Weather's been great...spring is in the air! Two yacht clubs coming into the Poulsbo marina here this weekend...really big (and expensive) boats...and big doings! We're not yachties...we're boaties...actually we're cruisers...(which in some communities is right down around trailer trash even with a nice boat ha!).. For us though...when the yachties come in, it's sort of like living in an amusement park...(well for us more like an amusement park-parking lot!). BTW - Yachtie is a person who own a big boat that they only use... like...once or twice a year...the boat is usually some type of corporate tax right-off or some type of (ahem!) compensation. True "yachties" wear the clothes and belong to very expensive (make that elitist) groups called yatch clubs. Fees to join range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to literally $150,000 and up...not including dues of like $25,000 to $50,000 a year and up!!! On the other hand...when we go out and anchor with them or go anywhere for that matter...we both have the same view, and are usally parked (anchored) next to each other....so I don't know who's realy got the better deal here....considering their generators usually cost more than out whole boat!

Onward...

We both are maxed out studying for our HAM licenses coming up this Saturday. Like the test has a million questions...all technical and everything...well okay...maybe 35 questions...mostly radio speak but it's still like a new language.
What it means is for us we can call people on the phone through the radio (over) about anywhere in the world...(over) and try to talk...(over) and out..over.

Having all this radio equipement on board does make us glow in the dark a bit...We have HF for long range, VHF for boat to boat, SSB for super-long range then theres the CB, then walkie-talkies, and the personal VOX headsets that let us talk quietly to each other while we are anchoring or setting or re-setting the sails. I love it...I suspect Sandy hates it...must be something about my talking that puts her off...anyway... Did I mention that I'm really into talking and sharing information...make that "correct information"...Oh and coffee...correct coffee.

On the downside of the radios...is their installation and upkeep. Way much to do with establishing stuff called "ground planes" and running cables and antennas all over the place...like 50 feet up each mast! So...good while you got them, bad setting them up...oh and bad whenever I want to talk to Sandy on them...way bad :)

Mondy the studying and testing will be all over with...so it'll be heads down and going...trying to finish up everything so we can sail off into the sunset...of course there's no such thing as "finished" anything on a sailboat. Mostly it just more exotic places to do repairs...ha!

More next time...

Ray over and out...