Amazon Kindle Stuff

Over a month ago, our Kindle (keyboard model) started having issues. I must contact Amazon as perhaps it is an easy fix but I still haven't done so.

Kindle Paperwhite

A couple of days later we decided to buy the Kindle Paperwhite. We have been wanting one for awhile and now we had the perfect excuse to actually purchase one. We prefer the e-ink Kindles as opposed to the Kindle Fires because we only want to use them to read books. We have other tablets to surf the internet, use as chart plotters, mp3 players, etc.

The e-ink Kindles display perfectly when reading outdoors in sunlight. Nice for when you have a few minutes and want to carry on a bit further in your current book. The Paperwhite has an integral light so you can read in the dark. Perfect!

New Kindle Touch

I have a discontinued 6" Kindle with the buttons on the bottom and the page turning buttons on both sides. It has been replaced by the new improved Kindle Touch which has a faster processor, more storage space, and some new features.

To protect our new Paperwhite we bought a sleeve that we are very happy with. It fits snug and is easy to find (it is purple) and use.

Our Kindle Touch doesn't have its own light but I found an inexpensive case with a built-in light which works well.

Lighted e-ink Kindles are great for night reading because you don't need to disturb anyone else with the cabin light.

Are you a Dortmunder fan? The Hot Rock was (and still is) one of my favorite movies. Dortmunder was played by Robert Redford. This book, Thieves Dozen by Donald E. Westlake, has 11 Dortmunder short stories. Great for light bedtime reading.

In the plus column, Kindles are excellent as they can hold lots of books, thus reducing weight aboard and recovering some shelf space. Yes, I worry about something happening and losing access to our books but we have several Kindles so they shouldn't all go down at once. We do have paper books that we must keep such as guitar music, boatbuilding books with plans, other reference books, plus some paperback favorites. Can't be too careful :)

---

Warren, Has it really been TEN years?

Wow, it's been ten years since Warren Zevon died? Such a great songwriter and performer.

Here's an interesting article from The Guardian: Warren Zevon: the man behind the demons
It was originally published on August 1, 2013 which is why the timeline might seem a bit off.

This article mentions "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Life and Times of Warren Zevon" which is a book written by his ex-wife, Crystal. It is available from Amazon on Kindle and other formats.

Something else you Zevon fans might like is a songbook.  Add a few of Warren's songs into the normal Buffet singalongs and spice things up a bit!

We have the paperback version which is nice because you can write in it and it is a large size:
The Warren Zevon Guitar Songbook (Guitar Songbook Edition) Paperback

But it also comes in Kindle, which I might get as well...
The Warren Zevon Guitar Songbook (Guitar Songbook Edition) [Kindle Edition]

Amazon has a "Click to see inside" so you can see the table of contents and an example of the songs. Nice.

---

---

Latest book cheap today on Amazon

We picked up the first two books of Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Chronicles series at the flea market but, unfortunately, never found the next two books in the series.

Well, today, 12/12/12, Amazon has the latest book of the series, number 5, Death of Kings: A Novel (The Saxon Chronicles) [Kindle Edition] for only $1.99.  Even though I don't yet have books 3 & 4, I know I'll never see such a good price as this again so I snatched it up. It goes with the cruising the Caribbean philosophy of "if you see it, need it, buy it" because it most probably won't be in the store next time you shop.

 BLOGGER IMAGE UPLOAD NOT WORKING

Death of Kings: A Novel (The Saxon Chronicles) [Kindle Edition]

Bernard Cornwell (Author)

If you are a Bernard Cornwell fan, GO FOR IT !

So it goes...

Books with a nautical slant

I'm currently reading a book (Precious Cargo by Clyde Ford) which seems like a good read so far. The author lives in Bellingham, Washington and enjoys cruising the Inland Passage aboard his single-engine biodiesel trawler.

Clyde seems to know his "boaty" stuff.

On the other hand...

Awhile back, one of our charter boat friends sent us her copy of a book recently published by a charter yacht broker. I'm not sure if she was able to get through it, but I read the whole thing as I couldn't believe that it could be so bad.

I'm not going to give the book title or author because it does not deserve any publicity except "Danger, Danger, Will Robinson"... Don't waste your money on this drivel.

It is a fictional book about a Caribbean charter yacht captain in the Virgin Islands. It seems like half of it is about the November charter yacht show (which just happens to have a wonderful & fun charter broker couple who wear matching tropical shirts).

Besides the inane picture it paints of the charter industry, it is full of weirdness like "I heard her feet walking along the freeboard" and "I started walking along the freeboard to the bow"... Does this charter broker not know what freeboard is???

[Freeboard: the distance between the waterline and the main deck or gunwale of a ship]

Another bit that got up my nose is that he doesn't appear to know about furling a mainsail. The author is supposed to know something about boats... "I let the main down into its in-mast stack pack"... "brought the the main sail down into its in-mast cradle"... He does this several times throughout the book. A stack pack, as you know, is on the boom and not part of an in-mast roller furling system.

This captain always seems to have a drink in his hand which is NOT a good thing. We have removed boats from our charter program because of what appears to be a crew drinking problem.  It seems like the author thinks this is cool and an attractive trait for his readers... Living, Sailing & Drinking in the Sunny Caribbean... No, the captain & crew are responsible for their guests aboard. Be professional, please!!!

There are so many things in this book that irks me besides the lack of plot, such as using a windless rather than windLASS, and how he always uses the same terms "on-charter" and "off-charter" repeatedly instead of other descriptive phrases for variety, but I will spare you :)

Just had to get this rant out...

I do feel a bit guilty that we are going to throw this book in the trash and not give it to the Animal Shelter for their flea market, but trash is definitely where it belongs.

'nuff said... just my humble opinion, and

So It Goes :)

Caturday & Simon's Cat

I love Simon's Cat. He "gets" cats. The cat sounds and actions are purrfect!

Simon's Cat in "The Box"

Every cat loves a good box.  Our Amazon boxes never go to waste. They become recycled cat toys and cat beds. Paper bags are very much appreciated, too.

There are two Simon's Cat books available on Amazon.com

Simon's Cat in His Very Own Book

Simon's Cat, Beyond the Fence

Attention: Browncoats, Firefly & Castle Fans

This morning we did some Christmas shopping on Amazon.com with a gift certificate we received, and we were shocked to find that Castle Season Two was only $14.99.

Wow, such a DEAL !!!  Last time we looked it was $39.99... That's a 62.5% discount.

Mr & Ms Cheapseats did not have to ponder over this purchase very long... We might be cheap but not stupid :)

Thank you, Santa!

So, all of you Browncoats, Nathan Fillion, Firefly & Castle fans, if you don't already have this DVD buy it now as maybe this is a seasonal sale.  If you already have it, buy both Season One (also $14.99) and Season Two for a deserving friend.

I forgot to order the books, Heat Wave and Naked Heat which are the Nikki Heat books the character Richard Castle is writing in the television series.  Should be interesting.  Oh well, next order :)

These books are also available on Kindle...

We need to get an e-reader... See Bob's Boat Bits post: Tis the season for e-book conundrums...

Happy Holidays!

---

Patti Smith's Book: Just Kids. And other STX stuff

Congratulations to Patti Smith for winning the National Book Award for Nonfiction for her New York Times Best-Seller, Just Kids.

Patti Smith - Just Kids

I saw Patti Smith in the summer of 1979 (30+ years???? No way!) in Seattle at the Paramount.  That was (perhaps still is?) a great venue for concerts. The guy I went with (JPH) worked at a record store and was always able to score good concert seats... front row balcony. It was quite an adventure to drive up to the big city and to see her perform.

The next day, back at work in my home town, a colleague from Medical Records told me that she saw me at the concert and was so shocked to see me there... It's good to shock people :) If she only knew what I've been up to since!

As it was a punk concert, they had strict security... looking for cameras and whatever.  I didn't have safety pins in my cheek so I was pretty much overlooked.

Her hit at that time was "Because the Night" written by Bruce Springsteen, which is on her "Easter" album. (We saw "The Boss" that summer, too).

You can buy the book from Amazon as a paperback or Kindle.

***** Oh, no... We're out of coffee!!! *****

We went over to St Croix Marine to check out their "yard sale".  We bought a 1/2 gallon thermos for $2 and 46' of double-braid line for $5 (i.e. 9.2¢/foot).  We then found some reasonably priced coffee at Schooner Bay Market THANK GOODNESS!!!

STX Marine has a great deal today on a Walker Bay inflatable kayak for only $600.

Thought we'd be able to do a few epoxy/fiberglass projects today because it hasn't rained for a few days and everything has dried out pretty much (there's still some water flowing down the streets)... but GUESS WHAT???  It rained... The ropes that were out that we were waiting to dry before putting away, are wet again.  Well, at least they're getting a good fresh water rinse.

There's a Wahoo fishing tournament this weekend.  This explains why we were waked many times between 3:00 and 6:00am this morning (lines in the water at 6:30).  Is that why they're called wakes? Because they wake you up??? If it is NOT RAINING we might go check out the weighing in of fish this afternoon & see if they have put anything more out at the yard sale.

Thank you to whoever bought the power tools through Amazon. Hope your work isn't weather dependent.

So It Goes... and keeps going :)

As does Patti Smith!

---

St Maarten Bridge & Boat Fees after 10/10/2010

We haven't been in St Maarten for almost a year now, but people have been complaining a long time about the boat fees for the Dutch bridge and being in Simpson Bay & Dutch-side Lagoon.

Here's a post that Gary Brown had on his blog, Ocean Media.  Gary has the radio show YachtBlast and he has recently become the editor of All At Sea (you can download it here for free).

The Winds of Change
St. Maarten Bridge and Mooring fees after 10-10-10

The winds of change are blowing in Dutch Sint Maarten. On October 10 St. Maarten became a country within the Dutch Kingdom. As we woke on October 11, it seemed little had changed. The new government gave themselves a day off while the rest of the population went about their normal business.

Before the change to country status it was announced that there would be a reduction in bridge and mooring fees for yachts visiting the island beginning January 1. This has been long in coming, it doesn’t go far enough, but at least it’s a start. According to the St. Maarten Marine Trades Association, high fees, introduced without prior notice two years ago, caused a devastating decline in arrivals and a major drop in business activities.
St. Maarten’s marine economy was built on the backs of the smaller cruising boats, reports say that this is where the largest decline occurred, with a sixty-five to seventy-five per cent drop over the last 24 months.

Much can be blamed on ‘mega yacht’ madness. From government and right down the food chain, the mega yacht was seen as the Golden Goose. Legislators appear to be doing something to put that right but, to be fair; many businesses are not without blame, they cranked up prices to shake as much cash out of the mega yachts as they could. “They can pay, they can pay, money’s no object,” was the cry. I heard it first hand, time and again.

Small boats were caught up in the madness and came up with their own answer. Instead of taking out a mortgage to pay for an hour of a service professionals’ time, they took their boats elsewhere and broadcast it to the world through social media.

Let’s hope that what started before country status will continue. That St. Maarten will lower all bridge and mooring fees, businesses will understand the threat posed by burgeoning competition elsewhere, and the island will regain its rightful place as the Yachting Capital of the Caribbean.

Effective January 1, 2011, fees for vessels in the categories eight to eighteen meters will change as follows: A thirty per cent reduction in bridge fee rates; and a rebate of two free weeks out of every eight consecutive weeks spent in St. Maarten.

Thanks for the info, Gary!

Gary has also written a book, titled Caribbean High. It is available in paperback on Amazon.com and also as a Kindle version.

Life on the Seine

I just ran across a book on someone's blog that brought back memories.

The book is "Houseboat on the Seine" by William Wharton, who you might know from the movie and book "Birdy".

We lived on a converted barge in Le Port Marly on the branch of the Seine that flows from the Bougival lock and we rowed by his boat almost daily. Rosemary, the "better half" of the couple who owned La Péniche Black Moon used to type up Wharton's manuscripts, so I wouldn't be surprised that she did her part in the early stages of this book that was published in 1996.

The boat was quite a shambles in the early 80's and one striking feature was a large aviary aboard. We were not surprised to learn that it was Birdy's boat.

So, this book, Houseboat on the Seine, will be going on our wish list. According to the reviews it is more about Wharton's 20-plus years' struggle of fixing up the boat rather than about his life.  The review from Publisher's Weekly did mention "generous dollops of humor and local color" which we will probably find interesting and can relate to, along with the toils of boatbuilding in France :)

FREE Book : Scottish Anchoring Cruising Guide

This morning I received an interesting tweet from Practical Boat Owners magazine (@p_b_o):

PBO News: Scottish anchoring guide 2010 - download free http://bit.ly/5KIRmv

You can get this FREE Scottish anchoring cruising guide from Yachting Life Online at http://www.yachtinglife.co.uk/welcomeanchorages.html This takes you to a page where you can read the guide online, but it also has a link to a pdf file so you can download this guide onto your computer which will be much handier!

(Click on image to enlarge)

They have advertising (which is good so you have a quick reference of where to find things), chartlets, and then details of specific anchorages & marinas...

We won't be going to Scotland this season (although both Bob & I have Scot ancestry), but maybe you will... or perhaps you are a scot-o-phile :)

Here's a photo we received last week from one of the hotel barges we represent SCOTTISH HIGHLANDER... (See post) They are available for winter charters, as well as summer... Inquire!

I bet he's wearing socks!

Enjoy!

Outboard Motor Repair & Maintenance Book

This morning we went to Budget Marine to buy an impeller for our outboard.

Think we're going to buy this book...



Outboard Motors Maintenance And Repair Manual, by Jean-Luc Pallas

Looked good.

Books : Cruising & Sailing with Pets - Cats & Dogs

Here are some books (available from Amazon.com) that those of you cruising / sailing about with cats and/or dogs aboard, might find interesting... This list might take a few moments to load if you have a not-so-fast internet connection as I do right now...



Buffy & Willow say hello!



... well, maybe after their catnap :)