Freedom!

Knowledge is freedom, and I need more of it!

My Japanese friend Aki on Liberty gave me a nice food dryer. In his wonderful accent he said “you can dry anything for free”. I need to replace the zipper but I am now the proud owner of a five level, Japanese designed, collapsible food dryer. I’m going to start provisioning by drying pounds and pounds of bananas, tomatoes, mango, coconut, and fish. The fish is free, and the fruit and vegetables here are basically free. For example, a fifteen pound bag of oranges is $3.00, not to mention the fact that I can pick up as much fruit as I want off of the ground.

My German friends Ali & Gerty (on Geneses) gave me a book which is turning into my new bible. He said “The best years we had on the boat was when we had no money in the Med, life is easy that way”. The book cover reads, “Independence on thirty feet”, “A survival guide to homesteading on the ocean”. The title of the book is “Sailing the Farm” written by Ken Neumeyer. The book is awe-inspiring and covers how to make cheeses, yogurt, vegetable/dairy/and fruit butters, dried foods & seaweed, sprouts, and much more. It makes me think, what did we do before refrigeration? I love my refrigeration system but my cold box is only so big, how do I fill it at sea?

When one gets to the south Pacific you can get the basics (rice & beans) pretty cheap, but things like wine and cheese are expensive. I can make wine & cheese!

Ken Neumeyer sold & bartered dried foods on his voyage, how cool is that?

I believe I need to become more self sufficient. Our beautiful planet is designed to support us and I intend to become a master of that system!

I’ll never forget the starving woman and child begging for money in Jamaica. They were emaciated. The reason the image sticks in my head is because they were sitting under a ripe mango tree and just yards away from a forest filled with bananas, coconuts, and breadfruit. I wanted to give her money but I knew it would just go to buy rock (crack). Food was literally falling at her feet yet they were starving. It is a funny world isn’t it? Sometimes I don’t understand it.

I think loosing my income could be the best thing that’s happened to me in a while. I believe it will make me a better man. Less is more! Last year I lived on around eight grand, this year I’m shooting for about twenty five hundred. Not a lot by American standards but still a lot of money in a third-world country, and I live in a third-world country.

I will be posting logs and pictures more often now. I’ve been distracted lately. In the past year I’ve “settled in” too much. It’s time to get moving and I’m excited. I don’t think I was ready to cross the Pacific last season. I really wanted a HDV camera package & editing station, a good still camera, and a windlass. In the past year I’ve made these things happen, not to mention getting to the bottom of my motor issues.

Oh yeah, I didn’t tell you about my windlass. I’ve really needed a windlass for Namaste. It’s a core piece of equipment for a sailboat. On a few windy occasions I have really had a hard time raising the anchor and found myself in potentially dangerous situations. I used to believe that I wanted an electric windlass with a switch in the cockpit. My whole thinking changed after cruising for a while. After a bit of experience I realized I wanted a good and simple manual windlass. When my buddy Roger owned the yard that built Bristol Channel Cutters he put an ABI manual windlass on every boat. I called the folks at ABI and struck an advertising deal. I’m getting my windlass. I will not be advertising for them because they are giving me a windlass. I’ll be advertising for them because they make the best manual windlass in the market. This is based on Roger’s experience, and I respect Roger’s opinion. If you haven’t got his book yet, check it out, it’s in the store section of the website. I will document the installation of the windlass and will be talking about it in the future. I need to build a mount for it and will be looking for some teak or mahogany today. I should have the windlass in around 2 weeks. I had to send them a length of my chain so they could custom fit a gypsy for it.

Exciting times!

Peace, Love and Freedom!

– Alex