Sam, Guin, Tommy, and I attended the Annapolis boat show yesterday. We walked through all the booths and I realized something. Attending a boat show with dreams of cruising can be somewhat overwhelming, especially if your on a tight budget. The last time I attended the show was before I went cruising and I wanted one of everything. This time, there were only a handful of things. These are all the things I plan on carrying in the new store. I got to have a little chat with Jimmy Cornell which was really cool and say ‘hi’ to some of my product supporters. Can anyone loan me 2 million dollars? I wouldn’t mind buying the new Tayana 67,or was it 65? It has my name all over it.
All I was really looking for was a good deal on an EPIRB and no one had the one I wanted in stock. I think I’m going to go with the ACR 406 without the GPS. Some of the smaller personal EPIRBS are cool but only have a 24 hour transmit time as opposed to a 48 hour time. I learned something cool about the smaller EPIRBS though. You can turn them off, so what people do is transmit for 6 hours, and turn it off for 3. This not only extends the battery life, but gives you a small device that easily fits in a ditch bag. All this being said our life-raft and EPIRB will most likely never see the light of day or ever get turned on. It’s all just insurance. We will also have a satellite phone, SPOT, SSB, and Magellan communicator on board. We have all the latest & greatest safety gear.
I need to be at the boat I’m delivering on the 14th, we’ll be shoving off for the keys on the 15th. I’ll have the SPOT running again which is always fun.
I’m going to chill for the next few days with my girls. I CANT WAIT TO SHOVE OFF SOON. I’ve pretty much made the decision to do the Bahamas. It’s a good cruising ground to break the girls in on. George Town is like kid central and a good place for Guin to make some friends.
Peace everyone.
Sail far and live slowly.
– Alex
hey all, Alex i lived most of my adult life off the grid. I became the go to guy for advice on the subject where i lived so I started a little “store”. designing and selling off the grid supplies.( A woman came along and ruined all that temporarily lol). anyway all i did was get a tax number, a few suppliers so I could shop around. Many will even supply you with a catalogue with your businesses name on it, and had everything drop shipped to my customer. no inventory, always sold for way less than they could buy it elsewhere and still make a profit so it always felt good. I am a terrible capitalist. but your idea is good and it would be great to buy things someone is using and really vouches for. I’m living on a 26 and shopping for a low to mid 30 footer now, get it going and i’ll be buying, good luck, wade
guin has grown since i last saw her. what are you feeding that kid?
oh.. a little threadjack here:
i found a yanmar 12hp! now all i have to do is sell one of my 9.9hp outboards to be able to afford it.
i’m guessing this will all blow up in my face, as usual, though.
that should be fun too!
(jealous of being at the boat show)
D,
So you dont want me to follow up on the Yanmar I found?
I see a HAMN on the stool !!!!!!!!! :)
Alex,
Have you checked out Bebi Electronics? They are right up your alley.
Hey does anyone know how to use that sewing machine? I could use a Drifter and some cushions.
–E
Eric,
Talk to http://somersetsails.com/ about a drifter, they have good prices, tell them I sent you. And pick up a chutescoop.
Still heading for jacksonville? I’m leaving norfolk on the 15th.
Cheers
Hello everyone.
I agree that the boat show was a little overwhelming.I am a first yr sailer and really wanted to get ideas for my boat but everything there was around 1.7 million not in my budget right now (unless I sell the house and everything I own as a down payment) haha.. I really think they should have had a cruiser/live a board section so us little folk could have talked and bounced ideas off each other (might have to send them an email about that one).My wife and I drove all night from Oswego NY and will do it again for yrs to come ,it was alot of fun and the town was beautiful..We will be back down in may for the flea market hope it is all that I am thinking it will be….
Hope all is well
John
What route are you taking to go to the Keys? I have gotten down to Atl City, NJ and will be running down to Norfolk on the 18 – 20 th. Then ICW to Beaufort and out.
-Eric
P.S. I want to use the Sewing Machine….
Hey this has little to do with … well anything at all) but I Stumbled on this website for Marine Traffic, I dunno if it’d be useful or not but thought I’d toss up the link if ya’ll wanted to take a look
http://www.marinetraffic.com
I was just watching some you tubes of spear fishing, that made me wonder if there were any camera booths at the boat show? The nice swivel ones or under water ones or anything like that for your next adventure.
Peace, love and our first frost :( Dean
oh. i still don’t know what will be happening with that yanmar, alex. for all i know, by the time i sell an outboard, nothing will be available. who knows. i have to meet with Colin Mack tomorrow so he can give me an estimate on my rig. that should be my priority, because a sailboat that can’t sail is a FAILBOAT.
i should be getting some work, any day now. waiting on a contract ( i hate waiting), then if that little yanmar is gone, i will call about the one you found.
man, that took a long time to explain.
Toss up an ad on Craigslist that you are looking for a little diesel. I see them pop up all the time in FL. Use http://www.searchtempest.com to search multiple craigslists at once.
yeah. i’m using crazedlist.org to search all of florida.
hi guys loi figured this out let me knowl