Home is a small, engineless sailboat (2018)
towndock.net
towndock.net
I love seeing any "Web 1.0" site still flourishing in 2019. TownDock's been around since 2002, and their design has barely changed since then [1]. It's run solely by a local couple who have updated it by hand, usually several times a day, for the past 17 years.
It's an awesome resource for folks who live in Oriental. (Plus, they still sell banner ads to local businesses the old-fashioned way :) )
As far as I know, the authors don't make a ton of money from the site and run it as a public service. They're clearly technical people with good hearts.
It's so cool to see this 17-year-old website still going strong!
[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20020904212400/http://www.towndo...
After my grandfather sold his business and retired to Big Pine Key, Florida, he befriended a fellow who lived on No Name Key. No Name Key is connected to Big Pine by the "Old Wooden Bridge" (made of concrete).
No Name Key is known for a rock quarry, being the practice grounds for the Bay of Pigs invasion, and for complete lack of public utilities.
Now this is the early 90s, as my grandparents left the Keys after hurricane Andrew. In those days solar power was properly challenging. And yet the fellow in question had a fully solar powered house.
He was a physicist by education, rescued from deliquency by an insightful first mate on a Navy ship. Per my grandmother he worked "not one day longer than required to retire to a life of poverty."
In my grandfather he found a (mostly) willing source of free labor. And labor who was trained as an electronics technician during WW2. So the two worked on his solar house in the bad old days of solar on very little budget. His backup generator was the front third of an 80s something Honda Civic with a hotrodded alternator.
In addition to the solar house, he also had a 9 meter(ish) sailing catamaran of his own design and construction. The catamaran, like anything he cared about, was meticulous. I never did understand how one could be both so haphazard and so careful, depending on the task at hand.
He was a lazy sailor, but had traveled all over the East Coast and Carribean looking for his "soul mate." Indeed, he left the Keys to stay with a lady friend when hurricane Andrew hit. The problem with that plan? Said companion lived in Homestead. Oops. My grandmother suggested that perhaps he would have better romantic luck with a "smaller beer belly and fewer 'banana hammock' swim suits."
When he sailed on the open water, he used a small commercial autopilot that used a servo to move the tiller. It was based on a compass heading set on a dial. It only "worked" if you weren't that particular about where you saw the sun rise above the horizon. That was perfect for his adventures.
Grandpa died January 1, 2017, and I doubt his friend is in any condition to sail so many years later. But, if he is somehow still out there chasing soul mates, I guarantee the boat has solar power, and it's probably navigating with pypilot.
Basically, all different degrees of this.
Another surreal Keys moment for me was seeing the MTV cribs episode with Aaron Carter. I'm virtually sure that compound previously belonged to another of my grandfather's friends. His business was helicoptering around financial documents in sort of the pre-networking version of HFT. I used to bike in that compound as a tween.
In my late teens I took a course in French in the city of Royan, on France's Atlantic coast. A couple of my classmates were from the US, and they invited me over to where they were living.
It was a small sailboat moored in the harbor. The couple had essentially spent a decade working and saving, buying this boat, and having it shipped over to Europe. They'd spent some month sailing around, coastal seas and canals, and decided to learn French in Royan.
This was the first inkling that life could be more than a 9-5 grind, saving for retirement, before "life" began. This couple showed that you could alter that balance, that there are options, and your dreams are within reach if you are flexible.
I wish I had been more diligent in keeping in touch with these people.
Correction: from watching his videos, it looks like he's using a Raspberry Pi Zero, which costs $5, or $10 if you need Wifi.
This is damn impressive. I've always wondered what it would be like to live on a sailboat, and this guy has actually gone and done it successfully without dying.
Personally, I'd opt for a bigger boat though...
Misery. It is not fun. There are forces out on the ocean that are truly terrifying. And there are people out there who want to hurt you. If you are going to be alone in a slow boat, you better look so poor as to not be worth their time. I'm a little surprised he displays those shiny solar panels so openly.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNYlvlreZiRRHo_v5Nmrfow (Sailing Zatara)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9rRsBE2nFbnUSjtmv6Jq6w (Sailing Yacht Ruby Rose)
https://www.sailingtotem.com/blogging-families-afloat (Blogging families afloat)
You mean want to steal from you? Who would hurt you just for the sake of it?
Scroll down to "October 10 — Day 5"
I mean actual piracy.
[0] https://100r.co [1] https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19118951 [3] https://wiki.xxiivv.com
The autopilot looks like it could barely control the tiller in calm seas, much less any sort of storm. How useful is it?
How does he have Internet access?
How does he pay for food? Supplies? Donations and odd jobs?
I can't imagine how a ship with so much clutter, no head, no birth, can even be livable much less what it must be like in a storm.
There are about 100 other issues I’d fix on this boat first.
I applaud this mans effort, but taking this boat more than swimming distance from shore is something I would never do.
And I have to say, someone who sinlgehands a more or less home made boat across the pacific and back pretty much knows what they're doing by definition.
If this is not the case then I'm not sure what to think about it, all this clutter and dirt...
While Sean's hacker spirit is truly admirable, I don't know how I feel about his lifestyle as a choice.
It is, of course, none of my business how he lives his life. If he's happy, great! Personally though, I no longer covet such nomadic lifestyles like I did back in my 20s. My main issue with them is lack of social opportunities and the inevitable loneliness it brings. I'm not a social butterfly by any means, but one thing I've learned about myself is that not having other people around me for extended periods has a noticeable negative effect on my mood. As such, living on a sailboat sounds like a total nightmare.
I have come to view solitude as a dessert: really nice to have after a regular meal, and maybe binge on every now and then even, but if it makes up the majority of your meals for extended periods, it'll make you sick.
They're not easy to create, for sure.
But they should be possible.
this is so petty. to what extent is he living off of others? he lives in a mangey boat that he paid for. once in a while maybe he gets some medical care (though i doubt it's much because he's young). does every single penny that a person's life costs need to be reckoned and reconciled? do you know how much falls through the cracks for all of us because of frictions? how much you sometimes overpay for your fair share but also how much you underpay? it's insane to begrudge someone this kind of asceticism based on some kind of weird puritanical collectivism - despite what Arthur Jensen would have you believe the world is not yet a business (and neither is life).
I suppose you'd lock him up and .. no, prisoners live off the taxpayer. You'd kick him out of the country so he could make his own way, say, nomadic on a boat with no income? No, you don't like that. Enslave him and take his economic output? Kill him? What are you wanting to do, or wanting to be done to him, in this situation, to satisfy you?
http://svcrystalblues.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-quiet-achiever-...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_Alone_Around_the_World
Paul's is a tiny bit more accessible because of his programming background and the familiar perspective he has in his descriptions.
Captain Slocum's voyage of 1896(?) is so different; he took an old clock, and not much else, he lashes the tiller and goes down below for hours at a time to read or sleep without worrying about crashing into other boats, he tells stories of mouldy cheese induced nightmares during rough seas or chasing natives away from robbing him, or finding remote islands with communites of slightly odd people. Much of his writing is about the people he meets - they often know in advance he's making a historic voyage, so when he arrives anywhere, there's a big fuss, he's invited to dine with local dignitaries or captains of large ships, gifted interesting foods and boat parts, there's a lot of interesting things about the world of 1896. (There's also quite a bit of tedious place names and locations and passages where nothing much happens, I'm not that interested in the geography of it).
https://www.amazon.com/Freighter-Captain-Max-Hardberger/dp/0...
Max repos ships. The stories are amazing. You can find various pieces written about him by Googling his name such as:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/14/max-hardberger...
And a 50 minute interview with him while is where I first heard of him:
http://www.thestory.org/stories/2008-09/out-pirating-pirates
I'm intrigued to know what self sufficient means in this context. I guess he buys vegetables, does he sell fish?
Source: I’ve traveled maybe 7,000 miles on a pretty small sailboat.
If there’s a yacht club, they will usually have races where they need crew, and where they will teach you to be crew, and then go race with them on their boat. The costs there usually you bring beer/food to the boat and help clean up at the end.
That’s a very affordable way to get into it if you’re not sure how you’d like it or can’t afford it. Boats are expensive and maintaining by them even more so, but in my opinion, absolutely worth it.
It's nice that he's trying to use tech and a cheap boat to stay debt free. But his boat looks like a floating safety hazard. There is an article about him from NZ where they cited him in 2013 for having an unsafe boat.
How hard is it to jump over the side and scrub stains off? How hard is it to package up electronics so they don't look like something off of https://www.reddit.com/r/cablefail/ ?
Come on Sean, a little help here buddy, the cruising world is seen through the lens of boaters like you.
Yes there are probably safety concerns, yes you might find his boat unsightly but really this is closer to how people lived for most of history, totally free in the world unconstrained by government limited only by the relationships they choose to make.
When people leave this planet to live elsewhere they will be more like this guy and less like NASA, just like the Europeans were that left for the new world.
However, the Inland Coastal Waterway (where the interview was made) is a very precious resource. Thousands of boaters cruise up and down the waterway from the Chesapeake to Florida. We would all love to live the nomadic lifestyle. Most of us take care of our boats, and try to be a positive reflection to the community. Issue is that when cruisers anchor out along the ICW, in front of someone's property, they look at us and go "Ok, boat in good condition". When they see a boat like Sean, they go "OMG, derelict boat, we need to have a LAW TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM ANCHORING IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE. Because there is a history of boats like that that are not able to propel themselves becoming derelict and then become abandoned.
And that creates a problem, because Sean and cruisers don't pay taxes, so the local government listens to the property owner. And pretty soon, nobody, Sean or other cruiser can anchor. And with boats like his, the local marine police are out looking for safety issues. So they stop Sean, and they stop cruisers and want to do safety inspections.
All of this is preventable by Sean. I don't want him to be a gleaming mega-yacht. But he can spend an hour and his hull won't be a mess. He can spend another hour picking up wires and cables and stuff and when he gets boarded it won't be a mess. And while I appear to be stepping on his rights, the real statement I'm trying to make is "This is why we can't have nice things." 1000's of boaters go up and down the ICW, and this guy, gets news attention, make's hacker news and he becomes the face and boat of cruisers. Closing anchorages where Sean and cruisers hang out are endangered because of this.
I've traveled the ICW from Moorehead City, NC to Dinner Key, Miami. Derelict boats bring a very bad reputation to the cruising community and have real repercussions. Also, this boat is very unlikely to pass a coast guard inspection, making it an illegal vessel, putting other boaters and rescuers at risk, as they are legally obligated to render aid if he needs it.
This is why I am concerned for his mental health. Nothing wrong with living in a boat, as I've done with children. But one must be responsible and respect the danger of the water.
NIMBY is at odds with freedom.
They are doing this now across the ICW. Am I supposed to go, "He's cool, he's writing FOSS software, it's for the good of all?" I run OpenCPN and I love it. But to be honest, if I pick between Sean doing FOSS Marine Software) and closing the ICW to me to anchor, I'll be at Garmin's (front door with a credit card). Being part of FOSS doesn't give you a free "do what you want" pass with the rest of what you do with your life.
Mom says "Nice that you are important, it's more important that you are nice". Playing nice is a 2nd grade skill.
People with the really nice back yards have money. And unless you place nice, they use that money against you.
Help me in the balance with NIMBY in this case?
Thanks!
- Constant worry about looking proper
- Constant worry about your reputation (when people are probably busy thinking about their own reputation instead of yours)
- A large amount of legal restrictions around anything at all
- Telling people what to do so that they conform to your expectations
- Wealthy people determining the legal and regulatory landscape according to their needs
- Less wealthy people losing sleep over whether they are pleasing those wealthy people
- Less wealthy people badgering even less wealthy people so that they do what the wealthy people want
I don't necessarily think that his lifestyle is the best idea or that he is an enlightened sage, but the contrast between the two world views is captivating.
> Mom says "Nice that you are important, it's more important that you are nice". Playing nice is a 2nd grade skill.
If you define "nice" as just doing what wealthier people want because of incentives to do so. In a more Nietzschean sense, being nice is what you have to be when you are powerless. If you turn the calculus the other way, it's worth asking what incentives the lad has to listen to demands. Can he be arrested or have his boat taken away? I don't have the answers to these questions, but I do wonder what the power balance is in this case.
If everyone chose the "rational" way of just adapting to everything and keeping their head down, we would never have civil rights, regime changes, embryonic labor rights, and any number of struggles where people go beyond a utilitarian calculus at a great cost to themselves. This is how power balances have gotten overturned historically.
You also have some leeway of personal adaptation. It's one thing to stay within the bounds that society sets forth. It's another to grovel and revel in your servitude. For instance, looking at Astrojetson's comments, at no point did they blame the riverside landowners for their selfishness and nosiness, the blame was all on Sean for daring to do what he's doing. They were no longer psychologically able to criticize the true source of the problem.
You ask "Can he / we be arrested and the answer is yes. Yes in Florida and a growing segment in Georgia and the Carolina's. There is no power balance at the Sean level. There is at the boater association level. But Sean isn't helping us going "We are responsible boaters with motive power and boats that look like they will last the next 36 hours.
Nietzschean sense has SFA to do with the GA legislature. You are throwing a theoretical against a "This Shit is Happening Now" The GA legislature is listening to tax payers not Nietzschean sense. This is a real thing, not some textbook quiz.
The question is: why should he? Maybe he's OK with doing what he's doing and moving on when he's forced to, rather than following your appeasement strategy.
This is actually happening, Sean and people like him is slowly getting the anchorages closed. I'm excited to live in a world where people think it's ok for the few to ruin it for the many.
If we all play nice, then we can have nice things. But people decide the want to things their way without thinking of the long term consequences. And while you think, sheesh it's one guy on a boat, the reality is he got press coverage and while a few are going Ohhh FOSS software, nomad life, this guy is styling. Lots of others with clout are going, Boat about to sink in my river and create a huge problem, let stop this guy and the rest from doing it.
They don't have surgical tools, they simply say "no more free anchoring within a 1000 yards of a structure", which effectively closes down most of the ICW.
Hope this was a better set of sentences.
You seem to be a snobby boater. You remind me of the "yacht club" commadore in new jersey who waited around for me to show up so he could tell me about all the things I couldn't do (that I hadn't even done)
The fact is, my boat is more seaworthy than many that cross the sea every year. All the really important things are sound. I do have a life jacket just so I can pass the coast guard inspection. Never used it.
The only thing you or anyone else manages to criticize me of are cosmetic issues. Saying my boat will likely sink is judging a book by it's cover. You can't tell if a boat is going to sink by looking at pictures of it!
The proposed "solutions" such as paint or scrubbing all consume resources and energy, and in some cases also cause pollution. So these are actually a negative impact for everyone.
If it becomes impossible to anchor somewhere from too many selfish people, I'm not sure why I would want to anchor in that place anyway. There are plenty of other places (and countries) where this will never happen.
You already live in this world. Why does Sean get all of the moral blame, instead of the wealthy landowners who casually decide on a whim what the laws are?
That's the kind of boat that helps the cruising community.
The article on the Dutch sailor mentions a 12-year career, family history of sailing, flights, etc; plus even with the savings his boat costs a good decade or two of the other guy’s income. As I said, feel free to correct me and I’ll be happy to retract my comments.
uhghhhhh, yes. This is basically the floating equivalent of the trashy RVs that are collecting in Seattle's south of downtown industrial area.
If you like working with your hands, that upkeep can be therapeutic. But otherwise it can be drudgery. The ongoing cost, and effort, of upkeep has taken many enthusiastic boaters as eventual casualties of the pursuit.
Family formation without debt slavery doesn't have the same appeal to our media class, but it's far more important in the long run.
Assume this is true & that death erases all debt (the latter is true most places I think).
Is that a bad thing per se? I can see it being obviously bad if we’re saying debt as in debtors prison. As if being in debt enslaved you and traps you - this was how things used to work in some places for sure.
But assuming it’s debt that cannot enslave (big assumption, sure: see US student debt..)
Isn’t debt the creditor extending leverage and (in the right circumstances, see above) sharing some of that leverage with the debtor?
In the OP’s case - would it be very hard to envisage a scenario where this bloke could have a more efficient boat and computer? Where’s that would give him leverage that in turn would create more value for himself and whatever he chose than the debt he owed?
I think sometimes people take instruments that sometimes encourage or enable very bad things and then blame the tool. I can think of knives, guns, cash, etc.
Debt is probably the same thing? Bad if wielded by powerful forces that essentially allow enslavement, but powerfully good if not?
Just a thought experiment for sure.
Again, arguing in good faith.
1. “Money” = cash. (Hard to argue with that I think)
2. Cash is simply a more efficient means of exchange or store of value than custom IOUs (checks basically) or barter (I need milk, you have C++ code. Durrrr?)
I don’t think you want to take “money” out of anything if you agree that money is the above.
That would bar the ability of people to encode trust or information or relationships into pieces of paper (or gold or code or whatever).
(Don’t freak out: relationships are encoded on paper and in gold every day; eg weddings)
So yeah. I think cash (and maybe debt - as per original comment) might be a very powerful tool. Which we should be very careful with.