“Going to the shore in the dinghy is totally free. Well, like it might cost two cents worth of dinghy gas. But, if you row! I guess if you row it’s free.”
Yes, these are the kind of things I say when I’m being interviewed. Where do I come up with this stuff? Phillip paused the playback and turned slowly toward me. “‘Dinghy gas?'” he asked, his eyebrows floating up. “Is that different than like … regular gas?”
If you’ve been following on Facebook, you may have seen this. I was recently interviewed by Travis Parsons with 180 Tack for his Adventure Sports Podcasts. The podcast offers in-depth interviews three days a week from a variety of adventure sports enthusiasts around the globe: outfitters, guides, instructors, authors and many more who live their lives to the fullest. Travis said he reached out to me after seeing my book, Salt of a Sailor, on Amazon and he wanted to do an interview with me about what it’s like to cruise and how others can get out there and do it. That’s my whole platform, Travis! “Get inspired. Get on board.” Needless to say, I was thrilled to do it and Travis was super easy and fun to talk to.
But I only recently found the time to sit down and seriously listen to the podcast all the way through and there are definitely plenty of little Annie gems in there. Like the “dinghy gas” for instance. “Yes, Phillip, it is. Dinghy gas is totally different than regular gas. It comes out of the dinghy pump at the fuel dock. You didn’t see it there?”
I’m such a goober sometimes. Many other nuggets in there for you as well. I think I mentioned “flapping around like Daffy Duck” at one point, my dad’s long-ago “lady friends” and the notorious “What happen’ was.” Oh my … I cringe every time I hear my voice on playback. Who knows what the hell is going to come out. If you’re curious, give it a listen. Enjoy.
First kiting video! I love this one. A little pink panther mystery for you. Someone got brave enough to fly the kite in one hand and hold the GoPro in the other. Pretty ballsy. Who’s the hero? Find out!
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Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.
“I was just reading along and I started to think, hey, that sounds like what happened to us. Then I looked at the cover photo and thought, ‘That looks just like me!’”
Followers, this was Mitch speaking, and I couldn’t not share this with you. Many of you may already know Mitch─either personally or you feel a sort of close kinship to him from reading my book, Salt of a Sailor. He was “Neal Armstrong stepping on the moon” every time he stepped on the deck of our boat. Ka-boom! He was the “elephant going through a carwash” as he bumbled and climbed up and down the companionway stairs─an uncomfortable display which eventually caused his evolution into Mitch “While-You’re-Down-There” Roberts because every time Phillip or I would hint─even slightly─that we might─just possibly─could be in some way headed down below, he would start in with: “While you’re down there.” But, Mitch was also the man with the “heart of gold” who made a huge commitment in helping Phillip and I bring our Niagara 35 home across the Gulf of Mexico in some pretty rough seas. Thank you Mitch. However, he also─like me apparently─suffers from the occasional blonde moment. This one, in particular, was quite entertaining.
So, Mitch is hanging around the airport last week, waiting for his son’s plane to come in and he’s looking for something to read. He meanders into one of the many book and magazine corner stores in the airport and, being a bit of an avid sailor and water-sports kind of guy, picks up the September issue of SAIL Magazine. Mitch starts thumbing through, skimming the table of contents and eventually finds his way to this page, where he thinks an article about the occasional need for a hacksaw on a sailboat might be entertaining.
So, here’s what he tells Phillip and I about the incident:
“So, I─you know─look at the picture and I’m checking out the dinghy back there all crashed out in the water with the davits and all, I see the crew trying to cut it off, and I think, hey, that sounds like what happened to us.”
It IS what happened to us, Mitch. That’s us. But this thought hasn’t yet struck him.
“So, I start reading and, sure enough, it sounds exactly like us, so I start thinking who wrote this? I see Annie’s name up there and know, once again, I’m going to have to correct this story.”
You have to know this is a long-standing (friendly) disagreement between Mitch and I. He likes to think he didn’t get as sea-sick as he actually did on our inaugural passage, and he likes to pretend the whole incident with the “broccoli crappola” didn’t happen (if you’re not familiar with the event, I highly recommend the book), or at least that it wasn’t his fault because we shouldn’t have fed him broccoli. Yeah, we should have known better. Who eats that crap anyway?
But, here’s the real kicker. Once everything finally clicks into place and Mitch realizes this is not just a similar incident, but the actual incident, he then finally takes in the illustration for what it really is─a depiction of us cutting off the dinghy. (Which, awesome illustration accompanying the article by the way. Thank you SAIL Magazine and Jan Adkins!) And, you know what Mitch says about the drawing?
“Now that’s an accurate representation. That looks just like me.”
Yeah, okay buddy. It looks just like you.
If you guys haven’t seen the article yet, be sure to pick up a copy of the September issue of SAIL Magazine and enjoy!
Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.
Here we go kids, Episode No. 1. I have a lot of friends and followers who are curious what it’s like on the boat and they ask me: “Is sailing fun?” If you want to know, I have three questions for you …
Stay tuned next time for another good salty yarn on the blog. I write to share the stories and I now film to share the journey with you. Enjoy!
Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.
This is it kids. The big video reveal. A lot of hard work went into this. I hope you enjoy it (let me know!) and I hope it helps me share our adventures with more people. Thanks, as always, to everyone for your continued enthusiasm and support. I’m doing this for you! Subscribe to our channel, share and follow along:
Curious about cruising? Come aboard. I write to share the stories and I film to share the journey with you. Sign up to follow via the blog, YouTube or Facebook and get videos, blogs and books on cruising, kite-surfing, silks and every adventure in between. If you enjoy the journey, check out my books on Amazon, show some love with a weekly donation through Patreon or just share it with others and let us know. We love to hear from followers and send them free cool stuff. Email or message me on Facebook. Get inspired. Get on board.
Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.
Big changes are coming. Parental discretion advised. I’m kidding. It’s all PG … 13. We’re about to launch some exciting new things on the blog. If you’ve been following me on Facebook, you know what’s coming. If you haven’t, you should! I’ve been sharing lots of fun photos and things in between blog posts on my personal Facebook profile, but I just re-vamped our HaveWindWillTravel.com Page for the video launch and will use it to share photos, adventures and other fun tidbits that don’t make it to the blog (yes, there is a ton of stuff that doesn’t make the cut). So “Like” and follow on the Page to get every bit of HaveWind goodness. I wanted to take a moment, though, and talk to you here about all this crazy social media stuff I’ve been doing recently: Facebook, GoPro, now videos? Lord, when will she stop? You’re probably wondering: Where is all this going? Why am I doing this?
Good question. I ask myself that every day (which may sound crazy to you, but, trust me, as a self-published author, it’s not). I constantly have to ask myself: What am I doing to help grow my readership and engage my audience today and is it working? Uhhh … marketing. Easily the least fun part of my job as a writer/creator. But I was serious about this writing gig when I left the practice, so I do want to succeed at it. Just because I’m not a high-priced lawyer anymore doesn’t mean I’m not still driven, disciplined and want to succeed. I just define success differently now. It’s finding fulfillment in what I do to earn a living so that my time is spent in a more meaningful way. I have found that in writing about our adventures, big and small. And I have been flattered and humbled by the support I have received from readers who have read and enjoyed my blog posts and books and those who have written reviews and supported me on Patreon. It seems I am reaching people and they’re enjoying what I’m doing. That motivates me to continue. The writing I love. It’s the most frustrating, but rewarding, challenge. I could do it every day, all day─well, all morning, rather. In the afternoons I like to get out and play! But, turns out, unfortunately, even if you write the best stuff on earth (or at least a good salty yarn or two), it won’t reach people unless you tell them about it. As a self-published author, that whole “telling” bit falls on Yours Truly, which means what little time I have outside of writing my next book (that’s coming─this fall, lookout!) and playing (equally important) is spent currently devoted to … say it with me. Yes, with the sigh. Uhhh … marketing.
Thankfully, my version of marketing includes writing in that I try to engage readers with blogs, video scripts and Facebook posts, so I don’t feel it’s too far astray from my true passion and it does help me learn what my readers want from me, but it is a bit of a necessary evil. At least that’s how I used to see it─as evil. Like this tiny little grungy gremlin crunched down in the corner, eating the edge of the carpet and asking me what I had done today to promote myself. “Nothing yet you nasty little bastard. You got some carpet in your teeth.” I hated that critter. And I hated seeing marketing as just that─as the loathsome task of constantly promoting myself. I’m just not good at that. I like the downplay, the soft sell, the self-deprecating approach. But I’ve had some great people inspire and advise me recently (thank you Conrad, Jeff and Tim Grahl) so I thought I would share. They turned what I viewed as an evil critter in the corner to a rewarding and fulfilling task and the answer to the very question posed: Why am I doing this?
The answer is simple. It’s the same reason I write: because I want to share my journey in hopes that it will make your lives better by forcing you to laugh, reminisce, escape your mundane routine (even if only vicariously and momentarily), inspire you and encourage you to get out and pursue your own cruising-like dream, whatever that might be. While writing is a great way to do that, the videos are just another avenue to help me share with more people in a different way. I’m happy to share. Sharing is great. I just didn’t know that could qualify as my “marketing.” Apparently it can. The new goal is to simply create lasting connections with people by sharing my adventures, discoveries and lessons learned in hopes of making people’s lives better. That sounds way better than the “M” word. Screw you carpet critter! No more promoting. Just sharing.
I suppose I have been trying to do that with the blog for about two and a half years now (wow, how time flies) and I hope it has inspired some of you but I think I can do a better job of it. Little Annie that Could here. I love a good yarn and will continue (always, always!) to capture the gritty, warts-and-all details of our adventures in my writing, but I know I can reach and engage with more people, more frequently, in a vivid way by using photos (which Facebook is perfect for) and now videos. So, look out YouTube, here Annie comes. They can’t handle me …
I’m going to share it all with you─big stuff, small stuff, mundane stuff, life-changing stuff. Everything (well, almost everything). Why am I so hellbent on sharing the cruising lifestyle? Because it changed my life. It rescued me. I found cruising is not just a lifestyle. It’s a mindset. It requires a resourcefulness, a ruggedness. You have to be creative, durable, self-sufficient. But every day is an adventure. Every day is interesting, challenging and rewarding. What little cruising I have done has already inspired me to spend my time in a more meaningful way─whether that’s sailing, kite-surfing, cooking, reading, climbing the silks or cramming myself into the engine room on the boat to replace a gasket. As a result of cruising, I no longer just “spend” my time, I try to savor every minute of it. We’re not full-time cruisers yet, but we’re working to get out there. And when we do finally untie the lines, you know I will share every bit of the adventure with you.
Would you like to share our journey? Come aboard. Sign up, subscribe and follow on the blog, Facebook, Patreon, Amazon, or YouTube.
And tell me what you want to see, what you want to know about cruising, kite-surfing, the silks, the contents of my underwear drawer (I’m kidding). But I want to know what you want to learn and do with me. Comment on the videos or Facebook or reach out to me here on the blog. Tell me! I want to make your lives better by sharing mine, both the successes and failures. I hope you enjoy the journey. If you do, share with friends to get more people inspired and on board. In the meantime, I’ll keep sharing and extending the invite:
Come aboard!
Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.
I thought about simply playing these photos like a montage. I believe it will tell the story just fine. It’s easy to see what happened, how I tried to fix it with only the most permanent marine adhesive known to man,
and how epicly (that’s a word today) it failed. Let’s see how far we get. Let this play in the background:
Then: “Roll that fabulous footage!”
Now, here’s where things get interesting. (Not to say that busting out the 5200 to try and glue your cheap, Chinese-made wedge heels back together isn’t interesting─especially considering the three dental picks we demolished trying to punch through the dried glob in the neck of the tube and all the white sticky streaks I got on my hands, nails and hair in the process (yes, something AGAIN in my hair). But, it gets even better …
Once I stuck the shoe flap to the wedge bottom, I then thought it would be good to stand on it to maintain the pressure while I worked on the second shoe. But, standing in a shoe is not something you really think about, it’s just something you do. Every time you wear a shoe, you’re standing in it. It’s like looking at your watch─you always turn your wrist to do it, without really thinking about it. And, what do you often do when you’re standing? You shift around! Not three seconds after I stood on the shoe did I pick my foot up to take a small step to shift my weight. There goes that cup of coffee in your lap as you check your watch. I did it without even thinking about it. And that 5200 must take more than three seconds to dry, because the wedge bottom remained planted on the floor while my glue-covered sole came up and planted back down on the teak. Yikes!
Let’s just say the Captain was not pleased.
Thankfully I stopped myself short and barely touched down, but the toppling of the wedge and my teensy toe touch did result in some 5200 on the cabin floor. Many more yikeses!
With some quick wipe action, we were able to get it up, but can you imagine explaining a shoeprint of 5200 on the floor to all newcomers on the boat? “Uhhh, yeah, that’s from when I tried to glue my crap shoes back together with super-bondo-death adhesive. Just ignore it.”
What a mess. And, what a waste! Sadly, the floor-toppling incident lead to a hideous amount of 5200 on the actual “pretty” part of the shoe which I’m sure would have never come off. I had given it a hearty go, but it was time to scrap it. These shoes would never be boogeying again!
And, I’m not sure I’ll ever “bust out” the 5200 to glue anything again either. Trying to get some fresh glue out of the tube was a nightmare. We had only used that tube once before. It costs $20.00 and you only get one use?! Bollucks! A fellow boater recommended to me to keep the tube in the freezer in between uses, so we’re going to try that next time. But, beyond that, it’s Butyl tape for me. Yes … even on the shoes!
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I know it every time I hear it. The gurgling sound it makes is unmistakable. It’s like Shrek slurping soup or swamp stew or whatever it is ogres eat. Sllooo-gurgle, gurgle-oop! Phillip is working the Thirsty Mate again on the dinghy. We keep a small one in the dinghy bag for just such an occasion. But every time we would pump the bottom out, it wasn’t but a few hours later and we had another two inches of water back in it. We knew it was time to do a bottom job on the dinghy. What we didn’t know was how many patches it would take and where the duct tape would end up.
And, you might be thinking: duct tape?! Are they seriously trying to patch their dinghy bottom with duct tape? Amateurs! Alright, we didn’t try to patch with duct tape, although they do say cruising knowledge comes from experience! We went and got the fancy hyphalon patch kit from West Marine, where everything costs $12.00 more. We just used the duct tape to mark the location of the leaks─during our first attempt at patching. But, how it ended up where it ended up, I can’t tell you.
Our initial idea for finding the leaks was to fill the dinghy with water and lift the bow while the other member of the Patch Team kneeled below to look for leaks. Then we repeated the same process with the stern, with each Team member serving once as lifter and once as kneel-and-pointer to ensure double inspection. We then marked the leaks we found with a sliver of duct tape.
We located four leaks but two were close together so they could be covered by one patch.
Once the locations were marked, we set to laying three patches.
Now, anyone notice anything out of place here?
Not yet? Okay, we’ll continue.
The patch kit mandated we “rough up” each patch area on the dinghy as well as the patch itself to ensure good adhesion. We then had to apply a thin layer of the magic glue to each and let it dry for twenty minutes.
Gluing is such fun!
We had to repeat this process twice, letting three layers of glue on both the patch and affected area dry for twenty minutes (so, a one-hour project total) before we could stick the patches on and let them dry for twenty-four hours.
It wasn’t until we wrapped her up for the night that we found the missing piece of duct tape. Did you spot it?
‘Twas in mee hair! [And, yes, I always employ a colloquial Irish accent to note the discovery of things in my hair.]
We were hopeful my hair hadn’t snagged an all-important leak mark but if it had, the damage was done. The three patches were on and drying for the night, so we would find out tomorrow. We came back the next day to repeat our fill-lift-kneel program (patent pending, for leak detection.
Despite our promising patch efforts, we were disheartened to find a few more leaks. Perhaps it was due to my snatchy hair. Personally, I think we needed supervision.
Cue Dan─our dock neighbor and purveyor of all solutions obvious.
He is wise with the drink.
Dan had the great idea to set the dinghy up on two dock boxes so it would sit flat and even while we filled it to look, yet again, for leaks.
That Dan, he’s a smart one. Using his method, we found many more leaks.
There were so much easier to spot with the dinghy up overhead and with sufficient time to allow and watch each droplet form. Can you see them here?
There are two leaks forming.
We located each leak and marked it, this time, with a Sharpie circle─way more effective than the duct tape. Sorry old friend.
Try to guess how many leaks we found!
Sheesh! This called for another three rounds of glue-and-wait─this time with eleven patches. While it may not be a dozen, the song is still fitting. Here, sing along while I work:
I cut the larger patches into smaller ones to stretch our hyphalon repair kit as far as it would go. The magic marine stuff gets expensive quick!
Another hour of gluing and drying (such fun!) and the patches were on─all eleven of them.
We did another fill-and-kneel test (this time using the advantage of the dock boxes – thanks Dan!) the following day and things looked good. We’ve taken her out one time since this patch job and all seems to be holding well … so far. I haven’t yet heard any ogre-slurping from the Thirsty Mate. We’ll let you guys know how she holds up. Hopefully she’ll last another “Eighteen years and a dozen islands … ”
Have any of you been dealing with a leaky dinghy? Got any thoughts on a better way to repair? We’ve also been thinking about trying out one of those Port-a-Botes. We’ve been seeing more and more of them around. Any thoughts or pros and cons on those? Feel free to share.
Thanks to my Patrons who help make these posts just a little more possible through PATREON.
