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Addendum – Tuesday 11:00pm

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Addendum January 7, 2026

Not Again?!?!

I estimate that due to the mechanical DIS-advantage of a lever, this “fulcrum” is likely exerting 3 or 4 times more load than the 120 pound outboard out on the end.

Below, a new genny track is mounted to the bottom of our lift boom.

Loaded up with the weight of the outboard, this track system enables me to slide the hanging outboard “out” to the dinghy OR back “in” to the storage bracket on the transom of the mother boat!

Dock Mate “Mike” of Sharona Two shows how genoa tracks on the sides of his boat enable him to position his aft fenders in just the right spot! Genny Tracks are very versatile for a variety of applications.

Update Friday a.m. Aug 15

That’s a good thing.

Shelly and I are full-time live aboards.

These things are from our first-hand experience:

In 2015 we downsized from a house we owned for nearly 30 years to move into an apartment. In 2021, we downsized again to move on to the boat full time; ever since then we have no “dirt home”.

After 4 years, we STILL carry more “stuff” aboard than we need!!! About 20% of the living space on our boat is stuffed for storage of things we never use. We call it the “VIP Stateroom” but there is no room for anyone to even sit, never mind sleep! Storage space is valuable on a boat.

Do our possessions possess us?

They costs us to acquire them.

They cost us to maintain them and to keep them waxed or cleaned of mildew and mold. We’ve spent thousands just this year on this kind of thing, and it’s only August.

Most of us require the purchase of insurance to protect against loss. Some require the payment of property or excise tax every 12 or 13 moons. Some people buy firearms to “defend” their dearest possessions.

Most items depreciate in value; very few possessions appreciate in fair market value. But even one’s real estate is only ours for a time.

Use them both wisely whist they are yours!

I admit I often go to a hardware store because “it’ll take too much time to find the thing I *might* have stored down below. In this way, relying on the inventory of local stores is often more efficient than my own inventory!

Goodwill and Salvation Army stores used to come to your home to take unwanted furniture and things you wanted to donate. Have you tried in recent years? Guess what: We learned we now have to PAY “Mr. Junk” or “Randy Recycler” to haul stuff away. There is no market for used stuff anymore! (Most places).

Quite literally, “You can’t give it away!” ((Actually if you try, if you expend some TIME, you CAN find friends or folks who truly need it.

The poet says:

Everything we’ve acquired will be given away one day.

“Give whist we still have time to give.”

Investors know that Self Storage facilities are easier to get a mortgage for than a home! The banks know those types of businesses will make money!

Conversely, most people who rent a self storage unit are “upside down” in a year or two … having paid more for storage than the fair market value of the stuff they stored.

Our boat was uncluttered and beautiful when it was new.

But today it is “adorned” with two outboards and dinghy davits and solar panels and fishing rods and nets, boat hooks and mops and buckets and scrub brushes. It’ll never look as beautiful as when it was naked and new.

After our final sunset, only the love for and from others will endure.

As for today, let’s all contemplate those family and friends we love most … and then contemplate just a little on how our possessions TRY to possess us!

Worry not for long, as we shall certainly be freed of the possessions one day. And we will only know of real value.