Since me and my family live three hours from the ocean, I’m obviously not on my boat as often as I want to be, but I want to keep learning as much as possible on technical sailboat cruising subjects. These are often the ones that involve expensive specialty experts; who are more than happy to come to your boat and do whatever needs to be done, for a price per hour. I know,,,,I’ve hired the best of them,,,,from surveyer, rig inspector, diesel mechanic, electrician, gelcoat repairman, polisher, bottom cleaner and the list goes on. These would have been very expensive ventures if I simply sat back with a Corona and let them work while I relaxed in the hammock. Since I don’t do this and follow thier every move to learn as much as I can, I chalk each of these bills up to training AND repair cost on my boat. Thus, if you figure out how much that electrical training and work would have cost if done separately and amertize those two costs together, it’s really quite affordable? Right,,,,see my logic? This the point in the blog where people with true mechanical skills roll thier eyes in disgust! Yes, Yes, I could have spent countless hours trying to figure it all out for free and read the manuals, but I just don’t always have time,,,,but I’m learning quick.
To keep learning while away from the boat, I’ve found that the various cruising and sailboating publications I buy often have articles with vast amounts of good, solid technical advice, so I started saving them for future reading. Today was cleanup sunday,,,and when I looked under the bed and realized I had more than 100 sailing magazines under there, I knew it was time to start actually looking for the articles I wanted to keep. Much like Captain Couch’s “The Checklist” I’m keeping articles that have specific training and learning points I need or interest me. So, I simply ripped them out and put them in a folder for a time I want to reference back to them. I’ve got stacks of articles that cover: boat buying, places to visit, natural energy (electrical), kids on sailboats and plumbing. This doesn’t mean I don’t have personal experience with all these things, it just means I want to hear what others say about them and probably find expert knowledge and great ideas from others. Since I can’t get to my boat all the time, I’m going to keep collecting articles till I’m comfortable with the subjects,,,,but I’m no mechanical or electrical genius, so I’ll keep reading.
