Staying in touch

We have read plenty of arguments for having a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) boat, and in general we tend to agree. On the other hand technology should be able to help us, and speaking from someone who is online almost 24/7 in one way or another, I can’t see turning that off like a switch. So, we will need to be able to communicate with our family, friends and associates which leads us to the previously mentioned Ham or SSB radio. Rebecca started reading a new book today, Marine SSB Radio for “Idi-Yachts” in the hopes of at least starting to familiarize herself with how to use this mystery device.

I don’t envy this task of hers. It’s going to be pretty tough in my opinion to learn how to use an SSB radio when you don’t have one in front of you, and you have never even touched one! Actually, that is pretty close to how we feel about all boat-related skills. We will have plenty of “on the job” training once we get our own boat and get it outfitted the way we want.

On the subject of money we have been checking currency conversions from Canadian to US dollars on a semi-regular basis. Every time we see a boat we really like which has a price listed in US$ we check online to see how many mini-bucks we need to be able to afford it. Yesterday we made a startling discovery in that the change in exchange rates was making a $20,000.00 difference, in our favor!!! This is, of course only if we were to change all of our saved money right NOW. An early-morning call to my banker has started this process in motion. The whole world seems to run on US$. Who are we to fight it?