The Thrill of Thrifting

I've written about thrifting in the past and attributed it to our parsimonious natures, as well as our penchant for reusing and recycling. It's not like it's an odious task for me. Truth be told, I love thrifting, in case you haven't guessed. It's how we've clothed ourselves over the past two decades and done a pretty good job of it, I think ... always good value and pennies on the dollar compared to new. I set us a new challenge when we bought the house. I wanted to furnish the house as much as possible using used/recycled furniture and wow, have we ever scored big. I was already familiar with some of the thrift shop opportunities in Las Vegas. There's the usual suspects: Salvos (Salvation Army), Good Will, Savers and Catholic Charities, to name a few. We also discovered Epic Thrift, Deseret and Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Most all have a “senior day” when additional discounts are offered to the over 55 crowd and from this I determined the best day to shop. At Mary's suggestion, we also checked out Colleen's Consignments for several good buys and, of course, Craigslist was consulted frequently. We scoured the yard sale and estate ads for items of interest.

I made list of what we needed … a rather long list since we haven't owned a house for a long time. Mary moved some of her furniture to the new house and furnished her and Karen's room plus some of the family room, but there were big voids and lots of empty space in this 8-room house. We needed stuff! We set ourselves a reasonable budget and promised to stick to it. Shopping at the not-for-profit thrift shops, by the way, also saved us the local 8% state sales tax which was another important savings. Salvos also participates in a program called Flok with a phone app which provides coupon savings on purchases, as well as frequent buyer discounts.

We haunted all the thrift stores regularly. It was hard passing up good buys before we actually moved, but we did our best to wait. We started out small. We found a great set of three swivel bar stools for the breakfast counter with four extra chairs for $67.50 and a versatile side table for the family room for $37.50. Both purchases were made at Salvos which ended up being our favorite store(s) for both value and selection. There are three stores in Las Vegas and we hit them all. Catholic Charities, however, came through with an 8' tall, lighted cherry bookcase for $75 which accommodated the family book collection and fit perfectly into an alcove in the family room.

Once we actually owned the house, we began furnishing in earnest, but with specific needs in mind. Patience paid off. We found a solid cherry dining room set with china cabinet on Craigslist which fit perfectly into the new dining room.

We'd get up early in the morning to head to estate and yard sales. We'd hit the thrift shops and consignment shops to see what was on offer. The inventory changes almost daily. Some of the furniture was awful, but there were gems to be had.

A like-new sofa was purchased at Colleen's Consignments and a cherry secretary which we certainly didn't need at all, became a necessity when we saw it at Salvo's for $68! Habitat for Humanity Restore was a good source for a beveled-glass, over the mantle mirror, as well as some new bathroom hardware.

We wanted to set up an office in our bedroom and since we wanted everything to “match”, the challenge was to find matching desks. David found two matching granite-topped writing tables which worked perfectly when we purchased a couple of inexpensive file cabinets to go with them. Acquiring desk lamps and accessories are in progress. The extra chairs that came with the bar stool purchase work just fine at the desks.

We'd been searching without success for a chest of drawers. Now that we have a place to leave clothes, we wanted something to put them in. The piece de resistance was found at an estate sale on the west side of town. A beautiful solid wood armoire in excellent condition was for sale and we snagged it the moment we saw it.

We had a couple of missteps. I bought a hanging pot rack for the kitchen, but found that with our vaulted ceilings, it just didn't make sense. Luckily, I sold it at our moving sale and actually made a small profit on it. We needed a kitchen table and chairs for the breakfast nook and couldn't seem to find anything that we liked. We ended up settling for a small oak table with two chairs which sufficed, but wasn't great. We should have been more patient because just a few days later, we found a great table and chair set at Salvos which was almost perfect. We've got the original set advertised on Craigslist and we're hoping to sell it before we leave to fly back to Trinidad. Even if we don't sell it, the total cost for both sets was $120, so we're not out all that much.

Oh, there are still things to find and buy to get us totally settled. We need some good artwork on the walls, accessory pieces, accents, and floor lighting. I found an excellent used window treatments book on Amazon that will help with drapes. The living room echoes … we need an area rug or two for the wooden floors to absorb the sound. A good wing chair next to the sofa would be nice. Altogether, however, we've spent less than $1,800 to furnish the house, well below the allotted budget. Which means, of course, I have “credits” for future yard sale, estate sale, thrift shop, craigslist, etc. purchases. Currently, I'm high on the thrill of thrifting. Cheap entertainment for a sailor on land. If only marine parts were such a bargain!!!

Friends Along the Way

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” Tim Cahill

Adventure travel writer, Tim Cahill, summed up our kind of travel in a nutshell. He said “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” Over the 16 years and 86,000 miles that we've traveled the globe, what stands out in our memories most vividly are the people we've met and the friends we've made along the way.

I've written about meeting people in different ports. I've written about the 90-Day Rule. These are the adventures that make our journey most enjoyable. Finding people who are willing to share just a small piece of their lives with us is what makes it all so meaningful.

Reading about a culture or a tradition or a ritual may be exciting. It builds up the anticipation. Experiencing the culture firsthand with people who live it daily, however, is the real thing. It's not a contrived setting fit only for tourists, it's how life is lived whether on a small island or in a big city, in the mountains or the jungle, or in a marina. Perhaps it's sharing a meal or a glass of wine ... or kava or coconut water ... and chatting. Or maybe it's visiting a school and watching a teacher with his/her students … or asking the fishermen about the catch of the day.

Sailors are an interesting lot when it comes to friend-making. We realize we are transients. We meet people and quickly make a decision. Do we like these people? If yes, we get to know them quickly. Who knows how long we'll be in port or they'll be around? Friendships are made on the fly, but are no less strong.

Finding commonalities among people is as satisfying as celebrating the differences. We all have to launder our clothes … in a river or at the laundromat. We all eat and sleep and dream. We all love our children. Perhaps we show it in different ways, but the love is evident everywhere we go. We all complain about our spouses from time to time or the universal foibles of the opposite sex. It's inherent in our human natures.

But, of course, it's not just the miles we've traveled and the friends we've made since we've lived aboard Nine of Cups, it's the hosts of friends that we've made throughout life who pop up every once in awhile … maybe at the holidays … and say hi and renew the friendship with a few words and a “how are you doing?” and fill us in on their lives.

We've met lots of people along the way and we're proud to call many of them friends. We stay in touch whenever we can, but these friends are the kind you can pick up where you left off … even after years apart. Friends who would be welcome in our home. Friends with whom we share a special bond.

Sailors and landlubbers alike ... how do you feel about friendships along the way?

Name That Wind

People complain about the wind in Las Vegas all the time. It does get windy here. In fact, the highest recorded wind gust here was in March 1984 – 82mph/70+ knot winds. That's a lot of wind wherever you are. Wind, however, is an essential part of a sailor's life, especially on a sailboat. People have many names for the wind depending on where they're from and the intensity with which the wind blows. There are gentle winds and breezes and zephyrs. There are destructive winds like tornadoes and twisters, waterspouts, cyclones, typhoons and diablos. There are icy blasts, gusts and gales ... siroccos, pamperos, foehns and mistrals.

The Greeks named the winds based on direction from which they came. Boreas was the god of the north wind and winter. Eurus was the unlucky east or southeast wind. Notus was god of the warm, south winds and Zephyrus was the god of gentle west winds. The ruler of the winds, Aeolus, was venerated and respected as much as Poseidon, the Greek's equivalent to the Roman god of the sea, Neptune.

Pedro Reinel, a 15th-16th century Portuguese cartographer, is the author of the oldest signed nautical chart in existence. In 1504, he was also the first cartographer to depict a wind rose on his Atlantic Chart. Reinel showed not only a scale of latitudes for the first time, but an ornate fleur-de-lys wind rose.

If you're a sailor and have ever used paper charts, you've very familiar with the compass rose. When plotting a course on a paper chart, we still use the compass rose with a parallel rule and dividers to determine our heading. Before the development of the compass rose, “a wind rose was included on maps in order to show sailors from which directions the eight major winds blew within the plan view.” North was always depicted with a fleur-de-lys, while east was shown as a Christian cross to indicate the direction of Jerusalem from Europe. Later charts sometimes included half winds (8) and quarter winds (16).

Eight points on the compass rose delineated the eight principal winds (N, S, E, W) at 90º intervals plus the ordinal directions (NE, SE, SW, NW) at 45 intervalsº. When the angles were bisected again (22.5º), the half-winds were shown, e.g. SSE, ESE, SSW, WSW, etc. Some were pretty elaborate, showing quarter-winds as well. When all 32 points on the rose are shown, it's called “boxing the compass”.

In 1805, Francis Beaufort devised the Beaufort Scale which measured wind speed based upon observed conditions on land or sea and standardized an objective reporting of wind speeds.

As we've traveled around the world, we've heard the wind called by many names. The strong southeasterly Cape Doctor in Cape Town and the Fremantle Doctor in Perth. The southwest busters on Africa's wild west coast and the willywaws and rachas that thundered through like freight trains in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. I grew up with nor'easters in New England. The Santa Anas are well known in southern California. The warm chinooks of the Rockies are also known as “snow eaters”.

And, of course, if you've ever seen “Paint Your Wagon”, They Call the Wind Maria.