Late Coffee…Early Cocktails

Since Late Coffee…Early Cocktails is mostly written for the folks back home, we thought it might be helpful to define some of the terminology and elaborate on some of the customs which may be unfamiliar  to non-cruiser’s.

Blowboat – a sailing vessel.  See Stinkpotter.

Cruising–The concept, yet unproven,  that one can travel the world via the world’s waterways, usually living full-time on board a sailboat.  A Cruiser is any person afflicted with this concept.

Cruising Plan — Serious intentions as to where we will go when for the next 1-2 years, written in water, rearranged by good and bad weather, equipment failures, late coffee and napping.

Deadhead Reckoning — Navigation not by charts and aids-to-navigation but in avoidance of that big thing floating in the water there.  No, there!

Dirt Dweller — Less fortunate souls consigned to wander the earth via terra firma, rather than sparkling waterways.  Cursed with houses, SUVs, traffic, jobs, money, endless possessions, bluegrass lawns, mirrors, thousands of cable channels, reality TV, and haunted by the need to achieve.  No one can accuse us of that.

Goldie Hawn — A large, shining power vessel with uniformed crew working its multiple stories, I mean decks, as found in the movie Overboard.

ICW — The Intracoastal Waterway.  More specifically, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway stretching 1000 + miles from Norfolk, VA to Miami, Fl.  The ICW allows thousands of boats to annualy migrate most of the eastern seaboard without taking a dip in the Atlantic.  Instead of large capes with their very bad weather and shoals, the ICW offers 237 bridges, endless barges, and plethoras of waterfront property owners who wanted to own property on the inland waterway but without any wakes.

Iowa Yacht – Commonly known as pontoon boats, Iowa yachts are named for the great convoys of pontoons each summer being trailered from Iowa up I-35 to Minnesota’s many lakes.

Line Cutter – A wicked apparatus encircling the propellor for the purpose of cutting any waterborn debris attempting a stranglehold on the prop.

Mooring Fields — Areas where mooring balls are provided for mooring your boat instead of anchoring.  Many more boats can fit in a mooring field than can anchor in the same area.  Most mooring fields are run by municipalities who charge a nightly fee and then ban anchoring, which is free, anywhere close to their mooring field, thereby garnering a sort of troll bridge charge for all who want access to their city to spend money on provisions, laundry, restaurants, etc.  Includes most all of Florida.  See Rafting Up.

On the Hard – 1.  A boat hauled out of the water and placed in a very expensive and very dirty gravel “yard” for annual maintenance on those parts inacessibile while immersed in water.   2.  The state of one’s marriage from living within twenty square feet of your spouse day-in-day-out.  Haul that line yourself, honey!

Rafting Up — Attaching two or more boats side-by-side with docklines and fenders for the purpose of partying, anchoring or mooring.  Some municipal mooring fields like Vero Beach’s are so popular with cruisers that the one must raft up three deep in order to get a spot on a mooring ball.   It is a real interesting site to see 3 catamarans rafted up twirling in the wind on a single mooring ball.  See Mooring Fields.

Stinkpotter–  A power vessel.  See Blowboat.

Swallowing the Anchor – The last stage in the cruising lifestyle involving selling the boat, buying a home and returning to your previous life as a Dirt Dweller.