Haven’t written an update in forever. Nothing much has changed in the past year so there’s not much to say. Only new thing is I started studying iaido.

What’s iaido? It’s a Japanese sword based martial art. No fighting, we use real swords so that would be too dangerous, it’s all kata, ie practicing forms. I like to think of it as being kind of like yoga with a sword in your hand.

I started just over a year ago. Was shocked to find anyone around here was teaching it, had I known I’d have started sooner. I’m not very good at it, had no idea how uncoordinated I was until I started this, but I am getting better. Our club also teaches kendo, another Japanese sword art, but it’s too active for me lol. I went to one class and was exhausted by the end. That was enough for me.

Still at the same job, still living in the same house surrounded by Mudder’s stuff, although I am planning to empty out her bedroom one of these days and use it as a practice space for iaido. I’m not quite ready yet though…

Still planning to buy a boat. There’s not a day goes by I don’t think about that. I’m subscribed to a half dozen YouTube sailing channels, all smaller boats and people without a lot of money. I don’t bother watching someone with a million dollar boat, their experience is nothing like the one I expect to have. Going to be another 3 years before I can afford it but unless something happens to stop me I’ll be doing it.

That’s about it. I wish I had more to say but I’ve just been keeping my head down working towards not needing to work anymore.

Just like it says, that’s what I’m doing lately. It’s weird around the house without Mudder, especially because all of her stuff is still there. Everywhere I look I see her. It’s not a bad thing though, if anything it’s comforting.

She’s home now, or rather her cremains are home. I put them on the mantle flanked by pictures of her. There she’ll stay until summer when I’ll get her put in the ground with her mother and sister. Better to wait until the weather is nice plus that gives me time to come up with the money.

I’m actually in debt right now. She didn’t have much money in her account when she died and I had almost no savings because I spent everything I had on building a guitar and cameras equipment. The CPP death benefit hasn’t come through yet and honestly at this point I’m expecting it won’t, twice they sent me forms to fill out asking for more information. They aren’t going to give me extra so that has to be for things that’ll be used to give less if any money at all. A portion of the money my mother had I gave to my sister so she could fly home and the rest I combined with the little bit of money I had, my vacation pay and a loan from my boss to pay for the cremation. So I’m in debt.

I could pressure the rest of the family to contribute to the burial but I hate doing things like that plus I told my mother I’d take care of it so I’ll take care of it. Hopefully I’ll get something from CPP but I’m not holding my breath at this point.

So it’s going to take me a little bit longer to get a boat it looks like lol. I’m still doing it though, that plan hasn’t changed. The details keep changing and will continue to change but I’m going to do this.

Right now the loose plan is buy the best boat I can for the best price THAT’S CLOSE TO WHERE I LIVE NOW. I don’t need a boat capable of crossing the Pacific Ocean, I only need one able to sail the Caribbean right now. It makes more sense for me to just get going and gain experience then if I feel I still really want to go to England to buy a Centaur I can sail there knowing what I’m doing, at least a little. Leaving my cat and belongings for months while I go to England, buy a boat and sail it to Newfoundland with no experience is folly. I’ll have a nice chunk of money when I turn 55 so I can at that time either upgrade the boat I’m on or buy a better one if that’s what I feel at the time is best.

That really opens up my options for what I can buy. I wasn’t even looking at boats like Catalinas and Hunters before but I’d be willing to get one for cruising the Caribbean. I’d be willing to risk a single Atlantic Ocean crossing in one too if it came to that. My preference is still long keeled boats like Cape Dorys and Bristols and the like but I’m no longer married to that idea now that I’ve accepted that I’m willing to have a temporary boat.

It seems so far away now, even more so being slightly in debt. I’ll get there though. If anything having it take a little longer is to my advantage, I won’t have to live off my savings as long. I’m not doing anything until I have at least $20k and I won’t spend any more than $10k on the boat so that’ll leave me $10k to live on until I’m 55. The closer I am to 55 the better but I can’t bear the thought of waiting until I’m 55 to start, that’s why I’m doing it the way I am. Obviously I’ll do odd jobs wherever I can or even some part time work to make a few bucks as needed because $10k won’t last long, at best probably a year and a bit.

I’m looking forward to having something to write about again, I really enjoyed writing this blog when I was in Japan. It’s so pointless now because every day is mostly the same.

So why did I suddenly change from a 5 year plan to a 2 year plan? My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a couple of days before Christmas. At the time we thought we might have as much as a year but as it turned out it was only 2 months.

My best friend and the only person I’ve ever loved died yesterday. I know everyone says their mom is their best friend but mine really was.

I didn’t grow up with my mom, unfortunately I was raised by my dad, in the 70s people didn’t care about abusive fathers/husbands so there was no support for her to take us herself. When I came back to Newfoundland 12 years ago though there was no question that I wanted to get a place with her so that’s what we did. Most of my life I feel like I wasted, I did nothing in my 20s and even less in my 30s but I spent my 40s building a relationship I should have had and didn’t and it was the best, most fulfilling part of my life.

I mostly go to work and then home again, I don’t go out and socialize anymore. So she was the person I talked to about everything, every day. Truly my best friend, she wasn’t just my mother.

I never miss anyone, I always said I just replace people when they move out of my life, and that was true. But you can’t replace your mom. I certainly can’t replace her.

I’m glad she didn’t just die in her sleep one night because it gave us time to say goodbye and have all the conversations you want to have with loved ones but usually never get around to but I hate that she had to suffer so much to give us that. She had a lot of pain the last couple of weeks. She was describing the pain in September as agony so I can only imagine what it must have been like at the end. She’s the strongest person I ever met.

She’s okay now though, not feeling any pain and she can finally get some sleep, she’s had trouble sleeping for years. I saw her yesterday before the end and I knew she didn’t have much time left, only hours. I kissed her on the forehead and told her she was safe, I was there and I’d protect her. She always said she hated when I wasn’t home, having me there made her feel safe. I stayed about an hour and told her even when I was gone I’d be with her and if there was anything after this life to look for me, we’ll get a place together again. I would have stayed to the end but my sister needed to see her too and thanks to covid-19 and her traveling from out of province and still being in self isolation we couldn’t be there at the same time. She passed away shortly after my sister left, there was no time for me to go back.

I don’t think she had any idea we were there, she was heavily sedated, but maybe she did and that’s just what she was waiting for. I’m just glad her pain is at an end. Mine is just beginning but I’ll be okay.

I’m still planning to live in our house, at least for now, although it might get weird. It is a bit now but also comforting so I’m torn on that. I cleaned the washroom Sunday and put her toothbrush back on the sink and her book and glasses by the toilet where she kept them. The mantle is now covered in pictures of her.

I didn’t tell anyone what was going on that I didn’t have to to get time off work because I didn’t want people asking me how she was doing when the answer was always going to be bad. It was a bit of shock for some yesterday when I finally made an announcement.

I’ll be okay, I’m not normally emotional about things so I’ll get through it. I do get emotional about this but I can handle it. So don’t worry about me. If you have any cares for me send them to my mother instead, she deserves them more than I do. She was an amazing woman who in spite of the obstacles she faced would always meet them head on and have a smile on her face.

Rest in peace Mudder. That’s what I called her since childhood. Started as bit of a joke but it was our word so it’s all I’ve ever called her.

An update from the most boring blog ever…

I was doing good saving for my boat but I had lots of time so decided to spend what I had saved on replacing and upgrading the camera I broke in Japan and a new guitar. Of course the camera wasn’t enough, I also bought a bunch of lenses and other stuff and I couldn’t just buy a guitar, silly me had to build one just the way I want it.

That would be fine, after all I have 5 years left but something changed so now I’m aiming for 2 years. I can do it but I’ll have to make a few lifestyle changes to save that much money. Luckily I don’t need much, my tastes are simple.

I know what type of boat I want, I’m sure some people who know boats will think I’m nuts but I’m also sure some others who knows boats will say good choice but I want a Westlerly Centaur. Why?

-it’s in the size range I want, 25-30′, it’s a 26′ boat

-they’re easy to single hand

-they’re over built so they’re rugged

-I can stand up inside – one of my deal breaker requirements for a boat

-I like the idea of the twin keels and being able to ground it during high tide and clean or even paint the bottom at low tide.

-they’re cheap, they go for under $10,000 Canadian regularly without being project boats.

-people have single handedly circumnavigated in them, I know it can be done. These boats are designed for the North Sea of England, they can handle rough water.

They’re said to be slow but so is every other boat that I’ve looked at as suitable for me. They have a higher hull speed than a Cape Dory 25 or Albin Vega so they’re only slow compared to boats I wouldn’t sail anyway.

Only thing is they’re scarce on this side of the Atlantic so I’ll have to go to England probably to buy one, most of them are there. Buy it there, head down to the Azores, over to the Caribbean then up to Newfoundland to pick up my things then back to the Caribbean for a couple of years. By then I’ll be able to access my retirement money so if I want to get a different boat or spend a lot on the one I’ll have I can then I’ll go around the world.

Then I’ll have something to write about again. 😁

It’s been a while since I posted, not much to talk about. I have some news though, I finally started editing my Japan videos. Only took me a year lol.

Spent several hours this weekend on it then deleted everything I had done. I had a bunch of footage of me getting there, stuff like walking down the sidewalk, riding the bus, sitting in the airport, sitting in a plane, more sitting in airports, more sitting in planes. Who would want to watch that?

So I started over from my first morning in Tokyo walking out the front door to my hotel. So far I’m just editing the 360 videos into regular videos, when that’s done I’ll try stringing it all together. The audio is terrible in most of it so I’ll probably just run clips with music playing, maybe with text on the screen occasionally or a voice over.

I now wish I had edited as I went along, I would have noticed some issues with how I was filming things and been able to correct them. Most of the time I’m holding the camera too low so any time I pan the view around to me it’s looking up my nose. I would have noticed the sound problem too and spoken more loudly. There’s a bunch of helmet cam footage and most of it is lopsided because my helmet was a bit loose and tipped to the side. None of that has image stabilization either, I’m hoping I can do something with that in post when I get to it.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a video, it’ll probably still take me a while to get something done but at least I’ve started.

One year ago I was in Tokyo. I still think about Japan every day but lately more so than usual because of this anniversary. It’s difficult to not just buy another ticket and go back for another visit. I have to keep reminding myself that money is for my boat.

One thing that I keep thinking about is the rollercoaster of emotions I ran through that day. I started with the excitement of going, then the boredom of sitting around Pearson airport in Toronto for I think 13 hours or there abouts. Then annoyance in Calgary at having to get off the plane only to get back on an hour later. Panic on the flight when I lost my 360 camera then relief when it was found. Trepidation clearing customs and worry my luggage wouldn’t be on the carousel. Finally in Japan and got my stuff, everything going well and then I discover my bank card wouldn’t work. Several hours of worry and feeling sick to my stomach sorting that mess then finally cash in hand on a train into Tokyo from the airport. I recall the train ride being kind of surreal, I was exhausted and it was dark so I couldn’t really see anything out the windows, I could have been anywhere. Getting off the train in Shinjuku and even though knew what to expect being blown away by just how big it was, I remember thinking it was at least 3 times bigger than I thought. Then out onto the street, into the neon lights with the kanji characters and hordes of people and a feeling of calm came over me and a feeling that I was home. That was the weirdest feeling, being somewhere I’d never been and where I didn’t speak the language and yet it feeling so comfortable and familiar to me.

I’ll go back someday I hope. If I get a boat as planned I’ll sail there, if I don’t get a boat I’ll be cycling around the world and I’ll go there then. If something happens to me that I can’t cycle I’ll just go. I can’t not ever go there again, somehow, someday, I will return.

So what else have I been up to? Haven’t posted in a while. Not much lol. Work, that’s about it. Coronavirus hasn’t affected me, my job is essential so I’ve been working regularly, same as during snowmageddon. Still putting away money but I’m a little below my goal, life has a way of getting in the way when you’re making other plans. Still saving enough though.

I was going to cycle around the Irish Loop here in Newfoundland this summer for a short, cheap vacation but with coronavirus I’ve changed my mind on that one. I’m thinking a week hike instead, maybe hike up Old Petty Harbour Rd (it’s an overgrown dirt road impassible to anything but 4 wheel drive and feet) to Petty Harbour then back along The East Coast Trail. I could do it in less than a week but I would take my time.

I have two proper vacations planned to keep me amused over the next 5 years while saving. Iceland and Cuba. In between I’ll do local vacations to save money.

I’d like to go to Iceland in the summer and bring camping gear. Spend a couple of days in the city then either hike into the hills or look into a bus out into the bush. There are tour bus companies but those are organized day trips, I have to find the local Greyhound type of service that goes around the ring road and use that. I’d like to get off somewhere, hike and camp a few days, get back on the bus and off again somewhere else, rinse and repeat a couple of times then back to the airport and home. I’d love to cycle the ring road but I wouldn’t want to have to rush it and doing it slow would take more time than I want to take off work.

Why Iceland? It’s a fascinating place, I always thought it was interesting from watching documentaries about the geologic activity there since I was a kid. I also don’t see myself sailing there so it’s a good place to go even though it’s expensive for food and accommodations. Camping is cheap everywhere.

For Cuba it would be a winter vacation. I don’t want to stay on a resort, I’m thinking air bnb, maybe one place for a few days then somewhere else on the other side of town for a few more. I’d like to look into bicycle rental so I could really get around the city. I haven’t thought about it much more than that.

Why Cuba? It’s cheap. I might sail there someday so it’s kind of redundant but I’m going to want to go somewhere hot and I’ve already been to the Dominican Republic.

I still haven’t done anything with the video I shot in Japan. I tried to a couple of months ago but watching some of the clips just made me sad lol. One of these days I’ll edit it into something watchable. At least I hope it’s watchable.

That’s it for now, not much point posting when there’s nothing happening. Take care everyone.

Even though buying a boat is years away I look at boats for sale all the time and think about what I want. Here’s my wishlist so far.

I hope to buy a boat somewhere on the east coast of North America, preferably in Canada in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. My plan is to go to the Caribbean first to gain experience, I’ll go to sailing school before I set off anyway but I want to spend some time in a place with well known weather patterns, more than adequate forecasting, lots of anchorages and plenty of other sailors whose brains I can pick before I tackle open water sailing. Canada is a preference because I’ll likely have to spend at least a few months working on the boat before it’s ready to go and in Canada I could work legally so I’m not dipping into my savings too much. If the right boat for the right price is in Greece or Panama though I’ll be going to Greece or Panama.

I want a fiberglass boat made from the 60s to the 80s. I’ll be limited to one of those anyway by cost but older boats tend to be over built, they’re really strong and can take a beating. Wood is a definite no, they are really expensive to maintain and ferro cement is a definite no because finding someone who can work on them isn’t that easy. I would consider steel but fibreglass any idiot can do work on including me.

I want a boat between 27 and 32 feet long. Anything shorter than 27 is too cramped inside and will get tossed around in even moderate seas, anything bigger than 32 the cost of things starts going up. Bigger boats need heavier anchors, stronger chain, bigger sails, beefier winches, thicker ropes, etc… Bigger sails and heavier anchors are harder to manhandle alone as well.

I want a fin keel with skeg rudder or a modified full keel.

I would buy a full keel boat if I liked everything else about it but no way would I get a fin with spade rudder. They’re faster but you can knock the rudder off in the middle of nowhere and then what? Transom and skeg hung rudders are protected. My preference overall is for the modified full keel however since I’ll be on the small side for a sailboat and it’ll be more stable in heavy seas than a fin keel. I don’t mind the speed penalty, I’m not going to be in a hurry to go anywhere.

I want a sloop rig.

A sloop has only two sails, less things to mess around with, less things to go wrong. They say a ketch is best for single handed sailing because it keeps the size of the mainsail down but I just don’t like the look of them much lol, they don’t look balanced to me. Yawls you rarely see as cruisers, it’s more a fishing boat thing, the difference from a ketch is the aft mast is behind the rudder. I do like cutters though, especially if they have a long bowsprit. Sailboats look saltier with a long bowsprit lol, I would happily buy a cutter if it had a long bowsprit.

Those are all things integral to the boat, things I can’t change, now comes the options.

For power I hate the thought of an internal diesel engine. They stink, are finicky and require regular maintenance, they take up space, and lastly, I know nothing about them lol. I’d love a boat with an electric motor and batteries and a massive solar panel array but I’m not likely to find one and converting one doesn’t make sense for me. It’s very likely I’ll only have the boat a few years so spending all that money and making the boat harder to resell just doesn’t make sense. Some boats come with or are converted to use an outboard motor, I could live with that. I’m not a big fan of the motor hanging off the stern though, they’re ugly and they get in the way of self steering vanes. There’s another option though.

On some boats the transom overhangs the rudder enough to put the motor inside and in some cases there’s room enough it can even be made to tilt up. Even when it can’t you can make it so you can lift it out of the water and store it on its side in the locker. Both of the boats in the pictures had that custom done to them, that’s not outside my level of skill I don’t think. They both have self steering vanes and it isn’t in the way of either of them.

So my preference is for a boat that it would be possible to make this modification on but it isn’t a deal breaker. If the boat I buy has a working diesel with lots of life in it I’ll just learn about diesels and use that but if the engine is seized or already removed I won’t sweat it and do the conversion.

I want a self steering vane. No, I need one. No way can I cross oceans alone without one. Yes, there are electronic autopilots and I’ll have one of them too but they don’t work well in strong wind and waves and when they do they drain your battery in a hurry.

Self steering vanes are surprisingly simple devices and even more surprisingly expensive, I had a look at some the other day and they’re all around $4000. So it would be best to find a boat that already has one installed.

I’d like a boat already set up for single handed sailing. Usually the lines and winches for raising and reefing (taking some sail in so that strong winds don’t make the boat heel too hard) the mainsail are on the mast. This means you have to go up on deck to make any changes, much better to run all those lines to the top of the cabin so I can make changes from the cockpit always in reach of the tiller. That’s an easy modification I can do myself though. Also a furling headsail would be a plus, that means the small sail out front wraps around the forestay it hangs off of so that I don’t need to leave the cockpit to deal with that. Lazyjacks would be nice, basically guidelines that help your mainsail sit on the boom properly as you lower it. The less I have to get out of the cockpit the better.

A windlass would be nice but it isn’t a deal breaker. A windlass is the winch that pulls up your anchor. Most small boats the anchor is pulled by hand but I plan to get an oversized anchor so a windlass would definitely be a nice feature. Manual or electric is fine by me.

For electronics my list is pretty short, a gps, a radio with AIS and an electronic autopilot. AIS for those that don’t know is basically a signal system that tells boats who is where doing what. My system will probably be passive (they’re cheaper) meaning I won’t put out a signal but let’s say a cargo ship is bearing down on me in the middle of the night the AIS will pick up their signal and know their heading and speed and will warn me we are on a collision course. Radar is a luxury. Certainly useful but I can live without it. Same for a satellite phone. I should get an EPIRB though, add that to my list. It’s an emergency beacon that works anywhere on the planet to summon help. I could use my laptop or tablet as a chart plotter or I can do it old school on paper so I don’t need a chart plotter.

Definitely going to want a large battery bank and solar panels. I’d like refrigeration and having enough power to use an electric cooktop would be awesome. The less I have to go to shore for things like stove fuel the better. There’s a company called GoSun that makes solar ovens that I’ve seen a few people use on their boats. Definitely want one of those.

I’m not too concerned about the interior layout, boats in the size I’m looking at are all the same anyway. Usually two sea berths in the main cabin and a v berth up front with a small galley area and a toilet. I will only need one sea berth though (for sleeping while at sea, at anchor I’ll sleep in the v berth, v berth is too bouncy while under sail) so I’ll likely modify the interior and turn one berth into a permanent chart table area and a shower. Yes, I want a shower. If I could carry enough water to use it I’d put in a bath tub.

Definitely going to rig up a water catchment system for collecting rainwater and I have an idea for a solar water distiller as well. Anything to reduce trips to shore.

Those are the main things I look at when looking at a boat, which of the features I want does it have? There are lots of choices in my price range so I shouldn’t have any trouble finding one to my liking.

I won’t buy anything without getting it professionally inspected first. That will cost about $500-700 for the size of boat I’m looking for but if it saves me buying a lemon it’ll be worth every penny.

It’s fun to dream, even if it never comes true. I didn’t think I’d ever go to Japan and I made that one happen so who knows?

You’d think living in Newfoundland right on the ocean learning to sail would be easy but it isn’t. There’s one sailing club around here and based on their website they only have lessons for kids. I looked into going away for it but that doesn’t really make sense, it’ll be years before I can own my own boat so why spend so much now on lessons I’ll probably forget?

I could buy a small sailing dinghy but where would I keep it? Keeping it in water is expensive and I don’t drive so have no way to trailer one stored in my driveway around.

Then I saw this thing online.

It’s a folding boat.

I spent a week or two down that rabbit hole, looking at folding boats and even dreamed up my own design but I don’t really want to build a boat, I just want to sail one. Something small I can take around to local ponds towed behind my bike or on the ocean on calm days.

Then I stumbled across this.

Kits you can buy (I’d build my own) and strap to an inflatable dinghy. Spent about week looking at those. Sure, they work, but they aren’t very good to windward. These boats are essentially flat bottomed and are just as happy to slide sideways as go forward. I don’t imagine I’d use it for much besides sailing either.

A better option for sailing is a kayak. They are designed to track straight due the way paddling them makes them want to twist side to side. They can be a bit tippy but outriggers or a smaller sail can take care of that. I don’t want to deal with a solid hull though, too much trouble towing behind my bike, so I’m looking at inflatables.

Not all inflatable kayaks are created equal however and most of them are basically pool toys. Even the better ones in the mid range are pretty flexible which means you lose energy so not a great sailing experience, you want a stiff boat.

Enter drop stitch kayaks.

Drop stitching can make a boat nearly as stiff as a solid one without the weight penalties or the bulk during transport. Instead of round tubes that fill up with air to about 1-2 psi drop stitching links the sides together with threads allowing flat panels and about 10psi inflation resulting in a stiffer surface than traditional inflatable boat construction. You can stand on it, they make stand up paddle boards with this stuff.

Only thing is, being the newest thing, they aren’t cheap. A decent kayak isn’t cheap anyway so I don’t mind paying a few bucks for it and I would use a kayak for more than just sailing, I’ve wanted one for years. I’ve never bought one only because I don’t drive.

There are only a few brands and all of them are over $1000 which is what I’d pay for a decent solid kayak too but like most things lately these things are all made in China. Doesn’t matter where the company selling them is or what pretty graphics they use, they’re pretty much all the same design made by the same factories in China. I had a look on Alibaba and several of them will sell single units and the price is about a third of what the retailers sell them for.

I’m not buying one now, can’t use it for months anyway, but I’ll have a look again in a couple of months and see if I can get one direct from China. They usually want you to be a retailer buying multiple units per month but if I can convince them I’m using it to prototype a sailboat (which is true) and I might be looking to buy more in a few months once I perfect my design (which isn’t true) I should be able to get what I want.

Being me though by then it’s entirely possible my brain will have moved on to completely new ideas and I won’t want one anymore.

St John’s is still under a state of emergency but it’s being lifted at 8 am tomorrow. There have been exceptions, grocery stores were allowed to open a couple of days ago and today restaurants are allowed to let their staff go in to prepare to open tomorrow.

It was a bit of a zoo when the grocery stores opened. At first the city announced they’d only be open for one day. Here are a few pictures of what happened.

Inside was even worse.

None of these pictures are mine, I’d give credit but they were pictures that were shared a bunch of times on social media so I don’t know where they came from.

I missed all that, I was still at work. I finally went home on day 6 for 3 hours just to get cleaned up and then last night got off my normal time at 5 and actually slept in my own bed last night. I’m really looking forward to the weekend.

Here are a couple of other pictures showing how bad the snow has been.

When I was going home last night I could see a lot of side streets were still only 1 lane and normally 4 lane roads were 2 lanes. When I said on Sunday I didn’t see what the big deal was I was wrong. At that point I hadn’t been exposed to enough areas to see how bad it truly was. Or I should say is because it hasn’t changed much.

Should be an interesting next couple of days when everyone is trying to drive around in this.

Day 4 now, the city is still under a state of emergency, all businesses closed except gas stations to supply snow clearing crews with fuel only. They won’t sell anyone else anything. That’s St John’s, where I live, but I work just over the city limits in Mt Pearl and I’m still there. Yes, still at work, 4 days straight.

Mt Pearl temporarily lifted their SOE today so that people could get supplies. I was able to go to the corner store across the street and stock up on a few things. Took me 4 trips to get eggs, they told me when I went in the morning they were expecting a truck in the afternoon, it didn’t actually show up until 6:30 pm. Understandable considering what’s going on, I’m just happy to get what I needed.

St John’s is lifting their SOE tomorrow from 10-6 only for convenience stores and grocery stores so that people can restock. People are being asked to only go to the store then back home again.

This is a serious situation we are in, there’s just nowhere to put the snow. Anyone who has been to St John’s knows all about our quaint little downtown streets. Well, they aren’t so quaint right now.

That’s downtown today. As you can see, it’s a disaster.

People are being told to get supplies for another 48 hours. Today is Monday, I’m hoping that 48 hours includes tomorrow and the SOE ends Wednesday night or Thursday morning and not Thursday night or Friday morning.

There’s a Facebook group about the storm. It was setup so people could network and share updates about the situation as well as ask for help if they needed it. For the most part it worked pretty well but there’s been some nastiness too. A lot of people being judgemental towards others who they feel didn’t stock up as well as they should have in preparation for the storm. A lot of threads have had to be closed because they degenerated into a morass of rudeness.

The convenience store I went to today was smart and only let a few customers in at a time, there was a line outside. Hopefully the grocery stores in St John’s do the same thing tomorrow or it’ll be like Black Friday sales with everyone grabbing at everything. Of course everyone will want the best stuff so there’s be people beating each other over the head with Sunrise bologna trying to get the Maple Leaf from them.

One good thing came of the storm though, I’ve decided unless I can’t sail for some reason I’m going to sail. I have to get away from this, I wish I could go right now but it’ll be 6 years minimum if I’m going to be halfway sensible and responsible about it. I won’t be able to retire and spend the rest of my days sailing around places without winter but I can probably get a couple of years out of it, I just don’t make enough money to do it for a longer period.

Perhaps some opportunity will arise that’ll give me an income or I’ll be able to work short stints in places, perhaps not. I’ll have a YouTube channel, you can make some money from that and if you get enough subscribers you can get gear at a discount from some companies by reviewing it. Only a fool makes that a serious part of their financial plan however, I would see it as a bonus. Not sure if I’d be interesting enough on camera to make a channel worth it but I’ll give it a try.

I’m a fickle guy though, who knows what other ideas will pop into my head over the next 6 years. Maybe I’ll just go to Japan again or maybe I’ll decide to do something else crazy like buy a hot air balloon.😁

Anything is possible.