posted January 13, 2008 10:06 PM               

The new version is much improved. The blades lock so you can't accidently have it fold onto your finger. It has a number of extra tools too: Various screw driver tips including eyeglass sizes. A saw blade and rough cutting knife will also prove useful.

Lynda wanted to give me a couple of sailing books but as she ordered them, many were temporarly out of stock. Nonetheless, she still ordered them. I'm now enjoying a steady trickle of books arriving in the mail. The Pardy's Mediterranean cruising adventure was an excellent read.

Another fine little book is "Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere" by John Vigor. It describes 20 boats all under 30 feet that would be suitable for blue water cruising. There's a lot to be learned in this book about what goes into a good cruising boat.

I'm just starting J. Slocum's book and looking forward to 50 places to sail before you die.

posted January 14, 2008 04:44 AM            

Santa Mallory, my oldest daughter, gave me the technical bible: "Principles of Yacht Design, 3rd Edition" by Lars Larsson & Rolf E. Eliasson. It will take months to read and I expect the pages to become dog-eared and epoxied together. It will join previous Christmas texts:

• The Elements of Boat Strength - Dave Gerr
  
• High Performance Sailing - Frank Bethwaite

posted January 31, 2008 10:38 PM               

Being our first post-boat Christmas I didn't know what to expect. There were some nice surprises.

In my stocking was a real no-foolin' bosun's whistle. I had made a crack about needing one, and someone overheard. You'll hear it next rendezvous... at 5 AM

My brother and his family in Halifax sent me a black melton Greek fisherman's cap. Very nice, but I think I have to look more weatherbeaten before I can safely wear it. So I'll try shaving without foam for a month or two.

Finally my admiral/first-mate gave me a new depth meter, since ours pooped out about 2 hours into the rendezvous. It's a Raymarine ST40. Nice instrument, with a big LCD digital display and a thru-hull ("drill a hole") transducer.

Which brings me to a question - are you guys using big-boat depth sounders like that, or the fishfinder type? I myself was leaning towards the fish-finder type, mostly for the cost and because I sorta like the histogram display, where you can see that something is getting shallower. Also, do you have a thru-hull transducer or one of those ones that glues to the inside bottom of the hull? The admiral has informed me that it's ok to exchange the unit if we like something better.