a-lot-a-knot to cruise ship passenger
a-lot-a-knot
A line tied in a haphazard way.
Alex Escher
A stray kitten we found in the PowerBoats boatyard in Chaguaramas, Trinidad in 2019. He was bumping into things and appeared to be blind and very hungry. We named him Alex and took him to a vet in Port of Spain.
Alex weighed 275 grams. He was treated for an eye infection and worms. Alex was boarded at the vet for several weeks before he was adopted.
Click for another picture of Alex.
Aphrodite
Refers to our boat as well as our family. In the cruising community, people are often known by their boat name, not necessarily by their first names.
Other sailors might say, “We are meeting Aphrodite for ice cream’” or “The Aphrodite mom has water.”
basketball
A term used to bolster confidence while poking fun at my performance on my high-school basketball team. In three years, I scored one basket — on the wrong team.
bathyscope
A low-tech underwater viewing device. A bathyscope works like a giant goggle. We put our bathyscope into the sea, hold it by the handles, and look underwater using its glass bottom.
big bum seat
A large corner seat in our saloon. This seat is comfortable because it allows the occupant to stretch out and lounge while watching movies.
big dress
An ankle-length, short-sleeved, flowery dress I wear to indigenous villages or towns where modesty is important. In North America, this dress would suggest I belong to a religious sect. But, in Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia, it works.
big house
Our house in Ottawa before we moved to our catamaran, SV Aphrodite. Our kids lived in the “big house” after we moved from our smaller, and more centrally located, “yellow house“.
A cross-continent camping trip in 2014 caused us to rethink our priorities. Within six months of returning to Ottawa, we bought SV Aphrodite, and radically downsized by donating or giving most of our belongings away. My 2015 blog post, “Closing our house, room by room” describes how we packed up our “big house”.
black-handled knife
A dull knife with a pointy end, used to remove things, like dust, popcorn and hair that gathers in the crack of the teak transom.
Blowfish Todd
A man we met on Isabela Island in the Galapagos, and then again in the Marquesas, French Polynesia. Todd was crewing on his friend’s sail boat. My children know him as Todd or Blowfish Todd.
Todd got this nickname because of how he greeted us one morning before a tour of the Sierra Negro volcano on Isabela Island. He put his lips on the window of our tour guide’s car and made his cheeks and mouth expand (like a blowfish).
Photos supplied by Todd, with photo credit to Nelson Riollano. To preserve “Blowfish Todd” as a family term, Todd’s last name has been omitted intentionally. Todd is currently working on a boat for National Geographic.
boat clean
Stained clothing that is perfectly acceptable in our environment. We might change our standards to go to shore; we might not.
bulbous cup
A double-walled, stainless-steel cup that narrows at the top.
“When Rick had dengue, he refused to drink out of any cup unless it was a bulbous cup.” Reason being, they’re the best insulated glasses on the boat.
cement bucket
A sturdy bucket designed to carry cement and strong enough to hoist seawater to clean the decks.
cheap water bottle
A recycled plastic water bottle. We refill these water bottles to use ourselves or give to local people. Cheap water bottles can be left in our dinghy or kayak without fear of theft.
child cage
The child cage refers to the large, covered drain in our cockpit, just below the steering wheel. The name was perhaps inspired by watching the movie, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” with our kids. Who can forget the scene with the child catcher?
The “child cage” used to be called the “toy cage” because small objects like Lego or hair elastics would fall through the slots in the drain. The word “toy” and “child” had close association and over time the drain’s name morphed into the “child cage.”
clean the bottom
We use a paint scraper and green scrubby pads to remove barnacles and seaweed that collect on the bottom of our boat. A fouled bottom affects sailing performance. In some places, like the Galapagos, or New Zealand, a dirty bottom presents a biosecurity hazard.
New Zealand has very strict rules relating to boat bottoms at the national and municipal level. To enter New Zealand, we cleaned our boat bottom, and then documented our work with labels and underwater photos.
cleaning the engine
This is a regular job on SV Aphrodite. We have two engines. The engines are below the two aft beds. Cleaning involves crawling into tight spaces.
The job takes about an hour. We like to keep the engine clean because we can then easily see streaks of rust or oil. Issues are easier to detect when the engine is clean.
clip in
We “clip in” to our boat for safety in rough weather, at night, and when fishing at the back of the boat.
Example: We might ask “Is he clipped in?” when Paul is fishing to check he is attached to the boat, and not at risk for falling overboard.
coming from the US
The phrase “coming from the US” sparks excitement because it represents the possibility we might be able to order parts and have our things brought by airplane. Outside the US it is difficult to acquire engine and water maker parts, sail systems gear, plumbing supplies, and homeschooling materials.
Our environment wreaks havoc on our gear. The heat, humidity, and sea air damage cell phones, computers, Kindles and cameras.
You do not have to travel far before supplies become very limited. We carry a lot of spares. In Fiji, for example, we supplied a welder with good-quality stainless steel so that he could make us a new rudder.
In some cases, it is cheaper for someone to fly to the US than to have an item shipped. Presently, we are considering flying to Chicago to pick up schoolbooks for our kids because of the time, cost and the risks of trying to ship the books to Micronesia or the Philippines. Flying to Chicago also gives us a chance to pick up a much-needed Yanmar oil pan. The oil pan is integral to the function of the engine. At the moment, one of our Yanmar oil pans is limping along with three epoxy-puttied patches covering leaks.
cone of silence
“Do not talk to me. I am in the cone of silence.”
A strategy I impose when my family talks at me through the bathroom door. A bathroom is called a ‘head’ on a boat.
Corrosion-Xing-it
Corrosion-X is a miracle product that lubricates and revives rusty items. As we live in a salty environment, we coat our tools, and our engine with Corrosion-X.
Example:
“These scissors are seized.”
“Have you tried Corrosion-Xing-it?”
cough syrup
Said to someone if they cough or sneeze excessively. The phrase, “cough syrup” refers to an incident on a bus in Port of Spain, Trinidad, pre-COVID. Another passenger was coughing non-stop, and a stranger called out loudly, “cough syrup” on two occasions. The idea of struggling with a cough and being reprimanded by a stranger seemed rather funny. We have adopted the phrase, “cough syrup” ever since.
counting zip ties
This is a phrase used when we lower the anchor chain. We use zip ties to measure out the amount of chain we need. At one point, we painted the chain. However, the paint wore off quickly as it rubbed along the sea bottom. We put zip ties at 5-meter intervals along our anchor chain.
The amount of chain we put out varies depending on the depth of the anchorage area, and the swing room. We might put out more chain, and therefore count more zip ties, if we expect bad weather.
We will soon be installing a chain counter with a digital display. It works with a magnet and, in that regard, is similar to a bicycle computer. However, the device instead of measuring distance, the chain counter measures chain length.
cowboy shower
A short shower. On our boat, water is a scarce resource. A short shower means not wasting water: you get wet, then turn the tap off. Apply soap. Turn the tap on. Rinse off.
Recently, Karen complained that Betty was showering too often saying, “She has a shower every week!”
crap
Refers to any object that is taking up space on the boat.
cruise ship passenger
An insult. Someone who is expecting to be served; someone who is not pulling their own weight. This term replaces “human succubus”, which I recently learned means a demon who assumes the female form and has sex with someone while they sleep. Betty had suggested I did not know the meaning of the term “succubus”. Turns out, she was right.
Current location: sailing from Chuuk to Yap, Micronesia
GPS: 8 59′ .401 N, 142 29′ .627 E
Becoming a Sailor 
This was loads of fun to read. There’s a lot of humour and pragmatism in your family lore.
I’m really surprised that boat parts etc are so hard to come by given how prevalent it is in the territories you have travelled. Is it too expensive a business, too risky, what’s going on there?
Looking forward to the next one.
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There are no boats here. We haven’t seen another sail boat in weeks. In Papua New Guinea, many people travel by dug out canoe, as well as 17-foot long open boats with a 40HP motor called ‘banana boats’. In Micronesia, banana boats are everywhere.
The local people have no money. In PNG it costs $4 to have a baby at the hospital, and $7 if you need a c-section. My sister said she would opt out, even at those prices. I stayed overnight at the hospital in Kavieng, and the water was cut-off in the middle of the night so the toilets could flush, let alone being able to wash your hands.
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