How and Why Boaters Group Up
Steve started a blog three years ago: http://steveandrolynn.blogspot.com/
His plan was to explain what it takes to cruise for months at a time in our 42 foot Kady-Krogen, with a special focus on our long journey to Alaska and back in 2011. We’re happy you enjoy the blog and when you asked us to keep up with the entries even though we’re visiting many of the same spots we talked about in 2010, we are pleased to oblige. Fact is, our readers have it right. Every boating trip is a brand new experience…boat issues, changes in marinas, new friends and a plethora of unusual events. Steve will continue to comment on his interest areas steveandrolynn.blogspot, while I throw in my two cents on my blog: http://blog.rolynnanderson.com/
You’ll get two perspectives…Steve often speaks of the technological, historical and chronological; I tend to dwell on the oddities, the hysterical and the out-of-order stuff. For instance, tonight at the marina happy hour, I met three women in their second marriages…all to pilots…reminding me that the amount of pilots and physicians captaining boats is astounding.
Commonalities in boating is my subject. Steve and I usually make fast friendships with people who own boats the same make as ours-a Kady-Krogen (see picture). Even tighter is our tie to owners of 42 foot Krogens, the size of INTREPID. Boaters with single diesel engines have more to say to others with the same power plan. INTREPID has a Ford-Lehman engine…you guessed, it: deeper chats with those folks than the ones who own some other engine.
Advance that concept: we get along well with those cruising a similar speed to ours. When we owned a twin-screw, gas-powered Tollycraft, sailboaters gave us the finger as we raced by them at 13 knots. Today, in our round-bottomed sloooooow trawler, sailors send us friendly waves as we chug past at 7.5 knots to their 6.5 knot speed.
Of course, this affinity pattern is common in any social structure, a matter of not so much keeping-up-with-the-Joneses as sticking-with-the-Joneses. All in all, it’s a comfortable place to be. When boaters have so much in common, friendships gain a head start, and in no time at all, you’ve got a buddy with a boat similar to yours, and because you cruise at the same speed, and have a similar draft/beam, might like to explore a new bay with you. More fun. Safer.
As I think of it, maybe this ‘grouping together,’ is more of a preservation technique than a ‘I hang with boaters like me,’ thing. Perhaps, down deep we’re keeping up same-boat relationships, because one day, when INTREPID is in trouble, it would behoove us to have a similar boat around to borrow a much-needed part. Will they help? Absolutely. Because another day, when their boat founders, we’ll have a part they need.
Want to find INTREPID? Here she is on our SPOT locator:
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