LJ Idol 06: Not of Your World.

[i_id]

Go sit inside a minivan. Take the seats out of their places, line them along the sides. Build a counter, a cabinet, a bed in the back. A bathroom the size of a washing machine. Cover the windows with duct-tape, except for narrow spaces at the top. Climb in and out through the sun roof. Now you have a model of the inside of a small sailboat

Comments

[skylanth]

Oh great. Now not only will I be worrying about you getting lost, encountering rogue waves, boarded by pirates, or encountering Kevin Costner's character from Waterworld. I will worry about you running out of onions. How, then, will you be able to get the correct complex flavor of your chili con spam? It'll keep me awake at night!

I'm going to send you off with a giant bag of onions, maybe some dehydrated onions, and half a cow's worth of beef jerky.

[i_id]

You're coming with me, you dip. *wubs*

[skylanth]

Well, for some of it, unless we change our minds in Hawaii. In Hawaii, I will get you lots of onions and dehydrated onions and beef jerky. For the Hawaii leg, however, I'm gonna make sure our food is yummilicious. I look forward to challenges of storage and micro-kitchen.

*wubs*

[skylanth]

Oh, and we must also learn to fish, and what to do if we actually catch a fish. Because I don't even know.

[basric]

The worry about pirates is an actual threat so a nice semi automatic rifle with lots of ammo is a must too especially if your trip is near the African or South American coastline. On second thought most have gunboats so maybe you should mount a swivel fully automatic on the what ever is the highest steady point.

Well done.

[i_id]

Pirates are a threat, but not a large one to a scruffy little pocket cruiser like mine.

Unless I have something they want. Like a gun.

[basric]

Its what they THINK you have like money or drugs. Or just taken and hold you for ransom. I'd take my chance with the gun.

When we took the cruise down the South American coastline we were shocked to see guard posted with fully automatic weapons on deck. They said pirates were notorious for attacking anyone. They especially liked to burn small crafts.

[i_id]

I am not taking a gun. I am pro-gun, I own one, but there are about a million reasons why it is a bad idea for me to take one on a cruise, most of which involve me being killed by my own gun (very, very common among solo sailors. Unarmed thief sneaks aboard in the night, finds gun, sailor wakes up and startles him, gets shot. 4-5 reports a year just in American waters, including a sadly late friend of mine.), having my gun taken away from me by customs officials (India, Maldives), having my boat taken away from me by customs officials, or having to bribe said officials to keep the latter two from happening.

Because I get this suggestion from about every tenth person who hears what I'm doing, I'm addressing it in length here, but the argument has become a touchy subject for me personally, so I need to ask that you not carry it further.

1) I'm not going to South America. The closest contact I will have with that continent is Panama. For precisely the reason that there are pirates there

[edith_jones]

I don't know which would be worse - the seasickness or the claustrophobia. Reading this entry I felt somewhat ill, which you shouldn't apologize for at all, because you wrote beautifully of what it would be like in a little enclosed boat. That it was too much for me is entirely my own fault.

Your adventure sounds fascinating. I mentioned it to my 18-year old son and if you need a strong young deckhand I don't think it would take much to get him along.

[i_id]

The seasickness goes away. It really does. After 20 or so hours, in my case. And the claustrophobia only lasts until you come up on deck and realize that you may as well be out in space.

But! As for your son, watch this space. As a departure date becomes concrete (sometime in the next three years), I'll be looking for interested souls to come along for some leg or other of the voyage. I don't want to share a boat for three years with anyone, but I wouldn't mind trading crewmates from port to port.

[fortitudehigh]

I'd have a hard time leaving my Stuff (yes, capital S!) behind, but wow, what an adventure you're in for!

[i_id]

I am trying to pare down my stuff before I go, so I'm not just leaving my bedroom at my parents' house as a storage unit. Currently, it all fits in about a minivan and a half. Need to go juuuust a bit further.

[myrna_bird]

Your adventurous spirit is still shining through.

[i_id]

It had better keep on shining, I have a long road ahead of me.