Monday, December 01, 2014

Staying Fresh

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

We all know the story about TV shows that run for several years.   At some point  (frequently the 7th year) the writers run out of fresh original story plots.   I can sympathize with them because I'm feeling the same pressure.  I too feel the quite natural pressure to not repeat previous themes, deliberately.  I must do it accidentally because I have no systematic way to check an idea for tomorrow's post against the archive of this blog.  Most of all, I want to avoid the pitfall of "jumping the shark".  If you don't know what that means, click here.

The obvious topic, what did we do today and what are we planning tomorrow, is a natural for travelers.  That could be called a journal, or a diary.   Our cited reason for starting this blog was to prevent family and friends from calling the Coast Guard if we were overdue.   We have a duty to inform them and all our readers about our journey and our status.

But cruising journal blogs quickly become boring if that is the only topic.  It is too much of "I'm here having fun and you're not."  I limit journal type posts to about 20% of the total number of posts on this blog.

Below is a table of statistics for this blog

Year   #Posts   #posts per week
2005        202           5                    (partial year)
2006        260           5
2007        288           6
2008        309           6
2009        311           6
2010        300           6
2011        283           5
2012        264           5
2013        213           4
2014        181           4                     (partial year)
Total      2611

Readers can help by suggesting topics.  What is it that you haven't seen here that you would like to read about.  I made the same request a few years back and I got some good suggestions.  Thanks for that.  I tried to follow up on most of them.

More than once, I've vowed to start interviewing interesting characters we meet and to turn those interviews into multi-post articles.   I'm not sure why I haven't done that.


5 comments:

  1. Love your site and look forward to reading it every day...how about discussing the cost of cruising full time? How much does one need per month to cover all of the routine expenses?

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  2. From a cruiser wanna be, what's it like to go food shopping? I love all the details. Preparations, what do you take to assist you, dinghy challenges, walking/riding getting everything back to the dinghy, off the dinghy, getting it stores, in what, etc. I know this might seem boring but I'd be interested in such details.

    Love your blog and thanks for putting so much into it!

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  3. Have enjoyed your blog for years. I've noticed that the majority of your time is spent either at anchor or on a mooring. Your time underway is a small portion, and much that is under power. Given that, do you continue to feel your Westsail 32 is the optimum boat for how you live? As you move further along the age spectrum, do you ever consider switching to a power boat? What are the pros and cons of your Westsail after living aboard for so many years?

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  4. We look forward to each post and greatly enjoy your writing style subject matter. Thanks!

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  5. Dick, from my experience with my own blog, people read yours to live vicariously through you. They want to know what it is really like. The good, the bad, and the ugly. They want to enjoy beautiful sunsets, and commiserate when you have to rebuild the head. Most of these folks probably are either cruising, or want to cruise one day. What is it like? Certainly not what you read in cruising magazines! Oh, that reminds me. What a hoot! For some reason, Power & Motoryacht started showing up in my mailbox. If you remember Drift Away, our experience was nothing like what they depict! LOL!!

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