Tuesday, January 7, 2014

lubbers

It has been extremely satisfying to share our new sailing life with our Facebook friends. Some of you are new acquaintances from Corpus Christi who have much greater nautical experience than us and others are from Lubbock and before who wouldn't know your port from your starboard. I wouldn't presume to expound on sailing lore with our Corpus friends.  So, this and a lot of the upcoming posts are for that latter group. 

Let's start with how we (sailors) refer to the rest of you (non-sailors). If you are not a sailor, then you must be a land lover. But in nautical slang, we refer to you as a land lubber or simply, a lubber. 

So, hello to all of you lubbers. We miss you. 

Saturday, January 4, 2014

transient

We have had a boat at the Corpus Christi Marina for a little more than six years. While just visiting for weekends, we were simply boat owners. Our status changed when we moved to Corpus and onto S/V Suppose full time last May. We became "live-aboards." That situation could have continued indefinitely and it is, in fact, a relatively inexpensive form of housing. To keep the live-aboard population from getting out of control, most marinas tightly control their number and many don't allow live-aboards at all. 

Now we have given up our live-aboard status at the Corpus Christi Marina and moved to the Port Aransas Marina where we will not be allowed to stay indefinitely as live-aboards but are welcome to stay for a limited time as "transients."

Meriam-Webster defines a transient as a person who is staying or working in a place for only a short time and provides the following synonyms: hobo, vagrant, street person, etc., etc. 

Ouch. Fortunately, Meriam-Webster also lists vagabond as a synonym and that is more appealing. 

Vagabond: a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job, having no settled home. 

We are OK with that.