This first question comes from my good friend Ali Malik.
Why don't you go on skype?
I'm on Skype everyday, you just neglected to respond to my contact request. You can reach me at Skype through the username michael.ingram776. No video calls though, they use too much bandwidth.
The next long series of questions come from the newly minted engineer Ken Humphreys.
How long are you going to be gone?
I don't know, I know for sure that I will be gone this entire calendar year, but I do intend on returning to Canada after sometime. Perhaps however, I will take some time later this year to visit the old country, or maybe not.
Is your Dad starting a charter boat service?
No, he has ambitions for a different kind of business. I think it would be best to write about that at a later time when things are a little more concrete.
Do you have life insurance?
No, I don't really have anyone who depends on me for their livelihood, so it would be pointless.
Does said life insurance pay out to me?
No, no, no. You forget, you're a big city engineer, you don't need any money from a riverman like me.
Does your Dad have a captain's hat?
No, those are tacky and best left in the 90's.
Have you seen any turtles in the wild? What about dolphins?
No to both of those. There are turtles here, but they are out while I sleep. Dolphins as far as I know do not swim all the way up the river to where I am, but I could probably see some along the coast. Manatees do occasionally come here, but they're rather rare. The big things here are spiders and dragonflies.
Are you going to try fishing off the boat?
We could do it if we wanted to. But, the problem is the poor environmental regulations here, so I don't think it would be good to eat anything that we would catch. In the ocean, it would be no problem, there are lots of nice places for that in Belize.
You said everything has to be conserved on the boat. How long can it be at sea for?
It all depends on how well you conserve your water. If you use your water intelligently, you could probably last a week, but that would be pushing it. On the other hand, using water foolishly, you could run out in two or three days easily. Now with regards to fuel, I have no idea, I do know that it takes a lot, but it burns through the stuff quite quickly.
Have you considered getting a machine to desalinate the water through reverse osmosis or something more like an evaporator?
Yes, that is one of the top priorities of getting this boat fully up to speed. My dad and the owner of the marina here have looked at a few units, and I imagine they will pick one shortly. I don't know whether they use reverse osmosis or if they're an evaporator.
Would you build such a machine if I asked? (The Evaporator)
If by build, you mean buying a kit from the U.S., then yes! If you mean from scratch, then no...
Will you have internet at sea?
I believe that we would need to have a satellite for that. So, with how often we are at sea, I don't think my parents are interested in buying one at this time.
Does your boat have a poopdeck?
Have you stood on it?
As a seaman how does that make you feel?
I will answer all of these at the same time.
The poop deck is a long running joke when it comes to mariners and boating. Frankly, if our positions were switched I probably would have asked the same thing. So what actually is a poop deck?
A poop deck is a deck at the aft of the vessel which also functions as a roof for a lower room. The word poop in this manner originate from the French word la poupe, meaning stern. On this boat, there are no decks located on the stern, so technically there is no poop deck.
This next question comes from Lucy.
Are you going to publish this journal?
Technically, by posting this on the internet, I am publishing every post I make. However, I realize that you probably mean in something like a book or a journal. With regards to that, I have no plans to do so. When I created this blog, I wanted something that my friends could read so that they could feel like I still have a presence in their lives. If wanted to, I could let Google put ads on the blog so I would make money, but I think commercializing it would cheapen the value of this project. I never had making money as one of the goals for this project, it was simply something for me on a personal level.
However, since I first read you question, I have had thoughts about doing another project similar to this. Perhaps I will go through with it, or perhaps it'll remain just a thought kicking around in my head.
The last question for today comes from Joel Vandermulan.
What is the name of your boat?
D'oh! How could I forget to mention that? The name of the boat is Anarchy. My dad is a believer in anarchy creating peace and freedom, so he wanted the free nature of the boat to reflect that.
Well that's all for this issue of Ingram Asked, I'll be back tomorrow with more answers unless I run out of bandwidth. Though that couldn't possibly happen could it?
