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What type of boat do you have? What size is it? How much fuel/water can you carry? How long will it last? Why did you name the boat "Musetta"? What does it mean? How do the dogs do on the boat? How do they relieve themselves? Where are you going? How long will you be gone? Do you miss your house? What did you do with your stuff? What type of boat do you have? What size is it? Musetta is a 1984 Passport 47 blue water cruiser. She is hull number one, built in Taiwan, for ocean sailing. She has a swim step added on the stern, which makes her actually 49 feet in length, with a 13.5 foot beam. She has two staterooms, a quarter berth (which we call "the garage" because it's filled with stuff), two heads, a separate shower stall, and an awesome galley.
She has two fuel tanks, 80 and 40 gallons; we also carry three 5-gallon jerry jugs of fuel on deck. She has three water tanks, all 40 gallons. Asking how long these will last is like asking how much a trip to Europe costs - it all depends on how you're traveling; first class? hostel? 5-star restaurants? street food and picnics?. How long our fuel and water last depends on how many crew are aboard, how much we sail instead of motor, how well we conserve water, how well our watermaker is wokring, etc. The longest we have stayed out so far is about 10 days, but I suspect we could easily go as much as three weeks if we had to. Watermaker, Lugger Northern Lights 4.5 kw generator, single side band radio, two vhf radios, Globalstar satelite phone, radar, auto pilot, one stationery global positioning systems(GPS), two hand-held GPS's, laptop computer with navigation software, 6-person liferaft, rigid-bottom inflatabledinghy with 15hp outboard motor. Most of our sails were made for us in 2003, before our first cruise to Baja. They include a 125 Genoa, full-batten main, staysail, storm jib, trisail, drifter, and our lovely purple/red/gold asymentrical spinnaker (also known as a cruising chute.) Why did you name the boat "Musetta"? What does it mean? Musetta is of Italian origin, and could possibly "little Muse," though it also may refer to a musical instrument. However, we chose the name after seeing the Puccini opera, LaBoheme. Musetta is the heroine Mimi's best friend; she is beautiful, vivacious, and often seen accompanied by an older man who lavishes lots of money on her - like a boat, no? There is a guy by the name of Christopher Lee who wrote about Musetta on his website, which I'll quote here: "The most perfect
moment in all of music, to me, is when Musetta returns to Marcello in the
second act of La Boheme. It isn't that I have listened to enough opera, or
music in general to make a statement like that. However, I can speak of
Lear as being the most perfect tragedy without having read every single
tragedies ever written, based on the intuitive perception of merit, rather
than by comparing it to other tragedies, therefore the same with La
Boheme. I am in love with
Musetta. When she screams, feigning pain, she screams in perfect tone,
with impeccable diction. When she first lightly heaves quando m'en vo...,
when the strings complement her by a wave-like motion, in that moment when
everything else is silent, Musetta has everyone charmed, she has told us
that we will sympathize with her wishes and her feelings. The soprano, a
voice most pure and lyrical, seems like the voice made for her to corrupt
with her insatiable desires. Then the voice itself seems like the thing
made for her to express her capacity for love. When she sings, we do not
hear her, or rather, we do not only hear her, but something in us follows
her every movement, every notes of the music, every fluctuation in her
breath, and her every words that we no longer understand because we have
ceased to read the supertitles. So Musetta has left
Marcello for a better life; she is not responsible. At least, watching
her, listening to her, singing As I walk through the streets, people stop
to look at me..., listening to her exult her beauty, we are made to
understand that she deserved then a better life, and that now Marcello has
no choice but to accept her return to a wretched life with love. Musetta
does not have to apologize. Musetta does not live with the same guilt and
bonds as the other girls. For when she walks through the streets, people
stop to look at her. For her beauty is supreme, and for Puccini gave to
her the most beautiful piece of music. She is become a star, as did the
legendary maiden of the mythical times by Zeus's love for them. Shyness is
foreign to beautiful Musetta, and she does not beg for anyone's love. How
wonderful is Musetta, that she does not beg for anyone's love! That is why
we love her so, for she is the embodiment of the pleasure principle.
Musetta is what the ancients called Eros.
I do not like Mimi.
She is weak and she is dying. Every note she sings reeks of impending
doom, and her innocence is frightfully prophetic. Mimi's reunion with
Rodolfo is pathetic, while Musetta's reunion with Marcello is sublime.
Mimi can tell us over and over how she loves flowers, but until she learns
to love herself, she will never be quite like Musetta, and she will
continue to die over and over again at the end of the fourth act, so that
Rodolfo can cry for her, so that Colline can pawn his coat for her, and so
that Musetta may buy her a cuff. Same is with
Violetta. Who can admire a woman who will give her and her lover's
happiness so that some unknown tramp may marry some insignificant boy?
Violetta is at her best when she is debating with herself whether she
deserves to be happy or not. Musetta would debate with herself whether
others deserve to be happy at the same time as her. Any expression of joy
that escapes from Violetta's tragical lips seems feigned; any possibility
of triumph in life is weighed down by the tragedy inherent in her
incurable and ever present
disease. Carmen I like, but
she still is not Musetta's equal in radiance. Carmen, like Musetta, have a
flawlessly falstaffian attitude toward life. Her mezzo is dark and
resonant and she has quite possibly the two most beautiful mezzo arias (on
second thought, that isn't possible, for Rossini has lived). But Carmen is
an idealist. She is not above dying to make a point, and she at the end
lets poor Don Jose stab her in order to show that her freedom is absolute.
In that way, Carmen, too, is diseased, although not with consumption as is
fashionable among sopranos (for she is a mezzo) but with a naive idealism.
And in addition to all that, she has no
recitative. La Boheme is an
ensemble piece, with Rodolfo and Mimi as its hero and heroine. But neither
Rodolfo nor Mimi, both of which are very fascinating and gripping
characters, are allowed to dominate the opera, as Musetta, by her brief
appearances, wrestles the plot from underneath them. The greatest crime
ever committed by a man in this century maybe by Puccini, Giacosa, and
Illica, when they would not more fully exploit Musetta's character.
However, one must first understand that it is an enormous imaginative
burden to create and sustain a character like Musetta, or Sancho Panza, or
Falstaff. That is a feat seldom done, and even more seldom repeated.
Meanwhile, what we have of Musetta is enough to make us love her. In that
moment when Musetta sing what we now call Musetta's waltz, we have a
glimpse of a soul that knows neither boundaries nor apologies. We see in
Musetta the possibilities that is inherent in
life." How do the dogs do on the boat? How do they relieve themselves? 
Abbie and Lucky are veteran cruisers, as they cruised with us to Mexico in the fall of 2003. They are slowly re-adjusting to the boating life, although they are now a bit more arthritic, slow, and get cold more easily. Abbie is a natural sailor; she sleeps all day, and when we tack, she simply moves to the leeward side of the boat. Lucky still gets a little restless, and needs "reassuring" more often; he also tends to sea-sickness. We give him the same medication we take for sea-sickness, Stugeron, and he does fine. We also have beef-flavored treats made wtih valerian root and chamomile to relax him, as well as Rescue Remedy. When the seas are rougher, we put their boat shoes on so they have better traction when getting around the boat, though often they like to sleep below instead of in the cockpit. Abbie spreads out in the salon, and Lucky curls up in a tight corner of the aft stateroom. They have both learned to go potty on command, and will usually go on deck when we tell them to. Abbie goes by herself, but Lucky likes to have one of us go along with him - it's scary up there on the foredeck! When they have finished, we wash it down, or pick it up with a plastic bag and dispose of it with the other garbage, depending on where we are. Update for Year Two: Those of you who've been following the Mate's Log know that our sweet Lucky boy passed away April 2006. Since then, Abbie has aged dramatically. She sleeps most of the day, has trouble with her breathing when overly hot or exerted (due to laryngeal paralysis), and can no longer walk much with the beginning of hip displasia. However, she is still in good spirits, doesn't seem to be in any pain, and of course her appetite is hearty as ever. Update for Year Three: Our dear, Abbie Sweetpea is now gone also. We are bereft, feeling the loss of both of our babies each and every day. Update for Year Four: We both still think of Abbie and Lucky almost daily. Not that any dog could ever replace them, we'd still like to have another Labrador Retriever. Jeff is especially bad; every time he sees a big dog - particularly a lab - he gets tears in his eyes. Lately he's been perusing the Central California Labrador Retriever web site, checking out the stories of all those poor, abandoned babies needing home. But with the travel, we just can't justify putting a dog on a plane for that long of a flight, and though we love dogs, it truly IS much easier on a boat without them. There are islands down here where you can't legaly take a dog ashore; you can't take them on the busses like in Mexico; you can't take them on most hiking trails; in short, it would just limit our travel too much. So we get our doggie love wherever we can. During the summer, our neighbor's dog, Blue, a Queensland Heeler/Dalmation mix, stayed with us, and hopefully will again this summer. Where are you going? How long will you be gone? We don't know. It all depends on how well we like it. Our immediate plan is to cruise the Sea of Cortez. We may haul the boat out for the hottest months, drive up to our home in Washington for a few months, visit family and friends in the San Francisco and Stockton area, then return to the boat when the weather cools somewhat. Our ultimate goal is to go through the Panama Canal, cruise the Caribbean, cruise the US Eastern Seaboard, cross the Atlantic (whether by sail or transport is undecided yet), cruise Europe including France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, amd beyond to Croatia and Turkey. We have no desire to circumnavigate, and at this point, no desire to cruise the South Pacific. Do you miss your house? What did you do with your stuff? Our house on Canepa Road was beautiful - we loved it, and we loved the area. But we were both tired of taking care of such a big place, and were ready to down-size and move on to a new life-style. Fortunately for us, the couple who bought it, Connie and Randy, were just as enthusiastic about the home as we were when we first saw it, so we felt relieved that the home which we'd loved so dearly, was going to be in good hands. As it turned out, much of our furniture worked well with Connie's, so she purchased some to keep in the home. I had spent weeks going through each closet, cupboard, and drawer to pull out the "garage-sale" items, and had filled the 3-car garage with stuff. But the task of pricing all that stuff, sorting it, displaying it, and dickering with the public, was just too daunting. Instead, I called an auction liquidator, who brought his truck up and hauled it all away. We received a check for the goods several weeks later - done deal. Perhaps we would have received more for the items had we sold them at a yard sale, but the time and effort just didn't seem worth it. The rest of our belongings, we boxed up. Bekins loaded it into five wooden vaults, which are now sitting on a shelf in their warehouse. We also have a small self-store unit with a few things in it. Our thinking was, that when we're done cruising, we'd like to build on our property in Washington. Keeping the furniture will save us from having to buy new, although I'm positive that when we finally go through those vaults, we want to discard at least half of what we saved! Though I've tried to keep my log free of jargon, I thought this might be helpful for the non-sailors. The nautical definitions are abbreviated from The Annapolis Book of Seamanship and Chapman PilotingSeamanship & Boat Handling, and I've thrown in a few Spanish words just in case you didn't take that subject in high school. Bahia = Bay Bimini = A fold-up sun and spray awning over the aft end of the cockpit Binnacle = A support or pedestal into which a compass is secured. (Ours also has the steering wheel, throttle, and gear shift.) Bosun's Chair = A seat, sometimes a rigid plank, sometimes made of canvas, used to hoist a person aloft to repair rigging; pockets for tools are often included. (Note: on large vessels, the Bosun is a petty officer in charge of hull, rigging and sail maintenance as well as deck operations.) Bowline = This is the most useful of all knots aboard a boat. Once learned (and practice is necessary) it is easy to make, never slips or jams, and can always be untied. Companionway = Steps leading down from the deck to the cabin Dinghy = A small, light sail boat or rowboat Dodger = A fold-up spray shield at the forward end of the cockpit, usually covers the entrance to the companionway Gaff = A spar holding the upper side (head) of a four-sided sail Gunwale = (pronounced "gun'l") A boat's rail at the edge of the deck Knot = One nautical mile per hour; a nautical mile is equivalent to 1.15 miles on land Lazy Jack = A system of ropes or wires running from mid-mast to the boom, which keep the sail on the boom when it is dropped. Panga = An open, flat-bottomed boat commonly used by Mexican lobster and shrimp fishermen; pangeuros (if I've spelled it correctly) are those fishermen Pueblito = Small village Reef = To decrease the sail's size Rhumb Line = The most direct line between two points. Rode = The anchor line Splice = To make an eye in the end of a line or link two line ends together by interweaving strands Zinc = Sacrificial metal blocks attached to the hull and/or propellor shaft which attract electrical current in the water, saving wear on your shaft. |
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How much fuel/water can you
carry? How long will it last?