Good News and Bad

Willsboro Bay, NY
44 23.95 N 073 23.50 W

Suddenly, our crew count jumped from 2 to 8. We were joined by our son John and his family, Cheryl, Nick, Sara, Katelyn and Victoria. No, we're not all sleeping on the boat. We rented a camp here in Willsboro as a base. John's family wants to learn to sail, so for the next few days I'll be running Dick's Sailing School. I'll probably also be blogging less than normal because I'll be busy and because family life, aside from cruising life, should not be a bloggable topic.

Also, let me share something. Some thing that is part of being retired and living the cruising life. I got a package in the mail that says on the envelope, "Welcome to Medicare." "Good," I thought, "that should be a relief to have medical coverage for the first time in 5 years." But as I read the material in the package, I became more and more hot under the collar.

Medicare has four parts. Part A covers 80% of hospitalization and it is free of charge. Part B covers 80% of doctor charges. The good part is that parts A and B cover us in all the states we visit in a year. Private insurance won't cover non-emergency costs outside your home state. The bad part is that since government intervention in health care, inflation adjusted medical costs have soared so much that my premium plus 20% of the costs are far higher than 100% of our medical premiums plus costs used to be in the 60s.

Part C is medigap insurance. It covers most of the 20% share. The cost is variable, from one hundred up to several hundred dollars per month. However, all of them seem to have the property that all non-emergency care must be provided in one's home state. That doesn't fit our life style at all.

Part D is prescription medicine. It's costs also varies from one hundred to several hundred dollars per month. We're not too interested in that. I estimate that we spent only about $400 dollars for prescription medicines in the past 20 years. The part D premium would be more than 10000% more than our current budget!

Now for the infuriating part. The material says that if we do not choose to buy the optional Part C ad Part D coverage right away, that we will be penalized for the rest of our lives. That's right. We have free choice, but my benevolent government chooses to begin a new relationship by me by leading off with threats. I do not respond kindly to being threatened. We also have a constitutional right to privacy, especially regarding personal medical information. However, to use one penny of the Medicare benefit one must waive his privacy rights.

@$_*!&%)^#!@$(!!! Is there any wonder why I'm so libertarian?

Sailing Stories 4

Burlington, VT
NoLL

You may remember some of the stories we posted previously about Art and Don, those two great sea farers that we met in the Bahamas. Here are links to stories 1 2 and 3. We only got to chat with them for an hour or so, but the stories just poured and poured from their memories. If I could spend a few days with them, I'd have material for a great book.

Anyhow, as you know from reading this blog, experience hardly conveys immunity to stupidity and embarrassing moments.

We were sitting in the cockpit of Don's boat, Road of Isles. I was drinking in all the great stories of their adventures. As I listened, my eyes were drawn to an inscription on their binnacle. It said RUD in big block letters. I tried for a while to guess that that might mean, but nothing came to me. Finally I asked Don. Here's what he told me.

"We have a hydraulic steering system on Road of Isles. At night when sitting at anchor it makes a very annoying clunk clunk sound as the wave action pushes the rudder from side to side. To sleep I must get up, go into the engine compartment, and open the bypass valve that disables the steering. However, on three departure occasions, we cast off our lines from the dock, engaged the engine, and motored off only to discover that we had no steering control. As the boat drifted out of control, I had to dash down to the engine room, crawl under the engine and close the bypass valve. The RUD inscription on the binnacle is supposed to remind me to never do that again."

The Skunk

Burlington, VT
NoLL

I can't resist telling this non-sailing story.

Around 20 years ago, I was driving home one night after a late day at the office. It was just around dusk, and it was just cooling off after a very hot day. I drove up the steep hill on Burlington's Main Street with my windows open. As stopped for a stop sign I was astounded to see a skunk trot across the street right in front of me. I sat and watched. The skunk crossed the street, crossed a lawn, and continued right up the steps of a fraternity house and in to the open front door.

It was one of the funniest things I ever saw. I couldn't help thinking that in a million years, none of the boys in that fraternity house would ever believe that the skunk walked in there on his own. They would forever believe that it must have been a prank by a rival fraternity. Tee hee.

Really On Top Of History

Burlington, VT
NoLL

We decided to spend a second night ashore. Can you imagine that? But that meant that I had to return to the boat to run the engine for a while to recharge the battery. With a freezer and fridge on board, and only 50w of solar power, we must recharge every day.

When I returned to Tarwathie, I was surprised to find a team of scuba divers swimming around and under her. "What could they be up to?" I thought. After talking with them, I learned that is was a class learning marine archeology, and that they had found a wreck directly under where Tarwathie sits in 8 feet of water. There are numerous wrecks in the immediate vicinity so it was not a big surprise.

Anyhow, I told them that they would be welcome to an architecturally significant old zinc if they were willing to remove it from Tarwathie and to screw on a new replacement zinc I have ready to go. Too bad, they were too smart to be fooled by me :)

Rejected

Burlington, VT
NoLL

This morning we returned to Burlington. Our intention was to leave Tarwathie on a city mooring overnight while we enjoyed a anniversary dinner on shore. (It's our 44th today.)

Anyhow, we picked up a mooring and prepared to go ashore, the harbormaster boat came by. They said that we would have to leave -- all the moorings are reserved for a regatta. Oh well.

We moved a half mile away and anchored. The winds are not supposed to be strong tonight, so leaving Tarwathie at anchor and without the protection of the breakwater should be OK.

Going ashore, I got another unwelcome surprise. It seems that my rescue of the Honda outboard motor was not complete. Our 2HP motor has no forward-neutral-reverse. Instead it has a centrifugal clutch. Well the clutch slipped like crazy. It must be full of water. We had to use almost full speed on the motor to make the dinghy move at all. Darn. I'm not sure yet how to remedy that problem.