Travel Gear

Big doings in the engineering department lately.  New batteries and cables. New wind generator, new bearings for the old wind generator.  New charge monitor, new charge regulators.  New radar.  New water heater.

Based on the effort and money that we're putting into Galactic, it would be reasonable to conclude that we're in it for the long haul.

But all that is just stuff - useful stuff, but just the means towards getting us to an end of freedom and bliss on the high seas.

Here's the travel gear that's really gotten me excited lately - a sport coat for the engineer to use when he is allowed on shore:

When you're traveling you occasionally find yourself as the guest of honor at a very special event for people you've just met - an event like a christening in rural Eritrea, or a school opening in Penrhyn.  The graciousness with which people welcome a stranger to events like this will astonish a traveler, especially since the warmest hospitality is (nearly always) shown by people who would seem to have the least to share.  So I reckon that the least a traveler can do in return is to kit himself out in a bit of formal gear in order to show his respect for the event, and for his hosts.

So all of that is why I've been meaning to add a sport coat to my travel kit ever since we left Kodiak on Pelagic.  And Alisa's citizenship ceremony finally gave me the excuse to do it.

Meanwhile, though, we've now got less than four weeks until we'd like to set sail for the season.  So I don't think the engineer will be wearing a sport coat again any time soon.