Author Archives: Melissa

Digit-al Revolution Hits Sailing Kitties Everywhere!

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I am not a good saver. Mike is, and he gets a regular paycheck which makes regular savings easier. But I am loathsome at it. When we were raising kids,  much of the money I made went to buying clothing, food, and the myriad of other things that come with the schooling years. It always seemed like there was an expense that needed urgent attention in the moment.

Going to wait on shore while he gets beer

LIving simply like this costs much money.

The rule of ‘pay yourself first’ is not that easy for an in-the-moment person like me. I always paid my bills first, took care of kids second, bought supplies for whatever hobby I was focused on third, then if there was something left over…well actually that never happened to be honest. I realize that this is an undisciplined way to live so don’t even bother to tell me. I’m already taking out my hearing aids so I don’t actually even hear you. Now that the kids have been replaced by the boat, it’s still hard.

Beautiful, but costly.

Beautiful, but costly.

I am always just amazed at how good Mike is at saving money from every paycheck, but to be fair, working for a mindless corporation comes with some benefits such as having automatic withdrawals and deposits. Even to get that kind of convenience, though,  I would never have survived the corporate world because my bullshit detector is always set to ‘stun’.

Well the digital world has finally caught up with people like me. I discovered this fantastic application for my phone: Digit. Their motto is “Save Money, Without Thinking About It”. Are you kidding? Sign me up!  But wait, is it safe? How does this thing work?

Money Money Money!

Money Money Money!

I explored their website and found that all funds up to $250,000 are FDIC insured. OK, well that’s the same as a big bank so that’s fabulous. I’m unlikely to save that amount without spending some of it anyhow. Also it’s free, which it should be since it’s actually acting as an online bank, which means they are holding my money for me until I want it. They get to use my money just like the banks do. That’s a fair trade for this amount of convenience. You do not earn interest, but when was the last time you really earned interest on a bank account? Who cares?

So how does this work? It’s actually pretty slick. You connect Digit to your checking account and their program analyzes your spending and deposit patterns by checking your account for activity every few days. Then it begins moving small amounts that you will not even miss into your Digit savings account. If that sounds stealthy, well, it is. But the beauty of this is the amount of communication you receive from Digit, and this is what I really love about the usability of this application.

Every single morning I get a text from Digit telling me my checking account balance. I LOVE that. I don’t have to remember to check myself, I don’t have to log in to my account. I just get this nice text. All communication is done via text. When they move money over to my Digit account, I get a text. If I want more information, there are commands I can text back, such as ‘balance’ or ‘recent’ to see recent transactions. No dealing with ‘press 1 for English’, ‘2 for someone from India who says his name is Ken’, ‘0 for us to hang up on you’.

So for instance, last week Digit saved $9.72 for me. That’s not very much, and I didn’t even notice it, which is part of the beauty of this system. They texted me to let me know they had saved money for me, then if I wanted to save more I could text them back and tell Digit how much more I’d like to save.  I can also log onto the website and see a complete history of all transactions. It I want to make a withdrawal, a simple text command is all it takes to transfer money into my checking account.

Lucky bandits. They have access to Digit in their youth!

Lucky bandits. They have access to Digit in their youth!

I’m pretty impressed with this application. Actually, I love it. So far I have saved about $125 that I would definitely not have saved otherwise. I’ve been using it for a little over a month. That’s not very much yet, but it will buy muchos fish tacos down in Mexico.

My only regret is that this is a new thing, and I would love to have had something like this 20 years ago. If you are working on beefing up your sailing kitty and want to try Digit, here’s a link you can use to sign up. If you do sign up, please consider using the link here. Full disclosure: I get 5$ if you use my link. If you sign up, you will get your own link to use with your friends and family. Then you, too, can buy fish tacos.

Check it out!

Some Accessory ‘Wins’ on Galapagos

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During our month long cruise aboard Galapagos Mike and I paid a lot of attention to how we lived aboard. We noticed things about our habits on board, our routines, what we enjoyed, and what had yet to be settled. We knew that this month away would give us a lot of time to collect data; really get down to some details about how to make Galapagos into the home we want her to be.

Tzartus Island

Tzartus Island

As the time to move aboard begins to get closer, we become increasingly interested in what other people use on their boats. What do they like? What works and what is too much trouble? We’re not talking about things like sail systems or radar here, we’re talking about  day to day living on a floating object. I mean, think about it. Even if you don’t know much about boats, you probably realize that something like my Kitchenaid Mixer is both too large and too power-hungry to be a good choice on a sailboat.   We pay a lot of attention to other people’s blogs for that kind of content.

So I was thrilled when a few weeks before we left  Brittany over at Windtraveler.net blogged about her top ten simple and inexpensive items they use on their boat all the time. Woo hoo! Jackpot! See, Brittany and Scott live on a small sailboat with three tiny tots. (!!) Small sailboat + 3 tiny tots = one busy set of parents where easier is better when it comes to using stuff on a daily basis. I figured if a busy mom thought these things were good, who was I to argue? So I read, I clicked through on some of her links, and I purchased some things on her list.

Here is our own list of ‘wins’ in the accessory category. Thanks, Brittany, for turning us on to some of these.

That’s right. I have wasted most of my life using other, less worthy towels.

1. Turkish Towels – Who knew? These towels really ARE better and I am wondering how come we don’t use these at home? Do not be fooled by how thin the fabric is. They actually are super absorbant and we used them, like Brittany, for so many things. They do dry in a flash, too. Good for wrapping around your body, for shading the overhead window in the hard dodger, and for keeping hot skin from sticking to the surface of the cockpit cushions.

I always try to get the green one. It’s my favorite.

2. Copco To-Go Coffee Mug – Our Thermos brand mugs somehow developed a rounded bottom so I bought a couple of these based on Brittany’s recommendation. I have to say we really do like them. Lightweight, easy to hold onto with their grippy middle, easy to open and close, and they keep the coffee nice and hot in the cockpit. Plus, they do not rattle in the cabinet when we’re sailing.  Pretty good for the price.

After using it for a month, well, pretty disgusting actually. The one on the right is new.

3.  Wet-it! Cleaning Cloths – I had mixed feelings about these. I wanted to try them because when we are at home we use a lot of paper towels and that’s very wasteful. I also use a lot of dishcloths, but on the boat those get stinky and are hard to wash. Needless to say, we won’t be using many paper towels when we are traveling because, I mean, they create trash. These Swedish cleaning cloths were recommended by Brittany, who has those three kids, after all, so they were worth a try.I think she had better luck with hers than I had with ours; or maybe we’re just dirtier than three toddlers. That could be true… I used one the entire month we were gone. The result is as you see in the photo. This was used to clean the counters and the stove in the galley, and to wipe up any food-related spills. The absorption is great, and these dry pretty fast. But they get grungy fast as well and the photo above was taken after soaking this cloth in a bleach solution. I’m not very impressed with that. I’m a little persnickety about wanting things that are clean to actually LOOK clean. Still, it’s on the list because it is a good substitute for wasteful paper towels. Maybe I’ll just hide it underneath the sink where I don’t have to look at it between wipes.

No, I’m not kidding, actually.

4. Sunny Portable Stepper – That’s right, I brought this on the boat. And it’s actually a great little unit. It’s very well made, adjustable, and it is easy to store either underneath the salon table or under the seat in the v-berth. This is one of those things I used several times when stuck on the boat due to rain, or just because we were underway a lot with the engine running. I was determined that I was not going to come home from our last cruise wearing larger clothes and this little unit helped me reach that goal. As a bonus, if you use this underway, you’re going to be giving your core muscles a very nice workout, and you will certainly break a sweat. I find the arm bands to be pretty useless, but maybe I just haven’t found my groove with them yet.

The face of a man at peace.

5. Chillax Hammock – I bought one of these for $14.99 at Costco as an impulse buy for Mike’s birthday. Does he like it? Oh yes, he really does. This is strong, yet light weight and very easy to deploy on the boat. I still have my heavy, cotton hammock that I used on Moonrise, but if Costco gets these again this year, I’m getting another one of these. With our ketch rig, we can have dualing hammocks. They take up no space and would be comfortable to sleep in. I’m thinking we could even hang one of these in the quarter berth cabin to use for sleeping while underway. No problems with heeling when you are hanging in a hammock! The other thing I like about this hammock is that there is enough fabric that you can completely wrap yourself up, as though in a cocoon, which protects from the sun. But the fabric is lightweight enough that air flows through easily. A total win.

Getting a little sun protection.

6. Bodum Milk Frother – As a Pacific Northwest coffee lover, it is my secret shame that I really do like Nescafe instant coffee. Blame it on Scotland. I learned to love it there. Not only that, but I make a latte with my Nescafe every morning using my dandy, cheap and easy Bodum frother. Heat a little milk, froth it into a dense and creamy foam, add your instant coffee granules just on the edge of the cup and gently pour in the hot water directly on top of the granuals, disturbing the top of the foam as little as possible.

Just yummy!

Just yummy!

It’s just about perfect. For my birthday, Mike bought me a really nice stainless steel rechargeable unit. Unfortunately, it’s so powerful that it actually doesn’t make very good foam and I end up splattering milk all over the kitchen. I like my foam to be very dense and hold up for the entire latte experience. On the other hand, the rechargeable unit makes terrific scrambled eggs. I recommend getting rechargeable batteries for your cheaper, easier to use Bodum.

Vegetables lasted at least two weeks stored in these vacuum bags.

7. Food Saver Vacuum Sealer– In terms of provisioning for our trip, this was a spectacular win. Not only is it fun to use, but it really does allow things like fresh vegetables and fruits to last much longer. Before we left, I made sausage and egg breakfast muffins, small meat loafs, and greek spinach and cheese ‘loafs’, vacuum sealed them, and then froze them.  I also bought meat, divided it into servings, and vacuum sealed it in bags to freeze. I did the same thing with produce and stored that in the refrigerator.  We were able to go for a long time without provisioning. In addition, the bags can be washed and re-used, reducing the amount of trash you have to deal with. We plan to use this tool to store and protect small parts, hardware, tools and other things in addition to food. We bought ours at Costco, which has a better price and frequently puts them on sale.  

8. DryCase Basin backpack – I got tired of worrying that my camera or phone, etc, would get wet on the dinghy ride to shore, and I didn’t have a backpack. I wanted a waterproof one. As a member of Women Who Sail on Facebook, I took advantage of a great discount on this backpack when it was first manufactured. It’s turned out to be a great pack. It’s versatile, has pockets on the outside for water bottle, etc, and even has suction cups so you can attach it to your SUP, if you use one of those. I am happy with how it fits, and with the mesh back that keeps the sweat at bay. I also like that it is basically one big open compartment that you can easily stuff things into. Too many little compartments only make me lose things. You can carry a lot of groceries in this pack. I know this well.

Notice the wide, padded straps.

Do you have some favorite little things you find to be useful on your boat? Please tell us about them!

Guess what? This is not out latest post. To see our most recent post, go here. And thanks for reading!

 

Precious, Practical Pudgy

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Today we took a break from all the home projects we are doing in order to get the house ready for renting. Sometimes you just need to remember why you are choosing this particular path in life, because this part of the process is such a lot of work and one leap of faith after another.  I guess if it were easy, everyone would do it, or so I understand.

We needed to remember this.

We needed to remember this.

Lately we’ve both been feeling a little overwhelmed at how much we’ve bitten off for ourselves by moving our departure date up so significantly. It’s cramping us a lot more than we thought it would. All of the things we still need to get for Galapagos, like safety gear, a dinghy, and a life raft (only the very tip of that iceberg of a list), all need to be bought in a much smaller time frame. In addition, we will have to put several thousand dollars into getting our home ready to go, and our other financial obligations haven’t disappeared, either. Deeply into the yard landscaping re-do, a huge project,  we both wanted to get away from the house for a day. We needed a little Galapagos time.

What a generous and touching surprise!

What a generous and touching surprise!

So we hopped down to Galapagos to spend the day on the boat and what did we find upon our arrival? Some thoughtful and generous fellow cruiser had left us a gift in the cockpit! No kidding! Someone left us a lovely gift of several books of cruising charts for the Strait of Georgia and other areas of British Columbia. I tell you what. This could not have happened at a better time for us. When things like that happen, I consider it a sign that we are doing the right thing and all will be well. It really made our month! Thank you, anonymous chart-giving fairy! We can really use that kind of encouragement about now. We appreciate the gift and will certainly pay it forward ourselves.

We had a perfect ‘light air sail’, which means we sat bobbing around Commencement Bay for a couple of hours enjoying the warmest fall day we can remember, then headed back to the dock. We were hoping to hail our new friends Donn and Kerry Christianson on their Baba 35 S/V Brigadoon, and take them up on their offer to try out their Portland Pudgy dinghy. Check out their blog. They have their own cunning plan.

Practical and, yes, adorable.

The Portland Pudgy is an all purpose dinghy that can be used as a life raft. It’s also allegedly a good rowing dinghy. We need a new dinghy for Galapagos before we make the big left turn. Our Walker Bay is perfect for around here, but it’s probably not the right dinghy for what we want to do. If cruisers consider the dinghy their car, which they do, then our Walker Bay is the equivalent of a one speed bike, especially as we have no outboard motor on it. This summer on our trip to Vancouver Island it became clear many times that we at least need a good outboard unless we want to row really far all the time.

Most cruisers use an inflatable boat with an outboard but at this point we are not sure that we are ‘most cruisers’. With the Portland Pudgy, you get an unsinkable boat that is easy to row (unlike inflatables), that won’t get punctured, will take a long time to deteriorate from the sun, is dead stable, and that can be outfitted with a complete life raft system if you so desire. You can also get a sailing rig for it (which you can do with our Walker Bay as well) The whole thing is practical and well engineered.

This kind of stability makes getting in and out much easier.

We took Donn and Kerry’s out for a row and were very happy with how it performed. It’s not particularly light weight, but it rides high in the water unless it’s fully loaded. We really like that the seat can be positioned for one person in the boat, or for two, simply by flopping it over. And we also like that the oarlocks are easily repositioned and are well engineered so that you can really give the oars a good pull and they stay put in the oarlocks. We have trouble with that on our dinghy and it’s dead annnoying.

The seat is positioned for two people in the boat.

We found that the dinghy didn’t track as well with two people aboard, and it’s a beefy little boat so you really get an upper arm workout rowing two adults around. Still, the idea of this ‘one stop shopping’ kind of dinghy is appealing to us. Mike would love a sailing dinghy, and we both enjoy rowing as well. Still, these are not cheap. The basic boat is just under $3000. Add another $1300 for the sailing kit, and then add another $2000 if you want the life raft outfit. Running lights and electrical are another 500$. My eyes begin to glaze over until I think about the cost of a life raft all by itself: about $4000-$5000. And at that price, you hope you never have to use it. If we have to spend that kind of money, we could do worse than to get ourselves one of these.