Wednesday, December 2, 2020 • 3 min read
The crew of Indiscretion has fully embraced the Apple ecosystem. It doesn’t seem very long ago that the Mac was the underdog, but now, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Apple Watches, Apple TV's, and even the underwhelming HomePod have found their way into our lives. We use this technology in the pilothouse for music, audiobooks, our maintenance tracking system, backup navigation and our ship’s log.
Thursday, November 12, 2020 • 12 min read
Fall weather in the Northwest can be pretty iffy. Rain and wind are the norm for this time of year, which took its toll on our boating time back when we sailed. Unlike my more hardcore sailor friends, the novelty of freezing my ass off in the cockpit lost its appeal some time in my mid-forties. Each year, as fall turned its gaze to winter, I would grudgingly decide to put the boat away. Off would come the cushions and bedding to avoid mildew. Three or four dehumidifiers would decorate the cabins of the darkened boat to soak up the winter moisture. Dock lines would be inspected for chafe ahead of the winter storms to come. Sadness would creep over me as I walked up the dock, perhaps for the final time of the year, already pining for spring.
Trawler life has changed all that. We no longer hibernate. Why would we? It can be freezing outside but still toasty warm inside the pilothouse and salon. In fact, fall and winter cruising on a trawler here in the Pacific Northwest is downright amazing.
Monday, November 9, 2020 • 11 min read
Welcome to my third annual review of the personal finance software, Quicken for Mac. I have been using Quicken to manage my finances since 1989: first on the Mac, then a long stint on the Windows version, before switching back to the new-and-improved Mac version four years ago. I wrote about the process of switching from Windows to Mac here.
As I wrote then, I had very high expectations for the Mac version under new leadership, independent of Intuit, and the financial benefit of a new subscription-based business model. In this post, I’ll share an update on how it’s gone using the latest version, Quicken 2020 for Mac.
Thursday, October 22, 2020 • 7 min read
During our two decades of sailing, we held a particular disdain for powerboats and their noisy generators. On starlit nights, the chug-chug-chug of neighboring generators disturbed the quiet stillness of the anchorage. Back then, we could be smug. With the simple systems on a sailboat, we could go days and days on the hook, relying only on the small house battery bank for power.
Times have certainly changed for this old sailor.
Tuesday, September 29, 2020 • 15 min read
When we purchased our Nordhavn 43 trawler a little over two years ago, we had big plans for the fall of 2020. We’d leave our newly emptied home and sail off to far away destinations — a longtime dream come true.
In fact, we did cast off, but not like we expected.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020 • 6 min read
As a licensed CPA and long-time boat owner, I’m no stranger to the financial consequences of keeping a boat. People like to joke about how quickly money flows into a boat, like stuffing $100 bills down a bottomless drain. Or, how many “boat units” a particular upgrade or repair will be. Somehow, six boat units sound better than $6,000.
When we were shopping for our trawler, our yacht broker shared this financial rule of thumb: expect to spend about 10% of the value of the boat each year on maintenance, upkeep, moorage, and other ownership costs like insurance, taxes and fees. The rule worked on our $70,000 sailboat. We spent about $7,000 a year on boat-related costs. But surely, that math couldn’t extend to a $700,000 trawler. Could it?
Friday, September 11, 2020 • 3 min read
Mornings start early on Indiscretion. Sometime between 6 and 7 a.m., one of our two trawler dogs will jump down off the bed and start issuing low whines I can’t drown out no matter how deeply I burrow into the blankets.
I complain a lot about having to take the dogs ashore in the morning, but to be honest, I love it.
Tuesday, July 7, 2020 • 7 min read
Anchoring a boat has come a long way. On our sailboats, it always felt like a risky proposition. We'd make sure to set the anchor and watch our position in relation to a fixed point on land. I'd stand at the bow for a long time before turning in, feeling the pressure of wind on my cheek, wondering if I should let out more rode. Many nights I'd be up in a flash if I heard a strange noise or a shift in the wind, looking out for something familiar on the dark shore to ease my mind.
Monday, June 22, 2020 • 3 min read
I'm told I say it every year, but today was certainly the best Father's Day ever. Being spoiled by my two children, and seeing how they've become wonderful adults has put me in a thankful, reflective mood. I'm sure every generation thinks this, but I believe what it means to be a father has changed a lot over the past thirty years. I had the benefit of having two dads as I grew up, first one and then the other. I loved them both, but I looked for other role models when I became a father myself.
Wednesday, June 17, 2020 • 7 min read
Over the past few months, we’ve been awakened by our Maretron monitoring system with a low-battery alarm during the wee hours. You cannot distinguish the low-battery alarm from the Anchor watch alarm, so on the times this has happened, I immediately launched myself to the pilothouse to gauge which way we’re dragging, peering out of the dark windows for some sign of a lee shore. Once fully awake, I noted that the battery level was perilously low.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 • 15 min read
Are you mechanically-inclined, perhaps an engineer? Are you inquisitive by nature, wondering how things tick? Do you like to fix stuff? If so, this post is not meant for you, although you might get a chuckle here and there if you decide to keep reading.
I wrote this for a different segment of the population, which I count myself a dues-paying member: the mechanically challenged. I’m pretty good with a spreadsheet, and I can make PowerPoint get up and dance. But fixing things? Not so much.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020 • 1 min read
So many worries. Our future unknown and uncertain. Quarantine and isolation. And yet … these are the days we’ll remember for a generation: those dark times when we persevered and grew stronger as a person, as a family, and as a community. We made sacrifices, experienced heartfelt loss, and yet took comfort in the small things: our family suddenly reassembled from far-flung places, a dog’s warmth by our side, and maybe the music we played for each other to cheer and inspire …
Tuesday, March 31, 2020 • 13 min read
Most captains pay close attention to weather forecasts and will postpone departures to protect the comfort and safety of the ship and its passengers. But what if the skipper has a track record of being too cautious? And what if the ship is an ocean-capable Nordhavn trawler?
I’m the first to admit it: I’m a cautious skipper. Even with decades of sailing experience across a half-dozen vessels, my nerves still rattle when the wind pipes up. Unlike a car, maneuvering a boat has an inherent wildness to it, an out of control feeling more akin to riding an elephant than the surety of a stick-shift, particularly in close quarters around docks and other boats.
Thursday, February 27, 2020 • 5 min read
We took our first cruise of 2020 aboard Indiscretion to Olympia last week. After a wet and windy start to the year, the weather gods smiled down at us and provided four days of sun and calm seas that perfectly coincided with our travel. That doesn’t happen very often in February around here, so we’re thankful for the reprieve.
Departing Quartermaster Marina
Friday, January 17, 2020 • 5 min read
The latest in a series of tips to help you read at least 50 books a year without feeling like you’re reading that much at all.
Tip #7: Read more than one book at a time. This tip may be an unpopular one. Many readers are devoted to a single book at a time, and would consider it is almost cheating to allow a second (or third) book into the relationship. I understand this view because I held it myself for many years. Yet, once I began the practice of reading several books at once, my completion rate started to climb.
Thursday, January 9, 2020 • 6 min read
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share tips and tricks to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like you’re reading that much at all.
Read more books tip #6: listen to audiobooks on your commute, while you exercise, or while doing chores.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020 • 3 min read
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
Tip #5: If you want to read more books in 2020, set a goal for yourself. Write it down. Better yet, create a Reading Challenge for yourself in Goodreads so you’ll always know where you stand during the year.
Monday, December 30, 2019 • 5 min read
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
One of the most obvious ways to read more books is to … well, read more. But with busy lives and constant demands on our time, how do you rationalize curling up with a book for long stretches?
Tip #4: read on the go during the unavoidable lulls in your day
There’s a story floating around about someone seeing the novelist Stephen King waiting in line to see a movie. Mr. King, who has written over eighty books and is known for his voracious reading, inched forward in line with his nose between the pages of a paperback book. Once he found his seat, he continued reading in the dim light until the lights went out, and the trailers started.
Tuesday, December 24, 2019 • 5 min read
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
Tip #3: Use Libby with your local library. Libby is an app available for iOS and Android that allows you to download ebooks and audiobooks for free with your local library card. The app comes from Overdrive, the leading electronic book distributor used by libraries worldwide. Libby’s collection totals nearly five million books at my local library here near Seattle, though your mileage may vary depending on your own library’s investment in digital books. Once you download the app and add your library, you’re free to search and download available books on the spot.
The free app is highly rated on the Apple App Store
Tuesday, December 17, 2019 • 4 min read
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
My second tip: use Goodreads.com. Goodreads is a site dedicated to book lovers. At its most basic, Goodreads helps you find the perfect next book to read using predictive analytics from books you’ve already read and liked.
Tuesday, December 10, 2019 • 7 min read
Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractable environment, it can be difficult to find time for books. In this series of posts, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
First tip: get an Amazon Kindle e-reader. I’ve collected rare books since my late teens and treasure my personal library, but today most of my reading is done on a Kindle. Here’s why.
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 • 6 min read
I have read 50 books so far this year, though it doesn’t feel like I’m really reading that much. I simply cut out the hours I might have scrolled through social media feeds or listened to half-baked podcasts, which freed up more time for reading books. I believe we are experiencing a golden age for reading with technologies like ebooks and digital audio, offering the ability to consume books wherever we are, whenever we want. More published works are available to us, most within seconds, than at any point in history.
Monday, October 7, 2019 • 11 min read
I stood mostly naked near the bow of the boat in the early hours of a Thursday morning. The sun hadn’t risen, and it was damp and chilly in my underwear. I hoped other boats anchored nearby wouldn’t witness this act of indignity. Desperate times require desperate measures, I told myself, as I contemplated the orange traffic cone standing before me atop a square yard of fake grass.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019 • 4 min read
Want to establish a consistent journaling habit and record your most important life events? Let me give you some simple advice from a long-time journal writer: scan your previous half dozen entries before you start to write. This two-minute drill will help you fight writer’s block and improve the overall content of your journals.
Let me explain.
Monday, September 16, 2019 • 5 min read
We’ve been back ashore now for a few weeks, home from our month-long trip aboard Indiscretion in the San Juan and Canadian Gulf Islands. We spent the majority of our nights at anchor or tied to a mooring buoy, enjoying the onboard accommodations and tranquility.
I expected to run into some form of mechanical difficulty on the trip, having checked and double-checked our spare parts inventory before departure, and thinking through the various fall-backs and redundancies we might employ should a significant failure occur.
Saturday, September 14, 2019 • 15 min read
I have kept a paperless office for nearly a decade. The technology has improved a lot since I started, making it pretty easy for anyone to reduce to eliminate paper from their daily life. In this post, I’ll share how I eliminated 95% of the paper from my home and office, and in the process, increased my productivity in a meaningful way.
Monday, July 29, 2019 • 9 min read
We are tied up to to the guest dock at the Causeway Marina in Victoria Harbour with a front-row seat of all the bustle and glamour that waterfront Victoria provides.
Monday, July 15, 2019 • 4 min read
Our first week in the islands was a blur. It usually takes about three days for us to lose our landward ways and find our sea legs, but our entry seemed easier this time. The pace of life on a trawler forces you to slow down, let the stress fall away - very much like our years under sail, but with so much comfort!
Thursday, July 11, 2019 • 2 min read
I’m writing this in the red glow of the wheelhouse courtesy lights on this calm night at Spencer Spit on the northwest side of Lopez Island. Lisa and Connor have retired to their respective staterooms, bushed from a long day of sea air. I’m tired, but I want to capture some of this experience while it’s fresh in my mind.
Sunday, July 7, 2019 • 4 min read
Our voyage has begun! We cast off the dock lines in the wee hours of Saturday morning to catch the ebb tide and are now comfortably anchored in Hunter Bay on the Southeast part of Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands.