I first ran across The Power of Habit through a New York Times excerpt from the book about How Target knew you were pregnant even if you didn't want it to know. It was an article that was data-science bait, all about big data and the power of analytics. So I stuck it into my wait list for my local library and forgot about it.
I'm all too familiar with the standard non-fiction book spiel: 80 pages worth of content, and 50 pages worth of notes and references to bulk it up with scholarly weight, and another 70 pages of fluff that adds nothing to what you learn. I'm very glad to report that this book breaks the mold. I could not put it down, even when the fluff hit big time, it's not "fluffy" by standards, and you'll learn a lot by reading the book cover to cover.
The opening of the book is rather conventional, covering the neurological basis for habits and how they get formed. But it gets interesting as Duhigg takes you to various applications of that neurology, from how Febreeze was marketed, to why toothpaste became popular and brushing your teeth became a habit. We explore case study after case study about how corporations, marketing types, and people make use of this neurological code in order to get people to behave however they want. There's even a study of how a football coach got his players to break old habits and win games, though I personally feel that the chapter on this is the weakest, because getting the team to finally gel and trust in the coach required an event entirely out of the control of the coach. However, Duhigg redeems himself by pointing out that there are keystone habits that once you establish, actually make changing many other parts of your life easier. (One of them is having good exercise habits)
We then see how organizations form habits and routine themselves in order to operate. The star of this is a pair of case studies: one about a hospital, and one about the subway system in London. The emphasis here is that habits and routine usually develop out of the need to keep political fiefdoms of a large organization out of each other's toes, rather than maximum efficiency, which is what many economists would have you believe. The result is that many important things go unemphasized. What it takes to break these habits and realign an organization is a crisis, whether it is real or imagined. As a result, you hear the axiom, "Never let a crisis go to waste." Unfortunately, Duhigg ends this section with an example drawn from the Obama administration, which did let a crisis go to waste without getting very much out of it.
There is a fascinating case study, however, about Paul O'Neil and how he ran Alcoa, realigning the organization by emphasizing something that few would have considered important to the bottom life: workplace safety. The net result was far beyond expectations, and is a highlight of the book, even more so than the Target excerpt linked above. The insight that institutional habits and routines can be created deliberately rather than evolved out of a need to keep the political types happy is an important one, and organizational builders and startups would do well to pay attention to this chapter.
In any case, by the time you're done with this book, you would have read about Starbuck's training program, gotten an analysis of why Rosa Parks arrest sparked off the civil rights movement, and gotten into the heads of a compulsive gambler and a man who murdered his wife in his sleep. Every case study is interesting, and adds value to the book. At every point you're tempted to put the book down, you're also tempted to say, "Just one more chapter," until you finish it. There's a short appendix on how you can change your own habits, though again, it's really hard so don't expect this to change your life without a ton of work.
Highly recommended.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Review: Bringing up Bebe
I had very low expectations for Bringing up Bebe. The author's a journalist, and I didn't expect a densely packed tome of information like Brain Rules for Baby or even The Happiest Baby on the Block, which while not being rife with research, at least has a ton of practical tips on how to go about dealing with the first few months.
Druckerman's book is not dense. However, it contains a few very good tips for parents that it really should be required reading as well as the other two books. The first one is that according to Druckerman, there's a window between 2 and 4 months where sleep training can happen fairly easily. As long as the parents don't make a habit out of immediately picking up the baby for every noise he makes, the baby can learn to connect his sleep and sleep through the night without Ferberization or crying it out. This is such an important result that I'm surprised that it's the first time I ran across this study in a book. I'm going to have to track down the paper (it's a 1991 paper so it's fairly old) and see what it really says. According to Druckerman, all French parents manage to hit that window which is why all French children sleep through the night by the time they're 6 months old. If true, this is huge and worth the price of the book alone.
The overall thesis of the book is that French parents, unlike American parents, do not re-orient their lives completely around their children. The expectation is balance: moms should have their own lives, not just orient them around their children. Children should be taught to behave and wait (including fairly rigorous schedules for eating and bed time), so that adults can actually have a life. That the French have a monolithic parenting culture helps here: there's no confusion among the French as to what to do and how to bring up babies.
This includes pre-natal care. Doctors are more than happy to let pregnant patients eat seafood, including raw Oysters, under the assumption that the patients will be careful and vet the seafood properly.
The book is not very rigorous, though it does a good job of pointing out that for instance, despite the French almost universal adoption of formula feeding as opposed to breast feeding, all their birth and infant mortality statistics are better than America's by very large margins. There's no exploration of any rebellion against the status quo by French parents, and there's universally accessible day care (in the form of government run creches and kindergartens).
What I find interesting about the book is that it doesn't contradict Brain Rules for Baby, for instance. In fact, you could almost read it as a practical how-to-guide for applying the research results reported in Brain Rules, applied earlier than you would consider it possible. For instance, there's a section in Brain Rules about how setting firm boundaries and rules is important. Well, the French apply it almost as soon as their children can talk, by teaching them to see Bonjour and Au Revoir, in addition to please and thank you. There are lots of little sections that are good case studies on how to do this. Druckerman also sprinkles liberally throughout the book incident descriptions on how Americans bringing up their babies have much harder times with their children but with no better result (or rather, no better short term results --- nobody knows whether the American lead in Nobel prizes has anything to do with upbringing). There's a section on how French parents get their children to actually sit down and eat at meal time, and not make a fuss, including how by denying children snacks until actual meal times, they end up with children who are actually hungry and will eat their food rather than throwing it around.
In any case, I think this book's definitely worth reading, with lots of little pieces in it about children that are not very well organized, but nevertheless add up to good stuff. It's a pity that Druckerman's a journalist, so she feels obliged to add in lots of irrelevant personal interest material in there, but I understand that many people like that stuff, and in any case, she's no worse and usually much better than the usual parenting book. Given the competitive climate around child-rearing in America, I don't expect Bringing up Bebe to sell better than Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, but in terms of useful tips and tricks it's actually a much better book, so I hope it does well. We could do with less baby-induced neurosis and better parenting.
Highly recommended.
Druckerman's book is not dense. However, it contains a few very good tips for parents that it really should be required reading as well as the other two books. The first one is that according to Druckerman, there's a window between 2 and 4 months where sleep training can happen fairly easily. As long as the parents don't make a habit out of immediately picking up the baby for every noise he makes, the baby can learn to connect his sleep and sleep through the night without Ferberization or crying it out. This is such an important result that I'm surprised that it's the first time I ran across this study in a book. I'm going to have to track down the paper (it's a 1991 paper so it's fairly old) and see what it really says. According to Druckerman, all French parents manage to hit that window which is why all French children sleep through the night by the time they're 6 months old. If true, this is huge and worth the price of the book alone.
The overall thesis of the book is that French parents, unlike American parents, do not re-orient their lives completely around their children. The expectation is balance: moms should have their own lives, not just orient them around their children. Children should be taught to behave and wait (including fairly rigorous schedules for eating and bed time), so that adults can actually have a life. That the French have a monolithic parenting culture helps here: there's no confusion among the French as to what to do and how to bring up babies.
This includes pre-natal care. Doctors are more than happy to let pregnant patients eat seafood, including raw Oysters, under the assumption that the patients will be careful and vet the seafood properly.
The book is not very rigorous, though it does a good job of pointing out that for instance, despite the French almost universal adoption of formula feeding as opposed to breast feeding, all their birth and infant mortality statistics are better than America's by very large margins. There's no exploration of any rebellion against the status quo by French parents, and there's universally accessible day care (in the form of government run creches and kindergartens).
What I find interesting about the book is that it doesn't contradict Brain Rules for Baby, for instance. In fact, you could almost read it as a practical how-to-guide for applying the research results reported in Brain Rules, applied earlier than you would consider it possible. For instance, there's a section in Brain Rules about how setting firm boundaries and rules is important. Well, the French apply it almost as soon as their children can talk, by teaching them to see Bonjour and Au Revoir, in addition to please and thank you. There are lots of little sections that are good case studies on how to do this. Druckerman also sprinkles liberally throughout the book incident descriptions on how Americans bringing up their babies have much harder times with their children but with no better result (or rather, no better short term results --- nobody knows whether the American lead in Nobel prizes has anything to do with upbringing). There's a section on how French parents get their children to actually sit down and eat at meal time, and not make a fuss, including how by denying children snacks until actual meal times, they end up with children who are actually hungry and will eat their food rather than throwing it around.
In any case, I think this book's definitely worth reading, with lots of little pieces in it about children that are not very well organized, but nevertheless add up to good stuff. It's a pity that Druckerman's a journalist, so she feels obliged to add in lots of irrelevant personal interest material in there, but I understand that many people like that stuff, and in any case, she's no worse and usually much better than the usual parenting book. Given the competitive climate around child-rearing in America, I don't expect Bringing up Bebe to sell better than Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, but in terms of useful tips and tricks it's actually a much better book, so I hope it does well. We could do with less baby-induced neurosis and better parenting.
Highly recommended.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
D&D at Google
An Engineer's Guide to Silicon Valley Startups describes how I ended up joining Google because of a D&D Game I joined in late 2001. Soon after I joined Google, however, most of the players in that group retired to escape California taxes, moved away, or otherwise left Google. I still ran an intermittent D&D game outside work, but there were no D&D games at work.
Ironically, one interviewee I once spoke to rejected Google's job offer because he felt that while he would fit in at Google if he was nerdy and played D&D, he didn't think that as a ballroom dancer he would fit in. He was thoroughly wrong. Ballroom dancing has always been and will probably always be more popular at Google than D&D. In terms of social acceptability, of course, there's no contest: ballroom dancing simply doesn't have D&D's stigma attached to it.
In any case, someone on the SRE team bugged me and bugged me about running a D&D game at Google until I gave in and announced that I was willing to run one. At which point she promptly backed out of being in it. Nevertheless, I started the game in November 2005, and it ran until the end of 2007, with players shuffling in and out. The players included at one point or another, Paul Tyma, Shyam Jayaraman, Taylor Van Vleet, Ron Gilbert (who didn't actually work at Google), Tom Jiang, Neal Kanodia, Roberto Peon, Mike Samuel, and various drop-ins at one point or another.
One innovation that I got from my pre-Google days was to start a blog with in-character descriptions of the game. I would award experience points for writing the blog entries, which were very very fun. Ron, in particular, would draw cartoons involving his character Deathspank and members of the party in their exploits, including some very unheroic moments. Unfortunately, Ron has since yanked the cartoons from the blog, so I'm afraid you won't get to see them.
At the end of 2007, I wrapped up the campaign after all the characters hit 20th level, and moved to Germany. That ended my involvement with D&D at Google. Just yesterday, Tom told me that there hasn't been an epic game like mine since. It was fun and challenging DMing for Googlers (I minimized prep work by running from pre-written adventures whenever possible), and I enjoyed every minute of it. It definitely taxed and challenged my organizational skills to keep the game going for so long, and I definitely felt like I lost control at the end when the characters got too powerful. But that's a fact of the game, and since then there's been another edition of D&D that I have not bothered to play with or pick up. It might be that for me, D&D is something that happens every odd edition.
Ironically, one interviewee I once spoke to rejected Google's job offer because he felt that while he would fit in at Google if he was nerdy and played D&D, he didn't think that as a ballroom dancer he would fit in. He was thoroughly wrong. Ballroom dancing has always been and will probably always be more popular at Google than D&D. In terms of social acceptability, of course, there's no contest: ballroom dancing simply doesn't have D&D's stigma attached to it.
In any case, someone on the SRE team bugged me and bugged me about running a D&D game at Google until I gave in and announced that I was willing to run one. At which point she promptly backed out of being in it. Nevertheless, I started the game in November 2005, and it ran until the end of 2007, with players shuffling in and out. The players included at one point or another, Paul Tyma, Shyam Jayaraman, Taylor Van Vleet, Ron Gilbert (who didn't actually work at Google), Tom Jiang, Neal Kanodia, Roberto Peon, Mike Samuel, and various drop-ins at one point or another.
One innovation that I got from my pre-Google days was to start a blog with in-character descriptions of the game. I would award experience points for writing the blog entries, which were very very fun. Ron, in particular, would draw cartoons involving his character Deathspank and members of the party in their exploits, including some very unheroic moments. Unfortunately, Ron has since yanked the cartoons from the blog, so I'm afraid you won't get to see them.
At the end of 2007, I wrapped up the campaign after all the characters hit 20th level, and moved to Germany. That ended my involvement with D&D at Google. Just yesterday, Tom told me that there hasn't been an epic game like mine since. It was fun and challenging DMing for Googlers (I minimized prep work by running from pre-written adventures whenever possible), and I enjoyed every minute of it. It definitely taxed and challenged my organizational skills to keep the game going for so long, and I definitely felt like I lost control at the end when the characters got too powerful. But that's a fact of the game, and since then there's been another edition of D&D that I have not bothered to play with or pick up. It might be that for me, D&D is something that happens every odd edition.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
An Engineer's Guide to Silicon Valley Startups, 3rd Edition
My first book, An Engineer's Guide to Silicon Valley Startups continues to sell very well, considering that there's essentially no marketing budget for it and it's spreading only by word of mouth. I recently ran out of the 2nd edition printing, and coincidentally, there were a few updates that needed to go in for the 3rd edition.
Over the last 2 years, it's clear that the market for books that are mostly text has shifted dramatically. When I first started selling books, printed copies accounted for 70% of sales while digital copies were the other 30%. Now it's the other way around and the tide continues to shift in favor of ebooks. As such, the costs of storing, shipping, and postage of printed books is no longer worth the amount of additional revenue I get.
Fortunately, Amazon is happy to print and ship books on an on-demand basis, so that's what I will do for printed books. This unfortunately means increased prices: Amazon wants their pound of flesh, so printed copies now cost $43.95 a pop, as opposed to $29.95. On the other hand, if the book is popular, Amazon could discount it, and of course, Amazon provides free shipping. For a limited time, you can pre-order the 3rd edition at the old price ($29.95 + shipping) from the book's web-page. I need to order copies for the freebies as well as for the library of congress, so you would be pigging back on this process. (I also need to look over the final proof one more time)
The new edition features new sections on green cards, surviving a big acquisition, negotiating between co-founders, as well as an expanded financial planning section that was asked for by readers. In addition, my friend Scarlet Tang has re-designed the cover. One big disappointment was that I had moved the book over to InDesign CS 5.5 in the hopes of producing an EPUB and Kindle-compatible editions. Unfortunately, InDesign CS 5.5 crashes whenever it attempts to export an EPUB, so I'm stuck with still only shipping PDFs. You can still use Mobipocket creator to create a Kindle edition from the PDF, but the results were not satisfactory to me, so I'll let those who want to do this bear the consequences for it.
As with the 2nd edition, everyone who's bought a copy within the last month (i.e., from April 8th) gets a free digital copy of the book. For everyone else, upgrade pricing is available. Note that you can only upgrade from a 2nd edition to the 3rd edition. No skipping from the 1st edition to the 3rd edition for $12.50. Note that Kindle edition owners do not get upgrades, nor will the Kindle version get updated to the 2nd edition. It's $9.95, which is already a hefty discount. As I've previously mentioned, if you're actively job-hunting, the full version is what you want. If you're poor or in school, then by all means buy the Kindle edition.
As for my other books, expect them to go in the same direction as the print copies run out. I aim to be done with shipping and handling by the end of the year if not sooner.
Over the last 2 years, it's clear that the market for books that are mostly text has shifted dramatically. When I first started selling books, printed copies accounted for 70% of sales while digital copies were the other 30%. Now it's the other way around and the tide continues to shift in favor of ebooks. As such, the costs of storing, shipping, and postage of printed books is no longer worth the amount of additional revenue I get.
Fortunately, Amazon is happy to print and ship books on an on-demand basis, so that's what I will do for printed books. This unfortunately means increased prices: Amazon wants their pound of flesh, so printed copies now cost $43.95 a pop, as opposed to $29.95. On the other hand, if the book is popular, Amazon could discount it, and of course, Amazon provides free shipping. For a limited time, you can pre-order the 3rd edition at the old price ($29.95 + shipping) from the book's web-page. I need to order copies for the freebies as well as for the library of congress, so you would be pigging back on this process. (I also need to look over the final proof one more time)
The new edition features new sections on green cards, surviving a big acquisition, negotiating between co-founders, as well as an expanded financial planning section that was asked for by readers. In addition, my friend Scarlet Tang has re-designed the cover. One big disappointment was that I had moved the book over to InDesign CS 5.5 in the hopes of producing an EPUB and Kindle-compatible editions. Unfortunately, InDesign CS 5.5 crashes whenever it attempts to export an EPUB, so I'm stuck with still only shipping PDFs. You can still use Mobipocket creator to create a Kindle edition from the PDF, but the results were not satisfactory to me, so I'll let those who want to do this bear the consequences for it.
As with the 2nd edition, everyone who's bought a copy within the last month (i.e., from April 8th) gets a free digital copy of the book. For everyone else, upgrade pricing is available. Note that you can only upgrade from a 2nd edition to the 3rd edition. No skipping from the 1st edition to the 3rd edition for $12.50. Note that Kindle edition owners do not get upgrades, nor will the Kindle version get updated to the 2nd edition. It's $9.95, which is already a hefty discount. As I've previously mentioned, if you're actively job-hunting, the full version is what you want. If you're poor or in school, then by all means buy the Kindle edition.
As for my other books, expect them to go in the same direction as the print copies run out. I aim to be done with shipping and handling by the end of the year if not sooner.
Monday, May 07, 2012
Review: End this depression now!
I'm a big fan of Paul Krugman, and his latest book, End this depression now! made it to my kindle as a pre-order, something I hardly ever do.
The thesis of this book is that our current recession (which Krugman considers a depression) is easily cured with existing tools in our knowledge of economics, dating all the way back to the great depression and Keynes' theory of employment. Krugman provides data and evidence for this, and then goes on to debunk opposing views one at a time, providing a fair explanation of the opposing explanation (more fair than they deserve, in many cases), and then explaining how his proposed solutions would work better.
You might think that the book is mostly focused on the USA, but Krugman spends a fair amount of time on the EU, and the Eurozone, discussing how the Euro contributes to the Eurozone's malaise. Interestingly enough, Krugman does not propose dismantling the Eurozone, which makes a solution to their economic problems much less tractable than if he had assumed that the Euro would go away, at least for the European periphery.
Would his policy prescriptions be adopted? In an ideal world with an educated citizenry that understands that prescribing more of a depression is poor policy, there's no question something would already have done. However, when examining history, even FDR had a hard time getting the New Deal passed, and that turned out to be insufficient until world war 2 came along. Neither Obama nor Romney are as enlightened as FDR, so I expect that we will muddle along until the housing crunch plays itself out.
Nevertheless, if you want to understand the financial crisis, how it played out, and how the economy in aggregate works, you can hardly turn to a better writer than Krugman. His use of the baby sitting coop as a metaphor for the economy makes the grasp of complex economic concepts clear even to those who are not economics junkies like me, and the only problem with this book is that not enough people will read it.
Recommended.
The thesis of this book is that our current recession (which Krugman considers a depression) is easily cured with existing tools in our knowledge of economics, dating all the way back to the great depression and Keynes' theory of employment. Krugman provides data and evidence for this, and then goes on to debunk opposing views one at a time, providing a fair explanation of the opposing explanation (more fair than they deserve, in many cases), and then explaining how his proposed solutions would work better.
You might think that the book is mostly focused on the USA, but Krugman spends a fair amount of time on the EU, and the Eurozone, discussing how the Euro contributes to the Eurozone's malaise. Interestingly enough, Krugman does not propose dismantling the Eurozone, which makes a solution to their economic problems much less tractable than if he had assumed that the Euro would go away, at least for the European periphery.
Would his policy prescriptions be adopted? In an ideal world with an educated citizenry that understands that prescribing more of a depression is poor policy, there's no question something would already have done. However, when examining history, even FDR had a hard time getting the New Deal passed, and that turned out to be insufficient until world war 2 came along. Neither Obama nor Romney are as enlightened as FDR, so I expect that we will muddle along until the housing crunch plays itself out.
Nevertheless, if you want to understand the financial crisis, how it played out, and how the economy in aggregate works, you can hardly turn to a better writer than Krugman. His use of the baby sitting coop as a metaphor for the economy makes the grasp of complex economic concepts clear even to those who are not economics junkies like me, and the only problem with this book is that not enough people will read it.
Recommended.
Sunday, May 06, 2012
Review: The Four Hour Body
I'm of two minds about The Four Hour Body. For one thing, it covers topics that I have yet to see in any real workout book elsewhere. For instance, much has been made of Dave "The Man" Scott's Iron Man triumphs as a vegetarian. This is the only book I've seen that actually talked to Dave Scott, where he reveals that he went back to eating meat after retiring from competition and had improved performance.
The book covers a huge amount of area. From how to lose fat to how to gain muscle, what causes infertility, how to prepare for a marathon on 3 15 minute sessions a week and some strength training, how to eat right, how to get yourself tested.
However, the problem with the book is that none of this is scientifically tested. All the results Feriss has are anecdotal. He admits in the appendix that his recommendations on diet, for instance, suffers from survivorship bias: people who've tried and failed aren't likely to report their failures. This is pretty serious, because his prescriptions are dramatic: for instance, he recommends that you eliminate variety from your diet and stick to eating the same things week in week out, except one day a week when you binge on forbidden foods. The diet recommendations are pretty standard low-carb stuff, which obviously has been shown under some circumstances to work.
He recommends working out as little as possible by relying as much as possible on interval/high-intensity training. Again, this has been shown to work. However, his test case is running a marathon. I've on the other hand, seen a number of cyclists become very strong by pursuing a Feriss-style interval-training program. However, by actually doing so little cycling, they never develop the skills to handle their bikes properly, and then end up with accidents that wouldn't have happened if they had trained traditionally, ramping up their strength by using on-bike time, ensuring that their cycling skills kept pace with their endurance, speed, and strength. Feriss gives a slight nod to this in an unrelated chapter, but I feel that he gives this short shrift.
Then there's the section on sleep, where he pushes the Everyman and Uberman polyphasic sleep cycles. The reality is, I don't think there's ever been a documented case of someone actually managing the Uberman, and it doesn't look like Feriss has even tried these for an extended period of time.
All this makes it seems like I wouldn't recommend the book, but I found it worth reading mostly because of the intense approach Feriss takes. While I'm not willing to take most of his steps (seriously, if you never found a sport you enjoyed and love enough to spend more than 4 hours a week on it, then I feel sorry for you, and this book might be your answer), I found it filled with little titbits that would be interesting, if I could find some way to verify them. I would take most of the book with a large burlap sack of salt (by the middle of the book you're convinced that Feriss has had every ailment known to man, when in reality he's a very healthy 28 year old hyping up his minor ailments as big problems so he can sound good when he "conquers" them), but as entertainment it's kind of fun reading. Just make sure you verify anything he says with a different source before undertaking the drastic changes in lifestyle he recommends.
Finally, stuff that a twenty-something can get away with doing to his body isn't something that a forty-something can get away with. I would be very cautious with his recommendations if you do not fit his profile.
The book covers a huge amount of area. From how to lose fat to how to gain muscle, what causes infertility, how to prepare for a marathon on 3 15 minute sessions a week and some strength training, how to eat right, how to get yourself tested.
However, the problem with the book is that none of this is scientifically tested. All the results Feriss has are anecdotal. He admits in the appendix that his recommendations on diet, for instance, suffers from survivorship bias: people who've tried and failed aren't likely to report their failures. This is pretty serious, because his prescriptions are dramatic: for instance, he recommends that you eliminate variety from your diet and stick to eating the same things week in week out, except one day a week when you binge on forbidden foods. The diet recommendations are pretty standard low-carb stuff, which obviously has been shown under some circumstances to work.
He recommends working out as little as possible by relying as much as possible on interval/high-intensity training. Again, this has been shown to work. However, his test case is running a marathon. I've on the other hand, seen a number of cyclists become very strong by pursuing a Feriss-style interval-training program. However, by actually doing so little cycling, they never develop the skills to handle their bikes properly, and then end up with accidents that wouldn't have happened if they had trained traditionally, ramping up their strength by using on-bike time, ensuring that their cycling skills kept pace with their endurance, speed, and strength. Feriss gives a slight nod to this in an unrelated chapter, but I feel that he gives this short shrift.
Then there's the section on sleep, where he pushes the Everyman and Uberman polyphasic sleep cycles. The reality is, I don't think there's ever been a documented case of someone actually managing the Uberman, and it doesn't look like Feriss has even tried these for an extended period of time.
All this makes it seems like I wouldn't recommend the book, but I found it worth reading mostly because of the intense approach Feriss takes. While I'm not willing to take most of his steps (seriously, if you never found a sport you enjoyed and love enough to spend more than 4 hours a week on it, then I feel sorry for you, and this book might be your answer), I found it filled with little titbits that would be interesting, if I could find some way to verify them. I would take most of the book with a large burlap sack of salt (by the middle of the book you're convinced that Feriss has had every ailment known to man, when in reality he's a very healthy 28 year old hyping up his minor ailments as big problems so he can sound good when he "conquers" them), but as entertainment it's kind of fun reading. Just make sure you verify anything he says with a different source before undertaking the drastic changes in lifestyle he recommends.
Finally, stuff that a twenty-something can get away with doing to his body isn't something that a forty-something can get away with. I would be very cautious with his recommendations if you do not fit his profile.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Review: Google Drive
I was one of the enthusiastic early users of Google Drive way back in 2007, when it launched internally at Google. It was great. I would drop stuff into it, and I could pick things up from my laptop, desktop, or if my laptop's hard drive crashed, I'd get all the data back. Thanks to the magic of VPN, I could even get those files sync'd to my home machine. I was very sad when Google Drive got canceled.
When I started Independent Cycle Touring, I discovered that Dropbox worked better than Google Docs. I managed to wrangle some more free quota, and started putting all my important files on Dropbox. (The source files for Independent Cycle Touring alone were more than 4GB, so getting extra quota was important) At last year's Worldcon, big name authors were telling newbies to get and install Dropbox and put all important work in there so it would be backed up.
With Dropbox now worth $4B, Google Drive was hurriedly revived and launched recently. My wife and I were curious, so we played around with it a bit. First of all, the UI is lousy compared to Dropbox. When you create a new folder and move files to it, there's no way to specify "Share this with someone" directly from the Windows Explorer. You have to know to visit Google Docs on the web and then select the folder and then share it. The recipient then has to move the shared folder into her "My Drive" folder before the files are sync'd to her hard drive!! This is a major botch up! On Dropbox, if you share a folder with someone, they receive an e-mail and once they click "accept", the folder is automatically sync'd to their local drive, no questions asked. It took a while for us to figure this out.
Conflict resolution is crude: we both edited a file at the same time in Microsoft Word. On Dropbox, the simultaneous edit and saves would create multiple copies of the same file with our different edits. This could be annoying to resolve, but at least you knew what happened. On Google Drive, the first copy would save just fine, and then the other person would get a "Cannot sync this file" message with no explanation.
We didn't try syncing large numbers of files, which we know works well on Dropbox, and works badly on SkyDrive (one file at a time, no smart scheduling of small files to sync first).
Conclusion: Dropbox is still the one to beat. If I was a Dropbox user, employee, or investor, I would not be worried by Google's entry into this field. If you're already a Dropbox user, there's no need to switch. If you're a Google Drive user, you should consider switching to Dropbox. (I am not an investor in Dropbox, just a happy user)
When I started Independent Cycle Touring, I discovered that Dropbox worked better than Google Docs. I managed to wrangle some more free quota, and started putting all my important files on Dropbox. (The source files for Independent Cycle Touring alone were more than 4GB, so getting extra quota was important) At last year's Worldcon, big name authors were telling newbies to get and install Dropbox and put all important work in there so it would be backed up.
With Dropbox now worth $4B, Google Drive was hurriedly revived and launched recently. My wife and I were curious, so we played around with it a bit. First of all, the UI is lousy compared to Dropbox. When you create a new folder and move files to it, there's no way to specify "Share this with someone" directly from the Windows Explorer. You have to know to visit Google Docs on the web and then select the folder and then share it. The recipient then has to move the shared folder into her "My Drive" folder before the files are sync'd to her hard drive!! This is a major botch up! On Dropbox, if you share a folder with someone, they receive an e-mail and once they click "accept", the folder is automatically sync'd to their local drive, no questions asked. It took a while for us to figure this out.
Conflict resolution is crude: we both edited a file at the same time in Microsoft Word. On Dropbox, the simultaneous edit and saves would create multiple copies of the same file with our different edits. This could be annoying to resolve, but at least you knew what happened. On Google Drive, the first copy would save just fine, and then the other person would get a "Cannot sync this file" message with no explanation.
We didn't try syncing large numbers of files, which we know works well on Dropbox, and works badly on SkyDrive (one file at a time, no smart scheduling of small files to sync first).
Conclusion: Dropbox is still the one to beat. If I was a Dropbox user, employee, or investor, I would not be worried by Google's entry into this field. If you're already a Dropbox user, there's no need to switch. If you're a Google Drive user, you should consider switching to Dropbox. (I am not an investor in Dropbox, just a happy user)
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Review: Among Others
Every so often, you run across a novel so sublime and brilliantly written that you want to go out and recommend it to everyone you know who loves books. Among Others is just such a novel.
The novel is clearly autobiographical in many areas, as anyone who's met Jo Walton (as I did during last year's WorldCon) might guess. But it's clearly fictional as well.
The first thing that Walton does is to turn the typical fantasy story upside down by having all the important fantastical events happen prior to the start of the novel. The protagonist has already saved the world. Now she's dealing with the aftermath and consequences of her prior actions: she'd lost her twin sister, she's made enemies out of her mother (a witch who tried to take over the world), and one of her legs is crippled, forcing her to walk with a cane. She now has to be cared for by a father who abandoned her as a child, attend a boarding school, and is in general ripped away from her previous life.
All that she has left is books. And of course, like Jo Walton (and hopefully many readers of this blog), she's a science fiction and fantasy fan, having grown up with Dying Inside, Heinlein, Asimov's, and of course Tolkein. Walton does a great job of in-cluing readers so that even if you haven't read all the novels mentioned in this novel (and you'd have to be incredibly well read to have read all of them), you will have a good understanding of what the novels are about and what the highlights of the authors' writing style is. Walton is an extremely well-read book critic, and her taste and sensibility and ability to summarize say, The first four Amber books in succinct phrases that resonate with the reader serves her well here.
Yes, it's a teenage coming of age novel, but unlike popular teenager novels nowadays, this book could be described almost as the perfect antidote to Twilight and others of its ilk. The heroine/protagonist doesn't do anything stupid, is incredibly level headed about love and sex, but the author also takes care to bring you the subtle nuances of what it means to be a girl in an English boarding school, with all the intrigues and pointless shaming. However, since the protagonist had already done so much with her life, she doesn't succumb to typical high school angst. When she acquires a boyfriend, she does so with no drama, though there might have been a little magic involved.
Yes, there's magic in the book, and fairies. But it's done in a very subtle fashion, very appropriate to the setting of an English boarding school. There's nothing flashy about it, and how magic goes about its business isn't obvious.
This is a slow paced book, similar to Crossing to Safety, and it is a testament to Walton's skill that the reader does not feel the slow pace at all. When the climax comes, it sneaks up on you, and when you see how the protagonist resolves it the thematic fit and elegance almost hits you in the head, which would be a little too much for any other novel, but works very well in this one.
If you enjoy novels, especially science fiction and fantasy of the era (the book is set in the late 1970s), then you owe it to yourself to read this book. It really is a trip and if not the best novel I've read this year, pretty darn close.
Highly recommended
The novel is clearly autobiographical in many areas, as anyone who's met Jo Walton (as I did during last year's WorldCon) might guess. But it's clearly fictional as well.
The first thing that Walton does is to turn the typical fantasy story upside down by having all the important fantastical events happen prior to the start of the novel. The protagonist has already saved the world. Now she's dealing with the aftermath and consequences of her prior actions: she'd lost her twin sister, she's made enemies out of her mother (a witch who tried to take over the world), and one of her legs is crippled, forcing her to walk with a cane. She now has to be cared for by a father who abandoned her as a child, attend a boarding school, and is in general ripped away from her previous life.
All that she has left is books. And of course, like Jo Walton (and hopefully many readers of this blog), she's a science fiction and fantasy fan, having grown up with Dying Inside, Heinlein, Asimov's, and of course Tolkein. Walton does a great job of in-cluing readers so that even if you haven't read all the novels mentioned in this novel (and you'd have to be incredibly well read to have read all of them), you will have a good understanding of what the novels are about and what the highlights of the authors' writing style is. Walton is an extremely well-read book critic, and her taste and sensibility and ability to summarize say, The first four Amber books in succinct phrases that resonate with the reader serves her well here.
Yes, it's a teenage coming of age novel, but unlike popular teenager novels nowadays, this book could be described almost as the perfect antidote to Twilight and others of its ilk. The heroine/protagonist doesn't do anything stupid, is incredibly level headed about love and sex, but the author also takes care to bring you the subtle nuances of what it means to be a girl in an English boarding school, with all the intrigues and pointless shaming. However, since the protagonist had already done so much with her life, she doesn't succumb to typical high school angst. When she acquires a boyfriend, she does so with no drama, though there might have been a little magic involved.
Yes, there's magic in the book, and fairies. But it's done in a very subtle fashion, very appropriate to the setting of an English boarding school. There's nothing flashy about it, and how magic goes about its business isn't obvious.
This is a slow paced book, similar to Crossing to Safety, and it is a testament to Walton's skill that the reader does not feel the slow pace at all. When the climax comes, it sneaks up on you, and when you see how the protagonist resolves it the thematic fit and elegance almost hits you in the head, which would be a little too much for any other novel, but works very well in this one.
If you enjoy novels, especially science fiction and fantasy of the era (the book is set in the late 1970s), then you owe it to yourself to read this book. It really is a trip and if not the best novel I've read this year, pretty darn close.
Highly recommended
Independent Cycle Touring at Google
For bike to work week, I've agreed to reprise the Independent Cycle Touring in Europe presentation at Google's campus at HQ. It will be held at Serville Tech Talk area on May 9th, from 1:00pm to 3:00pm (bring your boxed lunch, I don't mind you eating while I talk).
The organizer, Anna Walters, is open to allowing outside visitors to attend the talk. If you are not a Google employee, please RSVP to me by the end of the week by leaving a comment on the blog so we can get a headcount, and Anna can see if Google is willing to accommodate that many visitors.
Googlers: I will keep the Q&A period relevant only to the talk, so bring your cycling questions. I worked at Google for many years, and remember teaching the League Road 1 course on campus in building 42 one evening. I was demonstrating how to fix a flat when Wayne Rosing walked by and peaked into the conference room we had commandeered for the session. He smiled, shook his head, and walked on by.
This talk was very well received at REI, so I look forward to giving it at Berkeley, where I launched many many bike tours (as well as supporting wheel building sessions). If you can make it, please come.
Independent Cycle Touring in Europe:
Imagine pedaling through quaint mountain hamlets in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, past fields of wildflowers in Germany’s Black Forest, along the shores of lovely lakes near Salzburg in Austria, or high above the Mediterranean in the French Pyrenees… With its diverse landscapes, vast network of roads and cycle paths, and bike-friendly accommodations, Europe is a fantastic cycling destination. Tonight, independent cyclist and guidebook author Piaw Na will share his expertise on planning bike tours in Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, England, and Scotland. Piaw will cover the nuts and bolts of organizing an independent tour, including route-planning, seasonal considerations, lightweight gear, training, transporting bikes on planes/public transit, navigation tools, accommodations, and more.
The organizer, Anna Walters, is open to allowing outside visitors to attend the talk. If you are not a Google employee, please RSVP to me by the end of the week by leaving a comment on the blog so we can get a headcount, and Anna can see if Google is willing to accommodate that many visitors.
Googlers: I will keep the Q&A period relevant only to the talk, so bring your cycling questions. I worked at Google for many years, and remember teaching the League Road 1 course on campus in building 42 one evening. I was demonstrating how to fix a flat when Wayne Rosing walked by and peaked into the conference room we had commandeered for the session. He smiled, shook his head, and walked on by.
This talk was very well received at REI, so I look forward to giving it at Berkeley, where I launched many many bike tours (as well as supporting wheel building sessions). If you can make it, please come.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Cal Alumni Panel
I'll be one of the Alumni on the panel in Berkeley on Friday. If you'll be in Berkeley, please feel free to drop by! I won't be promoting books: the idea is we'll be answering questions about what you end up doing after you graduate. We'll have a startup guy, a big corporation guy, an indie game designer, and a college professor. It'll be diverse, and we'll have a lot of fun. I expect to be the least accomplished guy on the panel.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Google shows that Moore's Law can go backwards
I used to pay $5/year for 20GB of additional Google storage. With the launch of Google Drive, however, Google has changed the prices on storage, and it's dramatically higher. It's now $2.50/month for 25GB, or $30/year, 6 times more expensive.
Fortunately, as long as you keep renewing your current Google plan, your price will remain at $5/year. I don't know whether the old plans allocates storage for Google Drive (there's no easy way to find out), but be very careful if you wish to upgrade your storage plans for Google Drive.
Or use Skydrive instead. At $10/year for 20GB, it's a much better deal. Plus, it comes with more free storage.
I don't know what caused Google to try to pull this stunt, but I guess online storage is immune to Moore's law. (I could discuss the technical reasons for this, but they have to do with Google's internal infrastructure and nothing to do with what you should pay for online storage)
Fortunately, as long as you keep renewing your current Google plan, your price will remain at $5/year. I don't know whether the old plans allocates storage for Google Drive (there's no easy way to find out), but be very careful if you wish to upgrade your storage plans for Google Drive.
Or use Skydrive instead. At $10/year for 20GB, it's a much better deal. Plus, it comes with more free storage.
I don't know what caused Google to try to pull this stunt, but I guess online storage is immune to Moore's law. (I could discuss the technical reasons for this, but they have to do with Google's internal infrastructure and nothing to do with what you should pay for online storage)
Excellent Customer Service from HP
I bought a HP ZR2740w late last year, and I'd been happily operating on it since then. Until yesterday noon, when the monitor suddenly turned itself off. Unplugging it and plugging it back in didn't work, and neither did pushing the power button repeatedly. It literally just died while on the job.
It took a while to navigate HP's web-site in order to get a phone # to call (and yes, it was past Amazon's return period, and I would have been tempted to return it otherwise), but I eventually got through and talked to a real person. After one transfer, I found myself talking to a competent technician who authorized a repair and told me that a new monitor would get to me in 2-3 business days.
My jaw dropped this morning when my doorbell rang and a replacement monitor showed up from HP. They cleverly just shipped the panel, so I can just reuse my base, cables, etc. This was total customer satisfaction: replacement sent and arrived in less than 24 hours, complete with a UPS return tag. In other words, HP footed the bill for the return both ways, and there was no need for me to ship them the old monitor first so they could verify that it was well and truly broken.
All in all, you should have as good a product as possible, but everybody makes mistakes, and what's important was that HP corrected theirs quickly and with no fuss, unlike my experience replacing a Mac. We will see how this replacement monitor lasts.
It took a while to navigate HP's web-site in order to get a phone # to call (and yes, it was past Amazon's return period, and I would have been tempted to return it otherwise), but I eventually got through and talked to a real person. After one transfer, I found myself talking to a competent technician who authorized a repair and told me that a new monitor would get to me in 2-3 business days.
My jaw dropped this morning when my doorbell rang and a replacement monitor showed up from HP. They cleverly just shipped the panel, so I can just reuse my base, cables, etc. This was total customer satisfaction: replacement sent and arrived in less than 24 hours, complete with a UPS return tag. In other words, HP footed the bill for the return both ways, and there was no need for me to ship them the old monitor first so they could verify that it was well and truly broken.
All in all, you should have as good a product as possible, but everybody makes mistakes, and what's important was that HP corrected theirs quickly and with no fuss, unlike my experience replacing a Mac. We will see how this replacement monitor lasts.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Review: InterGalactic Medicine Show Awards Anthology, Vol. I
I picked up InterGalactic Medicine Show Awards Anthology, Vol. I when it was a giveaway on the Kindle store for free. The cover price is $5, which is about $1.50 more than an issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. In terms of quality, the stories are very much hit and miss. For instance, Peter S. Beagle's opening story, Trinity County, is not one of his best. While it's an excellent exposition of a world in which genetic engineering has gone crazy, it does not have as much emotional impact as any of his other stories. The runner up, Sister Jasmine Brings the Pain, is a neat send-up of the Zombie genre, but feels a bit tired. The true gem in the book, The Ghost of a Girl Who Never Lived is beautifully written and explores cloning in a fresh way, however. Another one, The American is a great story about American hegemony in the future, which I found very readable and fun at the same time.
There were several other haunting stories in the volume, including one about traversing multiverses, one about sentient machines. Many other stories fall into the fantasy genre, and while I don't care about them as much, one of them turns The Little Mermaid on its head, which I enjoyed very much.
All in all, the collection of short stories is worth reading, and even at the full price of $5, is more value for money than the typical issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. The short stories are short enough that you can read one per night and then when you get to the end you'll want more. Recommended.
There were several other haunting stories in the volume, including one about traversing multiverses, one about sentient machines. Many other stories fall into the fantasy genre, and while I don't care about them as much, one of them turns The Little Mermaid on its head, which I enjoyed very much.
All in all, the collection of short stories is worth reading, and even at the full price of $5, is more value for money than the typical issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. The short stories are short enough that you can read one per night and then when you get to the end you'll want more. Recommended.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Review: I am Legend
I picked up I am Legend during a Kindle sale after seeing the hugely positive reviews on Amazon. This is the risk with buying so called classics of the genre. When the book was first published in 1954, it was probably incredibly ground-breaking: someone's dissected the anatomy of vampires, and postulated a world in which the vampires have taken over and there's only one man left.
The story is not at all Hollywood: there's no happy ending, there's a consistent theme of despair and desperation with almost no redemption at all in the story. The protagonist is almost entirely clue-free throughout the book. If the book was any longer it would have been too painful to read.
Unfortunately, since 1954, there's been many good books with similar themes, and that are quite a bit more readable. Many of them are easy to find and enjoyable reading, Stephen Brust's Agyar being an obvious example.
While this book was so short it could hardly be a waste of time, it certainly does not live up to the reviews. Not recommended.
The story is not at all Hollywood: there's no happy ending, there's a consistent theme of despair and desperation with almost no redemption at all in the story. The protagonist is almost entirely clue-free throughout the book. If the book was any longer it would have been too painful to read.
Unfortunately, since 1954, there's been many good books with similar themes, and that are quite a bit more readable. Many of them are easy to find and enjoyable reading, Stephen Brust's Agyar being an obvious example.
While this book was so short it could hardly be a waste of time, it certainly does not live up to the reviews. Not recommended.
Friday, April 20, 2012
My Next PC Will Be Home Built
My 3 year-old HP m9600t is now starting to be flakey. 3 years is about the usual amount of time it takes for a desktop to die, but the nice thing about owning a PC (versus a Mac), is that you can usually reuse components over time, provided you didn't buy a proprietary machine and build your own. Since the machine is still mostly working, I can leisurely pick over components, etc., and buy stuff as they come on sale. However, I'm happy to use my blog as a platform to shop for components. My suspicion is that I'll be able to keep my existing HDDs, and video card (Radeon 4850), though it would be nice if the machine gave me an upgrade path.
Here are my priorities:
- Fast enough to handle lightroom and video editing.
- Quiet. This means large fans running at low speed.
- Power efficient. No more desktop PC behaving like a space heater.
- Must have hot-swappable hard drive bays. I would like to have 4 hard drive bays, though I could live with just 2 if necessary.
- Must be easy to work on. No more pinching my fingers to install memory or hard drives.
- Plenty of USB slots (USB 3?).
- Room for upgradability
- Must drive my 27" monitor together with my 24" monitor.
- Reliable. I'm not willing to put up with flakey BIOS and such.
- Built in memory card readers for SD cards and CF.
- High quality sound.
- Blu-ray
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Review: Box.net
I'm an unabashed fan of Dropbox. In fact, when I wear my Dropbox sweat-shirt, I get random people walking up to me telling me how great Dropbox is. I haven't seen so many unsolicited declarations of love for a corporation's product since I started wearing Google shirts in 2003.
Nevertheless, once in a while I get chafed by the quota limits, and I have to check out the competition. I picked up a 50GB Box.net account a while back due to the Android promotion, and recently tried to use it to share videos that Steve shot on my GoPro camera during the trip.
Well, to cut things short, it's a big major fail. The UI sucks, mostly because it's tied to a web-browser. To be fair, Google made the same mistake in killing G-Drive and assuming that the web-browser was the future of all computer interactions. Dragging and dropping to the browser works, but using the browser to upload large files is stupid and senseless. Furthermore, there's a 2GB upload limit, which defeats the purpose of having a big quota.
Given how the interaction model completely misses the point of shared files, I predict that box.net will be unable to out-compete either Dropbox or Google. If they have an offer to buy the company, they should take it because they will not make it as an independent company.
Not recommended.
Nevertheless, once in a while I get chafed by the quota limits, and I have to check out the competition. I picked up a 50GB Box.net account a while back due to the Android promotion, and recently tried to use it to share videos that Steve shot on my GoPro camera during the trip.
Well, to cut things short, it's a big major fail. The UI sucks, mostly because it's tied to a web-browser. To be fair, Google made the same mistake in killing G-Drive and assuming that the web-browser was the future of all computer interactions. Dragging and dropping to the browser works, but using the browser to upload large files is stupid and senseless. Furthermore, there's a 2GB upload limit, which defeats the purpose of having a big quota.
Given how the interaction model completely misses the point of shared files, I predict that box.net will be unable to out-compete either Dropbox or Google. If they have an offer to buy the company, they should take it because they will not make it as an independent company.
Not recommended.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Long Term Review: Canon S100
It's been 4 months since I wrote my first impressions review of the Canon S100. Since then, the camera has been to Hawaii and the British Virgin Islands, and taken lots of pictures of my kid as well.
I'd say that the slimmer form factor has been a bigger deal than I expected. The camera slides into and out of pockets easily, and is far more accessible than any of my previous cameras. The GPS sensor is very nice, and as a result, more of my photos are geo-tagged than ever. Video quality is nothing short of amazing for such a small camera (see: my turtle video, for instance). I get a tingle of delight every time I see the output from this camera, though it still doesn't hold a candle to the 5D Mk 2.
My big complaints are: the charger instead of having 2 LEDs to indicate a full charge, now only has 1 LED that changes color. As a red-green color blind person, I find this very annoying: I have no way of telling whether the battery's charged without asking my wife! My second complaint is that the underwater housing is a little too snug. I no longer have any room to squeeze in a silica gel pack, and so as a result, over time in a humid area (e.g., the tropics), you'll get fog inside the camera housing, which renders your underwater or snorkeling photos worthless.
But seriously, those are nit-picks. This camera is awesome. I highly recommend it. I wouldn't waste my time with any other point and shoot.
I'd say that the slimmer form factor has been a bigger deal than I expected. The camera slides into and out of pockets easily, and is far more accessible than any of my previous cameras. The GPS sensor is very nice, and as a result, more of my photos are geo-tagged than ever. Video quality is nothing short of amazing for such a small camera (see: my turtle video, for instance). I get a tingle of delight every time I see the output from this camera, though it still doesn't hold a candle to the 5D Mk 2.
My big complaints are: the charger instead of having 2 LEDs to indicate a full charge, now only has 1 LED that changes color. As a red-green color blind person, I find this very annoying: I have no way of telling whether the battery's charged without asking my wife! My second complaint is that the underwater housing is a little too snug. I no longer have any room to squeeze in a silica gel pack, and so as a result, over time in a humid area (e.g., the tropics), you'll get fog inside the camera housing, which renders your underwater or snorkeling photos worthless.
But seriously, those are nit-picks. This camera is awesome. I highly recommend it. I wouldn't waste my time with any other point and shoot.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Long Term Review: Battery Geek 222 Battery
As many of you know, I rely on a CPAP machine so I can breath at night. The Battery Geek C222 is sufficient to run the machine for 1.5 nights, which is enough on a sailboat since I can run the generator during the day, and Sunlinq 12W Solar Panel if the boat is stationary and I have good sun (which is all the time in the Caribbean). At the start, I was worried about the battery since it had been quite a few years since I bought it, and Li-Ion batteries are well known for deteriorating over time. The good news is that there's no sign of deterioration whatsoever. The battery still goes all night.
What's impressive is that it takes a charge very well from the Sunlinq solar panel. If I leave it in the sun most of the day, it seems to charge fully. If I plug it into the ship's power, the charger runs for at most an hour before it turns green, indicating a full charge indicator. The problem with the battery is that the charge indicator on the battery sucks, meaning that it lights up 5 bars no matter the state of the battery's discharge, so I have to rely on the charge indicator on the charger.
Battery Geek seems to have gone out of business, but you can bypass the middleman and buy direct from China from M&D. They only sell to whole-sellers, but if you say you want to buy a sample to test they'll accommodate you. Since I do have a retail license, I could also potentially place a bulk order and sell them, but since I have no idea what the size of the market is, if you think you would want one, leave me a note or send me e-mail.
In any case, the battery and Sunlinq solar panel are highly recommended, especially for sailing cruisers in the Caribbean.
What's impressive is that it takes a charge very well from the Sunlinq solar panel. If I leave it in the sun most of the day, it seems to charge fully. If I plug it into the ship's power, the charger runs for at most an hour before it turns green, indicating a full charge indicator. The problem with the battery is that the charge indicator on the battery sucks, meaning that it lights up 5 bars no matter the state of the battery's discharge, so I have to rely on the charge indicator on the charger.
Battery Geek seems to have gone out of business, but you can bypass the middleman and buy direct from China from M&D. They only sell to whole-sellers, but if you say you want to buy a sample to test they'll accommodate you. Since I do have a retail license, I could also potentially place a bulk order and sell them, but since I have no idea what the size of the market is, if you think you would want one, leave me a note or send me e-mail.
In any case, the battery and Sunlinq solar panel are highly recommended, especially for sailing cruisers in the Caribbean.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Conclusions and Thoughts
The BVIs had haunted me for years and this trip proved that it wasn't just nostalgia: it was every bit as good as I wanted it to be, and then some. By luck, we got there with a full moon during the trip, and I would recommend making that happen by hook or by crook. It brings a magical element to the cruise that you would not forget.
Everything about catamaran cruising is easier. It was easier to pilot the boat (having twin engines), it was easier to moor the boat, because the deck was lower, it was easier to anchor because the boat was lighter. The crew had an easier time sleeping, and as a result, we never had to stop in a slip, which saved a lot of money. Because of the better kitchen, we didn't eat out very much at all, which meant that we saved even more money. The boat also sailed very quickly: we saw the Rya Jen, a boat I had sailed on the previous trip, and it looked like it was standing still compared to our catamaran.
The best time of year to go is probably in November. We lucked out and didn't get much rain at all on this trip, but the mosquitoes were quite something. I'd rather get fewer mosquitoes and slightly cooler weather, plus the charters are cheaper in November. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy about doing the trip in April as well.
The decision to skip the US Virgin Islands was the right one. It's not that they aren't interesting, it's that if you only have 7 days, you can't possibly squeeze them in and the custom crossings and still have adequate time. I would recommend having at least 14 days if you want to add the US Virgin Islands to your itinerary.
The hardest working person on a boat is the first mate, and Arturo was no exception. He got up at 6:00am every morning, at the same time I did, and was always happy to do whatever it took to get the boat moving. When it came to mooring, Arturo was always on the ball. Even though it's the skipper's job to snorkel and dive to check the anchor, Arturo always did that whenever I did. In addition, he would pick dive sites, lead dives, and always did everything cheerfully and with full of energy. This trip would have been twice as hard without him. Thanks, Arturo!
By the way, if you do charter in high season, make sure your boat has at least 3 morning persons. That's because if you cannot get to the favor'd spots (such as the Indians or the Baths) early enough, your experience could be entirely different, turning a relaxing vacation into a stressful hunt for mooring balls or anchorages.
Shauna and XiaoQin split the kitchen duties, with Shauna doing a lot of the cooking and XiaoQin doing a lot of the cleaning. It was great.
I have mixed feelings about UBS Dive Center. On the one hand, I really liked Tony a lot, and he was very accommodating, getting our Wifi unit back to Horizon for us. Despite his own boat being burnt up, he managed to make good on his commitments to us. On the other hand, his equipment was frequently leaky, and the tanks he gave us sometimes looked like they were filled up without someone looking at the pressure gauge. There was also one time when he promised to pick us up and didn't. The lack of organization would be disturbing.
In any case, the next time I do a trip with substantial diving, I should probably get my own gear. It's a pain to deal with rental gear every time and learn to use the equipment each time, and redo all my buoyancy tests.
The WiFi unit Horizon rented us was a bust. It did not work most nights, and during the day it gave decent coverage but during the day we were always sailing, diving, or doing stuff, and only would have time to upload photos/post to blogs in the evenings. It's not worth what they charge for it, and I would not use the service again.
When you tell people that you're cruising the Caribbean, most people think of the giant cruise ships. That's not the right way to travel. Even if you're not a sailor, hiring a skipper doesn't cost very much ($150/day, which is $20/day split 8 ways), and in exchange you get the freedom of going where you want to go when you want to go. I can't imagine visiting the area any other way.
As for myself, one reason I eschew paying for a skipper is that it's a crutch. It's a completely different feeling when you're the one making the decisions: should we anchor here, or weigh anchor and move in search of a different anchorage? Should we go for a mooring ball, or look for anchorage instead? One more dive? Or do we have to start looking for a place to sleep. Are the swells big enough to warrant recalling the crew from a shore shower? These decisions are all part of learning good seamanship, and if you have a professional next to you, the temptation would always be to lean on his judgement instead. Having sailed with people who have a lot more experience, I would say that no only are those judgements sometimes suspect, ultimately, you need to develop your own leadership style, which is something you can do only when there isn't a "real captain" elsewhere on the boat. Ultimately, the personal development and satisfaction of picking the right place to drop anchor (for instance) is a good reason to bareboat, and if you were to do so, there's no better place than the British Virgin Islands.
In any case, I'm already dreaming of the next sailing trip to the Caribbean. If all this sounds like fun, send me e-mail and ask to be put on my mailing list. And as I write in my book reviews: Highly Recommended
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Everything about catamaran cruising is easier. It was easier to pilot the boat (having twin engines), it was easier to moor the boat, because the deck was lower, it was easier to anchor because the boat was lighter. The crew had an easier time sleeping, and as a result, we never had to stop in a slip, which saved a lot of money. Because of the better kitchen, we didn't eat out very much at all, which meant that we saved even more money. The boat also sailed very quickly: we saw the Rya Jen, a boat I had sailed on the previous trip, and it looked like it was standing still compared to our catamaran.
The best time of year to go is probably in November. We lucked out and didn't get much rain at all on this trip, but the mosquitoes were quite something. I'd rather get fewer mosquitoes and slightly cooler weather, plus the charters are cheaper in November. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy about doing the trip in April as well.
The decision to skip the US Virgin Islands was the right one. It's not that they aren't interesting, it's that if you only have 7 days, you can't possibly squeeze them in and the custom crossings and still have adequate time. I would recommend having at least 14 days if you want to add the US Virgin Islands to your itinerary.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
The hardest working person on a boat is the first mate, and Arturo was no exception. He got up at 6:00am every morning, at the same time I did, and was always happy to do whatever it took to get the boat moving. When it came to mooring, Arturo was always on the ball. Even though it's the skipper's job to snorkel and dive to check the anchor, Arturo always did that whenever I did. In addition, he would pick dive sites, lead dives, and always did everything cheerfully and with full of energy. This trip would have been twice as hard without him. Thanks, Arturo!
By the way, if you do charter in high season, make sure your boat has at least 3 morning persons. That's because if you cannot get to the favor'd spots (such as the Indians or the Baths) early enough, your experience could be entirely different, turning a relaxing vacation into a stressful hunt for mooring balls or anchorages.
Shauna and XiaoQin split the kitchen duties, with Shauna doing a lot of the cooking and XiaoQin doing a lot of the cleaning. It was great.
I have mixed feelings about UBS Dive Center. On the one hand, I really liked Tony a lot, and he was very accommodating, getting our Wifi unit back to Horizon for us. Despite his own boat being burnt up, he managed to make good on his commitments to us. On the other hand, his equipment was frequently leaky, and the tanks he gave us sometimes looked like they were filled up without someone looking at the pressure gauge. There was also one time when he promised to pick us up and didn't. The lack of organization would be disturbing.
In any case, the next time I do a trip with substantial diving, I should probably get my own gear. It's a pain to deal with rental gear every time and learn to use the equipment each time, and redo all my buoyancy tests.
The WiFi unit Horizon rented us was a bust. It did not work most nights, and during the day it gave decent coverage but during the day we were always sailing, diving, or doing stuff, and only would have time to upload photos/post to blogs in the evenings. It's not worth what they charge for it, and I would not use the service again.
When you tell people that you're cruising the Caribbean, most people think of the giant cruise ships. That's not the right way to travel. Even if you're not a sailor, hiring a skipper doesn't cost very much ($150/day, which is $20/day split 8 ways), and in exchange you get the freedom of going where you want to go when you want to go. I can't imagine visiting the area any other way.
As for myself, one reason I eschew paying for a skipper is that it's a crutch. It's a completely different feeling when you're the one making the decisions: should we anchor here, or weigh anchor and move in search of a different anchorage? Should we go for a mooring ball, or look for anchorage instead? One more dive? Or do we have to start looking for a place to sleep. Are the swells big enough to warrant recalling the crew from a shore shower? These decisions are all part of learning good seamanship, and if you have a professional next to you, the temptation would always be to lean on his judgement instead. Having sailed with people who have a lot more experience, I would say that no only are those judgements sometimes suspect, ultimately, you need to develop your own leadership style, which is something you can do only when there isn't a "real captain" elsewhere on the boat. Ultimately, the personal development and satisfaction of picking the right place to drop anchor (for instance) is a good reason to bareboat, and if you were to do so, there's no better place than the British Virgin Islands.
In any case, I'm already dreaming of the next sailing trip to the Caribbean. If all this sounds like fun, send me e-mail and ask to be put on my mailing list. And as I write in my book reviews: Highly Recommended
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Epilogue
Unfortunately, returning the boat left us with a surprise. Tony's racks were rusty and left rust stains on the deck. Amy scrubbed and scrubbed with ajax and broke a deck brush doing so, but to no avail. Arturo and I tried replicating Amy's feat but discovered that Amy must have arms and backs of steel, as neither of us could match her. Finally, someone at the dock brought rust remover over, which took care of the problem, but definitely left us more tired and spent than we should have been.
The ferry back to St. Thomas was easy, and made it easily even after eating lunch. Upon getting back to the Island View hotel, Arturo and I took a swim in the swimming pool to get some sweat off, and quickly discovered that yes, it was quite difficult for us to float in fresh water after being used to salt water.
The crew had dinner together, and then we went to sleep. Our flights the next day went well, with a minor delay due to strong winds in New York delaying our JetBlue flight to San Francisco. We're still suffering from itchy mosquito bites, and next time I'll remember to be better about putting on insect repellent.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
The ferry back to St. Thomas was easy, and made it easily even after eating lunch. Upon getting back to the Island View hotel, Arturo and I took a swim in the swimming pool to get some sweat off, and quickly discovered that yes, it was quite difficult for us to float in fresh water after being used to salt water.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
The crew had dinner together, and then we went to sleep. Our flights the next day went well, with a minor delay due to strong winds in New York delaying our JetBlue flight to San Francisco. We're still suffering from itchy mosquito bites, and next time I'll remember to be better about putting on insect repellent.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
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April 8th: White Bay (Jost Van Dyke) to Nanny Cay Marina (Tortola)
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| From Screen Captures |
We got up at 6:00am to find the moon still up. We had no real plans for the day, as everything depended on the winds and our patience, so we ate a relatively leisurely breakfast. Cindy and Arturo each got their own cabins last night, and were in a pretty good mood as a result.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
After we weighed anchor and motor'd out of White Bay, we kept motoring towards Tortola as there seemed to be little wind. Midway through the passage, though, we found some wind and decided to sail rather than visit Norman Island for one last snorkel. The wind died again as we approached Great Thatch, but as we crossed into Sopher's hole, the wind picked up to 7 knots and we could sail again.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Once in the Sir Francis Drake Channel, Amy said she hadn't gotten a chance to helm the boat at all on the trip, so Arturo and I switched and gave her a chance to tack back and forth across the channel. Amy had a great feel for the helm and it wasn't long before she was issuing orders to come about like a pro.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and at 10:02, we noted that we were still 5km from Nanny Cay, so dropped the sails and steamed into the marina at maximum cruising speed at 10:35am. There were a couple of other boats fueling up, so we had to circle around until they were done before we docked the Escape and signaled Horizon for a skipper to drive us back to the slip. I got a hose into the water tanks, got off the Escape and turned on the tap to refill our water tanks. My job as the skipper was done.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
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Review: The End of Illness
To be honest, I don't know how I heard about The End of Illness, but somehow it made it to the top of my library queue, so I read it. This book is a bit of a mish-mash of various things.
The thesis of this book is that you need to take care of yourself. How? It turns out the answers aren't obvious. For instance, he says that studies have shown that taking multi-vitamins (and other kinds of vitamins) have been correlated with increased risk of cancer. He also points out that many times you'll read about some study in the press and then when you dive into the details, you'll realize that because of the demographics involved (say, all Caucasians, or all people living on the East Coast of America), the results don't apply to you!
He's a big fan of getting your vitamin D from sunlight (it goes to show that he lives in Southern California), getting your vitamins from fruits and vegetables (but not juices), getting fish oil by eating real fish instead of fish oil tablets, and exercise. What's surprising after all that previous stuff is that he's also a big advocate of baby asprins and statins, saying that even if you have decent cholesterol, you should take them as studies show that they have benefits even for people with normal levels. He prescribes getting on a regular schedule (sleep, eat, etc, should all be as regular as possible), and avoiding sitting (less than 3 hours a day if possible).
He does do a great job of debunking vitamins, though I'd have to listen to second opinions before abandoning vitamins altogether. He does make exceptions. For instance, if you're diagnosed with low vitamin D, you should definitely get onto vitamin D pills.
He advocates patients signing up to give data about themselves as much as possible, since that's the only way in the long run for medicine to make progress. I agree, but I'm probably one of the few who believes this.
All in all, the book was a good read, and comes with lots for you to think about, including a pre-annual physical questionnaire, and an explanation of what all the tests your doctor will order does. Unfortunately, as he mentions, there's a lot we don't know about human health, so everything he says should also be taken with a grain of salt.
Recommended.
The thesis of this book is that you need to take care of yourself. How? It turns out the answers aren't obvious. For instance, he says that studies have shown that taking multi-vitamins (and other kinds of vitamins) have been correlated with increased risk of cancer. He also points out that many times you'll read about some study in the press and then when you dive into the details, you'll realize that because of the demographics involved (say, all Caucasians, or all people living on the East Coast of America), the results don't apply to you!
He's a big fan of getting your vitamin D from sunlight (it goes to show that he lives in Southern California), getting your vitamins from fruits and vegetables (but not juices), getting fish oil by eating real fish instead of fish oil tablets, and exercise. What's surprising after all that previous stuff is that he's also a big advocate of baby asprins and statins, saying that even if you have decent cholesterol, you should take them as studies show that they have benefits even for people with normal levels. He prescribes getting on a regular schedule (sleep, eat, etc, should all be as regular as possible), and avoiding sitting (less than 3 hours a day if possible).
He does do a great job of debunking vitamins, though I'd have to listen to second opinions before abandoning vitamins altogether. He does make exceptions. For instance, if you're diagnosed with low vitamin D, you should definitely get onto vitamin D pills.
He advocates patients signing up to give data about themselves as much as possible, since that's the only way in the long run for medicine to make progress. I agree, but I'm probably one of the few who believes this.
All in all, the book was a good read, and comes with lots for you to think about, including a pre-annual physical questionnaire, and an explanation of what all the tests your doctor will order does. Unfortunately, as he mentions, there's a lot we don't know about human health, so everything he says should also be taken with a grain of salt.
Recommended.
April 7th: Kelly's Cove (Norman Island) to White Bay (Jost Van Dyke)
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| From Screen Captures |
When I originally set up the trip, I thought that charters were for 7 days (April 1 to April 7th). It turned out that charters were for 7 nights/8 days, which meant that we had one extra day on the 8th. Shauna and Steve, unfortunately didn't get the message, and scheduled their flight for the 8th. Given when we were going to return the boat, I was pretty sure they wouldn't make the ferry from Tortola, so they opted to visit St. John and get dropped off a day early from Jost Van Dyke instead. Given the way things worked, it would have been closer to dropp them off at St. John, but of course, that would have required customs clearing on both ends twice, which would be very annoying and painful. As forecasted, the North swell had ended the night before, so going to Jobst Van Dyke would be an easy sail.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Except that I'd lost track of where St. John was, and we sailed the wrong way for a bit before I realized my error and turned the boat around. In the narrows, we got to gybe often, but near Sopher's Hole a storm blew through, giving us 15 knot winds for a while and a thrilling sail as we made it right through the passages and the Thatch Island cut on the wings of a shower-storm that (unfortunately) produced no rainbows. This would be the only rain we saw for the entire trip.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
The wind died mysteriously once at the Thatch Island Cut, however, and I was forced to turn on the motor. It being not even 9am, we made good time and I realized we had the time to visit Sandy Cay for some snorkeling and swimming, so we headed there to the beautiful beach which I had bypassed during my last visit and was determined not to miss this time. Eschewing the mooring buoys, I pulled up close to the beach in 6 feet of water and dropped anchor, putting the boat a short swim from shore.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
The water was cooler, being closer to the Atlantic, but the Cay was too beautiful to pass up. Even Cindy said, "I hadn't planned on getting into the water to day, but this is too good." I even saw a ray in the water, though again I wasn't quick enough on the draw to take a picture. Unfortunately, even eden has a snake. As far as Sandy Cay is concerned, it was midges: tiny no-seeum blood suckers that did not seem to pay attention to our insect repellent. Despite that, we spent an hour there, watching as a day-chartered catamaran, the DayDreamer pulled right up onto the beach, disgorged a full complement of tourists and then pulled away to pick them up later.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
By 10:45, it was time to leave, so we pulled up the anchor and motor'd over to White Bay, which was an anchorage with very badly marked entrances. Playing it self, we took the western entrance and motor'd to the mooring buoys and dropped anchor in about 8 feet of water, with the tail of the boat a short jump from shore. I was getting very confident of our anchoring skills, and placed the anchor with no problems whatsoever. After waiting for the boat to settle, we put Shauna and Steve's luggage into the dinghy and prepared to motor to Great Harbor where the ferry was. They had declined to go ashore at White Bay, even though I assured them that it was a perfectly fine place to hang out. John had developed a ear infection, so he and Amy were coming along to find the clinic. XiaoQin decided to come along just for the ride.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
With the dinghy so laden, we wallowed over to Great Harbor and dropped everyone off. The return, however, was fast: with just me and XiaoQin in the boat, the dinghy leapt between waves, and it was a much shorter (if much bumpier) ride back. Arturo, Cindy, XiaoQin and I then had a sandwich lunch on the boat while watching the Herons around us dive for fish.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
We had thought that we might have had to eat out tonight, but we had over-provisioned the boat and there would be room for an eclectic dinner for the night. Nevertheless, the day was warming up very nicely, so we took a swim to Ivan's Stress Free Bar for a drink and to enjoy the hammock. While lying in the hammock, a mega-yacht pulled up in the harbor, and 10 people with British accents, sat on a bench with various quantities of wine and water, and then pulled away in a large tender, saying "Farewell Caribbean."
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Amy and John arrived while Arturo was lying in the hammock, announcing that they had indeed found the clinic and gotten antibiotics for John's ear infection. While Arturo, XiaoQin, and I decided to swim over to the Soggy Dollar Bar, Amy and John decided to walk over, since they had walking shoes on.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
The contrast between the two bars was amazing. First of all, the beach was packed with motorboats, many with 1500hp worth of engines, enough to make it to Puerto Rico in very little time. The soggy dollar bar clearly attracted the "Spring Break" crowd. It was a noisy party with people ordering drinks left and right. I ordered some conch fritters since I wanted to know what conch tasted like, and we watched the crowd while waiting for our order, which showed up on island time. On the way back to the boat, I left my waterproof case containing cash and my dive cert, and only realized that after getting onto the Escape. I immediately put on fins and snorkeled and swam back out to the entry point, where I found 4 spring breakers who'd obviously picked up my wallet who asked me my name. When I gave it to them, they looked at my id and gave me my money back.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Amy and John took out the kayak, and Cindy made a potpourri dish with what was left of our supplies. It wasn't a great meal, but it saved us from having to swim to shore for dinner and back. The sunset was gorgeous, and the nearly full moon, when it rose, gave us a gorgeous picture. I was a little sad from it being our last night in the BVIs, but I had made a number of enthusiastic cruising sailors on this trip, which made me feel quite good.
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April 6th: Deadman's Bay (Peter Island) to Kelly's Cove (Norman Island)
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| From Screen Captures |
We started the morning bright and early and went to look for the mooring buoys at Coral Garden. Steve was pushing for the dive on the other side of dead chest, since he and Shauna had done Coral Garden twice as part of their certification dives. However, the south swells were still going strong as we neared Deadchest, so Arturo nix'd the idea in favor of Coral Gardens. To our dismay, the mooring buoy in the protected area was taken, and clearly taken by someone who had used it as an overnight stay illegally. The only other buoy was a yellow commercial dive boat operation buoy, but we snagged it anyway since it was early in the day and we would likely be gone before any commercial dive boats showed up.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Coral Garden was a beautiful, if shallow dive. As the name described, it truly encompassed coral upon coral. The shallowness of the dive actually helped, as it meant we could stay down for almost a full hour on one tank of air.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
After the dive was over, we went over to Sprat Bay on Peter Island in order to refill our dive tanks. We reasoned that it was unlikely that we would do more than one more dive in the trip, so we filled up just 6 tanks. Peter Island is way more expensive than every other tank refill place, charging us $10/tank. Cooper Island was $6/tank. The dive instructor tried to talk us into Angelfish Reef as our second dive, but we noted that there was no snorkeling there, so that wouldn't be fair to the non-divers in the group. Arturo noted that there was a BVI Dive Guide that had detailed descriptions of all the dive sites in the area, including dives that were in neither of the books we had brought with us. "Something to remember for next time."
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
We settled on Rainbow Canyons as our second dive. We had abandoned it just a few days ago because of the race for mooring buoys on Cooper Island, but because it had both snorkeling and diving and was relatively close to the Bight, we made a beeline for it. We got to the other side of Pelican Island and found that all the buoys were taken. However, one of them was not taken by a sailboat, but rather, a motorboat with a swimming ladder. Swimmers were in the water with noodles, a swimming aid that indicated that the folks would probably not stay that long. So I used the opportunity to back and fill the catamaran. The waited lasted about 20 minutes and we were on the buoy. Right after we were moor'd, we received a hail over the VHF which sounded like someone calling the Escape, but when I returned the hail I did not receive any reply, so we proceeded with the dive. It being our last dive, there was a lot of fooling around and taking pictures.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
After the dive, I had my heart set on getting a moor or an anchor position at Kelly's Cove. I remembered the cove from my previous trip, but as we steamed into viewing distance of the cove I saw to my dismay that all the buoys were taken, and there wasn't very much space at all in which to anchor without the boat swinging into another one that's already on a moor. The mooring buoys were not there when I last saw Kelly's Cove, so no doubt it was a new addition.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
We had no choice but to enter the Bight and search for a mooring ball as far away from the Willy T's as we could get. There were plenty available, so we picked one and settled down for lunch. Arturo and I still wanted to snorkel Kelly's Cove, but nobody else did, so the two of us jumped into the dinghy with our equipment and then motor'd over to Kelly's Cove. When we got there, our jaws dropped: one of the buoys was available! Arturo quickly detailed a plan: he would drop me off back at the Escape, and immediately motor over to the moor to reserve it. "Give me 10 minutes, and if I'm not back, it means it's ours!"
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
I was dropped off in a hurry, and when 10 minutes were up, we dropped the mooring buoy we were on and picked up an idyllic spot at Kelly's Cove. It was as beautiful as we had hoped, granting us clear views of the channel, but far away from the crowds. I could not believe our luck in happening on the buoy at just the right time with no one else competing for it. Arturo, Steve, and Amy wanted to do a night dive, but by the time they had taken tanks to the air refill it was closed. The tanks were checked and there was about 4 tanks that were usable with air ranging from 850psi to 1500psi, so Arturo, John, Amy, and Steve went for it. We snorkeled around the cove int he afternoon, and I found a notch where it looked like Escape was the only boat in the cove, and Arturo and I snapped pictures there.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Our choice of location was further affirmed when the buoy collectors showed up: a Chinese couple from Hong Kong. They were thrilled to meet Mandarin and Cantonese speakers as they told us in their year of working here, they had not many anyone who spoke those languages. Even the Asian people were mostly born in America and didn't speak either languages. They gave us some basic statistics about the area: it had 70+ mooring balls, and nearly fills up every night during the high season. The ROI on those mooring balls must be amazing. They also told us (with a hint of secrecy), that we were on their favorite mooring ball location.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Sure enough, the sunset was glorious that night. So much so that the garbage collecting vessel "Deliverance" parked right in front of us, also watching the sunset. One of the perks of this job is probably a large collection of sunsets every night. We watched the twilight turn pink, yellow, orange and finally a deep midnight blue. It was almost a chore getting food, as everyone was so fascinated by the deepening sky.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
The moon rose as the sun went down, but was hidden behind the cliffs near us until at 8:00pm, it popped out from behind the island and lit up our little cozy cove. We played music, but no one wanted to visit the Willy T, perhaps after being informed that it would be partying until 1:00am tonight.
Arturo, John, Steve, and Amy decided to go for a night dive. At 15 feet maximum depth in Kelly's Cove, it was more like a long safety stop than a dive, so despite the low tanks, folks came back after 30 minutes of diving with air in the tanks.
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April 5th: Leverick Bay (Virgin Gorda) to Deadman's Bay (Peter Island)
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| From Screen Captures |
Our original plans for making it all the way up to Leverick Bay was to do some of the dives in the northern part of the British Virgin Islands, and maybe stay another night in the North Sound at the Bitter End Yacht Club or anchor near Marina Cay. The north swell crushed all of those plans. Many of the sites on the north end of the BVI become impossible to dive in these conditions. We scrapped all the plans in favor of heading back south into protected waters so we could do more diving and have a good night's sleep.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
The morning started with Arturo and I getting the boat ready to get to the fuel dock. The mooring lines were once again a little tangled, but this time we recovered it without having to get into the water. The swells were no worse than the night before, and the docking went relatively smoothly, especially after a gentleman from a nearby boat picked up a line and pulled us in.
Once we filled up with water, the dockmaster looked impatiently at us while the folks who hadn't had a land shower took one. We left at 8:30am and motor'd out for another look at Necker Island before heading down south, jibing one way or another to plot a course south. Our plan was to look for a southern anchoring spot, but as we approached salt island, we saw that we had swells coming from the south as well, so that nix'd that plan also. As we emerged into sheltered waters, I noticed a sailboat that looked familiar. As we drew closer, to my excitement I realized that it was the Rya Jen, the same boat I first sailed these waters in. We hailed the Rya Jen over the VHF but nobody replied. I would later find out from a fellow traveler that the folks who chartered that boat were not very good about monitoring the VHF. It struck me then just how fast catamarans were compared to monohull boats. The Rya Jen looked like it was standing still in the water, compared to us.
Coming around Salt Island, however, we noticed that the Rhone site seemed to have plenty of mooring buoys open, and the water wasn't bad. We picked up a mooring and discovered that there was a stiff current flowing against us from the Rhone Reef direction. The entry into the water and the first 15 minutes of swimming against the current was tough. There was always a feeling of not knowing whether we were going to make it to the dive site before we ran out of air.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Once on the Reef itself, however, the current all but went away, and we were able to explore freely. Shauna had an equalization problem and had to return early with Steve, but Arturo was game to keep going, and had no problem finding all the locations the dive guides had shown us previously, including a good view of a shark that was apparently sleeping the day away.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
Though it was cloudy, occasionally the sun would come through and we would get beautiful views of the Reef, taking our breath away.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
After the dive, we did not have a lot of time left, and decided to start looking for a place to anchor. I made the decision to head towards Peter Island, where there were multiple harbors on the north side of the island which ought to be well protected. On the way there, however, we had a pleasant surprise: 4 dolphins had decided to come play with us, swimming ahead of our hulls!
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
As we approached Peter Island the dolphins fell away but we swept into Deadman's Bay, which looked gorgeous and as we approached seemed to have an empty hole in the middle where we could drop anchor and not swing into other boats.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
The cruising guide describe Deadman's Bay as being a tricky anchorage, occasionally difficult to set anchor because of the grass mixed in with the sand. It took me two tries and re-reading the user manual on the boat to figure out how to do it. It turned out that I had always ramped up the engine to about 3000rpm to set the anchor. Well, a catamaran has two engines, so revving them to 1500rpm is what would do the trick. Do any more, and the anchor might not hold. Third time was the charm, but not trusting ourselves, Arturo and I snorkeled to the anchor just to check it out, and reassured ourselves by checking some nearby boats as well, seeing that they actually didn't do as good a job as we did. We spotted many star fish around at the bottom, but the snorkeling actually wasn't that good.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
After waiting for the boat to settle and making sure that the anchor didn't drift, XiaoQin, Arturo and I swam ashore to look at the beautiful beach and walk along it. Being a privately owned island (though as with the entire BVI, the beaches are always public), the beach was nearly deserted, with most guests in their rooms or at dinner. There was a dinner table set up outside, but we never saw guests show up.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
On the swim back, XiaoQin demonstrated how much a difference the fins made: try as we might, neither Arturo nor I could keep up with her or even come close. When I asked XiaoQin about it afterwards, she said she wasn't even kicking hard or at maximum speed. We settled back to eat dinner and watch the sun set in the gorgeous area that we had found ourselves in.
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| From Escape Catamaran 2012 |
After the glorious sunset, we were treated to an even more impressive show: the moon rose and the lights in Tortola went on, granting us an absolutely glorious, ethereal night. I didn't plan the trip this way, but today was nearly a full moon, and tomorrow would be a full moon. Until you've sat on a sailboat you've anchor'd under a full moon and the stars, listening to the waves lap and feeling the boat move beneath you, it would be difficult to understand how romantic sailing really is. There are no sounds you didn't make yourself, and there's a sense of satisfaction that's difficult to share as the moonlight permeates the landscape around you, giving everything a beautiful, mysterious glow. It was dream-like in its lucidity. We stayed up as late as we could, enchanted by the experience. But we had early morning the next day, so turned in and slept like logs.
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