It’s already 2014, but some wishes and promises related to the coming boating season are in order. Because the omnipotent Santa can get me anything, I will not limit myself to wish for concrete things such as technical devices (which are nice, too). Here is my wishlist:
- I want nice sunny weather and moderate, or non-existing winds. You can throw in some windy days to keep the sailboaters happy, but since we do not need wind to, e.g., make hotness more tolerable in the Finnish summer, I ask for no extra winds, thank you. Wind also makes waves, which makes our boat swing and, at some point, parking the boat very difficult. Santa, if you are confused by my request, below are illustrative examples.
Sunbathing in Hanko
Calm and hot weather near Nauvo
(While at it, you can also prevent any forthcoming winter storms - see my previous post about boat winterization.)
Keep the Baltic Sea clean. To my understanding, there are two kinds of environmental threats to the sea: i) the harmful long-term development due to all kinds of emissions to the sea from agriculture, industry and inhabitants around the sea, and ii) the risks caused by increased sea traffic to and from St. Petersburg. In particular, there are tens of oil tankers moving in the Gulf of Finland each day. The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat recently described how an oil tanker disaster would impact the Finnish Gulf (based on a real near miss scenario, in Finnish:), and believe me, we don’t want to experience such a disaster. So, Santa, please prevent such catastrophes and, if you are not too occupied by that alone, also accelerate development that leads to cleaner Baltic sea for both sealife and boaters to enjoy.
- Maybe time for something more personal? Make the boat last. Not that I would be afraid of it sinking or anything of that scale, but it seems that every summer we run into some kind of technical problem. I understand that the engine is 40 years old and will not last forever, but can you make it last for a few years at least? Repairing stuff is such a nuisance.
- Finally, make the baby love the boat. Our daughter will be around 10 months when the summer holidays begin. I have no idea is she will a) like being on the boat, b) be safe on the boat, and most importantly, c) be able to sleep on the boat. Santa, make it happen.
Because it is a bit selfish to be in the receiving end only, I will also make the following New Year’s promises:
- I will be a responsible, flexible and friendly boater. This is a kind of promise that one should not need to make because it’s so self-evident, but I will try to make some additional improvements. For example, being flexible means being able to change plans if weather, crew condition, or the mood of the baby calls for changes. I don’t like to change my plans, so this really is an improvement.
- I will support local businesses. This is not easy either because I am cheap: for example, I don’t like to pay 3 EUR for a cup of bad coffee while I can make a delicious cup with 0.2 EUR material costs on the boat. But I understand that the business model for most cafes and restaurants in the archipelago is ridiculously challenging. The season lasts maybe four weeks (weather being nice) and for the rest of the year, there are no customers at all. So, to keep the businesses running, we need to spend. It’s still a proportionally small sacrifice for me, compared to situation of having no services and guest harbors at all.
Lovely Farmors Café, a popular place in Högsåra island during July-August
1. I’ll take care of my boat to enable the wish number three. The boat needs preventive maintenance, so I am going to provide it. I know that this also includes spending money in spare parts, tools, chemicals, ropes, nuts&bolts, and whatnot, but this is the price of reliability. It also includes spending a lot of time fixing the boat. For some, the fix-to-enjoy time ratio is something like 3:1 (three times more time spent on fixing than using the boat), which I find a bit of an overkill. But, I can still improve my ratio and make sure that most things are ready before the launch in May-June.