see the fiberglass gouges above the rub rail. These will be filled and gelcoated.

Now some interior shots...

Looking forward from the companionway hatch. The 80s called and they want their interior back! Take special note of that classic folding screen on the bulkhead to separate the main salon from the head and V-berth. My parent had a bathroom door that looked like that. That will be coming off the boat.Looking aft in the main salon. Wood needs some cleaning, the stove is going over the side and the icebox needs new insulation. But everything is serviceable. The hatch for the inboard engine compartment is visible. Since there is no inboard, that is open space for storage.

Looking forward into the V-berth. You can see the extra sails in their bags and a close-up of the hanging locker. V-berth cushions are out of the way along the hull. Head is to the right behind the folding door.

Looking into the head. Clean and functional. The extra sink is a nice addition.


Looking aft into the cockpit. Tiller steering and you can see the top of the bimini, tiller extension in its well and the mainsheet traveler. You can see how worn the running rigging is by its rough and faded appearance. All of this will be replaced. Double lifelines (at left), a Lifesling 2 and the cockpit operated bilge pump (silver panel right of the tiller extension) round out some of the safety items aboard.

That's all I can post for now. Just wanted to let you see the new addition to the family. She's a pretty girl and will be beautiful when we're done with her.

It's Official

Funny for a "gun blog" that I haven't written about guns in a while. I have plenty of material but honestly just haven't been in the mood to get it all down.

I'll have to fix that. A conversation with my best friend "back home" has inspired a couple of things. Unless you live in New Jersey, Illinois or NYC, thank your lucky stars. You'll understand hopefully later when/if I manage to explain the difference between the United States and Canada when it comes to gun laws. It'll blow you away, figuratively speaking. Even the hellhole of Maryland is a downright gun owners paradise compared to Canada. Seriously.

On other news, we closed on the Catalina 27 this morning. She's officially ours. When we arrived at the yard, the broker had his crew waxing her hull. She's going to shine up nicely.

Stunningly, we (the broker and myself) managed to get my wife aboard. She has an issue with being on boats that aren't in the water and being on a sailboat raised 6-8 feet off the ground concerns her. But she managed and was quite happy to see our new boat in person. She likes her. "Fat and roomy" is her description.

I had the chance to address some additional inspection points that have been bothering me. The main halyard was snagged around the roller furling and we managed to work it free. The furler works fine and the jib appears to be new. I am going to arrange a rig inspection for my own peace of mind to give me a baseline for future maintenance. Doing a visual inspection with the broker, we were please to see that the upgrades recommended by Catalina have been done. Most critical of these is the replacement of the aluminum spreader sockets with stainless steel. The older aluminum ones had a tendency to crack and if not caught in time, you can dismast the boat.

And since we are no longer in the range of petty cash like the O'Day 22 but rather "real money", this is serious stuff. I'm not taking chances.

Immediate items are to replace a leaking vent forward, possibly fix the cosmetic gouges, arrange for the rig survey and start taking stuff off the boat for the winter. By end of October, we'd like the boat to be tented under tarps for the winter and we'll begin addressing the other maintenance items in the Spring.

It's real now and I'm giddy for a lot of reasons. One, we got a solid boat at a very decent price. If we can keep total expenditure under $10K total including purchase price and services we've already contracted for, we'll be very happy owners by the time we commission the boat.

Two, I've dreamt of this moment for almost 10 years. Life and other things got in the way. My first boat, a Clipper Marine 26, was an absolute disaster. It served a purpose to teach me, rather expensively, what not to do and that experience serves me well now. But it aborted plans to be on the Bay and subsequent events never allowed me to think about a return to the water until this past year.

Now, I'm here. It's no longer abstract. We have the boat and we will be on the Bay next year. I have had some fond experiences on the Bay on other people's boats and finally, I am free to have my own at my own pace.

That is what sailing represents for me: Freedom. The freedom to look at the horizon and know, if desires and courage allow, to point the bow towards it and not look back. This boat is the first real step towards that ultimate dream. Time will tell if that dream can be realized.

Sailing is my form of escapism. The problems of the world and the issues on land cease to be an issue on a boat. I've been anchored on a sailboat in coves not a mile from a busy marina and might as well been 1000 miles from civilization. Other than the other boats present relaxing in the late summer sun, we had no intrusion of the world beyond. We could have been moored off a island in the Carribbean for all we knew.

I desperately want to experience that again and show it to my wife. Our little Catalina will make that possible.

For me, I finally get to explore things I've wanted to experience. There are points on the Chesapeake Bay where you can be in the middle of the water and not see land. I want to see what it is like to be on a small boat alone on the water like you would be on the ocean. Call it a form of ocean training. Still in semi-protected waters (a wide definition when dealing with the Bay) but for the first time, truly "at sea" and all that entails.

Little things like wanting to see St. Michaels for the first time by coming in from the Bay. Sail up to Baltimore and see the Inner Harbor from a water perspective. Hell, given Baltimore's crime rate, being on a sailboat in the Inner Harbor is probably one of the safest places to be. Especially at night.

We definitely made the right decision. While my wife is still questioning "what's wrong" given our purchase price, I'm not questioning it. Someone wanted to donate a boat and we simply happened to be in the right place at the right time asking the right questions. Although the C&C 29 we were after is a good boat and someone should snap up, I think we did the right thing by us.

So far, all I have been told is "Don't go crazy". I have a list of items I want to do and safety related top that list. Standing and running rigging top the list followed by engine maintenance and remote controls. Luxuries like an enhanced electrical system, electronics, sails and so on will be determined as we move down the list. Accommodation work is in my wife's hands. Making the boat safe for us to sail is my problem.

I'll try to get "baby pictures" up soon. The spring launching pictures will make a very nice contrast.

With that in mind, I expand my standing offer above to include sailing. Should any of my four readers or their friends ever wish to meet up and spend a day on the water, drop me a note. If you're an experienced sailor, by all means do so. I'm a novice and always happy to have help. As they say, "the best boat is someone else's". Here's your chance.

Perhaps a Spring Blog Meet-and-Sail should be something worth planning? Any interest (that means you CTone and JTBolt as well as Sebastian & Bitter and Denise & Sam)?

Here to good wind and full sails!

Finding That Great Boat

It is said that you will know the boat for you when you find it.

I think we've found it.

We went out to the boatyard yesterday to narrow down our choices. There were two boats I wanted to take a look at. A Hunter 27 that we had taken a look at previously and I wanted a second look at and a Watkins 27 that seemed to look good.

So I find myself on the Watkins and low and behold there's a lock on the companionway. FYI, this boat broker operates a very liberal policy of access to his boats. They aren't really locked and he encourages potential customers to grab a ladder and climb aboard at will. It's the little things and I like a broker who's laid back. So while I'm standing on the boat, my wife call the broker to ask if someone has a key and some basic info on the boat.

From 20 feet away and 6 feet down I hear, "WHAT'S wrong with it?!?". This gets my attention and my wife shouts out to me, "It has a cracked keel!". I was off the boat before she was finished getting the details.

Later inspection showed a foot long vertical crack on the front of the keel. Given the keel on the Watkins 27 is encapsulated (inside the hull), an external crack is serious business. Either a very bad grounding or a sign of serious internal hull damage. Even if the boat was a good deal, I'd never be able to shake a bad feeling on the structural soundness of the boat from that point forward. Wrote it off immediately.

Then we go check the Hunter 27. Not too bad but more of a "settle" type of boat. I don't want to settle.

Then we went back about the C&C 29 Mk.II for a detailed inspection. This is what we were there for. Sadly, we found water down below and learned later that the sons of the owners were doing work and left 20 odd screws off the upper duck that held rails in place and were off for recaulking. So that explains the water. Still a concern. One of the reasons we chose to go out yesterday was we had just come off three straight days of heavy rain and going aboard would be a good indicator of any leaks down below.

So we called the broker to express our concern and explained how we needed to be sure this wasn't a sign of other issues. In doing so, my wife asked if he had anything we should look at in the meantime. He stated he had just gotten in a Catalina 27 that he hadn't even had a chance to go aboard yet. He directed us to where it was and told us to take a look and call him back and let him know what we thought.

Initially look shows a somewhat worn Catalina 27, standard rig with fin keel. Needed bottom paint and wax. Had bimini, dodger, roller furling and exterior teak in need of oil. Outboard motor in a transom well. I popped the hatches and showed a dated but dry interior, two extra sails and clean fiberglass. A small leak in the head. I poked around and checked the deck. No soft spots and everything felt solid. Running rigging could use replacement.

Overall, a boat in need of a makeover but sound. So we called the broker back and asked our now-standard question: "What's wrong with it?". Which the broker couldn't answer since he hadn't been aboard. So he told us to sit tight and 10 minutes later he showed up and joined us.

That began a 3 hour odyssey with us going from one end of the boat to the other.

The boat's stock rose steadily as we did so. All of the electrics were functional. The outboard had electric start. Two batteries onboard and charged. All of the pumps and drains were fine. The original gate valves (very bad) had been replaced with nylon and bronze seacocks. The head had a macerator pump, a nice addition. Bilge had a cockpit gusher pump fitted with removable handle (something that is highly recommended for any boat). Separate chain locker for the anchor well. Double lifelines. Keel joint was tight and lacked the "Catalina Smile" (a crack at the front of the keel) that occurs on older 27s. Only real issues that we identified were the leaking vent in the head and the drain hoses needed new clamps.

By the end of this back-and-forth, we were quite impressed. And we learned some history. The boat had been donated to a charity and was being sold to raise funds. It had been sailed from Solomons Island not two days prior and had been out of the water only for a day.

As we began to talk cost, we really began to smile. The price was beautiful at $5000. I indicated I needed to run some rating numbers to determine how the boat compared to others. But as my wife and I talked and began to list what we would need to do to get her up to our desires, the more appealing she became. Understand we were looking at spending north of $12,000 plus the expense of a survey, winterization and anything we needed to add or change before launch. With a $12K budget, we realized we could afford to sink $2-3K into a $5000 boat, get it set up perfectly and leave us much happier in the end and with a lot more money in the bank.

While the C&C 29 was well-kept, any good boat can be brought up to that standard and in the Catalina 27, all of the basics were there. What pushed us over the edge was the realization that we had gotten $4000 for our O'Day 22 and that essentially we were buying the 27 for $1000. Since we had already banked that and then some, the decision was made and we wrote a check for $5000 as our initial offer.

Our offer was accepted this morning. Our boat has found us.

Photos will be forthcoming and now we have a slew of planning and prioritization to manage between now and before winter sets in. First priorities are new bottom paint, hull waxing and some topside repair work for gouges above the rub rail. We are having the broker do for us since it is cheaper for us to pay him than it is to hire the yard to do it. Same goes for winter storage. He's cheaper than anyone. So we're set for the winter.

When I ran the numbers and did some research on this model, the Catalina 27 comes out very nicely. It is really hard to go wrong with a Catalina since they are the most popular sailboat brand in the United States and there are probably more 27s in the world than any other model out there. So support and information aren't an issue.

Things happen in ways you don't expect. A boat we hadn't glanced at or wrote off as being trashed turned out to be a jewel and not a very rough one at that. The boat never even reached the market. In a month, the original owners won't recognize her.

We close on the paperwork this week and start getting things in order. It is going to be a very exciting couple of months and we're thrilled.

Sweet sailing lies ahead! April can't get here soon enough.

The Great Boat Hunt has ended. The Great Marina Hunt begins!

The Great Boat Hunt

It's possible that the Great Boat Hunt might be ending this month. We are considering making on offer on a C&C 29 Mk.II.

She's a pretty sailboat. A fin keel cruiser/racer drawing 5'3". It has all of the features we are looking for in a sailboat which include:

• Roller furling
• Inboard auxillary propulsion
• Short-handed rigging configuration
• Bimini
• Wheel steering
• 6 foot headroom (for me)
• Icebox
• Sink w/freshwater storage
• Stove
• Double berth accomodation (port side berth folds out to a double berth)
• Marine head with shower sump

The last four are "nice to haves" but most boats we've been looking at possess them. If you click through the link above, you'll see photos of the various features. The big items are the rigging setup and inboard engine.

Since it will mostly my wife and I sailing, a rig set up for short-hand or singlehanded sailing is important. Which this boat has. Having gone forward to raise and lower sails, this is a very nice feature. This boat has all lines routed back to the cockpit so we don't need to leave its safety to raise/lower/furl any of the sails. A very nice feature.

The name will go, of course. Traditions must be followed.

I'm in the process of getting survey estimates. A pre-purchase survey is a critical item that anyone should do (and most reputable brokers will recommend) if you are looking to buy a boat that you don't consider a "project boat" and expect to do considerable work on to make seaworthy. Costs varies on a survey and most surveyors charge by the foot. Quotes I'm receiving are in the $500-$600 range.

When you're spending $10K or more, this is a worthwhile investment. It might seem like a lot to some folks since it is adding a significant percentage to the cost on cheaper boats but as my wife has been asking on the cheaper vessels: "What's wrong with it?". The survey answers that question in detail.

All it takes is something to be wrong with the inboard engine, hull or standing rigging to make a cheap boat suddenly become very, very expensive. A car mechanic is positively cheap compared to a marine mechanic. You can easily spend $2000 or more to repair serious problems with a marine diesel. Or even have to replace said engine at costs that can easily exceed $5000. Or not catch a corroded stay or shroud that hold the mast up that carry the immense wind loads and suddenly your rig snaps and is over the side. You want to scream like you're in a horror movie? Call up a rigger and ask how much it will cost to replace the mast and associated rigging on a 30 foot sailboat sometime. This, of course, assumes the dismasting doesn't cost you the boat in the process.

So a survey is good insurance. Plus, it is usually needed by insurance companies in order to insure a vessel for loss. If you don't do a survey, they may insist on one otherwise they won't cover you beyond operator liability. Most purchase contracts also reserve the right of the buyer to walk away from the deal if they aren't satisfied with the survey results so it is also buyer protection. Which is totally subjective, by the way. If I feel something in the survey such as the condition of the running rigging, doesn't meet my standards, I can argue for a reduction in price to replace it or I can decide to walk because it isn't worth my hassle to deal with the extra expense post-purchase.

I expect we'll be making a decision this week. I plan to head out to the yard this weekend to do a detailed inspection and then make an offer if we're happy. From there, we make a deposit, sign the purchase contract which includes our right to have the boat surveyed and take it for a test sail. All of these things are at our expense so you only do this if you're serious. If we aren't happy after either of these, we walk and get our deposit back. This assumes our offer will be accepted.

A test sail is one of our requirements. My wife has to be happy with the feel of the boat on the water before we'll commit. She does not want a light boat like our O'Day 22 was. Based on pure numbers (which tells nothing about how the boat will actually behave), the C&C 29 is quite favorable and compares very well to the Beneteau First 376 we were out on a few weeks ago. She liked the Beneteau so I expect a positive reception to the C&C. It should feel very similar to the Beneteau and to the 12 Meter America's Cup boats we've been on in the past.

I'm excited. Now it's getting serious. Here's hoping for a few good weeks ahead and with positive results, a great season of sailing next spring!

Will keep you posted.

Just a Thought

Tam points out some issues with the horrible excuse making that is occurring by various members of the Hollywood set excusing Roman Polanski's behavior because of what he has gone through and how long ago it was.

So let me ask this: Would you defend Roman Polanski for drugging and raping a 13 year old girl back if his wife hadn't been killed by Charles Manson?

I suspect if you take away the tragedy of that event from his life, Roman Polanski would be just another dirty old man who deserves to go to jail. I suspect a lot of people who should know better are excusing this act because of this and it shows, as Tam points out.

Just a thought.