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1 month ago | 
powerandmotoryacht.com | Bob Arrington
If I had a dollar for every time someone told one of my parents that I looked just like Opie Taylor, Liberdade would probably be a much bigger boat. As a young redheaded boy in the ‘60s with a striking resemblance to Ron Howard’s character on The Andy Griffith Show, it was something I grew accustomed to hearing. While being a fan of the popular show, interestingly, Opie wasn’t my favorite character.
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2 months ago | 
powerandmotoryacht.com | Bob Arrington
When people hear that we live aboard our boat for extended periods of time, one of the most frequent questions we’re asked is: How do the two of you get along living in such a small space? I’m going to share a secret with you about my marriage to Dori—we actually get along better the more time we spend on our boat. The small space of our boat demands that we cooperate and communicate with each other more than when we’re living in the larger space of a house.
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2 months ago | 
passagemaker.com | Bob Arrington
When my wife, Dori, and I decided to cruise south in the winter and north in the summer, we didn’t consider the increased number of days we would be boating in fog. Our summer months are now spent aboard our trawler, Liberdade, in New England, so we have learned to live with, and possibly even enjoy, a cool, foggy morning. We also can acknowledge that knowing we would be boating more in fog wouldn’t have caused us to change our plans, because in many ways, it has made us better boaters.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
powerandmotoryacht.com | Bob Arrington
How did flying hang gliders lead me to life aboard a cruising yacht and writing this column? Indulge me for a minute. Standing on a grassy slope, which gently falls away to an 800-foot vertical cliff is risky enough, but being willing to run as fast as you can down that slope would seem crazy to many. Yet this is where I found myself as a young man learning to fly hang gliders.
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Dec 16, 2024 | 
powerandmotoryacht.com | Bob Arrington
Have you ever noticed when going somewhere you’ve never been before, the trip getting there seems to take longer than when returning? When going somewhere unfamiliar, your mind needs to stay fixed firmly in the present; all your concentration is needed to navigate an unfamiliar area. In this scenario, time seems to pass more slowly because you are hyper-aware of every moment.
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Oct 2, 2024 | 
passagemaker.com | Bob Arrington
Anyone boating in coastal waters is familiar with ocean tides, the daily cycle of rising and falling water levels. You also likely remember from grade school science class that tides are caused by the moon and the sun’s gravity. In most coastal locations, you will see, twice daily, the tide come in and the tide go out. But what if I told you that the water doesn’t actually come in and the water doesn’t actually go out? Your science teacher was right.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
powerandmotoryacht.com | Bob Arrington
Numbers don’t lie. If one hundred couples dream of living aboard a long-distance cruising yacht, only ten will actually buy the boat and begin the adventure. Of those ten, four will miscalculate and buy the wrong boat. Two of these four couples will dream too big, believing they can sail the seven seas, only to find they aren’t comfortable on the open ocean. Their problem is that they will have bought a globe-circling boat not well suited for inland waters. The other two couples will dream too small.
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Aug 28, 2024 | 
passagemaker.com | Bob Arrington
It is not possible to talk about handling a boat on the ocean without the topic of seasickness working its way into the conversation. Mal de mer is a wicked spirit, haunting those of us who love the sea. It’s been known to make grown men crawl into a fetal position and cry for their mothers. This insidious condition is not limited to the rolling of the ocean. It can come from many forms of motion, be it the back seat of a car, a turbulent airplane flight or a ride at a summer carnival.
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Aug 7, 2024 | 
powerandmotoryacht.com | Bob Arrington
My friend Joe’s dad was a sports fanatic, he followed his college football and basketball teams closely, and didn’t miss many of his favorite professional team’s games on TV. Given this influence, it was no surprise that Joe wanted to try out for little league and went on to letter in more than one sport in high school. My father on the other hand was an outdoorsman, so growing up, I had no exposure to competitive ball sports.
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Jul 22, 2024 | 
passagemaker.com | Bob Arrington
It wasn’t too long ago that cruise control was considered a luxury feature in an automobile. Today, not only do most basic cars have it, but they also likely have the more advanced adaptive cruise control. This is the path technology frequently takes: Items that were once cutting edge become commonplace. In that process, what you may have once considered helpful but not really a necessity grows to be considered indispensable. Recreational boating is part of this march of progress.
