Score!

[Riley Smith]

I decided to get the rope for the halyard that has been patiently waiting replacement. Jeeze rope is high! 27 ft of  5/16" was closing in on $50. While out and about we went to a salvage place looking for small gifts and I ran across two smaller 10 liter waterproof dry bags for $4. That probably evened the rope price out some. I have a large bag that I use for clothes but the smaller bags will come in handy for everything else. Including my pillow!

[Krusen]

The plastic bags in the larger box wines make very good pillow.  The valve makes it easy to adjust the firmness in the middle of the night.

[Captain Kidd]

I scored a large dry bag at a close out store a few weeks ago for $1.00. Should come in handy on future CIY cruises.

[Doug SC]

Nearly all my gear goes into smaller dry bags (10 liter and smaller for which I have a plethora) on my sea kayaking trips. I particularly like the high dollar compression dry bags made of Gore-Tex type fabrics which allows the trapped air to escape as you apply compression for things like the tent (sans the poles), sleeping bag, and clothes. This greatly reduces the space needed to store these items. I also use them with my sailboats. I have some amazingly light weight ones I use when backpacking. The large dry bags are good for open sailboats and canoes, but the small ones are better for packing into tight places and keeping gear separated and more easily located. Those wine bladders are also excellent for water storage as they allow for a lower center of gravity if laid on the bottom when packing gear.

[Riley Smith]

That is an excellent idea Krusen! I'll prolly keep electronics in one and dry goods ( coffee ) in the other. I'll have to poll friends for the wine bag or else drink some wine 😂 BTW... I'm pretty particular about wine, and love German Moselle white very much. I have tasted some Columbia valley wines that come really close too.

[Wayne Howard]

I'm pretty particular about wine, and love German Moselle white very much. I have tasted some Columbia valley wines that come really close too.

Reminded me of a night on our boat. We invited friends over to our boat for dinner. She knows beer and he's a wine snob. Unfortunately, all Connie had on the boat was Franzia Chillable Red still in the box. His first glass was pronounced "Okay." By his third glass, it was "Decent." His fifth glass was "What was the name of this wine again?"

Now, me? I'm a true wine snob. If it's not produced within 55 miles of me, I won't drink it. The center of the Texas Wine Country is Fredericksburg, Texas. Between Fredericksburg and Johnson City, there are more wineries than you can shake a stick at.  Just look on maps along highway 290. 

[Riley Smith]

Sonya makes the BEST wings! Hot as fire and really good. Friday night in Nigeria was wing night and it was looked forward to because no telling what you were eating the rest of the week. Most of the Expats gathered together at the expat bar and cooked pizza and other stuff but I couldn't get off early enough to get a meal. All the pizza stuff was smuggled in. All of us were smugglers but the immigration officers only cared if you didn't pay.
I don't really try to be snobbish with the wine thing, it's just that I don't like most of them. My favorite is a German wine called Swartz Katz and is like liquid gold. And Hogue from Columbia Valley. I like sweet wine but you can't drink too much. You do NOT want a hangover with sweet wine.

[Frank B.]

Not a wine snob but have a nostalgic preference for certain Spanish reds.  Sheri and I walked the Camino de Santiago in 2012, from St. John Pied de Port France to Santiago Spain, five hundred miles across the Basque country. Most of the first half of the trek was through wine country, Rioja, Navarra etc., and the wines, always reds were provided complimentary with the Pilgrims Menu meals. They were normally excellent as were the meals.

As far as Texas wine country, I went through Austin (son and DIL doing grad school at UT) on the way to Boerne (Mother, sister and brother lived there at the time) many times and did not go west on 290. Wish I had, no one is still there. 

But at home it is a box of Barefoot Chardonnay in the fridge and Barefoot Pinot Noir on the counter to go with whatever we are eating that night.

[Norm L.]

Our daughter-in-law still teaches with her Math PhD but also has gone through 3 levels of international wine tasting exams. I learned from her that the term sommelier just means wine steward. One who puts wine in your glass or on your table. It doesn't mean someone who has been trained or a strong knowledge of wine.  I've met a few in restaurants where I, who knows nothing, knew more.
She has a fantastic pallet that shows up in her fantastic worldwide cooking dishes.
She specializes in finding good wines under $20 and many between $10-$15. She can go through all the scent of apple with tobacco over tones, etc. But what I love is "This can really go good with...".
If you are cooking for guests it's nice to buy two good bottles of wine for less than the meal ingredients. 

[Riley Smith]

We ll, I don't have such well defined taste buds and have always wondered how the hell they get hints of pomegranates and lemon or some such stuff. Tastes like wine to me. The best is so smooth it's like it isn't even liquid, but a liquid taste that numbs your senses to the liquid, and opens them to the taste. I can hardly stand red. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a Cretan and that's ok too. And to celebrate all this the Mrs and I had a sip of... something...the first two fingers were of a left-over bottle that nobody liked and the next was VERY NICE. I hardly ever drink over a thimbleful though. She makes it up for me