{"id":37912,"date":"2016-03-03T20:13:58","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T01:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=37912"},"modified":"2016-09-14T17:19:40","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T22:19:40","slug":"cruising-decisions-sometimes-spontaneity-is-the-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/cruising-decisions-sometimes-spontaneity-is-the-key\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruising Decisions – Sometimes Spontaneity Is The Key"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Many cruising decisions are based on a detailed decision making matrix. Others are based on a spontaneous decision. The latter often make for the most interesting experiences.<\/p>\n

Last week, fellow circumnavigators Mary and Scott Flanders were visiting us in Tucson. Scott and Mary have recently moved ashore after\u00a0many years of living aboard Egret<\/em>, their Nordhavn 46. They are compulsive about photography, and seriously into off-road adventuring as a means of getting the best pictures, traits we share with them. When Sarah sent us a link to a news story about a record breaking wildflower bloom in Death Valley, it took the four of us ten minutes to make the decision to hit the road. Although this meant a ten to 12 hour drive, opportunities like this do not come often, and the bloom could be over within a few days.<\/p>\n

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When you consider that Death Valley is the driest and hottest environment in the Northern Hemisphere, with annual rainfall between one and two inches (25\/50 mm), the uniqueness of the wildflower bloom comes into perspective.<\/p>\n

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There is a certain comfort to having long range plans, to knowing what you will be doing and when. A calendar laying out the next month\u2019s events gives a sense of control. Making spur of the moment decisions, changing plans, is hard for many. It is also difficult for friends and family when you have to engage with the uncertain.<\/p>\n

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On the other hand, flexibility often leads to wonderful experiences.<\/p>\n

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And through the years that we have been voyaging, our most cherished memories are the result of decisions made\u00a0quickly in response to new cruising intelligence.<\/p>\n

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Mary and Scott (the latter above) are Nikon (camera) shooters,<\/p>\n

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while Steve is a Sony mirrorless convert (formerly a Canon shooter). Linda (above) likes her iPhone camera, and often comes up with wonderful photos, as good as or better than what fancier gear achieves. Part of this is due to a good eye (best in the family for sure), and part the ease and speed with which she can get into action.<\/p>\n

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For some situations, planning and superior hardware are key, as in the photo above. This is Zabriskie Point, photographed in the light of a half moon, with a Sony 7R2 mirrorless camera using a Sigma 20mm F1.4 lens. Three photos have been assembled into the panorama you see above.<\/p>\n

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Burrowing in a little further above is a crop of just the center image.<\/p>\n

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How good is this latest gear from Sony? We have not yet learned it well enough to push the boundaries. We do know that the rules we have learned through\u00a0a lifetime of shooting, dealing with light, noise, exposure, and composition are no longer operative. We are looking forward to putting this all to work in a much wetter environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many cruising decisions are based on a detailed decision making matrix. Others are based on a spontaneous decision. The latter …Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,178,248],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dashew-blog","category-four","category-logs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37912"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37917,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37912\/revisions\/37917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}