Seems to me that some cruisers posting here are really no longer cruising.
Take Bruce in Bangkok, for example. He admits he's thrown in the towel and
has been living aboard tied to a dock in Bangkok for several years. Prior to
that, he engaged in some limited attempts at cruising which resulted in his
being stuck where he is now in a backwater, third-world country a few
thousand miles downwind from his departure point. Why, any old Rube on a
balsa raft could have accomplished that kind of thing!

One must wonder if his failing to succeed at cruising causes any advice he
has to offer the group to be suspect? After all, would you listen to advice
from a lawyer who lost every case or was disbarred? Or a doctor who had lost
a number of malpractice suits? Or a professional sports figure who failed to
make the cut?

Yet you seem to listen to failed cruisers and take seriously what they have
to say? Is it because you are so undiscriminating that you identify with
failures? Or is it that you seek out persons who are likely to be on par
with your own low expectations and abilities and their failures help comfort
you and assuage your own repeated failures and thus make your own lack of
success seem normal. Perhaps this is why Skip Gundlach seems to have little
or no motivation when it comes to doing things right??? How can one expect
professionalism from those who seek out and identify with mediocrity?

Shouldn't you folks more readily identify with successful cruisers and seek
out advice from them? Why identify with failures when many good role models
are available? Why support those who don't see failure as anything to be
ashamed of or avoided? Simply by associating with failures you tend to
become one yourself.

Success breed success! Try not to forget it.


Wilbur Hubbard

Roger Long wrote:
I would certainly seek advice and expect some good information from someone
who had, say, sailed halfway around the world, made a comfortable home in a
foreign land, and become semi active due to age and developing a rich and
full life on shore.

OTOH, someone who had just pittered around in Florida on a 26 foot boat (the
same size Donna Lange sailed around the world), not made any voyages of
note, and then given it up in favor of newsgroup posting under assumed names
I wouldn't find particularly interesting at all.

--
Roger Long





Not to be picky, but, a 28' Southern Cross, far cry from a 26' banana
boat.
G

On Apr 16, 5:35*am, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

Success breed success! Try not to forget it.

Wilbur Hubbard

My distinguished colleague:

I have two thoughts.

First, once I too become so infirm, incontinent, and incapacitated
with age I will prefer to die in a boat rather than a planed
retirement community with 9 holes and a bingo game down the side walk.
So tied to the dock is preferred to the former.

Second, in many families, organizations, and cultures mediocrity is
rewarded and performance is punished. So we must take into
consideration the realm in which many consider truth and normal. To
ask them to perform is the same as asking them to believe the moon is
made of cheese. They just cannot wrap their minds around certain
abstract concepts.

So they will castigate or attempt to castrate those who challenge
their safe world of hair dryers, refrigeration, and wives who run
their life as well as their boats.

Bob

On Apr 16, 12:23*pm, Bob wrote:
On Apr 16, 5:35*am, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

Success breed success! Try not to forget it.

Wilbur Hubbard

My distinguished colleague:

I have two thoughts.

First, once I too become so infirm, incontinent, and incapacitated
with age I will prefer to die in a boat rather than a planed
retirement community with 9 holes and a bingo game down the side walk.
So tied to the dock is preferred to the former.

Second, in many families, organizations, and cultures mediocrity is
rewarded and performance is punished. So we must take into
consideration the realm in which many consider truth and normal. To
ask them to perform is the same as asking them to believe the moon is
made of cheese. They just cannot wrap their minds around certain
abstract concepts.

So they will castigate or attempt to castrate those who challenge
their safe world of hair dryers, refrigeration, and wives who run
their life as well as their boats.

Bob

Hey, Bob, I'm just an old ex-Okie farm boy but is the "Reader's
Digest" version of what you just wrote is that Wilbur is basically
full of ****? LOL BTW, everytime I think of the name Wilbur, I think
of Mr. Ed the horse and how he would call his owner
Wwwwwwwwillllllbbbbuuurrrrrrrrrrrr. Gawd I'm old.
-J

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:48:44 -0400, "Roger Long"
wrote:

I would certainly seek advice and expect some good information from someone
who had, say, sailed halfway around the world, made a comfortable home in a
foreign land, and become semi active due to age and developing a rich and
full life on shore.

OTOH, someone who had just pittered around in Florida on a 26 foot boat (the
same size Donna Lange sailed around the world), not made any voyages of
note, and then given it up in favor of newsgroup posting under assumed names
I wouldn't find particularly interesting at all.

The fault for the rather sad and rabid bitter existence of the person
alluded to who has no other life but that of heckling those he lives
in envy of lies largely with those who voted in the current and
previous governments. As you do not have a decent public funded
national health scheme, bureaucracy had the bright idea that in order
to save money they would release the mentally ill and infirm back into
the community. These sort of people remain securely locked up and
medicated in the Antipodes - well, once were.

Just a thought

"Bob" wrote in message
...

My distinguished colleague:

I have two thoughts.

First, once I too become so infirm, incontinent, and incapacitated
with age I will prefer to die in a boat rather than a planed
retirement community with 9 holes and a bingo game down the side walk.
So tied to the dock is preferred to the former.

Yes, you are quite correct. Perhaps I've been too hard on Bruce in Bangkok.
After all his situation could be far worse. But, I wonder if he wasn't stuck
with any realistic choices if he would still be stuck tied to a backwater
dock? A thing might be considered noble if it is engaged in by choice but if
one puts himself into a postition whereby he has no choices left to him
should he not be held liable for his backing himself into a corner?

Second, in many families, organizations, and cultures mediocrity is
rewarded and performance is punished. So we must take into
consideration the realm in which many consider truth and normal. To
ask them to perform is the same as asking them to believe the moon is
made of cheese. They just cannot wrap their minds around certain
abstract concepts.

I agree with you on this second point as well but with an addendum. Bruce is
a proud killfile and filter enthusiast. Therefore, his reality is warped by
his own self-imposed limits. He freely chooses to blindfold himself
respecting things as they really are. He chooses willingly to live in a
fantasy land and his conclusions are faulty by virtue of the fact that
reality is put on the back burner.

So, how can such as Bruce in Bangkik be expected to perform when the
parameters they perform by are not representative of reality? Sure, they can
give a performance by it is a parody of reality to those of us who choose to
live in the real world because we are not afraid to see. This is the root
cause of the innate failure of liberalism.

So they will castigate or attempt to castrate those who challenge
their safe world of hair dryers, refrigeration, and wives who run
their life as well as their boats.

Yes, that is what they attempt and it makes complete sense to others like
them. They find solace in numbers. They demonstrate, however, that they fear
the truth or anything else that does not buttress their limited perception
of reality. The very act of censorship is an act of cowardice and fear. I
feel sorry for such faulty minds. Their chance of success at any endeavor is
low due to their self-imposed skewing of reality. Is it any wonder why
rescue services and towing services grow exponentially?

Wilbur Hubbard

"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote:
.... He chooses willingly to live in a
fantasy land and his conclusions are faulty by virtue of the fact that
reality is put on the back burner.


I usually don't read "Wilbur"s posts but I found this rather amusing.
He's definitely the expert at living in a fantasy land.

DSK

"Bob" wrote in message
...
Wilbur Hubbard
My distinguished colleague:

Oh that's rich. Either a sock-puppet account or yet another lunatic.

First, once I too become so infirm, incontinent, and incapacitated
with age I will prefer to die in a boat

Good, hurry up with that plan.

"Bill Kearney" wrote in message
t...

"Bob" wrote in message
...
Wilbur Hubbard
My distinguished colleague:

Oh that's rich. Either a sock-puppet account or yet another lunatic.

First, once I too become so infirm, incontinent, and incapacitated
with age I will prefer to die in a boat

Good, hurry up with that plan.


Gee... ya think? LOL

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On 2008-04-17 11:15:00 -0400, "Bill Kearney" said:

First, once I too become so infirm, incontinent, and incapacitated
with age I will prefer to die in a boat

Good, hurry up with that plan.

Though I don't necessarily agree with the rest of Bob's post, I too
would want to die on the boat rather than some dumpy old-folks'
warehouse.

As I recall, a couple of the "cruising gods" (well known authors) cut
the lines because they were told they only had months to live. They
were still going strong 20+ years later.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/