"Sailing the Farm" tribe - the transition transport tribe of tomorrow (TTTT)

Probably not to the extent you are talking about, but I've always been drawn to living on a boat and sailing around for a few years. I've read some wonderful(and once in a while scary) accounts of people who set out on such an excursion. I can't even imagine how many wonderful memories such an adventure would merit.

It sounds like you would be making landfall at predetermined ecologically friendly villages, but spending the majority of time at sea. I would love to see the configuration of your vessel. What sort of safety precautions do you plan on taking? Will the boat be equipped with GPS or RFID tags as a means to identify your whereabouts, or does that defeat the purpose of being "off the grid"?

I think to do something like this, everyone on the boat would have to be a fairly competent sailor. If you could fix the link to your site, I'm sure that would help people better understand this undertaking. Good luck and please update if you can! 

Newsletter December 2011.

Dear Sea Gypsies,

Things are looking very Christmassy now, as the snow falls and we prepare to delve into the forest on the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. Snow isnt quite at head-height yet, since its been a tropical December. Today shows a toasty -10 on the thermometer. Woofers are holding their breath, waiting to see some proper winter-conditions, thus facilitating giant snowmen, igloo-building, skiing, and perhaps a model sailing ship crafted from snow and ice? Anything is possible on the farm!

This month however has been a sad one. Our friend and one of the seagipsy family, Casper, died a few weeks ago. At almost 14 years old, he was happy, eating many waffles, until the end of his life. We buried him in a peaceful spot overlooking the raspberry patch. He was a beautiful dog with a beautiful heart; we know many of you loved Casper and he will always be remembered.

Other news is that, after a much-needed trip to the Canaries for some of us for some serious sailboat spotting, we are back and working hard to...yes, you guessed it, work of the roof which is now thankfully finished! Otherwise we have been trench-digging, honey-stirring, shed-cleaning and wall-painting, trying to finish everything that needs doing before our beards and toes start to freeze. All of us are itching to get back into the boat shed however, desperate as we are to start sewing the sails, melting the ballast, carving the mast and welding the deck...only a few more steps until our beautiful sailboat is ready for her maiden voyage!

If you want to join our happy sea-gypsy tribe, feel free to drop us a line.

Have a good Christmas everyone, and remember to put out a big bowl of porridge for the Fjosnisse. This gnome lives in the barn and he can get cranky if he doesn't get his fair share at Christmas! Pictures of the month

a: Finding a nice christmas tree in the forest.

b. two pretty mermaids painting the storage shed inside.

c. Casper, our beloved sailboat dog passed away this month.

d. and again, merry christmas to all of you from all of us!

Newsletter February 2012. .

Dear Sea Gypsies,

Spring is slowly coming our way, This winter has been really nice
compared to last winter. It has seldom been below -15, which is quite
out of normal.

We had a really nice christmas on the farm, with lots of friends and
seagypies. This year Santa Claus had an australian accent. We tried to
teach him the only one and important centence in norwegian - "Are
there any nice children here" but in last minute he forgot - but the
"kids" still got their presents. The small ones got proper
vikinghelmets and dress of course.... What else for seagypses?

Else we have been doing regular winter maintainance on the farm and
been looking forward to the spring. The boat project is going forward
working on small and big pieces on the boat. We have been doing some
work on how to make a furnace to melt all that scrap aluminum into
more useful stuff like portholes. Casting is not something new. People
have been doing thise for ages. Hopefully we manage to make something
out of brick run on propane or better firewood which we have plenty of
up here. Any foundry and casting experience out there?

Anyway, its quite busy up here now but dont forget to enjoy the early
spring folks! .. and if you want to join our tribe please contact us!

Pictures.

a. Enjoy christmas dinner with friends and seagypies.
b. A young seagypsy quite happy whith his christmaspresent - proper
viking helmet!
c. Out walking the mast. Even a mast need some fresh air these days!
d. We want to duplicate these guys! Anyone with casting/foundry
experience out there? We want to learn!

a: 
b: 
c: 
d: 
3

Newsletter May 2012.

Dear Sea gypsies

Spring has come to the farm! And then came summer, and then a few
blustery days of fall, and finally last Friday and Saturday it snowed
again. But that will be the last snow of the year, we hope - the mild
weather seems to have returned, the trees are leafing out, the
wildflowers are springing up around the river, the bees and the
neighbors have come out of hibernation (again), and we are hard at
work.

This week we mixed a few tons of lovely manure compost into the soil
of the north field, and planted eleven rows of potatoes - by hand -
which should give us about 300 kilos of potatoes in the fall to feed
hungry sea-gypsies all next winter. Next week we'll plant carrots and
onions, and move some tender warm-weather starts to our new greenhouse
- radishes, bok choi, spinach, parsley, beets, and sugar peas so tall,
they might start climbing us if we don't get them out of the kitchen
soon.

Work on the boat has really picked up recently. We've been distracted
with planting, and replumbing the bathroom, and building coldframes
and the new greenhouse - but now that the potatoes are in the ground
and the sea-gypsies are in the bath (phew), we are back in the
boatshed all the time. Our resident woodworker is about to start work
on a wooden dinghy from a traditional Norwegian design, just as soon
as he gets the greenhouse finished. And we cast two tons of lead
ballast, a very medieval process involving a wood-fired furnace in the
yard. The boat will eventually carry five tons, so there is more
casting to do as soon as the scrap yard has more lead for us.

Inside the boat we're sealing off the keel with aluminum plates - the
bow is nearly done, and then we can put in the last of the bow ribs.
In the stern, we're wrestling with engine placement - it needs to be
high enough to fit the cooling system and the primary diesel tank
underneath, but low enough that the propeller clears the stern.
Hmmmmm. Fortunately there's plenty to do while we're thinking about
it - like put on the deck! The boat will start looking dramatically
different very soon and we're all pretty excited.

As always, there's room for more in our big sea-gypsy tribe - so if
you like planting, weeding, shoveling, soldering, sawing, nailing,
welding, grinding, sewing, cooking, drilling, knitting, routering,
getting headbutted by chickens, watching 2-hour sunsets, measuring,
cutting, re-measuring, thinking, re-re-measuring, making bread,
reading sea books, eating waffles or knot-tying, drop us a line!

Picture from last weeks.

a: Sea gypsy girl making psykedelic chair-protection for the chairs.

b: Shaping wood with router

c: Potato-planting.

d: lead melting girl finished melting 2 tonns in one week.

a.

b.

c.

d.

What a wonderful idea and dream and you're doing so much to achieve it!

If/when you do get afloat, I hope you manage to make a trip to Totnes in the UK. You can sail around the coast and then up the Dart River. We'd LOVE to see you here.

Send an email to benbrangwyn [AT] transitionnetwork [DOT] org to make arrangements when the time comes. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on this thread to see what you're up to.

Ben.

Is this dream still alive and well? Where is it now?

can you go up the Dart river without lowering the mast (13 meter)

ze

Hi Ze,

The first bridge on the Dart is at Totnes, so yes, you can get to Totnes no problemo.