The SSCA GAM, Day 2 - Seminar Day

Melbourne, FL, Public Library
No LL (map)

Today we went to seminars all day at the SSCA. We had seminars on radio email, line handling, knots, splicing, stocking the medicine cabinet, man overboard, storms at sea, illness at sea, collisions at sea, onboard living tips, and trolling for fish.

We managed to learn new things at each seminar. I just hope we can retain the things we learned. It's a lot of stuff in just a few days.

I also bought a 160GB USB hard drive for only $40 at a flea market. I think that's a very good price. Now I can properly (and easily) back up both laptops, and I can make room for more photos in our albums. The new digital cameras, used at full resolution and quality, create much bigger files than the old cameras did and eat up hard disk. The progression will never stop. Within 3 years I bet we'll be reading about terabyte thumb drives.


I also ordered our new jib and our first jib furler. We've never owned a furler before. I think it will make our life much easier. Manhandling that old jib and trying to stuff it in to the bag was strenuous and tedious. Worse, downhauls never worked for me, so to lower the jib at sea in heavy wind meant that I had to crawl all the way out to the end of the bowsprit. More than once, it was like sitting in the ducking stool. With the furler, we can reef or furl the jib from the comfort of the cockpit.

We still have a hanked on stay sail, but we need to take it up and down much less often, and it is much smaller and lighter, and not way out at the end of the bowsprit.

The most quotable line I heard at the seminars was from a talk about sea sickness. A man and his wife had been sea sick for three straight days. He came up to the cockpit with a sandwich for her and asked, "Do you want to eat this or should I just throw it directly over the side?"

All this luxury will cost money. About $2,200 for the new sail. $2,200 for a Selden furler, and $500 for the furler installation. Both will be done by local vendors while we are in Vero. After last year's engine project, this is our major expenditure for the whole year.

p.s. I could have gotten the sail cheaper from Hong Kong, but then I would not get to make a combined deal with the furler. In this case, they charged me about $1,000 less than list price for the furler.