Wxx3
Dauntless Award
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2013
- Messages
- 2,820
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Dauntless
- Vessel Make
- Kadey Krogen 42 - 148
Thanks for getting me on the bus.
Not figuratively, but literally.
Last week in Italy, I finally realized that my plane was due to arrive in Dublin at 23:05 and the last bus out of town was 23:40. Clearly when I made the reservation, this did not seem to be a problem, but I had checked a bag and Ryan Air tool 30 minutes to get the bags off the last flight, so I now knew there would be a problem.
But after a day of thinking, I realized that all the time I’ve spent on Trawler Forum has really made me more resourceful.
I’ve always been open minded, but now, my mind is expanded, far more productively than Timothy Leary ever dreamed of. (Yes, not afraid to cross an ocean, but terrified of drugs. Pretty abnormal for an Aquarius who went to college in 1969)
But back to the bus. Now the next bus is 07:00, and that would mean a night at the airport or hotel, with poor Dauntless, maybe only half afloat.
No, that won't do.
.
So, I came up with a plan. I’d check the one bag, but have a smaller one and if the checked bag was not immediately available, I’d leave it to for collection in the next few days.
Well, plane takes off late, from what I could tell, because it took at least 5 ground crew, not Ryan Air, but airport people, to decide to load the plane and it seemed they did not want to load the plane while it was being refueled.
How did I know this, because Ryan Air had put us on a bus that was parked right next to the aircraft for the 15 minutes it took them to do whatever. I was reminded of living in Alaska and it seemed that every time there was some hole being dug in the road, there would be 4 state workers watching the 5th person digging at the bottom of the ditch.
OK, back to the story. So we land at 23:15; I figure there is still hope, and then make the half mile walk to passport control. Oh, hadn’t figured this in my calculation. Worse, there is only one window open for non-EU passport holders. 20 minutes later, I had my one minute interview and I was free.
Of course, my bag had been sitting for a while, so it was just a matter of me grabbing it on the way out of the terminal.
It’s now 23:45 and about a 10 minute walk to the Bus stop. But this is where my Trawler Forum mind expansion comes into play. I have simply become more resourceful; finally understanding that there is always more than one answer to a problem, I had come up with Plan C.
I promptly went to the taxi stand, and with my bus schedule in hand, I asked if he could get me to such and such stop by 00:15. He gave me this typical Irish answer, which is verbatim what one would also hear in NYC, “Well, the more time we talk about it and less time we’ll have to get there”
I got in and got there at 00:11. Asking the one person waiting, he said the bus indeed did stop here, but it hadn’t been by yet. (I did have some trepidation about the taxi leaving me in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night).
The bus showed up about 15 minutes later.
As the bus got ever closer to Waterford in a windy, rain storm, my imagination did start to become hyper active. So it was with great relief to find her, all as I left her, with no vagrants living aboard,not half sunk and the lights still on (signifying the fridge and freezer were getting power).
It’s now Monday, 12 January 2015, and as I write this one of my projects is already done. I replaced my 120v radio with an automotive one of 12 volts. This stereo system was the last thing that was demanding I run the inverter. Since the radio only used about 1 amp, but the inverter used 3 amps, it constantly irked my sense of efficiency.
And with every project completion, I learn a little more about the boat and every time I think I understand something, I learn a bit more.
But I still find I do many things two or even three times before getting it just right. For example, yesterday, I pulled two cables thru the boat, from the engine room to the pilot house, quite pleased with myself, until I realized that I had a three wire cable I should have used. So after ruminating about that for an hour, I decided to replace one of the cables with the new one, and leave the one unused for now. Finally getting into my cozy bed at midnight, I realized that I needed to change the on/off power source,which I did promptly this morning, but not before moving the wrong wire at first and wondering why nothing was working.
But all in all, I have become a far more resourceful person in the last few years. In large part due to the Trawler Forum and Cruisers Forum; on Trawler Forum in particular, I have learned so much, but one of the most important lessons is there is seldom one right answer.
If I were to ask an innocuous question like, “While tied to the dock this winter, should I start the engine periodically?”
The answers would range from: “What, you have an engine” to "What, you turned off your engine?”
Thanks All
Not figuratively, but literally.
Last week in Italy, I finally realized that my plane was due to arrive in Dublin at 23:05 and the last bus out of town was 23:40. Clearly when I made the reservation, this did not seem to be a problem, but I had checked a bag and Ryan Air tool 30 minutes to get the bags off the last flight, so I now knew there would be a problem.
But after a day of thinking, I realized that all the time I’ve spent on Trawler Forum has really made me more resourceful.
I’ve always been open minded, but now, my mind is expanded, far more productively than Timothy Leary ever dreamed of. (Yes, not afraid to cross an ocean, but terrified of drugs. Pretty abnormal for an Aquarius who went to college in 1969)But back to the bus. Now the next bus is 07:00, and that would mean a night at the airport or hotel, with poor Dauntless, maybe only half afloat.
No, that won't do.
.So, I came up with a plan. I’d check the one bag, but have a smaller one and if the checked bag was not immediately available, I’d leave it to for collection in the next few days.
Well, plane takes off late, from what I could tell, because it took at least 5 ground crew, not Ryan Air, but airport people, to decide to load the plane and it seemed they did not want to load the plane while it was being refueled.
How did I know this, because Ryan Air had put us on a bus that was parked right next to the aircraft for the 15 minutes it took them to do whatever. I was reminded of living in Alaska and it seemed that every time there was some hole being dug in the road, there would be 4 state workers watching the 5th person digging at the bottom of the ditch.
OK, back to the story. So we land at 23:15; I figure there is still hope, and then make the half mile walk to passport control. Oh, hadn’t figured this in my calculation. Worse, there is only one window open for non-EU passport holders. 20 minutes later, I had my one minute interview and I was free.
Of course, my bag had been sitting for a while, so it was just a matter of me grabbing it on the way out of the terminal.
It’s now 23:45 and about a 10 minute walk to the Bus stop. But this is where my Trawler Forum mind expansion comes into play. I have simply become more resourceful; finally understanding that there is always more than one answer to a problem, I had come up with Plan C.
I promptly went to the taxi stand, and with my bus schedule in hand, I asked if he could get me to such and such stop by 00:15. He gave me this typical Irish answer, which is verbatim what one would also hear in NYC, “Well, the more time we talk about it and less time we’ll have to get there”
I got in and got there at 00:11. Asking the one person waiting, he said the bus indeed did stop here, but it hadn’t been by yet. (I did have some trepidation about the taxi leaving me in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night).
The bus showed up about 15 minutes later.
As the bus got ever closer to Waterford in a windy, rain storm, my imagination did start to become hyper active. So it was with great relief to find her, all as I left her, with no vagrants living aboard,
not half sunk and the lights still on (signifying the fridge and freezer were getting power).It’s now Monday, 12 January 2015, and as I write this one of my projects is already done. I replaced my 120v radio with an automotive one of 12 volts. This stereo system was the last thing that was demanding I run the inverter. Since the radio only used about 1 amp, but the inverter used 3 amps, it constantly irked my sense of efficiency.
And with every project completion, I learn a little more about the boat and every time I think I understand something, I learn a bit more.
But I still find I do many things two or even three times before getting it just right. For example, yesterday, I pulled two cables thru the boat, from the engine room to the pilot house, quite pleased with myself, until I realized that I had a three wire cable I should have used. So after ruminating about that for an hour, I decided to replace one of the cables with the new one, and leave the one unused for now. Finally getting into my cozy bed at midnight, I realized that I needed to change the on/off power source,
which I did promptly this morning, but not before moving the wrong wire at first and wondering why nothing was working. But all in all, I have become a far more resourceful person in the last few years. In large part due to the Trawler Forum and Cruisers Forum; on Trawler Forum in particular, I have learned so much, but one of the most important lessons is there is seldom one right answer.
If I were to ask an innocuous question like, “While tied to the dock this winter, should I start the engine periodically?”
The answers would range from: “What, you have an engine”
to "What, you turned off your engine?” Thanks All
