Sunday, October 09, 2005
That red dot represents DHARMA BUM III :-)))
Here you can find the current position of DHARMA BUM III:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=KE6PIB (Radio Amateur Callsign)
(GPS-Receiver --> Computer --> eMail --> Radio-Modem --> HF-Radio --> YOTREPS-Server --> Map in Browser)
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Kobe 1995 - New Orleans 2005 - A Cultural Difference?
A friend of mine lived in Kobe when the big earthquake struck in 1995. In fact, his house collapsed and one of his neighbors died under his hands. It was an extremely traumatic experience for him.
However, what impressed him even more was the way in which the Japanese people helped each other. Everybody tried his very best to help and when there was nobody around to organize them, the people organized themselves. Even the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) was to be found all over the place helping out and distributing food and other necessary items. Here are a couple of links about what happened.
Contrast this with the situation in New Orleans.
It is always too convenient to place the blame of whatever happenes with "the politicians" or with one particular party or administration. That is usually also where thinking and argument stops. But in actual fact, there are many other reasons that might explain the vast difference and I wonder just how much can be attributed to cultural differences.
I have never lived in Japan myself, but many of my friends have spent considerable time there and they assure me that it is the norm rather than the exception that someone will bring you your wallet with all the money still inside if you have managed to lose it somewhere. And that this is happening not only in small rural towns, but in huge cities with populations in the millions.
I am quite sure that the same can't be said for my native Germany or Taipei where I live now. In fact, I wonder if that happens anywhere else at all.
A friend of mine lived in Kobe when the big earthquake struck in 1995. In fact, his house collapsed and one of his neighbors died under his hands. It was an extremely traumatic experience for him.
However, what impressed him even more was the way in which the Japanese people helped each other. Everybody tried his very best to help and when there was nobody around to organize them, the people organized themselves. Even the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) was to be found all over the place helping out and distributing food and other necessary items. Here are a couple of links about what happened.
Contrast this with the situation in New Orleans.
It is always too convenient to place the blame of whatever happenes with "the politicians" or with one particular party or administration. That is usually also where thinking and argument stops. But in actual fact, there are many other reasons that might explain the vast difference and I wonder just how much can be attributed to cultural differences.
I have never lived in Japan myself, but many of my friends have spent considerable time there and they assure me that it is the norm rather than the exception that someone will bring you your wallet with all the money still inside if you have managed to lose it somewhere. And that this is happening not only in small rural towns, but in huge cities with populations in the millions.
I am quite sure that the same can't be said for my native Germany or Taipei where I live now. In fact, I wonder if that happens anywhere else at all.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
The First Few Weeks On DHARMA BUM III
I arrived in Tortola on a Sunday and bought DHARMA BUM III the next day. The next morning the former owner departed and I was alone with my new boat and home. We had gone sailing for a few hours the day before, but that was going to be all the sailing I was going to do this time around.
Instead I hitchhiked into Road Town almost daily. I like hitchhiking, but here an added reason were the outrageous prices for the taxis. More often than not the very first car stopped right away and I got into an interesting conversation with the driver.
After a few trips into town it became increasingly clear that it wasn't only the taxis that were out of line pricewise. I got a quote to replace my standing rigging - $13,520! And so it went pretty much with all the work I wanted done on the boat. Also, I finally really understood the meaning of "bareboat". There's nothing on it. Not even a bucket or a sailbag. Everything was reduced to the absolute minimum, which gave me some pause initially.
The next discovery was that apparently quite a few charter guests do absolutely everything wrong that one can do wrong. Lack of experience and sheer carelessness cause a myriad of small problems. And some not so small ones.
One fine day the big motor cruiser "Virgin Dancer" from "Virgin Traders" rammed my boat. He then proceeded to hit two more boats in the immediate vicinity. My stern crashed into the dock and fiberglass emanating a nasty smell flew in all directions. I was not pleased, especially as it reminded me of a similar accident at the San Diego Yacht Club in 1994. This time I didn't even get an apology. Nothing at all, in fact.
For the last two weeks my wife Liping and our daughter Aurora Ulani joined us on the boat. As Aurora is just one and a half years old, I watched her with some trepidation. I needn't have worried. After just a couple of days she navigated the steep steps down into the main hulls without having fallen down once. When she found all the wonderful switches for pumps, the inverter, lights and so on, I reassessed the situation. Maybe better to hoist her up to the masttop or something....
Since I started with serious sailing in 1987, this was only the second time I had been in a marina. I soon made friends with people on boats next to mine, with the operators and their employees and pretty much all the cool people in the vicinity. Instead of a sundowner on the boat, I headed for the marina office, where everybody met for beers and a chat. Very pleasant indeed.
Right next to the boat there were tarpon and mahi mahi swimming around, sometimes a pair of dolphins came by and our "favorite" pastime became the chasing away of pelicans. When sailing I had seen a big turtle, too.
Most of the people I met, were either directly or indirectly in the charter business or having their boats in the BVI more or less permanently. Not many real yachties seem to make it up there. Jean-Pierre Cauvy-Zaehringer had been all over French Polynesia, Brian had sailed his tiny Wharram catamaran all the way from South Africa and John had spent years and years cruising in the South Pacific.
All to soon my four weeks were up and to my dismay I realized that I hadn't gotten done anything. Most of that will have to wait until the next trip when we plan on sailing DHARMA BUM III down to Trinidad, where things like that are supposed to be cheaper. Before I go there, I will have to have my transmission fixed and my alternator replaced though. Ah, well... Boat-life, here we go again.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
On Saturday, 25 June 2005, I will fly to Tortola, British Virgin Islands. Iwant to buy a Privilege 39 catamaran and start a circumnavigation as soon asthe hurricane season is over. I've been looking for more than two years for"my" boat and I have been living on land for almost 10 years. I am veryexcited and wonder how it will turn out...
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
The Pursuit Of Happiness
Let me start this with a quote:
"I've lived too long, I'm in the ruck.
I've drunk too deeply of the cup.
I cannot spend, I cannot fuck.
I'm down and out, I'm buggered up."
-- Pushkin according to Churchill
I am not altogether sure that doing what one loves (and what one might even be good at) does necessarily lead to happiness. Bernard Moitessier, for one doesn't strike me as a happy person. Passionate, definitely, driven, for sure, but the fact is that his wife finally left him, because she just couldn't take it (him) anymore. Do you think Albert Einstein was a happy man? Somehow I don't think so. Many others come to mind who share their fate as far as happiness is concerned.
While I certainly believe that it helps to strive for a goal, I also think that happiness is somehow unrelated to what we do and how we do it. Maybe its roots are genetic and have much more to do with brain-chemistry than anything else. Who knows? Or perhaps it all has to do with acceptance instead of trying to achieve something. Somehow I get the feeling that an old-style farmer, who has toiled away all his life and finally sits and looks over the land he has worked for so long, enjoys much more happiness than the man who has piled success on success? (Notice the numerous maybes and perhapses? Might only be resignation, after all. ;-)
There was another question that Moitessier asked himself more than once: "What is worse? Not being able to realize your dreams or having realized your dreams already?" It took me a little while to get what he was driving at. Much, much easier to work towards a goal than to continue living happily after actually having achieved that goal. While building your boat, you are full of illusions, you dream of perfect sailing days and how wonderful things will be once you have reached the South Seas. Of course you know that there will be problems, but they somehow always manage to fade into the background and blue skies seem far more common than a simple look at the weather charts would warrant.
In fact this illusion is so powerful that very few people manage to keep going once that fanciful bubble has been popped by harsh reality. "Sailing around the world means repairing your boat in the most beautiful spots on earth." This is not just a cute saying, but captures the reality of the average circumnavigator pretty well.
My hope is to slowly get over the top of the hill to finally enjoy a bit of downhill sailing. Hopefully we can manage that. As to happiness, we'll just have to wait and see.
Let me start this with a quote:
"I've lived too long, I'm in the ruck.
I've drunk too deeply of the cup.
I cannot spend, I cannot fuck.
I'm down and out, I'm buggered up."
-- Pushkin according to Churchill
I am not altogether sure that doing what one loves (and what one might even be good at) does necessarily lead to happiness. Bernard Moitessier, for one doesn't strike me as a happy person. Passionate, definitely, driven, for sure, but the fact is that his wife finally left him, because she just couldn't take it (him) anymore. Do you think Albert Einstein was a happy man? Somehow I don't think so. Many others come to mind who share their fate as far as happiness is concerned.
While I certainly believe that it helps to strive for a goal, I also think that happiness is somehow unrelated to what we do and how we do it. Maybe its roots are genetic and have much more to do with brain-chemistry than anything else. Who knows? Or perhaps it all has to do with acceptance instead of trying to achieve something. Somehow I get the feeling that an old-style farmer, who has toiled away all his life and finally sits and looks over the land he has worked for so long, enjoys much more happiness than the man who has piled success on success? (Notice the numerous maybes and perhapses? Might only be resignation, after all. ;-)
There was another question that Moitessier asked himself more than once: "What is worse? Not being able to realize your dreams or having realized your dreams already?" It took me a little while to get what he was driving at. Much, much easier to work towards a goal than to continue living happily after actually having achieved that goal. While building your boat, you are full of illusions, you dream of perfect sailing days and how wonderful things will be once you have reached the South Seas. Of course you know that there will be problems, but they somehow always manage to fade into the background and blue skies seem far more common than a simple look at the weather charts would warrant.
In fact this illusion is so powerful that very few people manage to keep going once that fanciful bubble has been popped by harsh reality. "Sailing around the world means repairing your boat in the most beautiful spots on earth." This is not just a cute saying, but captures the reality of the average circumnavigator pretty well.
My hope is to slowly get over the top of the hill to finally enjoy a bit of downhill sailing. Hopefully we can manage that. As to happiness, we'll just have to wait and see.