We are glad you’re here and want to provide you with current and relevant information to help you becoming a better boater.
Why We Are Here:
We think about boats, discuss boats, talk to people with boats, talk to people who want boats, and constantly research boats and boat projects. Boating also give us the best opportunity to: research, learn, and apply by getting our hands dirty doing maintenance, projects, and upgrades – to build our skills and make them work better for our purposes.
Prevailing Currents is for sharing the latest learnings, or prevailing ideas, on the projects, places, and even problems we are #currently working through at that point and time.
Who We Are:
We are Stick and CJ Higginbotham along with our best mate, Barracuda, navigating through our plan for having our best boat life. We are both fifth generation native Floridians, yes, both of us and we love our state, our waterways, and the community of people who share in it with us. We both work full-time jobs we do (mostly) remotely and are still a few years out from casting off the lines more permanently, but we work towards it every day. We have a set of Higginbotham Family Rules that have been tested over the past 25+ years and find that have held up and translated well to Boat Life:
- Life Isn’t Fair
- Flexibility Is Key
- Take Personal Accountability
- It’s OR Not AND
- Do Your Damn Research (DYDR)
Our boating preference is to gooooo slooooowwww. Simply put, we are trawler people at our core. We have had a three-trawler plan for 20+ years now and we are currently practicing our skills aboard our second trawler, Training Wheels II, a 2001 Mainship 390 we purchased in 2017 for Florida coastal cruising, Bahamas cruising, and cruising The Great Loop in 2021.
Who We Aren’t:
We’re aren’t certified-anything. We are read-up on, ask lots of questions, consult best practices (ABYC, Professionals, etc.), do-your-damn-research (DYDR), hands-on, give-it-a-try, practice-practice, and hire professionals when expertise is critical – type of people. We share the things that have worked, haven’t worked, and the research we’ve done, but we are not endorsing our skills as professional mechanics, nor do we have all the answers – hence our boat name Training Wheels – because we are always in learning mode.
Our Community:
We think responsible boaters and cruisers are the best community to be part of. We are members of several boating organizations including:
- Marine Trawler Owners Association #5385 (https://mtoa.clubexpress.com/) – disclosure: CJ is a board member as well as publisher of the quarterly Turtle Times magazine
- America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association #9000 (https://www.greatloop.org/)
- Seven Seas Cruising Association #79991 (https://www.ssca.org/)
- DeFever Cruisers #2081 (https://www.defevercruisers.com/)
It is important to us to support and participate in the organizations who support the boating and cruising community at large. We joined these groups because we love to learn, appreciate shared knowledge, want to make more informed decisions, and appreciate the supportive nature of these groups, including being at the forefront of working to protect anchoring, cruising and boaters’ rights.