Community

One of the things we read about frequently is the how the cruising community is very tight and helpful. As a couple of people who are still on the fringe of this community I can already see how this can be true. We have had numerous private email conversations with couples who are already out there, or are working up to it as we are. We have been invited to dinner by others who have been cruising and want to help. Add to that the words of support and advice we have received via this blog. Rebecca and I were talking yesterday about the people we want to stop in and see when we get to the Chesapeake area later this year. We joked that we will need a calendar to “schedule everyone in.” Thanks so much to everyone who is contributing to our adventure and that includes those of you who we have yet to meet. We are very, very appreciative!

Now that the feel-good moment is past, we can get back to practical, get-ready kind of stuff. We had a productive weekend which included, believe it or not, more purging of “stuff.” This round of purging included clothes and (gasp!) books! Yes, books are heavy, and we needed to trim down our library. I don’t think we need to have 10-12 basic sailing books. I got out the bathroom scale and weighed the pile of books that we decided to remove. The total was 21.5 pounds. That may not seem like a lot but things like that add up. We decided that after Katana is back in the water we will weigh each item before we bring it back on board, just to see how much we are weighing her down.

I found a good website this morning called Creative Cruising Concepts. There is a section on that site where the author lists the items that have worked for them in their travels. It is quite extensive and worth a read.

And here is something else I stumbled across yesterday: A 2 gallon/day watermaker which works by using the sun! We could always set something like that up on Katana’s tramp.