Miami Boat Show

Saturday we drove down to the Miami Boat Show.

Our main goal was to do more research on watermakers. It turns out that we did not really learn anything new about the models we are considering. We’ve got the facts already. What we need are some better decision making skills. Oh, and more money. More money would make the decision easier. The real problem still lies in figuring out which system fits our needs best. The boat show did nothing to resolve this. So our dilemma continues and our decision continues to flip on an daily/hourly basis.

Because we had no epiphany on the watermaker front, we moved on to trying to decipher the communication/weather access options. Again. No matter how many times we try to understand all the options, what they do, what they don’t do, what they cost, what service plan they need, we walk away with our heads swimming. This too has been one subject that we just haven’t been able to work through enough to understand what will fit our needs (budget) best.

In the end, we didn’t find even one new item that we felt we needed to purchase. Well, no, not quite true. I do want a bad elf gps for my iPad. We just didn’t need to buy it at the show.

I also went to Kathy Parsen’s provisioning workshop while we were there. It might be odd, but I really enjoy provisioning. She packed a lot of good information into one hour and I found her “what works” section helpful. I am going to use her suggestion of buying one liter flexible Platypus water bottles to store beverages in the refrigerator as they can cram into tight spaces and reduce in size as their contents empty.

So on the boating front, no dramatic purchases or decisions made. No new “can’t leave the dock without it” products discovered.

On the people watching front, it was a rich day. Wish I had not been so overwhelmed and remembered to snap a few photos. By the time we got home the only clear decision made was that we aren’t city-folk.