An old girlfriend just called.....

[Frank]

"Small boat crew"....
My 24,
Pacific Seacraft 27
Watkins 27 pilot house
Caper Dory 27 rafted up (barely seen)
Our friends on their northsea 27 had just sailed off...
Proof lotsa fun under 28ft!
Dingy bottom cleaning day..
Outboards painted for both art and to deter theft.

[Frank]

Oops...
Cape Dory wasn't in the last picture..
Can see a bit of it here rafted to the Watkins pilot house.
The Watkins doesn't have furling...

[Frank]

Watched an Abaco 12 sailing by...
This was the way folks got around years ago...
Then a Dingy tour through the mangroves yesterday...
Turtles and both spotted eagle rays and small stingrays..
Great to feel like a kid again playing in the little boats..

[Frank]

Laundry day..
Hermit crabs
Many remote beachs with no people...
Love the water colour

[wolverine]

Living the Dream!

[Frank]

I'm somewhat confused about something I've noticed.....
This site is not nearly as active as it was years ago
At one point, it was multiple passionate posts per day about the advantages of smaller simple boats or anchor talks etc.
Although there are hundreds of members, very few people post anymore.
I took a screenshot last night at 6:30 showing the number of views and looking now, there have been over 1000 views on this thread since last night.
So there ARE people actively on the site....
Why aren't more people posting?
Surely there are members out there sailing on a boat or working on a boat or dreaming about cruising on a boat if they're not already.
When I am home in the summer, I cruise with a bunch of like-minded individuals on trailerable boats. The website for that group was not getting any new members, but it was active. The decision was made to put it on Facebook and wow.... It just took off.
Why is Facebook used so much and a site like this seems to be inactive, even though they were over 1000 hits on this thread since last night?
I find the odd....

[Frank]

More boats anchored out front...
Deja Vu anchored in the shallow town harbour
Had 2 dolphins literally "rock my boat" as I was drinking coffee this morning.
Beautiful sunsets lately..

[wolverine]

Although there are hundreds of members, very few people post anymore.

Why aren't more people posting?

I'm guilty. I have 4 action cameras on gimbal mounts on the boat, yet I rarely record any of my sails. I used to keep a detailed log of all my outings, but when neither I or my wife ever looked through them, I stopped. I will make a conscious effort to post my sails this year. Although I already designated 2026 to be the year of home & boat improvements, so I'm not sure how often I'll get out.

[Frank]

[/quote]

 I will make a conscious effort to post my sails this year. Although I already designated 2026 to be the year of home & boat improvements, so I'm not sure how often I'll get out.
[/quote]

Post boat improvements 👍😄

[Godot]

I wouldn't put too much stock in site views. I suspect it is largely crawlers or other pseudo users.

I do blame Facebook for the demise of many forums. The original folk just sort of moved on to others things, got tired of social media, or died off. The newer generation picked up on Facebook. And now Facebook is fading. Hard.

I used to maintain a blog. I used to be on a bunch of forums. I used to be on Facebook.  I hit a burnout probably ten years ago and took myself largely offline. Heck, my friend circle shrunk to almost nothing at the same time. I suspect the same thing happened to others. I poke back in once in awhile and there isn't the positive feedback there used to be, so it is difficult to really get into things again.

Time moves on. Things change. I miss magazines. I mean, they are still out there (now-a-days I still get a bunch of woodworking mags); but it's not the same with so many going online, often online only, as the only way to stay solvent. Remember Usenet? Email lists (I'm actually still on one for Bayfield yacht owners)? Forums are still, technically I think, one of the best ways of communicating and collaborating, but after Facebook they fell off. I don't even know what's the big thing now-a-days. Instagram, I guess, but that doesn't seem collaborative at all.

Old fogey stuff. I don't like it either; but no one asked me. I'm going to try to put more stuff up this year. We'll see.

[Frank]

Sunset
Sunrise
Sunset
Sunrise

[Jim_ME]

Sunset
Sunrise
Sunset
Sunrise

"Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, Sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laiden with happiness and tears."

From Fiddler on the Roof

Beautiful photos, Frank.

[Frank]

This has been a relatively dry winter, and although there were a few times where it rained, even heavily at times, it was always for a very short period..
The last two days made up for it.
Both days were heavy rains that were sustained for long periods.
You certainly find out if you have any deck leaks and I will be attending to my Thru deck VHF connection and one port window fastener later today..
It also made me realize how happy I am with this lithium battery as well as my fridge freezer combo.
My dual zone fridge is one size up from the picture and has worked flawlessly for four years now. I keep the smaller freezer side over the compressor set at 18° and the larger refrigerator side set at 36° .
I'm amazed at how much meat you can freeze if you wrap everything individually. Between pork chops, hamburger patties, chicken breasts and drumsticks etc I have 2 weeks of meals in there.
They are quite inexpensive as well. The screenshot is the Canadian price on Amazon.
My only charging is a 165 W solar panel that I can tip towards the sun.
I was surprised that after two days of minimal sunshine, the battery was still at 82% this morning.
If anyone is considering lithium, realize that you have to adjust your charge controller accordingly and make sure that you get one with Bluetooth so that you can monitor it from your cell phone.
I'm extremely happy with this set up!
It truly is literally taking one worry off of the list.
Last nights Sunset
My dual zone fridge-freezer
My 200 amp hour lithium battery, which cost about the same as 2-6volt
The Bluetooth app to monitor the battery. This was waking up this morning.
You will notice it is very detailed and even shows what each cell individually