Bliss it is....

[Marlene Anne Sassaman]

January 11, 2013 seems like eons ago. The frenetic pace that moved me from a comfortably numb existence to living the dream is overwhelming. Where have I been these past three months, where am I now, and where am I going are the questions I am learning to answer in the present tense. Following the philosophy of Eckhart Toll in his books about the "Power of Now" it is clear that doing so empowers one to enjoy the roses along life's twists and turns.

Weaving philosophy throughout my adventures continues to enlighten my thoughts. For those more curious as to my physical whereabouts here is quick summary.

Palm Bay, Florida (home dock of friends Linda and Mike McGarry)

Dinner Key, Miami (cruised the ICW with #1 sailing mate Maryanne Schaumann - you should have seen our superbly professional docking at the Ft. Lauderdale Yacht Club)

Bimini, Bahamas

Cat Island

Berry Islands (Bullock Harbor, Great Stirrup Cay, Flo's Restaurant, Hoffman Cay - Blue Hole)

Nassau, New Providencia

Rose Island

Hatchett Bay

Glass Window

Rock Sound Harbor

Powell Harbor

Norman's Pond (ooh, la, la, best in a narrow width, shoal draft)

Norman's Cut

West New Providencia

Dinner Cay

Rodriquez Key

Boot Key

Everglades City (first stop)

Yipe. my first stop around the globe is Everglades City, Florida. Not the end as it may seem, this secluded little town at the edge of Florida's southwest coast, offers a culturally diverse, hurricane hold up - not to mention a blissfully romantic encounter. Afterall, before setting sail, I teased my girlfriends about maybe finding a good looking sailor to embrace in some far away port. Little did I know a tall, smiling healthy 'deckhand' would capture my attention before leaving my home port. Where to next?  Looks like some land sailing the sea of happiness...

[Bill Charleston]

The typo confused me but you must mean E BOOK!

On Amazon.com in KINDLE, there is a book for "how to publish."  Use MICROSOFT WORD to input to their program.  The following is a few words from their book PUBLISH ON AMAZON KINDLE.....

To get started, visit dtp.amazon.com in your web browser. If you've got an Amazon.com account, click Sign In and enter your email address and password.

Amazon.com (2010-03-14). Publish on Amazon Kindle with the Digital Text Platform (Kindle Locations 20-22). Amazon.com. Kindle Edition.

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

Many people say the best course of action is to charge $0.99 because many people will buy at that price without  hesitation.  Others say the upper price should be $2.99

Your name came up in a conversation I had with Elise today.  I have helped her some to get her boat ready to leave for Cuba.  Tomorrow morning we are going to finish installing her forward hatch.  She really has a great couple who are watching over her from S/V WE'RE HOME.  I asked her today where she got her Cuba charts :-) and of course she said you.

[Marlene Anne Sassaman]

Hi Bill, thanks for your suggestions. To start my e bool where do you suggest I begin? Is there a particular website you suggest?

[Bill Charleston]

A few thoughts:

 

Dinghy:  WM guarantees satisfaction.  If you took delivery of your dinghy and are not happy for ANY reason, return it to any store for STORE CREDIT.  Then you can upgrade dinghy as you wish. Everyone said best option was to first contact cooperate to try and get satisfaction that way first.

IPAD  Music APP you saw on mine was Piano Tutor.  There are MANY Apps that are simply fantastic. I have about 5 on my IPAD

IPAD navigation:APPS:  IF you haven;t installed one, there are several fantastic ones.

The Garmin app is a free download from the iTunes app store; however, the app is not usable without the Garmin charts. You can buy a “coastal chart” package for $30 or a “North America” package for $45. We found the North America package excellent and would recommend it, although we have heard negative comments about its inland lakes, which we were not able to test in Florida. We’re not sure why the mobile package is so much cheaper than the seemingly identical packages for their full-size chartplotters. They also have a variety of foreign chart packages, ranging in price from $42 to $70. They also sell a “premium weather” add-on for $4. We found the weather tool to be relatively useless, displaying various blobs for cloud cover and radar, but we did not have any extreme weather during our cruise.

http://www.practical-sailor.com/issues/37_28/features/Garmin-Nav-App_11011-1.html

If you don't subscribe to PRACTICAL SAILOR and want to see more of this article, let me know.

You simply have to have your IPAD set up as a backup to your GARMIN plotter. 

Make sure you have power backup to the IPAD that allows it to be used at your helm

DO NOT run both potter and IPAD together during a lightning storm for example.  :-)

And thank you so much for your suggestions on how to convince the world that I am right and everybody else is wrong.  :-)  I already even have a small reply from one of the lesser people on my “list” of contacts.  One step at a time.

This is a link to what I have on YOUTUBE and the best presentation I have to date.   Call it a “BEFORE” video.  My channel has almost a million hits but this particular video only has approx. 1000 hits. To be successful, I have to have a video on my favorite subject with millions of hits.  I am slowly putting together the next effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQLxlSBGwMY

I mentioned to you TIPPING POINT (Gladwell)., a book that I listened on audio several years ago.  I re-read that this week again! Reading is much better than listening to an audio book......  You can install the IPAD KINDLE link to allow reading of electronic books if you haven't done so already.  What will  be my tipping point?  I don't know yet.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Tipping-Point-Difference-ebook/dp/B000OT8...

And last thought to you:  You simply have to start on your cruising book. Publish it electronically and with your enthusiasm and skills, you can easily make enough on your book to pay your monthly expenses. There are MILLIONS out there who want to do what your are doing but this same population has few who will actually escape like you have recently done.  Do it, it will change your life.

HF Radio/Antenna (sailors call it SSB): I didn't listen to your radio but if it won't receive well, it won't transmit.  Receiving is the easy part.  From what I looked at, your ground/ground plane is grossly inadequate.  I have fixed several SSB installations in Marathon and the #1 cause I've found is bad connections.  Take a nail file/ board or sand paper and clean the connections!  Then put a sealant over the connections. Install a decent ground system.  It will make it work a whole bunch better and it can be done by the owner pretty cheaply.  It will make a huge difference.