Raggedy Edge FAQ

Question

· Why travel by sailboat?

First off there's the mystique of sailing...the magic of moving thru the water solely under the power of the wind. Another is that we can take our complete home wherever we go. Thirdly, properly done, it CAN be less expensive than traveling by air and residing in hotels and thereby can travel longer before the cruising kitty is depleted.

· What things do you most miss when cruising?

Number one definitely has to be a luxurious, hot shower. A sailboat has limited fresh water capacity, so you have to b very, very careful with water usage. Usually bathing first with salt water and then doing a spritz of fresh water to rinse away the salt. For similar reasons, doing laundry is far more involved on a boat than ashore. Another is probably shoreside transportation, since we generally have to rely upon bicycles or public transportation to travel about on the land. To save money, we typically anchor out, so getting ashore requires using the tender. So it is a special treat to be tied up to a dock where we can use shoreside bathing facilities and have easy access to water and provisions.

· Why the name Raggedy Edge?

The name finds it roots from Mal of the movie Serentiy....

"Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all. This job goes south, there well may not be another. So here is us, on the raggedy edge. Don't push me, and I won't push you."

· Why live on a sailboat?

"Houses are but badly built boats so firmly aground that you cannot think of moving them. They are definitely inferior things, belonging to the vegetable not the animal world, rooted and stationary, incapable of transition. The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place." Arthur Ransome - Racundra's First Cruise