Frustrated

I remember when I was sailing on a boat in 2005 the owner of the boat would continually grumble about people in the boating industry, citing them all as being incredibly unreliable. I didn't really think much about it at the time.... Anyway I'm someone that sits in front of a computer during my working day, as are most of the people that I work with, which means you usually get an answer in hours or minutes. During the negotiations with the broker and particularly with our surveyor I find that emails are checked every few days. This is making progress very frustrating. For example - I know from the broker that the surveyor visited the boat last Friday... No phone call, email or any communication from him. /Sigh

Obsessed with Forex

Since we've agreed to buy this boat, I've become more addicted to checking the exhange rates between the UK and Sweden than a 16 year old to Facebook. With these turbulent times and the UK's finances going down the toilet, the price that we've agreed to pay is fluctuating wildly (we're talking about hundreds of pounds a day). I'm like a horribly addicted gambler feeling pleased at making £250 only to hit rock bottom when the pound tumbles 3 hours later. This must be what bankers feel like all the time right now.

So lesson learned: If you're buying a boat overseas (particularly during turbulent economic times) - Plan for the boat costing 10% more than you expect before considering all the other stuff like surveys, registration, tax, etc etc.

Mini Book Review: Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die

I was killing time in a bookshop at the weekend and bought "Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die" by Chris Santella.

Initial Impressions: My first reaction was to the "by the author of 50 places fo play golf before you die" on the cover. Now call me a cynic, but I'm already suspecting that the author is in this for the money rather than his love of sailing.

It's actually quite a nice coffee table book / spare bedroom fodder in terms of size and presentation. I'd have liked to have seen a few more pictures

I think the selection of the top 50 cruising grounds is a tricky challenge (though obviously less tricky than say the top 10) that being said he and his band of mercenary-contributors haven't done a bad job with the selection. The actual content is where the whole thing starts to fall apart. Having sailed in some of the places mentioned, I didn't find that the magic is really conveyed to the reader.