Newly Salted

Pineapple at 7 months

2018-05-07T03:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome Pineapple to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read their interview below or as originally published on their blog.
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Before we left San Francisco, we were hungry for information, advice, and stories about the cruising life. Newly Salted and companion series Interview with a Cruiser became two of our favorite sources—we looked forward to every new interview. And now it’s our turn! As we approach seven months underway, we’re excited to share some of our lessons and experiences with the Newly Salted audience.

If we haven’t met… hi! We’re John and Michelle, a couple of 30-something urban squares who left professional life behind to become sailing nomads in October 2017. We’ve been cruising the Pacific Coast of North America—from San Francisco Bay to Costa Rica, where we are now—aboard our brand new Outbound 46 Pineapple. We are chronicling our life as cruising sailors at particularharbor.com. And we’d love to hear from you! In fact, we’ve been anchored in empty bays for the last week so it’d be nice to know someone else is out there

Inland trip to tour Flor de Caña Rum in Nicaragua

Why did you decide to cruise?

When we finished school, we both wanted the same thing, which was to live in a big city, focus on building careers, and achieve financial stability. Typical yuppie stuff. About 10 years ago, we learned about the cruising lifestyle and we were captivated. Sure, the beaches and the endless vacation were appealing, but mostly it was the allure of spending a chapter or two, while we’re still young, experiencing a different way of life. Cruising seemed perfect for us, and not just because we enjoy sailing. We like stability and routine, and while every day out cruising is new in some way, traveling with our home fits our sensibilities. We’re not wanderers who were looking to leave all responsibility behind—we actually find our thrills in the challenge of keeping ourselves safe, healthy, and happy.

After years of talking and planning, the only question left was, “Why not go cruising?” So we made a plan, we stuck with it, and here we are!

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

While we knew in theory that cruising would require us to be more self-sufficient (and it was one of the reasons we wanted to go), the reality was difficult at times. We missed the conveniences of a big city. After a day in the sun spent working on the boat, we can’t just tap a few buttons on our phone and have our favorite meal delivered to our door. When we want to feel a high level of satisfaction from a meal, we have to plan and work for it. Similarly, we had to replace the positive feedback and external stimuli from our jobs with the feeling of achievement that comes from being self-sufficient and self-responsible. We thought those rewards would come naturally, but it actually took a bit of time to rewire our brains to find enjoyment in a much simpler lifestyle.

Tell me your favorite thing about your boat.

We love our Outbound 46. There are so many great features, but most of our favorites stem from the fact that it’s designed as a couple’s liveaboard cruiser: It’s not jammed with unnecessary cabins. It doesn’t have a cavernous but impractical “boat show” salon. There’s no whiz-bang technology like push-button sailing or joystick docking.

Instead, it features practical, comfortable, compact accommodations; large fridge and freezer; huge amounts of storage and tankage; a real walk-around bed in the forward cabin; a workshop and equipment room; overbuilt and heavy-duty equipment; and a cozy cockpit for sailing, dining, or entertaining. If you’re curious to see Pineapple in detail, check out the boat tour we posted on our blog.

Anchored in Zihuatanejo, Mexico

How do you fund your cruise?

We manage our own simple investment portfolio with Vanguard—this is our “cruising kitty” that funds our lifestyle. Back when we were employed full-time, we made it a point to save 30–50% of our income every month. This meant living in a one-bedroom apartment, sharing a used car, and skipping a lot of the “lifestyle inflation” luxuries that tempt so many young professionals. But it was worth it. We socked the savings away into our investments month after month and watched them grow.

We also have some passive income: John has written two books (Sprint and Make Time), so we receive royalties from those, and he still has some startup investments from his days working in venture capital. Both of these are pretty variable in terms of timing and amounts—so we don’t count on them as part of our cruising money plan.

(If you’re curious about what it costs us to cruise in Mexico and Central America, we share our expenses every month on the blog.)

What is your favorite piece of boating-related new technology?

It’s not exactly new technology, but today’s watermakers are amazing. We have a Spectra Cape Horn, which generates 15 gallons of freshwater per hour—enough that we can shower every day and rinse the boat without stressing over water. It’s DC (direct current) powered, which means that it runs off the batteries, using about 19 amps. Since it’s battery powered, we can run the watermaker pretty much whenever we want: underway or at anchor with the engine on or off. On a sunny day in the tropics, our solar panels cover the watermaker’s energy needs—that’s a cool feeling! We have friends with AC-powered watermakers on their boats. While the output is often a lot higher, they’re stuck running the generator every time they want to make water.

Another favorite new technology is the iPad. We use two for navigation on Pineapple instead of a typical fixed chartplotter. The iPads are cheaper than a chartplotter and way more functional, thanks to the universe of apps available. A lot of sailors have told us that iPads can’t stand up to the marine environment. That’s nonsense. Apple spends millions on R&D to make their products robust and idiot-proof—they can be dropped, stepped-on, and even splashed. With a Lifeproof case, the iPad becomes waterproof and super durable. We love our iPads and can’t imagine going back to the old world of expensive, proprietary, fixed navigation technology.

Sunset underway, somewhere along the Baja Peninsula, Mexico

What is something you read or heard about cruising that you didn’t find to be true?

“Cruising is just fixing your boat in exotic places.”

Okay, we know what you’re thinking: We have a brand new boat, which buys a grace period where everything just works. Or does it? We’ve had plenty of old salts tell us that new boats have as many problems as old ones. We’ve heard lots of commissioning horror stories. And we’ve certainly had to fix and replace things already: rigging hardware has pulled out of the deck, our fridge controller went on the fritz, we nearly chafed through a diesel hose on the engine, etc etc.

Cruising blogs and forums are full of stories about being stuck in port waiting for parts, changing itineraries when gear fails, and the epic bad luck of a few boats that seem constantly dogged by technical problems. But it doesn’t have to be this way! And it’s not just for new boats, either.

Friends on old boats from 28 to 74 feet manage to avoid the inevitable “fixing in exotic places.” Cruising luminaries like the Pardeys, Leonard-Starzingers, Dashews, and Harries have sailed hundreds of thousands of miles without a gear failure forcing a change in plans. We’ve learned from them and adopted their approach: Avoid problems in the first place (preventative maintenance), find problems before they find you (exercise and test your gear), and engineer the ability to keep going when problems do arise (carry lots of spares and build in redundancy).

There’s no guarantee we’ll enjoy the same success. But we believe it’s possible (and worthwhile!) to do boat work on our terms—not when we’d rather be enjoying the sights or exploring ashore in “exotic places.”

Anchored in Guacamaya, Costa Rica. Are we a lightning magnet or what?

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

We wish we had thought more critically about our dinghy setup. When we left San Francisco, we brought along the 7’7″ air-floor dinghy and 2.5-horsepower outboard engine we had from our last boat. We used it a few times so we knew it would get the job done. We thought back to our experiences on Catalina Island and in the Caribbean, where the main purpose of your dinghy is to bring you ashore, and where dinghy docks are everywhere. We liked the idea of a small, lightweight dinghy that we could easily stow on deck. Oh, and we didn’t want to install davits on our boat—we don’t like the way they look, and we knew we’d stow the dinghy on deck for longer passages anyway.

It turns out that the Pacific Coast cruising grounds in Mexico and Central America (especially Costa Rica!) are a different animal. Big surf landings and launches are common (if John doesn’t drive me through a breaking wave, we consider it a success!), and huge tide swings (up to 10 feet in Costa Rica, bigger in Panama) make going ashore part of the adventure. We upgraded to a 5-horsepower outboard in Caboand added dinghy wheels in La Cruz, and we’re getting by just fine. (Having friends who offer to drive certainly helps! Thanks Wags and Paula ).

But upgrading to a bigger RIB and larger engine—and the davits (ugh!) that are necessary for managing it—are on the list for next season. This upgrade would give us a faster, more comfortable ride, and dryer beach landings and launchings. Plus, we’ll gain the ability to travel longer distances—to explore tidal estuaries, the next bay over, or far-away snorkeling spots.

We also wish we had installed more shade before we left. Back in San Francisco, “too much heat” and “too much sun” were abstract concepts for us, so we thought a bimini with a few side curtains would be sufficient. We were mistaken. We’ve remedied the situation along the way, but now we know you can never have too much shade.

Michelle drives our tiny dinghy ashore in Punta Leona, Costa Rica. Only a little nervous about finding a calm spot to land.

What piece of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

The cats! Just kidding. We are cruising with our two fur kids and didn’t consider for a second not taking them along.

Serious answer: Our two inflatable paddle boards. They were very lightly used for several years before we left, and we should have taken that as a sign we were just not that into it. We could have traded them for a kayak, and maybe even a couple of folding bikes. Now we know those things better fit our idea of fun while cruising.

Finish this sentence: “Generally when I am provisioning…”

I like to take a stroll through the grocery store and then return later to actually buy. We rarely provision in the same place twice, so checking out all the stores and markets to see what’s where helps me find the best options, especially the freshest fruits and veggies, and best value. It also helps me make a shopping list and menu plan, since I know what I can expect to find when we go back to shop.

What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why.

We absolutely love Mexico and Central America, so after we transit the Panama Canal in June, we’ll spend next season in the Western Caribbean so we can spend more time in this area. We’ll probably spend hurricane season 2019 in the Rio Dulce, Guatemala. Then, we have dreams of crossing the Atlantic and spending several seasons in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. So from the Rio Dulce, we’ll make our way up the East Coast of the U.S. in preparation for that crossing in summer 2020. But don’t hold us to anything—we are just as likely to change our minds next week!

Miss Fe at 3 months

2018-05-02T14:56:00.003-07:00

Welcome Miss Fe to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read their interview below or as originally published on their blog.

Paul & Lindsey

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

Paul: YouTube gave us the impression that there are a lot of young people cruising. In reality, we don’t see very many people our age doing this sort of thing. Most people we see cruising are either retirement or early retirement age. When we do see young people they typically started cruising before establishing their careers. We haven’t really met anybody that has taken a break from traditional career paths like we have. Everybody we have met has been extremely nice though. Some people go cruising for the isolation but we really enjoy meeting new people, so if you see us out there stop by and say hi!

Lindsey: I had read a lot of stories that made it sound like every anchorage turned into a party or a potluck – as if you’d show up and instantly get a call over the radio to come join whatever is going on. I have no doubt that these anchorages and people are out there, but like in normal life, most of the time you either end up chatting with the people you run into when you’re out and about (in the dinghy, on the beach or in the bar), or you really need to make the effort if you want to meet people other ways.

What is your biggest lesson learned?

Paul: Can’t honestly say I’ve learned this lesson cause I will probably test it from time to time but it would be not to go to windward in bad weather. The sea is stronger than we are and it will win every time. What’s comfortable on a down wind run can be downright treacherous close hauled. And motoring to weather, forget about it. Motoring is for when it’s calm, not for bashing into big seas. Sailboats just don’t have big enough engines to motor into weather.

Lindsey: What seems difficult or impossible now won’t stay that way. I mean this both physically and mentally. Like using the manual windlass – it’s amazing how quickly your body goes from feeling that pulling up 100 ft of chain is exhausting to feeling like it was barely a workout. On the mental side, things like route planning and navigation were overwhelming when added into everything else we had to think about as newbies, but now those things take a lot less time and we have a better awareness of the details without it feeling like a mental overload.

What is the key to making the cruising life enjoyable?

Paul: I had a job out of college sampling people’s water prior to natural gas drilling. One cold day in December I was in the house of this super nice elderly couple. While chatting the lady mentioned it was their 70th wedding anniversary. “Wow,” I remarked, “Whats your secret?” She leaned in real close and said,”If you’re gonna make it work, it takes a lot of give on both sides.” I think this is the key is to both marriage and cruising; it takes a lotta give. The cruising lifestyle has no room for rigid and stubborn people; flexibility and balance are key to enjoying things.

Lindsey: A balance of enjoying the place you’re visiting and doing normal at-home things. It’s hard to remember sometimes this isn’t a normal “vacation” where I only have a few days to see and do everything. It’s ok to stay on the boat for the day and just read, or do boat projects, or watch a movie – so make sure you are prepared to keep yourself busy (or not busy if you prefer) on these days. Recharge and then go hiking and snorkeling the next day.

What’s the most challenging thing about living on a sailboat?

Paul: For me its the weather. On the whole, the weather has been spectacular, but there are some thunderstorms that come through on a fairly regular basis that can pack a real wallop. A lot of people stay at a dock or pick up a mooring for most of their season, but that’s not us. We like exploring, so to get to the best beaches, fishing and diving we are often times anchoring in less protected areas. We drew the short straw the other night when our anchor came loose. It was pitch black, the rain was horizontal, the anchorage was tight and there were lots of other boats around. There was also crazy thunder and lightning everywhere around us. We had no choice but to go on deck and reset the anchor in our underwear.

Lindsey: Hitting my head on things, knocking objects onto my feet, having to climb over another person to get into bed. As a short and small person, I’ve never had to be all that cognizant of my overhead and surrounding space, but now that I am living in a much smaller area, I am constantly finding the main hatch with my head and whatever is on the counter with my elbows. I’ve gotten a lot better than when we first bought the boat, but self-inflicted injuries are still a near-daily occurrence.

Whats the best thing about living on a sailboat?

Paul: For me, without a doubt, it’s the people we get to meet. From the moment we bought the boat we have been surrounded by nice people with great stories. There is a real sense of community in the boating world. If you see us out and about say hi, we don’t bite.

Lindsey: Getting to sail! I’ve really liked sailing since the first time we took lessons, and now that we’re in the Bahamas, we’ve had some really great sails on windy days with easy routes. And since this is a full-time gig, for now, we don’t have to play the awful game where we count how many boat weekends are left before winter and divide those up between boat project days and sailing days.

Do you ever get seasick?

Paul: I have in the past but not on Miss Fe. The first line of defense is picking good weather windows and staying hydrated. Though we didn’t have enough wind to sail the Gulf Stream, putting the sails up makes the boat much more smooth and easy on the stomach. We do carry a number of OTC and prescription drugs to help combat it. I personally take scopolamine patches as a preventative, but it’s a very unusual drug with some weird side effects. Mahina Expeditions has a great article on seasickness worth a read. We apply most of their advice and have had good luck so far.

Lindsey: I felt queasy on the Gulf Stream crossing, I think because it was rockiest at night, with no moon so I couldn’t concentrate on any visuals. There are always moments down below, if the boat is rocking, where I suddenly feel off if I’m trying to do too much while facing different ways (like digging through the bottom of the fridge, then facing the opposite way at the stove, then facing backward at the sink).

Do you catch a lot of fish?

Paul: I wouldn’t say the fishing has been great but we always seem to catch something when we go out. Haven’t had very good luck locating good-sized fish as they seem to be in deeper water and the geography here makes it very hard for us to get out far enough offshore in our dinghy to catch them.

Lindsey: I’m usually rigged up for smaller fish than Paul, so I tend to catch more. Ha! We’ve caught a bunch of little snappers and bait fish.

Are you running low on sunscreen?

Paul: Lindsey goes through the stuff like water. Thankfully we found a reasonable source that sells it by the gallon, no joke. In 3 months we have gone through a half gallon of this stuff Rocky Mountain Sunscreen – Kids, Gallon, SPF 50, Spray. We do take sun protection seriously and always have sunblock with us as well hats, buffs, and UPF rated clothing.

Lindsey: There’s probably not enough sunscreen in the world for me. There’s a reason my nickname is “pants-on-the-beach!”

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find most difficult?

Paul: Due to the location of the boat and its proximity to our jobs, I spent a lot of long nights away from Lindsey working on the boat. It wasn’t easy and isn’t something I would want to do again, but it got us here. Downsizing and moving out of our apartment was also particularly challenging. The best thing we did was move out of our apartment and downsize to move in with family 6 months ahead of living on the boat. Still rough but it was less of a shock to our systems.

Lindsey: I think it’s hard to always be around people who don’t really know you. It’s fun to meet new people, but since it’s our first season out and we’re constantly moving, it’s ONLY meeting new people. We are meeting people we will stay in touch with and will see again, but until then, I miss the experience of having enough time to bond with people.

What did you do to make your dream a reality?

Lindsey: I’ll let Paul answer this one, but I just want to say that Paul generally does what he says he’s going to do, and whenever he gets into something, he really gets into it. If you think what he is saying sounds crazy and like he’ll never do it, you don’t know Paul.

Paul: I’m going to leave financials out of this because I feel that's its own post but I got the idea while watching the documentary Maidentrip on Netflix one night in August a few years back. After watching I looked and Lindsey and said, “This girl did it right! If a 16-year-old girl can go around the world, we can at least make it to the Bahamas on a boat. Besides we can take the ICW and not even have to sail most of the way!” I next did some more research and scoured the internet to find out how much it would cost. Lindsey is naturally suspicious of everything, so I knew I would need to make a strong case that this was financially feasible. That’s when I found the Bumfuzzle blog. Lindsey and I both read every entry for their circumnavigation, which gave us a big confidence boost. Probably about 3 months had gone by and Lindsey, while somewhat onboard with the idea, was not very sure about it since she had never actually sailed before. Logically thinking, I said we could take some ASA (American Sailing Association) courses in the summer. Over the winter I read every how-to boat book I could find and by spring we were on the Delaware River learning to sail in ASA 101. After the first 2 day course, Lindsey wanted a small boat of her own, so we searched Craigslist on the drive home and two days later we were proud owners of an AMF Alcort 14 catamaran. We sailed the cat in a nearby state park over the summer. We took ASA 103 later in the summer, and in the fall we stumbled upon Miss Fe. She was the first big boat we seriously looked at and seemed to fit the bill for what we wanted at a price we could afford so we bought her. Those ASA courses didn’t do a very good job of preparing us, especially since there was no wind during either course but we managed to move the boat up the bay. Thankfully after re-rigging the boat we hired our riggers Walden Rigging to take us out and show us how to sail our boat in some proper wind. Additionally, I raced a summer on the Chesapeake with the totally awesome crew of Split Decision. To sum it all up, we set our minds to the dream and just refused to quit.

Take Me There at 4 months

2018-01-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome Take Me There to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read their interview below or as originally published on their blog.

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A while back, we answered a post (Cruisers Forum) from Livia Gilstrap regarding her Interview with a Cruiser Project. We thought it was a great idea to participate and share our insights to her “Newly Salted” questions as we are new cruisers!

Hello – We are Steve and Kimberly Mitchell aboard SV Take Me There; a 1975 Gulfstar M53 Ketch hailing from Tampa, FL. We have lived aboard for the past 36 months and have experience with coastal sailing and limited time offshore. We are currently cruising, having traveled south from the Chesapeake Bay to West Palm Beach, FL, and are crossing to the Bahamas within the week of this post where we will begin our Caribbean adventure. We are blogging and VLogging along the way. We’d love to hear from other folks interested in our adventure through our website where we will chronicle our journey and lessons learned along the way.

We are now crew of 5 including Steve, Kimberly, our Son David, Brandon (crew member & friend) and Gus the boat dog. We are delighted to participate in the Newly Salted Interview questions – so here goes:

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

Don’t marry the plan – just sleep with it! Kimberly and I are both planners by nature, so we are no strangers to study and preparation. Although no one told us this – it popped up as a theme in every coherent reading we did about those out there “doing it” … cruising plans are written in sand at low tide (is the saying – I think). Don’t be disappointed (or get frustrated) by planning in detail and having to routinely change, adapt, extend, delay, wait, back up … well, you get the picture. I think we came into cruising with eyes wide open but eventually approached the adventure with finding the joy in it (Kimberly’s mantra) regardless of the challenges that WILL get in the way. Perhaps the biggest “I wish I knew” was how Our family would adjust to living aboard…ie… “plannus interruptus” and then (eventually) being way out therewhere you can’t see land with a plan that has to change because mother nature had other plans or broke something that our plan needs to succeed.

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

Two transitions required more effort than most:
1. First: adjusting to other (non-cruiser) reaction to where we live (aboard) and what we do in our spare time (all of it). I’ve found communication is the key. It usually goes something like one of the below two scenarios:
• Scenario 1: (Q) Where do you live? (A) Aboard our boat. Body language often reads: Ewww…is that like camping?
• Scenario 2: (Q) Where do you live? (A) Aboard our yacht. Body language reads: Whoa – this guy has too much money for me! (so not true)!
• How we answer now: We are long term cruisers (sailing) currently moored at fill-in-the-blank large bay or harbor – your city/town/village is awesome!
2. Leaving the car behind – the convenience of a car is understated. 6 months ago we shipped ours to rest in our land-based home garage and transitioned to folding bikes, marina courtesy cars, offers for rides and Uber/taxi and public transport. The “car-less” condition dovetails with our planning skills well as one off-sets the other (so far).

What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

If you don’t make mistakes – you’re not learning. We’ve certainly made a few – most notably:
• Put it where you can find it (or even remember it): We did not have real inventory system for stuff aboard until recently. Try finding something you know you have but haven’t seen in a year? Sometimes you won’t find it for that long! We now have a barcode/searchable inventory plan for stuff in every nook, corner and cranny of this BIG boat. We are using a smartphone app that helps us scan, manage, inventory and find stuff aboard as well as track re-order/re-provision points to make lists for shopping when we go ashore.
• Your vision isn’t always her vision – ask/communicate/share: The way I see something isn’t always the way Kimberly see’s it. I value her opinion, perspective and insights as a problem solver and a planner. I need to get better about consulting her before I apply a solution to our needs – I’m improving slowly and have incentive to stop and ask for her input (especially when she is not right there at the point of need). 9 out of 10 times, she can improve upon my solution or offer an alternative that is better for both of us. She is my battle buddy and half of our cruising equation.
• You can’t sail everywhere: As a retired military officer, I can read maps easily – but, things are often much more congested (tighter) than they appear from the chart plotter or the charts. You arrive (often in less than optimal conditions) and Whoa!…there’s a lot LESS room to maneuver than I thought with this current, cross wind or traffic.

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?
Freedom to choose destination, timing, to linger, explore or back-track, meet new people or be alone is absolutely liberating! After 30 years in the Army – the only person that can tell me where to go now is the Admiral (Kimberly)…and she always asks with a BIG smile! What excites me?…I’m the “guy” so naturally, I like all things BOAT! In reverse order…anything involving the boat (especially moving under sail) excites me.

Next up is the freedom to go where the wind blows you (or the motor takes you). Most important is that I love doing this with Kimberly. She is a joy to be around and I am pleased to operate and maintain the means to carry us on our travelling adventures – which is what I think excites her (travelling/exploring/encountering people – and finding joy in the journey).

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?
– Anchoring flexibility and Uneducated boaters…
• Free ICW anchorage opportunity is slowly dwindling – Although we don’t have tremendous experience beyond the US East Coast…So far – I’m surprised by the commercial encroachment of anchoring in once accessible “public” waterways. Free anchorage in convenient places near commercial infrastructure continue to be threatened by easements around mooring fields and dockage. The Florida anchoring debate is a perfect example.
• Uneducated boaters are general hazards to everyone. Not so much in “cruising” but boating in general – You don’t need any certifications or skills to operate a vessel. I believe you have an inherent responsibility to educate yourself to be safe – which means – KNOW THE RULES. There are a lot of “uneducated” boaters out there that put us all in danger. Get in and GO is NOT the way to navigate. We had an experience awaiting weather (on passage) in a Ft Pierce, FL marina where a large powerboat with a bonehead operator hit us at the fuel dock. He had no boating experience, yet was operating a 50 ft motor vessel. What was worse – he hit us (while we were tied to the dock) and just continued to motor off on his way as nothing happened! – his boat was clearly damaged by our large spade anchor. We shot video of the incident since it was clear on his approach he was a hazard to navigation and contacted the authorities who chased him down; brought him back to address the accident and he proceeded to deny the event!

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

A few things stand out…
SSB – I’ve read a lot about the projected extinction of the Single Side Band (SSB) radio as a cruiser tool. This capability is mature, in ubiquitous use by those who know how and a great tool of advantage to cruisers. As our cellular and satellite technology advances, I fear that a “point to point” condition may reduce marine public awareness in general. Much like the way email and texting has become a “point to point” action. There is value in being able to listen to the “party line” to enhance awareness or render aid if an opportunity exists and proximity is close. Although I don’t have tremendous experience with its use – I do find that it helps us and I pray that this capability sticks around – thanks to all the great people that proliferate (and improve) its use. SSB equipment is expensive and requires some skill to employ, maintain and sustain but I wouldn’t “not” have one as a cruiser. VHF is (of course) the standard means of public communication on the water. SSB has many advantages that we value: Weather and passage making data (in the next place we want to go); Social (keeping up with other cruisers who may be in remote parts of the world); News (public broadcast channels); Radio-phone relay (with assistance from those who maintain this capability as part of the Marine and HAM nets); Hurricane/storm nets help us track BIG weather patterns in affected areas (for avoidance); SailMail is a great “inexpensive” text email resource with our Pactor modem and most importantly for safety – our system (SSB and VHF) transmits our GPS location and MMSI each time we transmit which helps potential rescue organizations identify us or locate us if we ever got into trouble.

You have to sacrifice to cruise. This is an “opinionated” subject but I will highlight some observations that we found to be “topics of contention.”

Ship’s Power is “limiting:” Not really – if you want power flexibility – you can employ the right equipment to make it so. We spent a lot of time/energy on our house bank and solar/wind/generator combination…so that we could have the power we felt we need. We enjoy our comforts. On SV Take Me There we have a large 1200 ah house bank with 530W of solar and 460W of wind generator capability. Yes, we can run AC, ice-maker, two fridges, electric winches, plotter, radar, AIS and Auto-pilot at the same time on our house bank…but we are very power conscious and only use what we need, when we need it. Our 16KW diesel genny is a great “bulk charge” resource but its our solar and wind generation that does the “top-off” work very well.

Sailing less than motoring is the norm: Moving from A to B under sail is a choice. If conditions aren’t favorable to do so – you have a choice…wait or do it with other means (than sail). We love the peace of sailing…nothing else like it in the world! Yes – we motor. Yes, we motor-sail. It depend on what our objectives are. Sometimes we want to sail – so we wait on the right weather. Sometimes we want to get there – so we motor if conditions aren’t optimum for sailing.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

OK – two BIG ones are very accurate:

BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand! If you want to do it right & safe…spend the money! Preventive maintenance does save you a BOAT-load of trouble in advance.

SPARES is like a savings account. A good inventory of spares WILL make your life a lot easier. Things break, malfunction or go wrong. Your spares inventory will help you correct a problem (replacement) and permit you to “fix” the spare later (in port).

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

We are planners by nature – we thought of, and equipped our vessel with, a lot of stuff (which I will answer in the next question)…but I think the biggest “I wish” for me (that we don’t have now) is a soft/portable boarding ladder that hangs over the gunnel to permit boarding after using our kayaks. We can board at the swim platform easily (with permanent boarding ladder installed) but the kayaks are lifted/stored on the foredeck which means we have to pull them around to the lifting location to stow them – we would like to just board from the lifting area and pull them up.

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

I think we’ve made good “equipping” choices. I will say that some of the things that simply stay in their storage location and never move (never used – however, need to be inspected, run or maintained periodically but we wouldn’t be caught without them) are:
– Emergency manual tiller – this thing is huge, awkward and hard to store – but essential!
– Generac Gas powered emergency high volume bilge pump – in case of loss of all power
– Legacy Furuno GPS plotter (our back up)
– Radar reflector (back-up) – we have AIS

What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why.

We are just beginning our nomadic cruising adventure. We exploreed the Chesapeake and ICW until SEP 2017. We began to wander South (exploring the ICW along the way) to Florida (Tampa). We spent early December at our Florida home and then crossed over to the Bahamas in late December to explore this island complex. We don’t have a schedule nor do we know where we will go next. There are two options:

Return to Tampa for hurricane season (2018)…or…
Head south toward Grenada.

*** We are prepared for both***

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I’ve asked you and how would you answer it?

What are your favorite cruising information resources and how do you reach them when away from the dock?

My online favorites are Cruisers Forum, Predict Wind, Active Captain, SSB Weather Nets (Grib file downloads) and Sirius Satellite Weather. Clearly my interests lie in understanding conditions for getting from point A to B. I enjoy the Sailing-Channel where other cruisers are out there blogging and making videos. We have both cellular and satellite systems aboard but try to use the SSB resources as they are free (dependent upon signal propagation). Off-line, the cruising guides, the Dashew’s books (Mariner’s Weather, Practical Seamanship, Surviving the Storm), Bowditch (of course) and Don Casey’s Sailboat Maintenance and the Pardeys.

Our thanks to Livia for allowing us to participate in her Newly Salted interview. We hope that others will follow our blog and VLog as our contribution to the cruising knowledge base.

Luna Sea at 6 months

2017-11-30T03:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome Sionna to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read their interview below or as originally published on their blog.
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We were recently contacted by Newly Salted to answer 10 questions about our cruising life. I’ve always enjoyed reading other bloggers’ posts on the site, and was happy to take on the 10 question Newly Salted challenge! (Edit: I procrastinated all summer, so claiming I was “recently” contacted is a bit of a stretch…)

If you’re not already familiar with the s/v Luna Sea crew – we are Jennifer and Mark, mid-40 year olds who’ve had enough of the corporate world. We planned and schemed for 6 years to make this sailing dream come true. Notice I did not say we are sailors in that description… But we’ve managed to learn. And after 6 months of cruising down the SE coast of Georgia and Florida, throughout the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, the Dry Tortugas and back north to Georgia – we’ve discovered just how suited we are for this cruising lifestyle!

10 Newly Salted Questions

More Solar!

1) Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before you starting cruising?

Our new house battery bank. We started our journey the first week of October 2016 – right about the time Hurricane Matthew came calling. While riding out the storm, we learned that our house batteries were shot. After limping back to the marina we’d called home for a few years, we upgraded to Lithium Ion batteries. They are like magic. I also wish we’d hung around after replacing them instead of rushing off down the coast of Florida. Adding a few more solar panels proved necessary, and that certainly would’ve been easier to accomplish in the States. But we like to learn things the hard way – so we learned how to have things shipped to the Bahamas…

The Exumas – some of our favorite islands in the Bahamas!

2) Is there a place you visited wish you could have stayed longer?

Hands down – the Exumas. We wanted to see as much of the Bahamas as possible this first trip – because we thought we were going straight to the Caribbean. So we kind of rushed it a bit. Turns out the Exumas were our kind of cruising – deserted islands, snorkeling, beaches, bonfires and the occasional grocery store. We are heading there straight away this season and will definitely linger in the Exumas, check out the few outer islands we missed, and then jump down to Puerto Rico.

3) How much does cruising cost?

The standard answer is “it costs what you have.” But we actually have a budget. The goal on Luna Sea is $1000/month. Some months we come under, some months we go WAY over. Depends on where we are. The States are definitely more expensive. Hard to beat living on the hook just off of a deserted island when you’re going for cheap. I have a monthly series on the website listing all of our cruising expenses each month. It helps keep me accountable – and is a great thing to share with other people that are/want to be cruising.

4) Describe the compromises (if any) that you have made in your cruising in order to stay on budget.

Eating and drinking out are our budget busters. Meeting up with other people on beaches, and bringing along drinks and food are great, fun ways to keep on track. That being said – we did save money while we were working, specifically for unexpected repairs. So if the main sail rips or the engine dies – we have it covered without counting it toward our regular expenses.

5) What do you miss about living on land?

Really just the people. And a washing machine/dryer, I suppose. And ice cream that stays frozen… But the trade offs are 110% worth it.

6) What type of watch schedule do you normally use while offshore?

We previously did 2 hours on/2 hours off. But we’d both be in the cockpit at the same time – usually trying to catch a nap when possible. We’ve both become more competent and relaxed a bit. Now we use a 3 hour rotation. This is long enough to relax and get some sleep off-shift, and short enough to avoid getting over-tired on-shift. Mark ends up taking an extra shift during day light hours, as I am the one in the galley making the food. So we both stay busy the same amount – those sandwiches don’t make themselves.

7) How do you fund your cruise?

Rentals/Savings: Years of being
~~cheap~~ frugal allowed us to save for big ticket items that are bound to come up. (Hello new batteries!) When we had jobs, we always made sure to live below our means. That hasn’t changed. So if we make $XX /month, we try to only spend half of that.

8) What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

Cruisers are there to help when you really need it. Just like on land, you won’t get along with every single person. But if you need help in an anchorage? Just pick up the VHF and call. There will be half a dozen dinghies at your stern asap.

Gratuitous Palm Tree/Adult Beverage Pic

9) What is the next piece of gear you would add to your boat if it were free ?

Free, huh? I really like Free. It’s my favorite. A new mainsail. Ours is getting soft. There’s a real word for that. I don’t know it. But I’d love to get a new mainsail before we head to the Caribbean. Shoot, if it’s free, lets say all new sails!

Critical Equipment for a good night’s sleep

10) What is something you think potential cruisers are afraid about that they shouldn’t fear? And what is something potential cruisers don’t worry about that perhaps they should?

A. Fear of being alone. Most people in the central/eastern United States head to the Bahamas for their first journey. As soon as you get there, you realize this is not the unique idea you thought it was. There are literally hundreds (thousands?) of boats there. While you CAN be alone on some of the islands/beaches, you also will frequently have at least a few other boats nearby. B. Ground tackle. After sailing and anchoring in Savannah, GA’s soft mud for a few years, we thought we had anchoring down. Turns out that the anchor we had just wasn’t cut out for the grassy/sandy/stone bottom of the Bahamas. The very first day we got back to the States I ordered a Mantus. We’re still testing it out. So far, it’s been as impressive as expected. But the real test will be when we get back to the islands!

Did you enjoy the Question and Answer session? If so, check out the Newly Salted blog for some other really interesting interviews. Have any other questions for us? Feel free to comment below and we’ll try to answer them all! And stay tuned – we are mere DAYS away from heading south again!

Sionna at 8 months

2017-08-22T14:33:00.002-07:00

Welcome Sionna to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read their interview below or as originally published on their blog.

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This week, I’m breaking with my general rule to only publish original work on our blog. Sort of breaking.

You see, Nicki & I have volunteered to participate in something called “Newly Salted”, which is a sub-set of the “Interview With A Cruiser Project”. Newly Salted refers to cruisers “…who (have) been cruising fewer than 2 years, who (have) finished a cruise of less than two years, or who (have) cruised for more than two years but not outside their home country.”

So that’s us.

Below, we’ll make introductions, and then answer 10 questions from the question pool provided by the project. Note that our answers aren’t intended to be a “This is the way to do it” resource, but rather a “this is what we did and here’s how it worked” sharing.

Hope you enjoy!

Who are we?

We’re Keith and Nicki, a carpenter and a fitness instructor/realtor in the summer, and cruisers in the winter. Aboard our Triangle 32 Sionna (a center-cockpit ketch built in 1963) we left Rockland Maine in August 2016 and headed south via the Atlantic ICW, Okeechobee Waterway and the Gulf of Florida to spend our first cruise of 8 1/2 months in warmer weather than Maine can offer.

We are best described as “Commuter Cruisers”, a term I attribute to Jan Irons, who’s blog Commuter Cruiser was our constant source of information and inspiration during the planning stages of our transition back into the REAL world – the world of cruising aboard a simple, well-loved and well-built boat.

As of this writing (July 2017) the boat is stored in Florida, and we’re back in Maine for the summer living in our 36′ RV (we sold all real estate in preparation for cruising), working for enough dollars to return to the boat next winter and continue our cruising, most likely to the Bahamas in 2018.

We love to connect with other cruisers and particularly wanna-be cruisers, folks who think they want to go, or KNOW they NEED to go, but lack information. We don’t know it all, but we know some, and we know a lot of people who know a lot more. Contact us here on the blog, or email us at sionnaketch32@gmail.com.

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

Expectations are the killer of more cruises than any other single thing. Your expectations, your partner’s expectations, even the expectations of the folks back home. All will be an additional layer of stress and discomfort and – if not recognized and addressed – are almost certain to build up and become unpleasant. Even more challenging is that most of those expectations are probably sub-conscious, so how do you address an expectation that you don’t know you have? Practice.

Tell me your favorite thing about your boat

Her size and (relative) simplicity. Sionna is 32′ on deck, 35′ overall. These days, she’s considered to be very small for a liveaboard boat. She also has fairly simple systems compared to the “average”. Pressure and hot (only in the galley and cockpit shower) water, yes, and basic refrigeration, but we haven’t tried to recreate a suburban house on the water. Our electrical loads are low, our entertainments are simple, and we spend a great deal of time together. She is all the space two adults who like each other need to live comfortably. We couldn’t afford to cruise if we had a larger vessel.

Share a piece of cruising etiquette

Respect the enjoyment of others at least as much as your own. I’m thinking of two specifics – generators and drones. We all need to charge batteries sometimes, I get that. But if you need to run a generator for three hours twice a day, you’re simply using too much power, and yes, running your generator during those times when folks tend to be outside enjoying the scenery (dinner and sunset, for instance) DOES bother your anchorage neighbors and IS disrespectful to those around you. And drones? Nicki and I have been the victims of “drone intrusion” three times, one was an outright spying – the drone hovering 100′ over the cockpit. If you feel you must fly one, please be respectful both in where you fly it, and for how long.

What did you do to make your dream a reality?

Downsized drastically. Over the three years we took to prepare, we sold our real estate, closed our business and reduced our work schedules. We let the lease on our rental house go, and downsized from two houses (totaling 3800 square feet) to a boat, an RV, and a 5′ x 10′ storage unit, for a grand total of 500 square feet. We sent 6000 pounds of “stuff” to the dump, untold trips to Goodwill, sold what we could… We borrowed from our retirement accounts to buy the boat – and bought a boat we could afford for $23,000. We’re not retired, but do have a small pension income to supplement our summer work ashore – thus our “Commuter” style of cruising.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

Basic boater ignorance. Nicki and I studied for years, learning everything we could about sailing and operating a cruising vessel in a safe, comfortable and efficient manner, and we still learn something new, every day. I was shocked and disappointed to discover how many boaters are out there with little knowledge and few skills, endangering both themselves and us in their fumbling. Partly I’m sure this is because we cruised in very populated areas, places that are easy to get to. As we cruise the Bahamas next season, we hope to move beyond the reach of the day-trippers and credit-card captains, and I remain optimistic that the issues we saw are unique to the ICW and Florida’s boaters.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

There’s a cruiser saying that “The most dangerous thing on a cruising boat is a schedule”, and we can attest that it’s true. Schedules cause stress. Schedules make you push the limits. They cause equipment breakage and injuries. And frankly, when you promise to be in “XYZ City” at a certain time, all the spontaneity and freedom you may have hoped would be yours in cruising goes right out the hatch. You’re back to expectations again, and it’s not fun. We still let ourselves fall into the trap now and then, but we’re getting better at refusing to be bound by “Type-A” personality behavior. Expect us when you see us, and not before.

Is there a place you visited that you wish you could have stayed longer?

Cumberland Island, GA & St. Augustine, FL. Cumberland was lovely, But a norther moved in the morning after we arrived, making all the anchorages uncomfortable, so we have no pictures, barely got to look at one small area… We’d like to go back. St. Augustine was also a lovely town with a friendly, welcoming cruiser community, but we were cold and southern Florida was promising warm, teal and turquoise waters. We left after 3 days, but could easily have stayed a month. Oh, and Vero Beach, Florida. And all of the Chesapeake Bay, which we skipped because we were cold…

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

More solar panels. We installed just one 100 watt panel, thinking that would mostly handle the refrigerator, which was the most power-hungry thing we’d added to the boat. Well it did, except for the months of December, January & February, when the angle of the sun was simply too low for sufficient charging. We’ll be adding another 120 watts this fall before we head out to the Bahamas, and hope that’s enough to make running the engine “just to charge the batteries” a thing of the past.

What is your most common sail combination on passage?

Reefed Mizzen, single-reefed main, roller-furling genoa. Sionna likes to be on her feet, and if the angle of heel exceeds 15 degrees, it’s slowing her down. She’s also faster with a balanced helm, which is accomplished by trimming the Mizzen appropriately. Unless the winds are consistently light, we’re likely to have one reef in the main, one in the mizzen, and the option of rolling in a bit of the Genny – or even all of it – if a squall comes up. We do have a drifter for light winds, but in 2400 miles and 8 1/2 months, we’ve yet to fly it…

When have you felt most in danger and what was the source?

Entering Manasquan Inlet to the NJICW. (See The Thing About Inlets on our blog) We had heard that inlets could be challenging with the combination of fast current opposing wind. We didn’t understand that “challenging” – in this case – is a boating euphemism for “You think you’re going to die”. We timed our passage to arrive at the inlet at slack current, but the sailing conditions were much better than forecast, and we arrived in choppy, uncomfortable sea conditions over 2 hours early.

We thought “How bad can it be?”, and rather than standing off for two hours to wait for slack, we pressed on – and barely kept control of the boat. We now understand that “challenging” is relative – it can be worse than you can imagine.

Smitty at 21 months

2017-07-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome Smitty to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read their interview below or as originally published on their blog.
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About Us

Stacey was born & raised in Milford, CT and grew up power-boating on Long Island Sound and the Housatonic River.

Jesse was born & raised on the South Shore of Massachusetts and grew up sailing on Buzzards Bay and fishing the Cape Cod Canal.

Summer, our dog, is an Australian Cattle dog-mix. She is now about 10 years old. We adopted her as a pup and she has been sailing with us since we got her.

Being typical “Type A” personalities, we spent most of our adult life dedicated to our careers. Jesse was a geologist and worked in the consulting industry cleaning up petroleum and chemical spills. Stacey was an accountant and worked in public accounting firms and private investment companies. The two of us had become disenfranchised with the idea of defining ourselves by our jobs and didn’t want to wait until retirement to live life. So, we sold everything (house, cars, etc), quit the jobs, and, in September 2015, a couple days before Stacey’s 40th birthday, we sailed away. Now we are trying to fill our lives with experiences and fun.

Our sailing vessel is Smitty, our Catalina 310. We have owned her for almost seven years now, mostly cruising the coast of New England and living aboard her prior to our departure (yes – we lived aboard in Boston during the snowiest winter on record! See Blizzard of 2015 as a Liveabord ). In September 2015, we untied the lines and set sail south from Hingham, MA (Smitty’s home port – just south of Boston). We sailed all down the US East Coast (primarily via the ICW), Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Spanish Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, and British Virgin Islands.

Q & A

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

Both of our jobs required us to manage various projects at the same time and still meet all deadlines. For us, the most difficult transition was to learn to slow down and enjoy life.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

When we bought our boat our initial intent wasn’t to cruise on her full-time; we bought a boat that worked for what we wanted at that time. That being said, the Catalina 310 was produced to be a coastal cruiser and does not have capacity to hold a lot of water. We were ok with this fact and set sail anyway, we assumed we could get water in most locations we were going. This was correct, until we wanted to cruise in more remote areas in other countries. We have since installed a water maker.

What pieces of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

Our Catalina 310 came with a microwave. We would often have microwave popcorn or heat up leftovers. Once we left our homeport dock, we very rarely stayed at marinas, therefore, we very rarely used our microwave. We learned how to make popcorn the “old-school” way (stove top) and gave away the microwave while in Puerto Rico.

What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

I’m not sure if it was necessarily a mistake, but we spent way more money then we anticipated. We were in “vacation mode” and did not stick to a budget. Our thought was that we would likely only see some of these places only once. I am glad we enjoyed them to their fullest, but I do wish we had more of a spending plan or budget in place.

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

To describe it in one word: Beauty

The locations, the people, the sailing (well, except all the “Easting” of the Mona Passage), the wild life (we still get excited when we see dolphins – especially swimming off our bow while under sail!), the color changes of the waters we have sailed, and of course the sunsets! It’s been an amazingly beautiful experience.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

I have been very surprised to see some cruisers (both US & foreign flagged vessels) having a complete disregard for the environment and ecosystems. We have seen them anchor on reefs, fishing and taking conch and lobster out of season or from no-take zones, and keeping undersized fish, conch and lobster. Even when we have gone over to let them know the rules they did not care!

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

We were told that when you slipped away from the dock you were leaving behind so many of the hassles of land life. Often we heard the term “Stuff being left to dirt dwellers”. Unfortunately, we often found that we would be on a beautiful beach, sitting around a fire with other cruisers and there would be talks of politics.; too much talk of politics. We thought that would be left on land but there seems to be lots of talk of politics at sundowners and pot lucks.

What is something that you read or head about cruising, that you found to be particularly accurate?

“Just Go – Don’t Wait!” We read and heard this often. I can tell you from experience, this is a very true statement. If you don’t set a date and just go then you won’t do it. The boat is never going to be 100% ready, there will always be more projects to complete or things that break that need to be fixed. If you wait until retirement or until the boat is done then who knows what your health or life circumstances will be in the future.

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

I wish someone had told us that it is ok to live “outside the box of normal society”; that it is ok to live life and you don’t have to do things that are “expected of you” . We regret investing our hard-earned money into things like a house and cars – we wish we had invested those funds into cruising at an earlier age (like in our 20’s).

What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why?

Prior to leaving to cruise, both of us got our Captains license, with the expectation that we would need to pick up some work at some point, doing something, so why not do something we love! We are currently anchored in Elephant Bay next to Water Island and St.Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, where we live on our boat and go out sailing as much as possible. Jesse is a Captain – taking guests out sailing and snorkeling daily. Stacey has been both Crew and Captain on various vessels but has most recently transitioned to an accounting-financial management position. Our current plan is to continue to enjoy this beautiful paradise, build up the cruising kitty, complete more projects, and contemplate getting a bigger boat. We are not done cruising, just on a break for a bit. But we continue to live on Smitty in the Caribbean as we explore these options.

Island Time at 8 months

2017-07-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome Island Time to the ranks of the Newly Salted. Read there interview here or as originally posted on their blog.

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When Scott and I first decided to retire and travel on our boat, we started doing research. We read blogs and books, watched YouTube videos and talked to friends who had done it, were doing it and who planned to do it. One of the blogs we followed was Newly Salted and the companion site, Interview with a Cruiser. Now, as cruisers, we get to answer the questions.

About Us

We are Scott and Martha aboard SV Island Time, a 35-foot catamaran made by Island Packet. Yes, we know, you were not aware Island Packet made catamarans. They built 41 of them from 1993-1995. The boat has two staterooms, two heads and a saloon/galley combo. We started living aboard in November 2016, sailed from Shell Point (just south of Tallahassee) to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area for boat work that took seven weeks. At the end of January, we headed to Key West and the Dry Tortugas. We then traveled north through the Florida Keys and through the Intracoastal Waterway from Miami to Port Everglades. We spent two months in the Abacos, Bahamas. Now, we are in Palm Beach.

Interview Questions

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

We read a lot of blogs and books and watched a lot of YouTube videos before we set out on this journey. We went to boat shows and sat through seminars about living aboard, crossing the Gulf Stream, installing solar panels, outfitting the galley and more. We thought we were fairly well prepared. We underestimated how much we would miss daily contact with family and friends. It makes phone calls and visits really special.

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

When we first started this trip, we had two 13 year-old dogs on board. Sadly, one just passed away. We were concerned about their transition to the boat and our need to take them ashore multiple times per day. Both dogs figured out the little green carpet trick. We don’t miss TV or the constant news cycle.

What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

We underestimated how much time (and money) we would spend with the boat in the boat yard. We predicted a two to three week stay for getting the bottom painted, to service the engines and to complete some other tasks. It took seven weeks. Luckily, we were not living aboard as we had family nearby. At the end of the seven weeks, we were eager to get moving.

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

We both enjoy exploring new places and like walking, riding bicycles and finding the occasional Uber ride. Meeting new people who share our lifestyle is also rewarding. We enjoy sunrises, sunsets and really dark night skies so we can see the stars. Anchoring in a new harbor is always exciting

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

Even though our boat is a catamaran, our storage options are still limited. We move things around all the time to find things that are stored on board. We still have too much stuff. We love having a 12 cubic foot refrigerator/freezer. We don’t like emptying it to find that needed item in the bottom basket.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

A lot of people told us that rum would be plentiful and inexpensive in the Bahamas. They didn’t speak to the quality of that rum. We found good rum to be expensive, as was all alcohol, especially beer.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?
Avoid schedules. Our crossing of the Gulf of Mexico included high seas and high winds. We were on a schedule. Not. Ever. Again. Weather is the first thing we look at before planning to move the boat. We always hesitate to make plans with friends about where we’ll be and when they should meet us. We can’t guarantee that we’ll be there. We also want to take our time and explore each anchorage.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

We are still debating if we want to install a water maker. However, we did purchase a small generator so we can use the air conditioning sometimes when we are not at a dock.

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

We brought too many clothes that we don’t have the space to store or the need to wear. We try to stick with wicking/quick dry clothing because laundry can be expensive. So far, we’ve used laundry facilities on shore but we are prepared for the five-gallon bucket method when the time comes.

What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why.

We plan to cruise for three to five years. We plan to travel up the ICW to Savannah and Charleston for summer 2017 and then head south through the Exumas and into the Caribbean for winter 2018.

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I’ve asked you and how would that you answer it?

What broke and how did you fix it?

Our autopilot quit working on the way back to Key West from the Dry Tortugas. We ordered new parts and Scott installed them. We needed a hole drilled in a thick piece of brass while we were in Hollywood. Scott called many machine shops to ask for help and didn’t find anyone who could assist. Our friend Jerry came to the rescue. He knew someone with a drill press, made the arrangements and then came to pick Scott up, drive him there and return him to the boat. Whew!

Bonus Question: Some friends have asked “What do you do all day?”

Well, we live here, so it depends. We don’t go to work so alarm clocks are not part of our day. If the boat is underway, we are both on deck actively steering, sailing or motoring the boat, watching for boat traffic, tending lines and more. If we are anchored near a town or city, then we are ashore exploring, provisioning, doing laundry and buying parts for boat repairs and maintenance. We cook most meals on the boat but Scott is constantly looking for a good pizza. If wifi is available, we are checking weather, reading email, reading the news and watching more sailing videos on YouTube. We read books — paper and digital.

Thanks for reading our interview. Be sure to check out other interviews on Newly Salted and Interview with a Cruiser.

Aquabat at 20 months

2017-06-30T02:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome Aquabat to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read their interview below or as originally posted on their blog.

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Back when we were first starting to look at seriously buying boats, we were doing alot of research about what it was like to actually cruise. We read a lot of blogs and Newly Salted and it’s sister site, Interview with a Cruiser, were two sites that we literally devoured information from! It’s so great to get other people’s perspectives on this lifestyle. We are thrilled to be joining the ranks of other new cruisers on the Newly Salted site.

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We are Bryce, Alissa and our 1 year old daughter, I. We started cruising in April 2013 in Mooloolaba, QLD and have cruised up and down the Queensland coast getting as far north as Cairns. We have spent significant portions of that time at Magnetic Island and the Whitsunday Islands. Despite having had the boat for 4 years, we’ve taken breaks to travel, work and have a baby, which brings our active cruising time down to 20 months. We live and sail on a 40 ft aluminium monohull named Aquabat, that was built in 1985 by the man we bought her from. We love meeting other cruisers so please feel free to contact us if our paths may cross or you have any questions!

1. What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

Bryce: Don’t buy anything at all until you have lived on the boat for 6 months.

Alissa: There will be days when equipment breaks and the weather is crap that you will want to be done with the boat but then you have the most amazing days ever that make it all worth while. Actually, I was told that cruising combines really low lows with really high highs which is basically the same thing… I just didn’t truly understand what it meant at the time!

2. As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

Bryce: Lack of a regular income.

Alissa: Things we take for granted being relatively unlimited on land like electricity, water and internet, are no longer unlimited!

3. What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

Bryce: Bought too much “stuff” for the boat that we didn’t really need. - Didn’t have the surveyor go on test sail! - Ran aground a couple of times, don’t just blindly trust the charts or the coastguard over the radio, (“there’s deep water if you hug the marker” There wasn’t!). - One time when we hauled out, our hydraulic steering pump needed replacing, because we were hauled out we paid way more ($1000s more) then we would have if we’d had time to shop around. We were just going back to our mooring so we could’ve used our emergency tiller and taken our time to find a replacement. - I am a competent sailor so I had thought that we had cruising figured out… but it turns out sailing is only a small part of cruising. You also need to be a diesel mechanic, plumber, electrician, rigger, sailmaker, carpenter, among other things! - Should have bought a smaller boat as our first, learner boat… bigger boat = bigger, more expensive mistakes.

Alissa: What mistakes didn’t we make!? See Bryce’s answer! :)

4. What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

Bryce: I really like meeting new people and cruisers generally seem to be really friendly, good people.

Alissa: We can have a new amazing backyard whenever we want! And the people! We’ve made some great boat friends in the past few years.

5. What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

Bryce: Not having space to just stretch without bumping into something. I struggle to fit into any of our beds, even having modified one of them.

Alissa: I am definitely a fair-weathered sailor. Whereas Bryce is quite happy trimming the sails and actively sailing, I would prefer just to set the sails and go for a ride on nice calm seas! I also dislike have to disassemble the boat to do anything or find something. I don’t like mess though so that’s not surprising!

6. What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn't find to be true?

Bryce: I read it’s a cheaper way of life but that hasn’t eventuated. We’ve needed to upgrade a number of systems to suit our style of cruising and it’s been very expensive. For example, a compete rewire, new solar panels, new batteries, replaced head and the list keeps growing.

Alissa: When we were preparing, we were reading about the pioneering cruisers, like the Pardeys, who were doing it hardcore. Cruising without refrigeration, freezers, washing machines and watermakers, using oil lanterns instead of electric lights and oars and sails instead of engines. Boat life would definitely be a lot simpler without the extras “complicating” things. I didn’t know that you could have an inverter and still run AC appliances so we bought manual (hand-powered) versions of appliances. I didn’t know that you didn’t have to live without creature comforts. You can have anything you want on a boat (basically) but there is the tradeoff that it makes your boat more complicated with more things to break and more things to repair. You just have to decide if it’s worth it to you or not!

7. What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

Bryce: It’s a constant series of jobs to keep the boat shipshape.

Alissa: Boat Maintenance in exotic locations. 100% true!

8. Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

Bryce: We probably should have ripped out the fridge and reinstalled it as the insulation is shot! The fridge is out biggest battery drain by far.

Alissa: The wishlist is long! I would love a freezer and a watermaker but they are staying on the wishlist for awhile! I will settle for a functioning fridge!

9. What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

Bryce: A lot of our books probably. They are heavy and take up a lot of space. We may yet get rid of them.

Alissa: Bryce will hate me saying this but his fishing gear. I don’t eat fish and Bryce doesn’t go fishing, so it’s just taking up valuable space.

10. What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why.

Alissa: We have a 1 year old on board now so we are just taking it slow and easy as we all acclimate to life on board.

Bryce: We will probably stick around the North Queensland coast for a couple more years and maybe head out to New Caledonia or Vanuatu once our crew is less dependent. Longer-term aspiration is to circumnavigate the globe.

11. What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it?

Bryce: How do you decide your cruising plans? Initially, I went about planning like I had in business. i.e. make a plan and then do it! This lifestyle is not suited to that approach and just provides endless frustration! Instead of plans, we now talk about options until we quite close to being able to actually do something.

Alissa: How would you recommend that someone prepares to cruise? We both joined Hoofers Sailing Club in Madison, WI (Me as a complete rookie, Bryce as an already excellent sailor just looking for more experience) which was a great place to learn. We were able to make mistakes on a boat that wasn’t our own! We also went to a couple of boatshows and attended some really informative lectures there and we read alot of books and blogs. In preparing for cruising again, given that we were coming from a place where (apart from sailing) our knowledge base was zero, I would’ve liked to take more hands-on intensive courses on a couple of the trickier topics, like engines repair, plumbing and electrical systems. We’ve learnt alot but some of it was probably the hard way!

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Thanks for reading our interview! Be sure to check interviews with other cruisers on Newly Salted and Interview with a Cruiser!

Muskoka at 11 months

2017-06-28T02:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome Muskoka to the ranks of the Newly Salted!
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Hello, we are Laurie and Scott, a Canadian couple from Vancouver Island, Canada. We are cruising on S/V Muskoka, a 2013 Lagoon 400 S2 catamaran. We left Parksville, BC July 21, 2016, so have been out for almost a year. We have cruised down the west coast, joined the Baja Ha-Ha to Cabo San Lucas and then entered the Sea of Cortez in November, which we have explored extensively, including the North Sea with it's extreme tides and fast currents. We are presently in San Carlos during hurricane season and will explore the Mexican mainland next season with plans to cross to the Marquesas March of 2018. Our long term plans are a circumnavigation at a very leisurely pace of 10 years (9 to go!). We can be contacted on our YouTube channel "Off the Starboard Hull" or Facebook .

Tell me your favourite thing about your boat.

Space, room to move, comfort. We have 620 square feet of living space with plenty of storage. Since we both have sold our houses with no storage, we carry everything we own. When sailing, we only heel a maximum of 5 degrees so we do not have to tie things down. There is occasional "hobby horsing" with large swell with short intervals between waves, but generally, the comfort level is high. The washer/spin dryer is a close second.

Tell me your least favourite thing about your boat.

The cost. As we bought our boat new 3 years ago, the initial investment including taxes and transport was huge. However, return on investment for this type of boat on resale is expected to be good.

What do you enjoy about cruising that you didn't expect to enjoy?

The people. Fellow cruisers are unfailingly friendly but the warmth, helpfulness and kindness of the Mexican people surprised us. We have had a stereo system and air conditioning installed and bottom painted in La Paz. In all cases, the work was clean, high quality and timely. Early payment and tips were discouraged and the pleasant disposition of these people was universal in all instances. Even an encounter with the police when a one way street sign was missed was handled politely with a "precaution", the officer had only the intent to inform, not reprimand.

What did you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

Humidity, bugs, poor or absent internet. We were not so surprised about the heat as much as the humidity. There is a good reason that a siesta is observed here mid day. Air conditioning on the dock and a pleasant wind at anchor are both welcome. Biting insects are present in some anchorages with the surprise presence of bees seeking fresh water in others. The Sea of Cortez has intermittent internet at best with a total lack of cell service in the northwest part of the Sea. Posting our video blogs became impossible for months at a time.

How did you gain offshore experience prior to leaving?

VICE. We are members of the Bluewater Cruising Association with chapters in Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and Calgary. This included a group called Fleet, people with the intention of leaving to go offshore within 2 years. They meet twice a month with informative topics, presentations and courses presented by Doners - those that have already been offshore. One event was called VICE - Vancouver Island Cruising Experience. It is an organized yearly event in June (longest days of the year) with 5 boats in 2016 which headed out from Victoria BC to sail 2 days out into the Pacific Ocean and then return. It was an invaluable experience in getting used to the Pacific Ocean swells, experimenting with crew, a watch schedule and seasickness remedies.

What type of watch schedule do you normally use while offshore?

4-5 hour shifts at night. Since we prefer to sail without crew, we have developed a schedule that works for the two of us. However, the longest passage that we have done so far is 3 nights, so on longer passages, we may switch it up. We find 3 hour shifts do not allow enough quality sleep time. After dinner, Scott takes a shift until midnight while Laurie takes a nap. Then Laurie takes charge until 4-5 am. During the day, Scott is usually in charge unless he asks Laurie to take over, as needed.

What are your impressions of the cruising community?

Very social. We have found the cruising community to be friendly, fun, active, inclusive and helpful. We were surprised to have a very active social life with dinners, hikes, runs, walks, workouts, bike rides and shopping expeditions with other like minded cruisers. We spent the majority of our time in the Sea of Cortez with 1-2 buddy boats - a great way to share our experience.

What is the hardest thing about cruising?

Relationship 24/7. The most challenging thing about the cruising lifestyle is being in relatively close quarters with your partner 24 hours a day. When we are at anchor, getting off the boat requires a Dinghy, SUP or Hobie ride (or in warmer waters, a swim) to shore. When at the dock, it is easier to leave to do separate activities or errands. Laurie runs every morning - a great way to explore the area and get much needed exercise. Scott immerses himself with boat projects. We have an extensive library of books on our ereaders. At night, movies and games are a welcome distraction. With a larger boat, sometimes we do not see each other for several hours. Patience, tolerance, positive communication, quickly forgiving and forgetting any heated words and being grateful for the precious moments we share helps keep things at an even keel.

What is the next piece of gear you would add for free?

Parasailor. However, at $10,000, this easy to use downwind sail with a vent is not one we have chosen to purchase yet.

What are the most common misconceptions about catamarans?

Point of sail into weather and dock availability. We are commonly asked if we need to take a wider tack into weather compared to our monohull counterparts. In our experience, if the wind is over 10 knots, we can match most other boats at 38-39 degrees into the wind without losing speed. However, with light winds, performance suffers. Our boat is heavily loaded (35,000 pounds) so acceleration is not as snappy as when she was unloaded. For our trip so far, we have had absolutely no trouble finding dock space and only have prebooked once - for Marina La Paz. Most of the time we are charged only for our length as shallower areas, end ties and side ties are the best spots for a catamaran. At most, we were charged 1.5 times a monohull, but that was only once on our trip. Another note, the increased cost of a catamaran is largely compensated by the high resale value which is a great return on our investment. It is definitely the right choice for us.

Mata Hari at 5 months

2017-06-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome Mata Hari to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally posted on their blog.

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We’ve been invited to take part in Newly Salted, a series of interviews with new cruisers that we enjoyed reading as we were getting ready to embark on our own adventure. So fun to be included! For those of you who don’t know us, here’s a little introduction:

We’re Monica and Rich and we live on our 39-foot sailboat Mata Hari. We lived aboard in New York City for three and a half years before sailing down the ICW to Savannah, Georgia, where we worked and saved for another year before sailing down to the Bahamas. We also did a transatlantic crossing on a friend’s boat a few summers ago. That was an adventure! Currently, we’re back in Savannah, Georgia, after five months of cruising in Florida and the Bahamas. It’s time to find jobs and refill the cruising kitty! At the moment, it’s looking like we’ll head north to New York City.

The view from the lighthouse in Hope Town, Abacos

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

I know this has been said before, but it bears repeating: It’s not all umbrella drinks and sunshine! There are going to be those days where you’re stuck on the boat with rain and 30-knot winds. And it might not just be one day, but six or seven days in a row. I envisioned us hopping from island to island every few days and, at least in the Bahamas, it didn’t always work out that way. So plan accordingly! Bring lots of reading material and put movies and TV shows on your hard drive before you go (this last part was something we failed to do and I will definitely be working on stockpiling things to watch next time). On the plus side, we read tons of books, something we rarely had time to do back on land.

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

Since we lived aboard for four years before we left, and made our way down the U.S. coast in stages, adjusting to cruising wasn’t all that hard for us. We did miss our family and friends, but we were able to keep in touch with phone and texts. It helped that a couple of friends came to visit! However, after a couple of months of rum drinks and beautiful beaches we did start to get antsy and feel weird about not having jobs and that sense of purpose and needing to be someplace every day. I also didn’t realize how difficult it would be to get enough exercise. When the wind is howling, it can be challenging to go ashore for a walk or do yoga or paddleboard. I know, our life is really rough, isn’t it??!!

Paddleboarding at Saddleback Cay, just before a run-in with three lemon sharks

What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

We did run aground just as we were leaving Savannah and were really worried that we’d damaged our keel, but fortunately it was in soft mud and everything was fine. We also broke off our throttle lever in Florida, which was an excellent introduction to the concept of cruising being just fixing your boat in exotic locations. It was a very expensive oops! Of course we broke the lever on a Friday, so even with rush shipping, we still didn’t get the part until the following Wednesday. All of this meant we meant we spent a lot of time at a marina that we weren’t planning on being at racking up slip fees and wishing we were on our way to the Bahamas.

Also, we might’ve overdone it on the canned goods when we provisioned. We tried to strike a balance between bringing enough for a few months and buying fresh produce when we arrived. Overall, we did pretty well, but we still have some canned stuff that I’m frankly getting a little sick of. Next time, we’ll know better. I also planned to bake bread and pizza and bought a lot of flour, but I didn’t use as much as I thought I would. My pizza and bread game frankly isn’t great, but I’m working on it. Hoping to give this recipe from the New York Times that a cruiser friend shared with us a try soon. On the plus side, we did use the masa we brought for making corn tortillas. Homemade tortillas are surprisingly easy to make and delicious, especially when you’re making fish tacos with the mahi your husband just caught. Yum!

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

The sheer delight of sailing your boat to another country will never get old. I also really enjoyed meeting locals and learning about the Bahamian culture and getting to know some of our fellow cruisers. Actually getting ourselves to the Bahamas after nearly five years of working on the boat and planning was the culmination of a lot of dreaming and it still blows my mind that we actually did it!

Also, the color of the water in the Bahamas is legendary for a reason. We couldn’t get enough of that bluer than blue water that you could see to the bottom of as if you were in a swimming pool. Looking at pictures now, I’m still amazed! Snorkeling was also pretty fantastic with that incredible visibility. After a lot of time at the dock back in New York, getting to play on our stand-up paddleboard and our kayak was a blast.

Mata Hari at anchor off Shroud Cay in the Exumas

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

We loved all the beautiful beaches, but you can get beautiful beach overload. It shouldn’t come as that much of a shock to me because I’m a total city person, but at times I needed a break from nature in the Bahamas. Don’t get me wrong, I loved our time in the Bahamas, but I’m also looking forward to sailing further south and visiting countries with more to do onshore. Rich loves cities and wilderness, but he’s a big nature boy. We always say that he could win Survivor if he was a contestant. Seriously, he’s the guy you want with you on that desert island.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

We’d heard that the cruising community is one big happy family, but we definitely didn’t become instant friends with everyone we met. Then again, we don’t get along with everyone back home so why should that be any different out there?

Also, everyone told us that food was crazy expensive in the Bahamas, which for the most part was true, but Bahamians gotta eat too! Some things, such as American packaged foods like crackers and tortilla chips were a luxury we rarely indulged in at three times the price back home, but produce and eggs were often only slightly more than we were used to paying or sometimes less. Everyone says pack for the apocalypse and while you do pay a premium for the imported goods in the Bahamas, the truth is you’re going to want to eat fresh stuff when it’s available and we were willing to pay a little bit more for it when we could get our hands on it. Next time, we’ll pack lighter.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

The cruising community is made up of people who’ve got your back when the going gets tough. For the most part, we found this to be true. A friend we’d met back in Savannah, Georgia, where we spent a year working after leaving New York, gave us a kayak when we ran into him in Miami. Just like in small-town America where you can knock on your neighbor’s door and borrow a cup of sugar, we were able to get on the VHF and borrow a couple of eggs from a friend when we ran out while waiting out some weather. Friends with a watermaker (something we don’t have) insisted on filling our jerry cans for us when they were making water for themselves. It was also nice to be able to give back too. Rich had a lot of tools on the boat and was able to repair someone else’s rudder, allowing him to safely complete a passage. He also had the knowledge to explain to another cruiser how to nurse his sickly engine well enough to get home.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

A dog! I know that probably sounds crazy, but we had a dog before we started out on this adventure and we’re getting to the point where we really want another four-legged friend in our lives. Maybe not right now, but one day soon we’re hoping to adopt one. I know that opens up a whole new host of issues, but we’ll figure it all out when the time comes.

Meanwhile, I really wish we had a bimini. We had one when we bought the boat, but Rich gave it to a neighbor. We were planning on installing a solar arch before we left, but ran out of time and money. That shade would have been mighty nice for the tail end of our trip when we were crossing back to Florida and basically sitting in the cockpit sweating off all of our sunscreen. We wound up resorting to using umbrellas to keep cool! A solar arch and solar panels would also have been nice for off-the-grid living, but we did just fine charging our battery bank the old-fashioned way (running our engine every few days). I guess that’s the advantage of not having a lot of fancy systems on board. We mainly needed to keep the refrigerator cold, our anchor light on at night, and charge our iPads and computer, so our energy needs were pretty small.

On the plus side, our new Beta 38 engine is the best piece of gear we’ve invested in. Rich installed it himself before we left New York and I couldn’t be prouder of him. The peace of mind of hearing that engine fire up every time we’ve needed it was worth all the money (and blood, sweat—mostly Rich’s!—and tears—mine!).

Oh, and the refrigerator and freezer he built was worth its weight in gold. To have fresh food and ice in our drinks made being in paradise that much sweeter.

We also love the nesting dinghy Rich built. It’s pretty and practical. The smaller piece “nests” inside the bigger piece for easy stowing on the foredeck.

Rich manning our dinghy

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

Maybe our sewing machine. We have a Sailirite and love it, but we didn’t really need it at any point in the trip. Otherwise, we don’t really have a ton of gear on our boat. We also had a lot of spare parts and materials, which we were fortunate enough not to have needed, though they did take up a lot of room. To paraphrase Clarence in True Romance, it’s better to have spares and not need them than need them and not have them.

What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why.

We’re not independently wealthy so we’re heading back to New York City to find jobs. We’d like to get to the Caribbean next fall, but we will probably need to work a while to make enough money for another trip. I thought I wouldn’t like this part, but strangely, now that it’s happening I’m okay with breaking up our cruising into smaller bites. I love cruising but I also love being back on land in the city. It’s all about the contrasts!

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I’ve asked you and how would you answer it?

I’m always curious about how people fund their adventures.

The answer to that question for us is simple: We work and save. But I’m always looking for a better way to do that, especially one that we can use to keep us out there longer. I write and edit books on a freelance basis, which I’m working on making a more viable means of supporting us while we’re out there next time. I did a few projects while we were in the Bahamas, but the Internet connectivity was too iffy at times for me to be able to reliably commit the whole time we were there. In addition to being an amazing sailor, Rich is a designer, but also pretty handy with everything from carpentry to diesel mechanics. For next time, we’re contemplating the possibility of stopping somewhere along the way down south where we can legally work and getting jobs to refill the cruising kitty. Working while you’re cruising seems to be a controversial topic for some, but we’d rather work while we’re out there than not go at all. Of course, there’s always the lottery!

Inspiration at 9 months

2017-05-30T12:09:00.002-07:00

Welcome Inspiration to the ranks of the Newly Salted. Read this interview as original published on their blog.

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Newly Salted: What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

Inspiration Sailing: Just “fair winds”, “enjoy” or “good luck” and of course “see you soon”. That is all I needed, really. Actually got a lot of that from family and friends, so that was good.

NS: As you started cruising, what transitions did you find most difficult?

IS: That was pretty smooth. Have been on boats so many times before, that I knew pretty much what to expect. One difference is that when you embark a long term cruising project, you need to think about maintenance of the boat that much more than when you just sail for a few days or a couple of weeks. If you want to cruise far, you need the boat to be properly maintained at all times. The boat can really give you plenty of nautical miles if you take good care of it!

NS: What mistakes did you make before you started cruising?

IS: There are so many resources available in the public domain to study in order to prepare a cruising project, that you should at least be avoiding basic mistakes. So many individuals successfully sailed around the world before you even planned to do so: learn from them and customize their advice to your specific project requirements. In addition, the latest technology and equipment available on modern yachts make cruising life easier, safer and more comfortable. But, seamanship remains an absolute requirement, of course.

NS: What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

IS: All aspects of it are pretty cool, really. The idea of traveling around using the wind is exciting. Discovering new places, new people, new cultures is exciting. Especially when these places are preserved and stunning. Cruising allows access to some of the last sanctuaries of our Planet. That is a unique proposition.

NS: What is something that you read or heard about cruising that you did not find true?

IS: I actually found the cruising literature pretty accurate. There are tons of good publications out there that are really helpful in preparing a cruising project.

NS: What is something that you read or heard about cruising that you find particularly accurate?

IS: “Just do it”. Most seasoned cruisers actually say this no the new comers. And that is very true. I would add that this is important to have your own project: do not try to exactly follow someone else’s footsteps. Having you own personal objectives and timeframe is essential for a successful project.

NS: Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

IS: I installed pretty much all I wanted on the boat before I started cruising. I could have out more solar panels. Not to state the obvious, ability to generate electricity (and water) is paramount for long term cruising projects. You never have enough. Redundancy is also important concept: having backups for all key equipment of the boat proves to be helpful if any failure happens at sea.

NS: What piece of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

IS: Any electric gear is typically more trouble than helpful. As such, air conditioning, electric toilet, electric gadgets are to be left behind. Simplicity is the secret of happy cruising.

NS: What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why ?

IS: Will move on to an entrepreneurial project. My cruising project was a both a lifetime experience and a transition to a new professional project. Life goes on. I may be cruising again once I retire. In the meantime, I will remember this lifetime experience until my last day. Unforgettable memories!

NS: Tell us about the genesis of the Inspiration Sailing cruising project?

IS: The project was born in late 2015. After 8 months of methodical preparation, I set sails on July 31, 2016 from South of France. The stated objective is to reach Australia in about 13 months (i.e. by August 31, 2017) following the well-known sailing routes across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean, West Indies, Panama, and the Pacific Ocean.

The idea is to discover some of the most beautiful parts of the world, while getting the full benefits of the trade wind, the sea, the sun, the moon, the stars and the spectacle of marine life…and to share all of this with my crew members, as well as others via the project blog (www.inspirationsailing.com).

NS: Why did you decide to go cruising around the globe?

IS: I believe that in life there is a time to do things, a time to create, a time to produce, a time to be agitated, a time to be under pressure to perform and deliver results, a time for hard accomplishments. But, there is also a time to stop doing, to watch, to observe, to contemplate, to meditate, to take attitude, to appreciate simple things such as the lights, colors, shapes of nature and the surrounding scenery…

From this time “out of time” which I refer to as “empty” time, we have an opportunity analyze the World from a different angle, generate new ideas, prepare for new projects, learn new skills, get ready for new challenges, with a renewed perspective over our life.

As I am cruising around, new ideas and projects naturally come to my mind so that life after cruising is also taking shape as nautical miles go by. As such, this project is becoming a complete life experience.

NS: How did you prepare for this cruising trip?

IS: I thought about this project in great details, very much professionally, in fact pretty much as you would think of a startup business. All aspects have been analyzed thoroughly: choice of the boat and equipment, crew selection, cruising itinerary and timing, cost and budget, personal objectives, life post cruising, etc.

Sailing across oceans is a serious enterprise and by no mean, I wanted to jump into the unknown. I am not the type of person who goes at sea undercooked, so safety considerations were paramount. This is a wonderful challenge to complete a long term cruising project and be safe. This is also an absolute priority.

NS: Why did you call your cruising project “Inspiration”?

IS: The concept was to inspire the crew coming on board, as well as third parties following the trip. Quite a few people actually dream about such a trip, but are unable to do it for multiple reasons. I thought it was important to share this adventure with others, which is actually made easy by technology (should the Internet be available!)

At least one other person I know decided to buy his own boat and to prepare an ambitious family cruising project around the world following my footsteps. A film maker approached me, as he would like to spend time on the boat to film a story. The Newly Salted project initiated this interview…So Inspiration Sailing was not a bad name for the project after all.

I am pleased not only to realize a dream experience, but also to share it and to inspire to others the benefits of “empty” time. That should be mandatory for everyone at least once in a lifetime! Life is made of experiences and challenges. Preparing my cruising project and executing it proved to be both exciting and rewarding so far: clearly a tremendously fulfilling experience.

NS: Where do you currently stand in this project?

IS: Sailing Yacht Inspiration is currently anchored in Huahine, French Polynesia with about 16,000 nautical miles under its keel, including 2 ocean crossings, since the project started. I can say that we are approximately 75% of the way, but the good news is that the remainder of the trip across the Pacific is looking rather exciting!

Over the last 10 months or so, I validated a lot of the decisions made during project preparation. Yet I keep learning every day and both the crew and the boat still have a long way to go (over 3,000 nautical miles left). So the adventure continues and I feel that the best part of the trip is yet to come.

As of the time of this interview the project running on time and budget. But I have to say that the overall experience has been well beyond expectations, which I could not know in advance!

IS: What did you learn along the way during your cruising time?

IS: Inherent with these types of projects, you will be faced with unforeseen situations, new types of problems that are only specific to the life at seas. Take it as an opportunity to improve your problem solving skills. There is always a solution, even though it may not be obvious at first sight.

One other aspect is expanding your knowledge to many different topics: from celestial navigation to weather patterns and forecasting, from ocean wildlife to geology… I learned that cruising around the world is pure luxury: luxury of a certain form of freedom.

Finally, crossing oceans is a test for your level of preparation. You can only rely on yourself and your own decisions out there. You need to be 100% autonomous for a few weeks in row, far away from the land. You cannot cheat, you cannot lie, but you can only learn about yourself.

Rhapsody at 6 Months

2017-05-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome Rhapsody to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally posted on their blog.

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Newly Salted is a website that posts interviews of cruisers that have been cruising for less than two years. I read all of these interviews before we started cruising, and dreamt of the time when I could be a part of this project. Now we have officially been cruising for 6 months and I am excited to be able to participate.

A little about us: We are Bob and Sarah aboard Rhapsody, our 49' Jeanneau Sun Odyssey. We sold off our belongings in Oregon and began cruising in November of 2016. We bought Rhapsody in the BVI and that is where we began our journey through the Caribbean. You can follow our story at rhapsodyontheblue.com

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?
Sarah- We got into cruising as a way to travel and have our own bed with us, so the travel and seeing new countries is what I find the most exciting. Meeting people along the way, the quick friendships that form, and getting to do it all with my best friend. I like being able to move to a new place on a whim, or stay put if we find somewhere that we really like.

What is something that you think potential cruisers are afraid of that they shouldn't fear? And what is something potential cruisers don't worry about that perhaps they should?
Bob- Cruisers should not worry about the details of breaking free and beginning cruising. They should focus on the wonderful opportunity before them and remember that the overall experience will be worth it. Don't sweat the small things, get away from the dock.
They should worry about knowing their boat, having enough information to stay ahead of repairs with the right maintenance first. This will keep you safer and happier. If you know your boat you will have less to worry about.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising that you found to be particularly accurate?
Sarah - Don't make schedules. We learned this the hard way. We agreed to meet my brother in Martinique in March. We made plans with him in January while we were still in the BVI, thinking that we would have plenty of time. We ended up going through countries much faster than we would have liked, leaving friends behind us in our wake. The flip side of this is that we were able to get a taste of the countries to whet our appetites for further exploration. Part of the beauty of cruising is that we can come back. As for friends, we are meeting more people, and have hopes that friends that we have made will catch up with us now that we have slowed down again.

What is something that you were dreading about cruising when you were dreaming that is as bad or worse than imagined?
Bob - Loud music from the beach. Bass pounding, large speakers aimed out at the anchorage, vibrating the hull until 3 AM.

Tell me your favorite thing about your boat.
Sarah- On a day to day basis I love the space that we have. The salon and the cockpit are both spacious and very comfortable to be in. On passage I love the feeling of safety that I get. Rhapsody is a strong boat and I am sure that she can handle much bigger seas and worse weather than I can.

Share a piece of cruising etiquette.
Bob - Anchor as far as is reasonably possible from the surrounding boats while recognizing that besides added safety many of us prefer a little privacy. If we can hold a conversation with you from our boat to yours in normal tones, you are too close.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising that you didn't find to be true?
Bob - We had heard that we might need to budget $300 - $500 a month for Customs, Immigration and various fees for checking in and out of countries. We have found that checking in and out of countries from Puerto Rico to Grenada has not at any point been particularly difficult nor expensive. We probably have spent about $150 on this in 6 months.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?
Sarah - Rolly anchorages. We did a lot of research about cruising before we started, and I even read solutions that people had for stopping the rolling, but all my research was done on land or in calm anchorages so somehow it didn't really sink in how it would feel. We have been fortunate to have experienced only a few really rolly anchorages, but that left enough of an impression that we avoid them whenever possible.

What is the key to making the cruising life enjoyable?
Bob - A take-it-easy attitude combined with the right focus to keep the boat maintained, but most of all, a willing partner.

What are your plans now?
Sarah - One other thing that we have learned is the saying "a cruiser's plans are written in the sand at low tide". We have experienced this often as weather, health and friends can quickly change whatever plans we had carefully crafted. Our big picture "plan" is to spend the summer hurricane season in Grenada, possibly exploring Trinidad and/or Tobago. Early in the fall we would like to head to Bonaire to go diving and then in November head north to Puerto Rico to begin the loop again, slowing down for the parts we missed on the first go round.

Unless something else comes up.

Final thoughts
Sarah - As I am re-reading our answers there seems to be more negativity than we feel in reality. Rolly anchorages, loud music, rushing for schedules. The truth is, we are really enjoying this lifestyle. The freedom to go where we want to go, the wonderful people we are meeting, and new places we are experiencing. I am sitting in the cockpit, looking out at the turquoise waters surrounding the green islands with white sand beaches and I have a big smile on my face. Our intention is to keep doing this until it is no longer fun, and we are firmly ensconced in the fun zone now.

Ruby Rose at 12 months

2016-08-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome Ruby Rose to the ranks of the Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally posted on their blog.

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There’s an awesome blog called Newly Salted who interview cruisers that have been underway for less than 2 years. Here’s our responses to “10 questions with Ruby Rose” about liveabord cruising. I hope this information might be useful or interesting to our readers and it’s a great way to round up our impressions of a year of cruising on Ruby Rose!

This selfie was taken as we left Conyer almost one year ago- wow, Nick’s hair was so short!

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?
Well, people did tell us but we didn’t listen- slow down! We looked at a chart and said, “Oh yeah, we can definitely cover that distance in a season, no problem!” But the reality is that after 6 months, we started to feel tired, frustrated and increasingly irritable with our schedule because we had set ourselves a timetable that was unrealistic. Well, perhaps it was realistic, but certainly not enjoyable. I wish I’d listened to people who told us that we shouldn’t rush, but it’s the type of thing you can only learn yourself!

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?
We had undertaken two ‘shakedown’ cruises on Ruby Rose to France the previous two summers before our actual departure. Both sailing trips were about a month long, and although we were in holiday mode, it gave us a real insight into what living on board would be like when we did it for real. We also lived on board for about 6 months before we actually left the UK, so the transition was a slow one and we didn’t find it difficult at all. The main luxuries we miss are regular hot water, air-conditioning and a front loading fridge!

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?
Do I have to pick just one!? We love discovering and exploring new places, people and countries, and I suppose that’s the most exciting aspect of cruising. We also find the freedom we have exhilarating- to think we could simply point our bow in any direction and go wherever we like! We also love meeting new people and making new friends- that is one of the best things about cruising.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?
I asked Nick this question and he replied, “Sailing!” It’s true. We thought we’d have ‘champagne’ sailing as soon as we reached the tropics- we couldn’t have been more wrong! Sailing in the Caribbean isn’t always pleasant. In fact, it’s often quite unpleasant. We’ve whinged about this to plenty of people who have just looked at us like we’re a couple of aliens- or, more accurately, like we not ‘real’ sailors. But we just don’t like 2 metre swell on the beam and beating into 20 knots- sorry! Yes, we’ve had some very quick sails between the islands. No, we haven’t enjoyed the majority of them.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?
We had planned to only use renewable energy- wind generator and solar panels- but we also really love Nespresso coffee and watching DVD’s at night which takes up more power than our renewables produce. We weren’t realistic about what our energy requirements were, and we also didn’t want the expense of a generator set or a suitcase generator. Plus, we wanted to be green! But after a year on board, we’ve decided to go ahead and buy a generator so that we never have to spend a windless, cloudy day without the convenience of our electronic devices ever again…
We also wish we had bought a watermaker with a much higher output (ours produces 12 litres/hour)- at the moment we have to run it for several hours to top-up the tanks, and I’ve already mentioned our issues with power at anchor!
One last thing. We bought a soft-bottomed dinghy with a 3hp outboard for this cruise, but we wish we had a RIB and a more powerful outboard. We’ll be upgrading as soon as we can!

Tell me your favourite thing about your boat.
We adore our Southerly 38, Ruby Rose . Our favourite features are the big cockpit, the big aft cabin and the big saloon. Sensing a theme? Yes, she had a huge amount of living space for the length and other sailors who come on board are always surprised at how spacious our boat is. We also love her lifting keel, as going aground is one less thing we need to worry about (we hope!) and it means we can get into shallow anchorages. We think our boat is beautiful, comfortable to live on and she is very seaworthy.

Tell me your least favourite thing about your boat.
All that living space comes at a cost- we have very little storage space on Ruby Rose or room for plant machinery. We’d love a bigger fuel tank, a bigger water tank, and a gen set. We also heartily dislike our top-loading fridge- any time we want something from the baskets down the bottom we have to empty the contents of the fridge completely in order to get to it! Needless to say, we try not to use the baskets if we can help it.

What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why.
We will definitely continue cruising! We’re storing Ruby Rose in Antigua for hurricane season which has the double benefit of reducing the risk of damage if a hurricane does come through (plus we’re insured if it’s on the hard and tied down) and gives us 6 months to visit our families, travel and enjoy the conveniences of being a ‘land lubber’ for a time. We’re already looking forward to next season where we will (probably) continue north and visit the BVI, Bahamas and then cruise the East Coast of the USA. After that, who knows- but we have no desire to go back to bricks and mortar permanently. If we can continue to fly home periodically, we will likely carry on cruising for many years to come.

Is there anywhere you sailed to that was a disappointment?
The Tobago Cays! I thought it would be like paradise- but it was so disappointing! It was like a carpark: there were so many boats at anchor, it was like a forest of masts all around us! The boat boys hassled us and yes, we saw turtles which was awesome, but we’ve snorkelled with turtles many times since. The anchorage was also completely open to the wind which was blowing upwards of 20 knots while we were there, so it was generally not particularly pleasant. We left after one night.

What are your impressions of the cruising community?
One of the best things about cruising on Ruby Rose is meeting such an interesting mix of people. We have met young couples who barely have enough money to eat- but are living their dream anyway!- and retirees who have recently left very lucrative jobs, have bought the multi-million dollar yacht, and expect everyone they come across to drop to their knees in bowing acquiescence. We’ve met families who are cruising with their children and homeschooling, cruisers who have been living in the Caribbean for 15 years, couples on a 6 month sabbatical, and everyone in between. Even though there’s a minority of the sailing community we try and avoid like the plague, in the most part everyone is friendly, interesting, and sociable. Generally sailors are extremely generous with their time and experience, and if you need help or a spare part or another set of hands, there’s always someone nearby willing to help.

Helio at 6 months

2015-08-31T02:09:00.001-07:00

Welcome Helios! Read this interview as originally published on their blog.
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[Newly Salted is a blog Dominic and I found beyond useful as we prepared for our departure. They interview sailors who are six months underway. We took their survey, and hope our experiences are helpful to others!]

Our Background: We are Dominic and Corinne Dolci, two longtime sailors from the San Francisco Bay. We have been cruising in our Island Packet 380, Helios, since January of 2015, enjoying the California coast, Ensenada, and French Polynesia as we journey to New Zealand. You can follow our adventures at www.svhelios.com.

1. As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

Sleeping in shifts while underway is rough. It's the one part of cruising we couldn't prepare for without actually cutting the dock lines, and both of us put huge value on sleeping an eight-hour night.

We've built a routine that works for us—Dominic is on watch from 8 pm to 12 am, I do the graveyard shift, and Dominic takes over again at 4 am, dozing if conditions allow, and taking a proper nap in the early afternoon—but we're both left feeling groggy, and I'm not convinced that Dominic is as able to really deeply sleep at all while Helios is underway.

We maintain a ban on alarm clocks in all other circumstances, so we manage to tough it out.

I've also never lived more than 30 miles from my family, so for me, not being able to have lunch or do yoga with my mom, hike with my brother, or make dinner with my dad on a weekly basis has been a huge, difficult life change.

2. What is the best cruising advice you've heard?

The sailing advice we live by: never enter an anchorage at night.

The best adventure advice I've heard: travel like you know you're going to return.

But there are a handful axioms we find ourselves often repeating: all plans are written in the sand at low tide; a quiet boat is a happy boat; red sky at night, sailor's delight; it's five o'clock somewhere...

3. What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

We were lucky to have a lot of cruisers supporting us as we prepared for departure (living in a marina for 16 months before departure was invaluable on this front). They're still close friends, meaning if we find ourselves at a crossroads, we can send an email via the satellite phone and have a variety of experienced opinions in the next few hours. It's awesome.

There are things we've learned by doing (no wine for me on overnight passages, wipe down the bright work and stainless after every passages, tune in to the SSB nets regularly) and different choices we would make with the benefit of hindsight (getting a long-stay visa in French Polynesia), but neither of us can think of anything we'd really call a mistake.

4. What do you like the most about your cruising life?

Getting to have a relaxed morning, just about every morning. We sleep in, drink coffee, make a delicious breakfast, consider the day. Sometimes the morning is followed by chores, other times followed by killer sailing, fantastic scenery and magnificent wildlife. We spend the days together, at our own pace, and it's a beautiful thing.

It's also thrilling, to be out cruising, not knowing where you'll be in a week, or what adventure is swimming toward you.

What they say when comparing cruising to landlubbing life is true: the highs are higher, but the lows are lower. Sometimes it's raining and you're lugging groceries around town or cleaning out the icebox while your sister is getting married half way around the world and you're missing it.

The best frame of mind I've found is to consider that cruising isn't a vacation; it's a lifestyle choice, with ups and downs like any other.

5. What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

I miss the food from home more than I thought I would. We've found a few tasty meals here and there, but there's a reason the tropics aren't known for their cuisine. We can usually find groceries and make ourselves delicious meals, but we're spoiled foodies from the Bay Area, and it shows.

It's also tough to have to pace our own adventure. We often find our selves in gorgeous anchorages where we want to stay longer, but our visas are limited and we have to be in New Zealand by a certain date, or a weather window opens and we have to move on. This is a challenge in most travel scenarios, but it's a series of choices we face all the time, and decision fatigue is real.

6. Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

Dominic's wish list revolves around our energy consumption. We have 700 watts of solar power, but he would have a wind generator and a larger battery bank.

It would also be nice to have a more reliable dinghy. We have a soft-bottom Zodiac that came with the boat, and it's been chronically leaking despite multiple repairs. It takes a lot of abuse (getting pulled up on to the beach, tethered to questionable docks) and is still doing its job, but it would be nice to not have to worry about it sinking.

7. What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

We have a lot of blankets we don't use and clothing we don't wear. We have pieces of gear we haven't yet had the chance to install: our BBQ, a drogue kit, some fancy speakers for the cockpit. We have the storage space, so they're not too cumbersome. And who knows...maybe we'll get around to it.

8. What pieces of gear do you find the most valuable?

Our satellite phone, solar panels, and water maker are our favorite luxury items. I say a prayer of gratitude everyday I wake up and don't have to lug fresh water back to the boat. With only the two of us as crew, we consider the autopilot to be absolutely invaluable—to the point that we have a second autopilot stowed away in case of emergencies.

9. How did you finance your trip?

Our trip was five years in the making, so we were able to spend that time saving and living on the cheap: we had dual incomes and no kids; we lived in the East Bay instead of San Francisco; as we got closer and closer to departure, traveling became less frequent, as did nights out on the town. We chose to live aboard for over a year prior to departure, allowing us to purchase a high quality vessel that will hopefully hold her value when we put her on the market in Australia.

10. What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why.

Our plans are to spend the 2015-16 cyclone season in New Zealand. We'll spend next summer cruising Fiji and Vanuatu, and then move on to New Caledonia and Australia. We'll likely cruise Australia while our funds last, sell the boat, and return to life in Northern California (so we can refill the sailing kitty and start planning the adventures of Helios II).

Dos Libras at 12 months

2014-10-07T00:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome Dos Libras! Read this interview as originally published on their blog.

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The questions are beginning to come in... We recently made the rounds among our old friends in Texas, visiting with as many as we could during our short trip "home". Everywhere we went people were curious! I guess they thought we would fall off the edge of the earth! My Doctor told me "I saw your name on my schedule and thought... You're ALIVE!". Yes... we're still alive! And now we're officially... Newly Salted!

Click to read about our first day out

Newly Salted is a collection of interviews with new cruisers. It has a companion site, Interview With A Cruiser, where you can find interviews with those more "seasoned".

Both projects were on my list of regular internet resources when I was in the "dreaming stage". Back in the early days, I never really imagined that one day I would be posting my own interview. So, without further ado... let's get started!

Who are we? Bruce has been sailing, mostly on a lake in Kansas, for much of his life. I (Tammy) started sailing in 1997 on Corpus Christi Bay. We met while participating as regular crew in the local Wednesday night sailboat races. We dated, married, and started working towards our dream of being among the lucky few that can call themselves Cruisers. We tossed the dock lines on September 30, 2013 and have slowly worked our way from Texas, east along the Gulf Coast, down into the Florida Keys and back up the East Coast. We are currently cruising near Charleston, SC and will soon begin our second year of cruising... Bahamas Bound!

One of the "Good" Anchorages - Boca Raton, FL.

What do you wish someone would have told you before you started cruising? The first thing that comes to mind is a very practical thing. You might think that this one would be answered with something profound like "you'll still be yourself no matter where you go"... but no. We wish that we had been warned that the waters of the East Coast ICW were fertile (in the extreme), and that we would experience bottom growth on our hull in excess of our wildest imagination. Ever since our prolonged stay in Marathon, FL., we have been battling with an amazingly prolific "secret garden" beneath our floating home. The fast-growing "beard" can become unmanageable within days and it is home to thousands of small creatures. The murky waters of the ICW make it difficult to see well enough to get a good clean bottom, and the swift moving current doesn't help either... It is never-ending.

How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad? We had one 24 hour hop in the Gulf of Mexico that wasn't great. The winds piped up to the mid to upper 20 knot range at night after a really nice daytime sail... I stood tensely at the helm while Bruce battled waves on the bounding foredeck to make a headsail change. I had to keep pushing thoughts about what I would do if he was washed overboard (even though he was tethered) and how I could possibly retrieve him in the dark and wild water. It wasn't scary, just uncomfortable and we were BOTH ready for it to end come sunup. It definitely got our attention...

Click to read the post

Our only other weather complaint would be the daily squalls along the East Coast of Florida. Every day, we could expect that the sky would cloud up and dump a deluge upon us. Some days it was accompanied by high gusty winds. There were three days that stand out. We were in wide open anchorages each time. We would purposely cut our day short so that we could be safely at anchor when the first gusts hit us each afternoon. It went on this way for WEEKS and we were very glad to finally get out of Florida where the weather seemed to moderate some...

Click to read the post

Our record wind speed occurred while we were anchored near Titusville. We saw 46 knots. We were anchored in relatively shallow water and very near a small island when it hit. My concern was that we would drag anchor and end up beached on that island. We remained in the cockpit with the engine running so that we would be ready to take evasive action if it looked like we were getting too close. It was a very tense hour but we came through it unscathed.

Click to read the post

Our most exciting weather event occurred while we were anchored near Melbourne Beach. Again in a wide open anchorage that allowed quite the impressive fetch, the rain came down in blinding sheets. We could barely make out the rather large sailboat that was dragging down upon us. We got ready to move and Bruce was heading towards the bow to raise the anchor when we realized that the offending boat was under control and motoring away...

While we haven't experienced any "REAL" bad weather... we feel that we've gained confidence in our boat and in our own ability through these close calls. I am most surprised at how we were both able to remain relatively calm and deal with whatever Mother Nature chose to throw our way. (Knock on teak)

What is your favorite piece of boating related new technology?
Hands down it would be the iPad! It has been the most important tool in route planning and I can NOT imagine doing this without it. The applications that show tides, currents, anchorages, marinas and weather... all with our position superimposed on the chart... have made this a flawless operation.

Second place would go to the AIS, although it was primarily valuable to us while we were traveling in the Gulf Coast ICW. The tug traffic there was so heavy, the ability to hail the captains by name as well as the ability to see and be seen from far around a blind curve, gave us an edge that boosted our comfort level.

What was your biggest fear before going cruising? What is your biggest fear now? My biggest fear starting out was that we wouldn't be smart enough to do this. I worried that we would make stupid mistakes or just not be able to figure things out.

My biggest fear now after a year... running out of things. I know, it makes me sound like a borderline hoarder! But I worry about running out of water. We still top off the tanks at EVERY opportunity and carry 25 gallons of "spare" water in jugs. I worry about running out of food, even though we provisioned for the end-of-time... The difference now is that I know what things we DID run out of and will stock up on more of those and less of other things. In my defense, it is NICE not having to stop and find provisions when we would rather move on. We can pick and choose our provisioning spots.

Share a piece of Cruising Etiquette. Never... NEVER touch your feet when visiting with others. Going everywhere barefoot can lead to a certain relaxed attitude towards feet and while it is OK to arrive to your neighbor's boat for happy hour barefooted... it is NEVER OK to pick your toenails, corns or dig toe jam within sight of another soul not bound to you by a deep and abiding love.

What do you think is a common cruising myth? You've probably heard this to the point that it should no longer qualify as a common cruising myth... It isn't all palm trees, white sand beaches and fruity drinks. While those things are a part of cruising, they comprise such a small part it is almost laughable that they continue to pop up high on the list.

There are plenty of palm trees where we've been, but the white sand beaches have been surprisingly few. Cruising the US Gulf and East Coasts, we have encountered numerous beaches for sure... but not as many as we thought and VERY FEW had the dreamy white sand. Even the Keys were very short in the "Dream Beach" category.

And as for fruity drinks... well, after our initial daily celebratory cocktails back in the beginning, we quickly learned that it is not healthy to drink EVERY day. We have settled into a happy medium of cocktails when the conditions warrant them, but sometimes... many times... water has been our first choice.

Tell me your favorite thing about your boat. Our centerline queen sized bed. I love snuggling down into our familiar and cozy haven after a day on the water. No matter where we go, our bed is waiting for us. Clean sheet day is the BEST!

What piece of gear seems to break the most often? Our refrigeration. (is that gear?) It's the only thing that has been a continual issue. We've endured a lot of angst due to shoddy installation. Of all of the gear that has broken, it has been the "luxury items" that have caused us the problems. The boat itself? No problems! (knock on teak)

What is the key to making the cruising life enjoyable? The number one thing is to let go of your compulsions. There is almost nothing that you MUST do today. It is OK to sit in the cockpit and read. All. Day. Long.

The second thing - get off of the boat. There is a world of adventure waiting for you if you go ashore and explore. The boat will take you there, but you have to go and play.

What is your biggest lesson learned? I can't pin it down to just one thing... these are my favorites:
We ARE smart enough to do this. And if we can do it... you can too.
We make it out here without the luxuries of society... and even enjoy it.
It is OK, and even liberating, to live a life outside of your comfort zone.
The waters before us are not unknown and treacherous, they are somebody else's "back yard".
Cruising will not change you as much as you might think...
No matter where you go... there you are. It is true.

The Life Nomadik at 13 months

2014-10-02T12:02:00.001-07:00

Welcome The Life Nomadik! Read this interview as originally published on their blog.

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After 13 months and 4000 nautical miles of continuous cruising in over 12 countries and 50 islands we are proud to be interviewed for the Newly Salted project featuring cruisers from around the world with less than 2 years of sailing experience, like us.
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The Life Nomadik Family

Evo, Maya, and Mira

We are a family with Bulgarian origins currently living and traveling aboard a sailboat. We are Evo, Mira and 10-year-old Maya aboard Fata Morgana.

Our cruising adventures around the world, a voyage into a new and unknown way of life, started in July of 2013 with zero sailing experience aboard our first sailboat, a 38-foot Leopard catamaran Fata Morgana. We have left behind work, school, and home in order to prove that there are alternative ways of living, traveling and experiencing the world outside of the system , looking for ultimate freedom and adventure, and living off-grid visiting some of the most beautiful and pristine places on the planet on a ridiculously minimal budget.

Questions-Answers

1. What is cruising for you and why did you decide to cruise?

The night is falling slowly, inevitable. The wind is changing direction, becoming stronger from north. The sea gets rough. No land in view. Anxiety creeps in. We take turns on the helm, and we can’t really sleep with the waves crushing violently around the boat rocking her in every direction. The next day we are exhausted and hungry but the only thing we can prepare under these circumstances is instant noodles. At last we see land. We see the green shores of a tropical island and we know soon we will rest. Soon the boat will be still, anchored near a beautiful beach with palm trees and pink flowers. We will swim to the beach, we will snorkel in the coral gardens around, we will jump from the boat, we will hike to the mountain and visit the village to buy ice cream for Maya and beers for Evo and me. We might meet new friends, we might learn new things. And then, after a few days, we will keep sailing further. To another island, another beach, another country, another adventure.

This is what ‘cruising‘ means to us. It is a way of life. It is not as crazy or heroic as some might think. It is just an alternative to the other more conventional land-life most of us have accepted as ‘normal‘. But to us ‘crazy’ and ‘heroic’ is to accept the routine of 9 to 5 Monday to Friday, the morning and evening traffic jams, the bills at the end of the month. Cruising is just living differently, simply, sometimes better, sometimes worst. For those like us who love traveling, nature, the sea, who want to learn about the world and its people first hand, who want to live off-grid and escape city-life, who don’t mind washing their clothes by hand and eating instant noodles from time to time, cruising is the better option. And before we decided to do it, we dreamed about it. It was our next dream in a series of dreams-come-true.

2. What is the most important aspect of your cruising lifestyle?

Visiting places we never even dreamt about, remote, beautiful, breathtaking, places accessible only by boat; meeting people from different cultures, exchanging stories with them, learning from them, getting involved in their local communities, and sharing some incredible adventures together; meeting other travelers/wanderers/wonderers who inspire us so much; overcoming obstacles, conquering fears, growing and becoming. All these are some of the best characteristics of the cruising lifestyle that most of the cruisers appreciate, but for us this is not all.
For us the most important aspect of our cruising lifestyle is being self-sufficient spending as little money as possible, living off-grid outside of the system and in harmony with our natural environment. We strictly sail and don’t turn on the engines, we produce solar electricity and freshwater, we catch and eat a lot of fish, we wash the few clothes we have by hand, we prepare our own bread and food, and we don’t go to bars and restaurants much.

Boatmade Sushi

3. What is the best thing about your boat?

Our boat, Fata Morgana, is a 38-foot Leopard catamaran built in 2001 in South Africa. She is a small catamaran but very spacious and comfortable, perfect for our family’s needs. It’s the owner’s version with three double-bed cabins, two heads and big shower. Everyone’s favorite’s space on the boat is the huge cockpit for which we built a hard-top and an enclosure. Fata Morgana is heavy-built and even heavier after we loaded up all our earthly possessions. She is not fast at all but, we hope and believe, she is stable and safe, which is more important than speed for us. But the best thing about Fata Morgana is something we added after we bought the boat making her our off-grid water-world type of vessel.

In the beginning we invested in a huge solar power installation producing 1500 watts. We installed a desalination machine producing freshwater from seawater, and solar panels and lithium batteries capable of producing and store enough electricity on board for our fridge&freezer which runs 24/7, for all the lights, appliances and devices, and for the watermaker. We don’t have a generator and we don’t have to run the engines in order to make electricity. We can spend a week or a month or a year in the most remote anchorage of the world and we won’t need to fuel or buy freshwater, we won’t need any facilities.

Thanks to the solar panels, lithium batteries, watermaker, and sails, our boat has become a unique vessel, ready for some serious apocalyptic events.

Read more about our solar installation here.

4. Is there something that you do differently from most of the cruisers?

Apart from the fact that we were born and raised in Bulgaria and have a very different mentality from most of the North American, Australian, and Western European cruisers, we strictly sail and we use a kayak instead of a dinghy. We turn on the engines only in life-and-death situations. This means a lot of tacking especially during the last months going against the tradewinds and it also means that sometimes we drift with ridiculously slow speed, under 2 knots, or even sit and wait in deadcalm in the middle of the sea for the wind to pick up. In such dead calm situations Evo would even deploy our kayak in front of the boat and pull the boat at 0.5 kt speed. But it also means that we fuel only 2 times a year spending very little money for fuel (last year we took about 150 gallons of fuel and we still have 60 gallons in the tanks left) and it means that we don’t contribute much for the ever-increasing pollution of the environment.

If you ask any cruiser if they throw their plastic garbage in the water they will say No! immediately. They are very conscious about throwing garbage in the sea. But if you ask them when and why they turn on their engines (thus polluting the water and air) you might find out that most cruisers “motor-sail” all the time, even when they have perfect winds. Their reasons for doing so are many: to get there faster, to charge the batteries, because the wind is coming from the wrong direction and they don’t like to tack, and even because they don’t want the boat to heel, or because pulling ropes and adjusting sails is too much work. They have the choice yet they choose the engines and thus, apart from polluting the nature, spend tons of money for fuel each month.

We have invested in alternative energy systems and we have pledged to sail the boat always. We are very proud with this. And if we can inspire other cruisers to do so too our mission will be accomplished.

5. What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

We swim in the most beautiful waters and snorkel in coral reefs, we hike in spectacular rainforests and explore lakes, waterfalls, rivers, and caves. We met howler monkeys, sea crocodiles, swimming pigs, whales, flamingos, sea turtles, and manatees. We learned to sail, snorkel, fish, surf, and dive. Almost everything is exciting about our cruising life. The beautiful places we get to visit traveling for free, the things we learn about their histories, culture and nature, but most of all the people we meet on the way, locals and fellow-traveling gipsies like us. You can only meet such people when cruising really.

Before we started cruising we thought that we are about to do something completely insane and that not many are doing what we are doing. But it turned out that there are so many people out there on some incredible journeys, and crossing paths with them is definitely the best and most exciting thing about cruising.

Maya

6. What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

We left Key West for Havana without provisioning the boat. We were determined to buy and eat local. Big mistake. We showed up in Cuba without food and the Cuban officials inspecting the boat couldn’t believe it. First time people coming from America without food. And for the first four days we couldn’t buy anything to eat there. It was a national holiday followed by a weekend and all the stores were closed. And when they opened we realized that there is not much we can buy anyway… The Cuban stores are a sad desolate landscape. After about a week they announced on national TV that “eggs will be distributed tomorrow in the entire country” and we waited on a long line for eggs and I bought 100 eggs…(Reminded me of the good old times in Communist Bulgaria…)

First lesson learned: Always provision the boat especially when leaving from the USA and especially when heading to Cuba.

Another even bigger mistake we made in our first days of cruising caused by impatience, over confidence, inexperience, and ignorance was sailing unprepared and without checking the weather and researching the marine conditions. Apart from having zero experience we had no auto-pilot and no windvane. We hand-steered and we had no idea what is the wind force and exact wind direction for the first 1000 nautical miles of our passage between Florida, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala and back.(But it was a great learning experience too. Remember, we strictly sail.)

When we showed up in Havana people asked us: “So how was the Gulf Stream?” We didn’t notice any Gulf Stream we answered. We were lucky then. But not so lucky on our way back between Mexico and Cuba in the Yucatan Chanel where a storm almost killed us because we didn’t wait for good weather.

There is an old Inuit saying: To wait is not a waste of time. The patient man succeeds.

The Inuit people from the frozen North hunt seal for food, oil for the fire and leather for clothes and shoes. When the hunter finds the hole in the ice where the seal comes out for air every now and then, he prepares his spear and waits silently, sometimes for hours, for the seal to emerge. Only after a long time of waiting he can kill it. Patience is essential for his survival.

Patience is the most important thing in cruising too, I would say, and we learned this lesson the hard way.

We didn’t take the weather forecast seriously, we were too much in a rush and we got hit by a horrible storm in the Yucatan Chanel off the coast of Mexico. Sustained winds 30-35 knots from north, the powerful current flowing the opposite direction. Until then we hadn’t seen such big and confused waves and we didn’t know how to deal with the situation, especially at night, we got so scared. We had to go through this nightmare that lasted for two days. After that, we made a solemn promise to ourselves that, from then on, we will check the weather forecast and be very careful, and we will not rush anymore.

In cruising, the biggest mistake is to have a time schedule. You can’t. You have to wait for the best possible conditions and you have to be able to turn back if the conditions are not favorable.

Read more about our Yucatan Chanel misadventure here.

Mira “sailing” the kayak with an umbrella

7. What advice would you give to parents thinking about taking their children cruising?

When we started this adventure we were four. Our 17-year-old son Viktor spent over a year with us aboard Fata Morgana and was until recently also a part of this journey, but after a few months of cruising and sailing he decided to return back to Canada, where we used to live, to continue his education and start his own life. At his age he didn’t want to be on an adventure with his parents and little sister, stuck on a boat with them 24/7. And even though he enjoyed a good part of our adventures together: swimming in a dark cave in Guatemala, hiking up the highest Caribbean mountain Pico Duarte with mules and a guide, visiting Mexico and eating tacos every day, snorkeling in the Thunderbolt Grotto in the Bahamas and many more, he wanted to go back to his friends and his old way of life.

Maya on the other hand is only 10 and she enjoys living aboard, cruising, homeschooling, making new friends everywhere we go, exploring, and going on adventures with us. She is learning so much by traveling and being curious about the places we visit.

People always ask us about the kids schooling, and always tell them not to confuse the school institution with education. Education is found through experiences in the world. A kid who is traveling has so many more experiences than a kid who sits in a classroom. Reading about a place, its culture and history, is not the same as being there and experiencing it. Yet, I think that as soon as the kids become teenagers it is already too late to take them away from their familiar home environment and friends and put them on a boat, as we did with Viktor, unless this is what they want.

So if I have to give one advice to parents thinking about taking their children cruising it would be:

Traveling is a great learning experience that will change you and your children. It is the best thing for young kids. But don’t wait too long for the kids to be older or to finish school. The younger the child the better.

Riley, Maya (in the middle) and Wren with a huge lobster aboard Fata Morgana

8. How do you keep in shape while leaving aboard?

Life on a boat can get really lazy at times. When at anchor or sailing there is not much space on the boat to move around and there is a big chance to become a “boat-potato”. In order to keep in shape we try to move as much as possible. We swim, snorkel, hike, and we do exercises on the boat or on shore (sit-ups, squats, push-ups and pull-ups). We even like to go jogging on the beach in the morning. We also kayak on daily basis from and to the boat instead of using the dinghy and we walk a lot. For us taking a taxi is not an option, it’s a question of principles. We hitchhike or take the bus if the distance to where we want to go on land is too big, or simply walk, sometimes for hours, and for many miles. Apart from being a great exercise, we believe that only by walking, and not by driving or even riding a bicycle, one can truly experience the land. Good thing we are generally not in a hurry.

And of course, we watch out what and how much we eat. We are not some healthy-food-freaks nor vegetarians and we eat and drink pretty much everything but we are conscious about quality and quantity trying to balance a healthy diet. We eat a lot of fish which we catch by trolling every time we go sailing and we also love those coconuts that we find all over the place. We buy fresh fruits and vegetables every time we stop some place. Lately we eat a lot of cabbage for example. We love fresh cabbage grated or finely chopped with some dry dill and lots of lemon, and it is one of the healthiest fiberest foods ever.

Mira and Evo

9. What is the price you have to pay for being on a ‘permanent vacation’?

The past one year was incredible. We visited Che Guevara’s house in Havana, Cuba. We walked among the Mayan ruins in Tulum, Mexico. We were the first white people to enter a sacred cave full of human skulls in the remote Sierra de las Minas mountains in Guatemala. We met a humpback whale in the Bahamas. We jumped from waterfalls in the Dominican Republic. We ate mofongo in Puerto Rico. We snorkeled in the most beautiful coral gardens in the British Virgin Islands. We walked across an impossible road in Saba. We met monkeys in St Kitts&Nevis. We saw what a volcano can do to a city in Montserrat. And this is just a small fraction of all the things that we have done in all the places that we visited in just 13 months.

But there is a dark side to cruising too, and bloggers don’t normally write much about it. The dangers and risks of the life at sea, the constant maintenance of the boat and everything on it, dealing with officials every time we have to check in and out of a country, the nostalgia for home family and friends, even the small inconveniences of not having an air conditioning or a washing machine or a hot water shower, the lack of unlimited freshwater or electricity, are all part of the bitter price we pay for all the enjoyments we get while cruising. But we have accepted the deal and we know: It is all worth it!

In other words, it is about 5 dollars per day.

Maya in the cockpit

10. What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why.

We will keep cruising until we are tired of it, or until something prevents us from doing it. There are so many things that can go wrong on a boat causing for any plans to change very quickly. But n the best case scenario, we are hoping to sail through the entire Caribbean region, from Antigua where we are right now south to Grenada and Tobago. From there, after the hurricane season, we will head west to Columbia and Panama. Once there we will cross the Panama canal and head to the Galapagos Islands. Next, we will sail across the Pacific to Tahiti and French Polynesia and do a few years of cruising around Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, India and beyond.

We are also hoping to be able to work for a few months in Australia if possible, as we don’t have income right now and even though we are all about self-sufficiency and off-grid living we still need a bit of money to buy food and repair the boat when needed. We are both Evo and me professional long distance truck drivers. We used to drive big tractor-trailers between Canada and USA. (We were nomads always.) It was a great way to see these two huge countries, to travel and make money at the same time. So we are hoping to do the same in Australia. We heard they need drivers there for those long four-trailer trucks crossing the desert. It will be fun again and we will get to explore the interior of this beautiful country for which we have a very old crush.

And then, let’s dream a bit further in time, when we are really tired of traveling (i don’t think this will happen any time soon, but it probably will some day) and we find the perfect place, we will stop, build a small cabin, build the furniture for the cabin, make our own everything (dishes, cups, pillows, etc.), plant billions of fruits and vegetables and herbs, get a bunch of beautiful chickens and a couple of goats, and install a few solar panels. Then, after I finish making the raspberry jam, we will sit back on the porch and watch the sunset remembering all the places we have been to, telling the most incredible stories to our grand kids running around chasing the chickens.

Well, this is all for now. It was great answering those questions and participating in the Newly Salted Project. And if you are still curious about us you can like us, follow us and contact us on our blog TheLifeNomadik.com and Facebbook Page. It’s always a pleasure when someone writes to us with a question or a comment. Thank you!

Where the Coconuts Grow at 4 Months

2014-06-25T17:25:00.001-07:00

Welcome Where the Coconuts Grow to Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally published on their blog.

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NEWLY SALTED is a semi-regular publication of interviews with people who began cruising in the last few years or who have completed a cruise of under 2 years. We are excited to share a little bit about our experience after our first four months at sea and just over 2000 nautical miles under our belts. Newly Salted is a companion site to Interview With A Cruiser which features interviews of those that have been out cruising for more than two years. Someday we will be able to share what we have learned on that site as well :)

Who Are We?

Peter and Jody are a young couple from San Diego, California who drove across the country with their two dogs, Betsy and Gunner, to move aboard their 42′ sailboat in October 2013. They sailed away from safe harbor on the west coast of Florida in February to begin a journey of a lifetime in honor of Peter’s mother who passed away from breast cancer in 2012. Named after her, the S/V Mary Christine is carrying them in search of surf, sun, sand and serenity Where The Coconuts Grow. You can read more atwww.wherethecoconutsgrow.com and follow the adventures on Facebook, Instagramand Pinterest.

QUESTIONS AND COCONUTS

What is it like to go on a permanent vacation?

We lead a pretty amazing life. The places we see and the things we do are what most people only experience on vacation. While we have a tremendous amount of gratitude for being able to experience the cruising life, it’s not all palm trees and pina coladas…

Owning a boat is a lot of work. It’s hard to really understand just how much work it is until you experience it first hand. We wear many hats including mechanics, plumbers, electricians, navigators, fishermen, riggers, weather forecasters, chefs, doctors and nurses. For us, living in our tiny house on the water is significantly more work than living in a house on land. The spaces are hard to reach and fit into. Parts break ALL THE TIME. New or old, all boats break down and need constant maintenance. There are so many systems packed into a tiny area and they all work intricately together. It takes a significant amount of time, know-how, and patience.

While on the hook or at sea, the boat is constantly moving, requiring the use of all of our core muscles for balance and expending tons of energy. When everything is in motion and also hard to access, it takes three times as long to complete the simplest task. Even making the bed will break a sweat! Tremendous love for the person your with makes the blood, sweat and tears a little more bearable.

Life at sea is a true test of strength, both mentally and physically. It’s not for everyone but we absolutely love it :)

Do we get seasick?

We were shopping for boats and invited out for a cruise with one of the yacht brokers that also ran a timeshare business for sailboats. It had been awhile since Peter had used his sealegs and he was nauseous the entire day on the water. This could have been the end of our sailing dreams before we even got started. Luckily, he knew from previous experience that once he gets used to being on a boat again he would have no problem. His years of skippering fishing boats reminded him of that.

Then, as soon as we got back on land after our sea trial during the purchase of our boat, Peter got sick on land as soon as the rocking stopped. Again, deal breaker? I don’t think so! He’s a rockstar and kept the faith that it would eventually get better. Neither one of us has gotten sick since then. We’ve both felt a bit nauseous during some rough passages but only when we are in rough weather for 24 hours or more. To play it safe, we now both take seasickness medication in uncomfortable seas.

The dogs do quite well underway. Neither of them have gotten sick from the rocking of the boat. Gunner has puked once, but only after eating a couple mouthfuls of sand. Silly dog. When we’re sailing, Betsy finds a comfy spot in the cockpit and goes to sleep. She most likely doesn’t feel good, but she never gets dehydrated and always visits the Buddy Bowl in the cockpit for some water. Gunner tends to get a little restless but not anymore than he normally does. His old bones prevent him from staying in any one place for too long, unless of course its on our bed with our pillows!! He moves around and then we put him back in a safe spot. It brings a few extra challenges and gives us a whole new appreciation for those that sail with small children.

What about pirates?

In the past four months our travels have taken us from Florida through the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Spanish Virgins, US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands. These areas are well traveled by fellow cruisers and the local people in these areas have been very friendly. From the DR and south there are a few areas where we definitely felt safer locking up the dinghy but that’s about as much danger as we’ve been in.

Real pirates exist and we’ll need to stay away from the coast of Venezuela, but other than that we don’t plan on cruising in Africa or other places known for piracy. As we travel south through the Caribbean we will be extra diligent about safety. Some of the islands we’ll be passing by have higher crime than others so it’s important to stay in contact with other cruisers to get current local knowledge.

With two large dogs on board we are definitely at an advantage. Most locals we’ve encountered are afraid of them and often don’t come too close. Whenever we can, we leave the dogs in the cockpit. At anchor, Gunner LOVES to do his patrols up on the bow. He barks at anything that moves, letting them know he’s on duty. Betsy on the other hand, will only bark when another boat is unusually close. If we hear Gunner, we know that another boat, dinghy or animal is somewhere within viewing range. If we hear Betsy bark, we know someone is approaching OUR boat and we need to check it out. We’ve seen them in action when we’re coming back to the boat and until they know its us, they bark quite ferociously. Good dogs :)

In any event, we are far safer traveling around on a sailboat than we are driving down the freeway in California.

How do we get internet?

The availability of internet varies all around the world. In the Bahamas, free wifi was available in some locations but we found it more convenient to purchase a local BTC sim card and prepaid data plan for our internet usage. One of our iPhones was unlocked so we were able to use a sim card from another carrier with no problem. This allowed us to boost the signal to our other devices by means of tethering.

In the DR we only used free wifi signals on the laptop with the help of our ALFA long range wifi booster. Our friends Jan and David at commutercruiser.com gave us their old one before we left Florida and it works like a charm.

Puerto Rico and the USVI have great signal for AT&T so we temporarily reactivated Peter’s phone and data plan. Unfortunately, the case failed and leaked water inside damaging the phone. We were still able to use that sim card with the other phone and we’ve been sharing ever since. The BVI’s are close enough to USVI cell signal and work in most places. Very soon we’ll be suspending the service again before heading south through the rest of the Caribbean. Once we do that, we’ll be back to only free wifi signals with the laptop and booster, and maybe an occasional wifi connection in a café somewhere.

It’s nice being unplugged from the rest of the world when we don’t have internet connection. On the other hand it is such an amazing tool to keep in touch with family and friends and of course for updating the blog!

What do we eat?

We live on a boat traveling through tropical islands. Going to a grocery store when we need more food isn’t always an option. Now, we do what is called “provisioning” where we stock up like crazy on as much food and supplies as we can as cheaply as possible. We filled two carts at Costco before leaving Florida for staple items like rice, beans, canned food, baking supplies, spices and snacks. Shopping for food is also a great time to stock up on items like toilet paper, shampoo, soap and other toiletries.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are surprisingly hard to come by in the Bahamas. The DR and Virgin Islands have been more plentiful and we’ve enjoyed eating healthier fresh foods whenever we can find them. They don’t last long in the heat so we are looking for fresh foods on shore often. When we do find fresh foods, our evaporator unit refrigeration system comes in very handy. We added a freezer unit to the boat which is the exact same unit as the refrigerator, just turned up to the coldest setting. As with most boat refrigerators, they require a bit of acrobatics to reach anything inside.

Our boat is a Whitby, designed by Ted Brewer, and has a ridiculous amount of storage. In fact, the second Costco run we made was in Puerto Rico and we tripled the amount of food we bought the first time after seeing how much space was still left in all the lockers and cubbies. It was truly amazing we were able to make it all disappear. A place for everything and everything in its place!

The primary source of food for both us and the dogs is fresh fish. Peter is an excellent fisherman and we are always catching fish. After landing a yellowfin, we cut up fresh sashimi on the deck as Peter cleans the fish. The dogs get all the red meat scraps while we package up the harvest for storage in the fridge or the freezer. We also enjoy spearfishing and diving for lobster when the local regulations allow. The amount of seafood we eat living on this boat is some of the finest dining we have both ever had. Brie stuffed lobster anyone?

How do we wash our clothes?

Our boat came equipped with a small WASHING MACHINE! Yes, a washing machine on a 42′ sailboat. This might be a little more common on boats upward of 50′ in length where everything is exponentially bigger. For a boat our size, it’s pretty rare. The previous owners did a beautiful refit of the forward head to install the washing machine. One of the two doors accessing the head was removed and a box was built around the new appliance. It slightly restricts the entrance to the forward cabin but not enough to matter.

The little washing machine has a 110V A/C plug which requires the inverter to be on, the generator to be running, or to be plugged into shore power on a dock. There is a hose that attaches to the sink nozzle in the forward head, as well as a drain hose returning the dirty wash water back into the sink drain. There are multiple settings for light, medium and heavy with a selection for the number of wash cycles as well. We like to connect a flexible hose to the drain hose, catching the water from the last rinse cycle in a bucket and then dumping it back into the empty washer as wash water for the next load.

Our clothes are hung up to dry on the life lines with clothespins and kissed by the sun and Caribbean breeze. We really don’t mind not having a dryer anymore. Sundried clothes cost nothing and smell so crisp and fresh.

The small investment made in this machine saves us a ton of money while cruising. Depending on the location, a load of laundry done on shore by locals or in a Laundromat can cost anywhere from $4-$20 from what we’ve heard. If our machine ever dies on us, there’s always a bucket!!

How do we have power?

We do our best to live simply and use only the resources we need. Electricity comes at a premium now that we generate our own power. We have (2) older 80 watt rigid solar panels, (2) 104 watt semiflexible Aurinco solar panels and a Four Winds wind generator. This allows us to keep our (3) 4D lead-acid batteries charged up with plenty of power left to run our lights, watermaker, washing machine, refrigeration, stereo, VHF radio, SSB radio, chartplotter, radar and computer.

The Caribbean provides constant Tradewinds of 10-20 knots so while we are at anchor the boat is always facing into the wind bringing in power from the wind generator. Lately we’ve had quite a bit of cloud cover, but our 370 watts of solar panels usually do a fantastic job of bringing in a ton of power for us between the hours of 10am to 2pm when the sun is directly over head. All of our panels are adjustable and can be turned or tilted to achieve the maximum amount of exposure, but we usually prefer not to babysit them. They do just fine all by themselves :)

How do we get water?

Fresh water is one of our top priorities. Our primary source of water is generated by our Village Marine Little Wonder Watermaker that is installed in the bilge. It converts seawater into fresh filtered water at a rate of 6 gallons per hour and runs off of the 12-volt electrical system. We have two water tanks on board with a total of 160 gallon storage capacity and the watermaker is plumbed direct to both tanks.

If clean water is available for free in the towns and villages we visit, we will fill up 5-gallon jerry jugs and carry them back to the boat in our dinghy. The further south we go, the less available good drinking water becomes. Watermakers are a huge upfront cost but being able to make our own water is critical for remaining completely self sufficient.

Even though we can make our own water, it requires enough electricity to power it. Our solar panels provide enough power during peak sunlight hours and we usually run the watermaker every other day for a few hours a day to use up the extra power being generated. We try to keep both tanks full so if it is cloudy or if we don’t have any wind bringing in power for a few days, then we won’t be completely out of water and needing to run the watermaker. If our batteries get too low to run the watermaker we have to run the engine or generator when we need to make water. We like to conserve diesel as much as we can.

We usually have plenty of fresh water for showering every day, for making coffee and for drinking water. Even though we can make water as needed, we still conserve as much as we can. Systems break down and if we are careful to not be wasteful, all of our equipment will last much longer.

Where do we keep our tools and toys?

Peter grew up surfing and fishing in Southern California. This adventure is all about having fun which means we needed to find a place to store all of our toys. We brought Peter’s 6 epoxy surfboards, one foam surfboard and two inflatable Stand Up Paddle boards. 30-some fishing poles are stashed around the boat under floor boards and on the ceiling of the engine room. We have an Airline Hookah Dive compressor that lives in the salon. The forward cabin has been converted to our garage where we keep the surf boards, a guitar, compound bow and arrows, spear guns, Hawaiian slings, lobster snare, surf gear and power tools. There is also ample storage inside the boat for tools near the engine room. We even have a vice installed on the inside of the engine room door!

On deck we strap our dinghy to the bow while under way along with jerry jugs of spare fuel and water, a foam target block for the bow and arrows, plastic crates with a 75′ hose and the dinghy gas can, SUP paddles, oars and boat hooks.

Our wet locker holds all the rest of our dive gear when not in use. We are careful to rinse everything off with fresh water after each use to prolong the life of our gear. Salt water will corrode almost anything.

Where do the dogs go potty?

Before we left the dock in Florida we purchased a replacement piece of astroturf from Petco that is supposed to fit inside a plastic tray. Peter installed a couple of grommets and some paracord, then tied it on to the lifelines on the port side of our aft deck. It took a few tries for Betsy to figure out she was supposed to go potty on this crazy thing. We initially took the Astroturf up on shore and slid it underneath both dogs as they went pee. Eventually there was enough scent to convince Betsy it was what she was supposed to pee on, with a little coaxing of course and some tugging and pushing to get her in the right spot. After she went on the mat on shore, we tried it on the boat. We had also been diligent with using a command “Go Potty” and Betsy now goes potty on command everytime. She’ll even fake us out and pretend like she’s peeing, even when she doesn’t have to go!

Gunner is another story. He wasn’t too happy we were putting that thing underneath him on shore, and he would NOT go potty on it on the boat. Gunner is 13 and set in his ways. The only time he ever had an accident in a house was when he ate too much of another dogs food, giving him diahrrea, and when he had a bladder infection. The poor guy is so stubborn we couldn’t get him to go on the boat for a long time. It took our first overnight passage and subsequent days keeping him on the boat for him to finally go. He knows exactly where to go now and often takes himself if we aren’t paying attention.

Lessons learned? Don’t use regular grommets. They rust. And don’t use white paracord… it will turn yellow :( We have since switched to stainless steel grommets and dark green paracord (to match the boat of course).

Did we know how to sail before we bought the boat?

Nope! We had each been on a sailboat maybe once or twice before we made the decision to buy one of our own. Peter has been around the ocean all his life and ran fishing boats for several years so operating a boat wasn’t new to him. Jody grew up boating but never sailing.

We considered taking sailing courses but after talking to several people, we decided it couldn’t be too hard to figure out. After just a few times on the water by ourselves, we felt confident enough to continue learning as we go and skip the high priced courses. Our insurance required signoff from a licensed captain stating that we are capable of operating the boat on our own and we passed with flying colors.

Sailing is one of those things it takes a lifetime to master. We have the basics down and can operate all the equipment on our boat sufficiently. With experience we’ll continue to learn tricks for balancing the Center of Effort on our ketch-rigged boat as well as how to handle our boat better in heavy weather. We have safely made it through several passages and 2000 nautical miles after starting with zero sailing experience. That’s pretty darn good!

Why did we decide to live on a boat and sail away?

It has always been Peter’s dream to live on a boat and sail around to all the best surf spots and fishing grounds. After his mom passed away in 2012 everything fell into place for us to take this journey in honor of her. She would have loved to do what we are doing and we know she would be proud.

We both prefer to live outside the box and go against what mainstream society perceives to be normal. To us, living a life of adventure and happiness is more important than working a dead-end job paying somebody else’s bills. Life on the hook is about so much more than that. We are surviving against whatever Mother Nature brings with our own knowledge and skills. It’s an Ultimate experience in every sense of the word.

What personality traits have been the most helpful for living on a boat?

Patience is definitely at the top of the list. After 8 months of being liveaboards, nothing is easy and patience is key to getting anything done. We’ve accepted the fact that most everything is just harder on a boat. We stub our toes, hit our heads and jam our fingers on a daily basis. It makes us tough and keeps us young. We do our best to remain patient with ourselves and with others and it seems to lighten the load.

Determination is something we both have. We don’t give up. We push on, striving to overcome every challenge we are faced with. In the middle of the ocean you can’t just call a plumber or call a mechanic. When something breaks, we figure out how to fix it with the resources available to us and the skills we already have. Each challenge is a learning experience and we are determined to succeed at being self sufficient surviving at sea.

A creative mind is invaluable on a boat. We often make due with what we have and jury-rig systems with odds and ends that we brought along with us or find on shore. U.S. stores are now far behind and the convenience of ordering a part off the internet or running to Home Depot is not an option. There has got to be a million ways to use a zip-tie and duct tape. Patch and repair jobs may not be pretty, but they will get you back to safety more often than not. One of our first creative projects was to convert our aft companionway ladder into a ramp for the dogs. It’s amazing what you can do with a little ingenuity.

How has cruising affected our personal relationships?

The further we travel and the more remote places we visit, the harder it is to stay in touch with friends and family. Internet is great for helping to bridge the gap but it’s not the same as seeing loved ones in person. We are comfortable enough on the boat now to have family and friends come visit. It’s such a treat for them to see our new life and how we live. We wish everyone could visit us and experience what we’re doing. In the mean time, we try to share pictures and stories of our adventures on the blog.

Cruising has also made our friendships with others more genuine. For some, its out of sight and out of mind where certain people don’t make much of a return effort to stay in contact. For others, their true friendship shines through and strengthens ten-fold. We truly cherish those lifelong friends both from our past and that we meet along the way.

Cruising has also brought our own relationship into focus. Sharing a Tiny House with your significant other will put any relationship to the test. It brings out the best and worst in us both and has challenged us in ways we didn’t think possible. Ultimately, we are stronger and have a better partnership because of it. Love makes everything better!

What is the best part about the cruising culture?

Most everyone says it’s the people. We totally agree. There is an unspoken code of sorts among fellow cruisers laced with an overwhelming camaraderie. Everyone we meet on the water is so genuinely kind and generous. If we are ever in need of help, any of the cruisers around us are happy to lend a hand or lend a tool or part.

Some even do enormous acts of kindness, like our friend Paul in Salinas, Puerto Rico. We asked Paul if he knew how we could get to the Customs and Immigration office in Ponce which was more than 30 minutes away. Paul lives on his boat but had a car there at the marina nearby and he offered to take us all the way to Ponce, even stopping at the grocery store on the way back to the boat. He wouldn’t accept any money for gas or his time, he only asked that we Pay It Forward.

Our friends Anne and Brad on S/V Anneteak and Dave and Patti on S/V Dream Ketcher both helped us with some major repairs in the Bahamas. Friends Jan and David on S/V Winterlude (commutercruiser.com) taught us so much about sailing on our first few harbor sails. We are so grateful for all the generosity we’ve experienced and we make every effort to Pay It Forward and help anyone else we can.

We are kindred spirits and share many of the same dreams and aspirations. We are all following our hearts and leading a life of adventure that only few get to experience. That has brought us all together in a way we never could have imagined. It’s a magical thing really, and the world would be a better place if everyone were this kind to one another.

Will you ever move back to land?

As they say, our plans are drawn in the sand! For now, we will continue south from BVI traveling through the Caribbean toward Grenada for Hurricane Season. In October we will either head back up through the Leeward and Windward Islands or we will continue West to the San Blas Islands of Panama and cross through the Panama Canal. The surfing and fishing is amazing on the Pacific side of Central America and we hope to spend a good amount of time there. Someday we may cross over to the South Pacific for some of the best surf and most beautiful islands in the world. Until then, we are living in this Grand Adventure one day at a time!

What else would you like to know? Contact us with any other questions. We would love to hear from you!!

Kintala at 6 months

2014-05-23T15:06:00.002-07:00

Welcome Kintala to Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally published on their blog.
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For those of you who might not know us, we're Tim and Deb of the Tartan 42 Kintalaand of The Retirement Project site. After nearly 7 years of planning, of which 4 years was on a learner boat and 3 years refitting our current cruiser, we cut the dock lines on October 19th of 2013. We decided to go cruising for two major reasons: because we wanted to retire early and we didn't have sufficient funds to do that in a land-based retirement, and because we've been becoming increasingly disenchanted with the political and economical status quo in the US.

Today is our 6 month anniversary so it seemed appropriate to review and evaluate. Having used both the Interview With a Cruiser and Newly Salted sites for some of our pre-departure knowledge, we thought it particularly appropriate to use that venue for our evaluation. We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to our preparation. Websites, blogs, friends, all became an intimate part of our readiness. Hopefully we have paid it forward to those who are still stuck in cubicle land and dreaming. We're here to say that the dream is definitely worth pursuing.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting cruising?

Deb: Solar Panels. Since Tim's company closed his department before we were quite done with the boat, some things had to wait due to limited funds and the solar panels was one of them. We do OK with the Honda generator, but it would be nice to have a quiet source of power that would allow sitting in the cockpit without the generator noise. Don't get me wrong – as far as generators go, the Honda is the best and the quietest, but I'd still rather have less noise.

Tim: Inverter and WiFi extender. Being “off the grid” is better when it is a choice of just hitting the “off” switch and using “cruising” as the excuse for not bothering with email.

How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad?

Deb: We've had a couple days of 5+ft waves and not quite 30 knots of wind which isn't much, but it's still more than I would like to have on a routine basis. Most of our bad experiences have been due to a lack of planning.

Tim: We have tried to be very conservative with weather so “bad” is a relative term. Still, as careful as we try to be we have taken a couple of serious poundings to windward with apparent winds of 30+ knots in steep and short period waves. Weather forecasting is often not specific or detailed enough to know exactly what is lurking “out there”. Two similar weather forecasts can lead to two very different experiences depending on the direction of the boat, the sail set, and just the emotional state of the crew at that particular moment. Also, turning around (except for bailing out of a Gulf Stream passage early) is usually not much of an option. Once gone one simply has to take whatever weather comes along. For us it has often been worse than expected.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

Deb: I was worried about the culture of excess drinking. We drink, but not as much as a lot of people, and never to the point of being drunk. I was worried that we wouldn't fit in if we didn't drink as much as everyone else. We haven't been to any of the big hotspots yet like Georgetown or Marathon which might be different, but so far I've found the cruisers we've met to be careful, attentive, dedicated sailors that limit their intake. In six months I have yet to see a drunk cruiser.

Tim: This is not, ultimately, a more relaxed way to live than on land. It can be some of the time, but one is very exposed to the weather on a boat. Wind and rain barely noticed on land will make for long days on the water, and even longer nights. Everything takes more effort, shopping, laundry, routine maintenance, launching the dink, keeping track of consumables. Cruisers don't often work for anyone else, but keeping this little floating house livable is a full time job.

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

Deb: The SSB. We bought a used one from a friend but it will never be installed. It's a very large and complex piece of equipment that would require major installation dollars on our boat and everyone I know who owns one has a terrible time with it. We will be buying a small, portable SSB receiver so we can listen to the weather and do weather faxes. With the new HF Weather Fax app on the iPad, and the Delorme InReach for emergency communication, we just don't see any reason to have it on the boat.

Tim: We brought too many sails (6) and have yet to make a sail change. A perfect rig to me would be jib and stay sail on rollers, a main with 3 reef points (We only have two.) and a bullet proof storm stay sail that would go over the inner stay sail.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

Deb: I've been struggling with seasickness a lot more than I expected. Our boat rolls a lot at anchorages and that pendulum motion just does me in. I never get nauseated, I'm just tired and have a headache and feel dizzy a lot.

Tim: A lack of creature comforts; a comfortable chair, an occasional movie on a big screen, a bit of AC once in a while. Some heat now and then would sure be nice as well.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

Deb: That you will motor more than you think. We still motor way less than most people because we're rarely in a hurry to get anywhere but we motored almost the whole way down the ICW which I hated.

Tim: Cruisers spend way more time sitting still than we do moving.

What gear do you love the most?

Deb: Our iPads hands down. We use the for our primary navigation with both the Garmin Bluechart Mobile and the Navionics apps on both iPads. We also have Sailgrib and Weather Bug and Marine Weather on both of them. We keep one in the cockpit and the other one plugged in charging at all times. We still have the chart plotter on the helm, a GPS down below, and backup GPS navigation on both our phones as well as on both our laptops. A very close tie for best gear though is our Honda generator. It's our main source of charging and we simply love it!

Tim: Navigation on iPads.

Tell me your favorite and least favorite thing about your boat.

Deb: My favorite thing is the way the light plays off the teak inside in the morning sunshine. I love the inside of our boat. It feels like our home, something that's important to me since it's our full time home. I also love my galley. It fits me and everything is in the right place (bet you don't hear that often!) My least favorite is the cockpit. Our boat has a very narrow stern which is a good thing for large following seas, but it limits the cockpit storage and the size of the seats. We only have one locker in the cockpit which is taken up with cushions, cords, hoses, etc., and there's no room for sails. This means the aft berth is full of sails and I hate clutter so it bugs me. We also do not have any seat long enough to stretch out on which is a problem on overnight passages because we like to stay in the cockpit together, even when off watch.

Tim: Favorite? It sails well, and looks good. (Life is too short to live on an ugly boat.) My least favorite is the 30 year old WesterBeast motor. The boat is underpowered and the engine hard to service.

What is your biggest lesson learned?

Deb: I'm conflicted on this one. I want to say buy the boat for coastal cruising and living aboard at anchor because you will do that more than 99% of the time, but we listened to the experts and bought a bluewater cruiser and the 1% of the time that we end up offshore in bad weather I'll be glad we did. We do compromise on comfort and utility because we're in a bluewater cruiser. When we did our offshore training passages I loved being out there, but I've found I like it less now. I've been thinking a lot about why this is and I think the reason for the difference is that we had many hands to help on those passages and now we only have the two of us. Extra hands to spread the work makes a huge difference. Had I the chance to do it again, I would probably buy a coastal cruiser and not plan on any passages more than one night.

Tim: That this was probably not the best choice of a boat.

How would you recommend that someone prepares to cruise?

Deb: This is something we did right. Being in aviation, we're over-planners. Since we had no sailing experience prior to deciding on our retirement plans, we took ASA 101, 103, 104, 105, 114 sailing classes and bought a Compac 27 early on to practice on our home lake, Carlyle Lake in Illinois outside of St. Louis. We learned about living on a boat and maintaining a boat the four years we sailed the Compac. When we realize we were ready to begin to look for our cruising boat, we took the summer/fall of 2010 and scheduled 3 training voyages to help us decide what boat to buy. We did a circumnavigation of Long Island in a Pearson 35 leaving Tom's River, NJ and sailing around Block Island, down Long Island Sound, through the city of New York, past Sandy Hook and back to Tom's River in 7 days. We chose that one because we felt a 35 footer was the smallest boat we could live on full time without killing each other. Next we took our ASA 114 catamaran course in Pensacola Beach, FL because we still hadn't resolved the monohull-catamaran debate. We found out that we love catamarans but simply can't afford one. Last we took a training voyage with John Kretschmer on Quetzal, a Kaufman 47, because we thought that would be about the largest boat we could comfortably handle with just the two of us. Those three trips were expensive for us, but they were priceless in the knowledge we gained.

Tim: Charter – charter – then charter some more. It is a bit counterproductive in that charter money is money not available for buying a boat. But there is no substitute for living on different kinds of boats in all kinds of conditions for discovering what you need to know to make decisions that will work for you. Pay very little attention to what the “Old Salts” say. For the most part they have been wrong about everything. Old boats, small boats, simple boats, diminutive cockpits, basic navigation gear, “blue water” boats (near complete B.S.), pilot berths, narrow hulls, this or that manufacturer, sloop or cutter or ketch, center cockpit, aft cockpit, … don't listen to any of it. They don't sail like you sail, go where you go, or know what you like. Your best hope, after chartering, is to find someone who is out there right now, with a kind of boat you can afford, sailing in the places you might want to sail, who will share what they have learned.

In your own experience and your experience meeting cruising couples, can you convince a reluctant partner to go cruising and if so, how?

Deb: I would say categorically no. Our relationship is a little different because the cruising thing was my dream and Tim was willing to go along, but I've met a lot of women who were reluctant spouses and they are pretty unhappy. I guess if you had a spouse that was sensitive to your needs it might work, but my experience is that it's just not worth it if both members of the couple are not eager to succeed. It's just too hard of a change unless you're 100% behind it.

Tim: You can, but both will likely regret it.

What do you think is a common cruising myth?

Deb: That anchorages everywhere are little communities. I've found that unless I get in the dinghy and go to meet other people, we won't meet. For the most part I find people stay to themselves on their own boats unless they're traveling with someone. When we do go introduce ourselves they're always glad that we came, but it's as if everyone is sitting there waiting for someone else to go first.

Tim: That going from land living to cruising will take anything less than all of your effort, most of your money, and rank as one of the hardest transitions you will ever make.

Serendipity at 15 Months

2014-01-14T09:01:00.001-08:00

Welcome Serendipity to Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally published on their blog.
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Just before we get geared up to start cruising again after nearly five months now of sitting out hurricane season in Guatemala, I figured it would be a perfect time for a little question and answer time about our lives since there hasn’t been much other boating excitement going on lately. But this isn’t any ‘ol interview, it’s being done in connection with Newly Salted, a companion site to Interview with a Cruiser, who’s purpose is to ‘Record some of the wisdom of the masses of cruisers who are out there on the water, for the dreamers and planners still at their desks, using a focused interview format’.

First time visiting us? Here’s a little background. We are Matt and Jessica, and have been cruising for 15 months, starting in our home port of Muskegon, Michigan, on the east coast of Lake Michigan. Working our way through the Erie Canal and East Coast, our remaining time before hurricane season was making a jump from the Eastern Caribbean to the Western Caribbean, visiting places like the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica and Cayman Island before settling in Guatemala, where we currently sit, until cruising season is once more upon us. All of our adventures are cataloged on our website, www.mjsailing.com and on our Facebook page at MJ Sailing.

Leaving Muskegon for the last time, officially cruisers now!

What is something you read or heard about cruising, that you found to be particularly accurate?:

That a cruisers plans are written in sand at low tide. We were naive, or maybe just determined and stubborn, but when we left Lake Michigan we had a very well laid out plan and we thought we could stick to it. That plan was for a circumnavigation in the span of four years. As soon as Hurricane Sandy came along our plans began to deteriorate as we fell behind schedule. We still tried to rush down the east coast, and even after spending a few months in Florida, we thought we could rush through the Bahamas in time to still jump over to Panama for a canal crossing this year. Going from Lake Worth Florida to George Town Bahamas in just ten days, we realized we didn’t want that kind of fast paced travel that a circumnavigation would press on us, and we’d rather slow down and take quality over quantity. We’d heard this many times before we left, but it took 7 months of cruising for it to actually sink in.

Our first anchorage of the trip, South Manitou Island, Michigan.

What do you find most exciting about the cruising lifestyle?:

That there is always something new to see. Some places you get really attached to and others you don’t mind departing after a day’s visit. But the great thing about the cruising lifestyle is if you don’t like it, you can always pick up and leave until you find something that suits you better. We also love meeting other cruisers that have been out there and doing it for awhile, learning the ins and outs of certain places, and then getting excited to visit there ourselves.

Cruising past the Detroit City skyline.

What is the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome as a cruiser?:

For me, Jessica, it has been seasickness. It plagues me almost every time we travel and I’ve begun to dread any passage that lasts longer than sunrise to sunset. For those I can sit in the cockpit and stare off into the horizon, comforted by the fact that at least I’ll be at a calm anchorage that night and will have the ability to move around the boat again. Anything longer than that to me is a jail sentence, being confined completely to the cockpit where my symptoms are minimized, but I can’t even pass the time by reading a book. I can only sit there and stare. And stare, then a little more, and then some more after that. I’ve used just about every remedy there is, scopolamine patches, pressure point wristbands, and Dramamine. I’ve heard that seasickness will fade on long passages, after you’ve been out for 3-4 days, but our longest passage has only been three days, so I haven’t been able to find out yet if that holds true.

For Matt, the biggest obstacle is not being as productive on the boat as he was on land. Every day he got up with a purpose, went to work, enjoyed doing it, and felt good about it at the end of the day. Now that we don’t have schedules or the same kind of responsibilities, he used to feel useless while sitting around the boat and converting most of his time to relaxing. He’s found a remedy for this by keeping himself busy with the boat, or planning projects for the boat. Which, while we’re sitting at the marina with easy land and electricity access, he’s got about six projects going at once. And keeps planning more…

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?:

Now that we’ve been out for awhile, we can both agree that an invaluable tool for us right now would be a backup generator for our solar panels. There’s currently three solar panels on Serendipity, one that’s 205 watts, and two that are 135 watts, for a total of 475 watts, which is actually pretty good. And when there’s sun out we’re bringing in power like crazy. The only issue is we assumed that being in tropical climates, we’d have sun 90% of the time. Which we’re starting to find out is not the case. When it’s just one or two cloudy days, the power we’ve saved up can usually tide us over until we see the sun again, but anything after that and we go into complete power lockdown, keeping the inverter off and even turning off the chill box at night (our biggest power consumer). Running the engine is an option, but we don’t want to have to rely on that. We enjoy our electronic toys like laptops, tv, e-readers, and playing the stereo, and don’t want to have to give them up because the sun is being an unsocial sonnofa b.

Cementing our friendship with our first buddy boat, in Annapolis.

What piece(s) of gear would you leave at the dock next time? Why?:

Because Matt is fairly obsessed with researching any new hobby that takes his interest, he spent hours of each day before we left pouring over websites and forums and question and answer sites (like IWAC) to see what other people carried on their boats or wish they had. He then translated it to our boat, our cruising needs, and our personalities and lifestyle. We were pretty stumped for this question because we kind of love everything we have on this boat, I think he did a great job of figuring that out for us (although I was hounded relentlessly for my opinion as well). If we had to pick one thing though, I think we’d go with davits.

Surprised? I know, that’s usually on every cruisers ‘must have list’, even before things like solar panels or a water maker. The reason we might leave them behind next time is that they are only used at night to get the boat out of the water (for security and cleanliness reasons). Anytime we’re on passage we’re not sure if the davits can handle the brutal strain and we’ve already had two* incidents of breakage when we’ve left the dinghy up on passage, so we haul it up an secure it on the foredeck anyway. Every.Passage. I do love them for at night when we pull the dinghy up, but as Matt reminds me, that can also be done with a halyard on the foredeck.

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find most difficult?:

This one kind of makes me laugh because one of my most difficult transitions is so far off from what most people would expect. There are plenty of things that can drive a cruiser bonkers, things like cockpit showers (we disassembled the shower in our head), rough passages, and sleeping two people to a bed that should really only comfortably fit one. I let all of these nuisances roll off because I was expecting them. I was dreading them before we left, and they turned out not to be as bad as I imagined. The thing that surprisingly did get me, was cooking in our galley. The lack of good space there is what drove me crazy. There’s very little counter space, and a good portion of it is the top to our chill box. I’d be busy preparing dinner on the ‘counter’ and realize I needed something from the chillbox, so I’d have to move all my items away to lift up the top. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I’d then spend the next five minutes digging through the chill box and placing all of it’s contents on the companionway stairs until I found what I needed, because that was the only open space I had to lay them down. I’ve since become more accustomed to it, but for awhile, that nightly routine could almost drive me to tears.

Exploring the Exumas, Bahamas.

What is the thing that has surprised you most about your cruising lifestyle?:

That we’ve begun to crave friends and buddy boats. For the most part, both of us enjoy our solitude and spending time solely with one another. At least, this is how we were back on land. Spending all day surrounded by people at work, we looked forward to our quiet time together at night. When we left we told ourselves we’d never get sucked into the world of buddy boating and living on someone else’s schedule, where they wanted to go or what they wanted to do. Nope, it was going to be just the two of us, making our own decisions and relying on no one else. But somewhere along the way we did find a buddy boat and realized we enjoyed it immensely. Other people to share in your highs and your lows, someone to force you out of your lazy habits to try new things, and even just the novelty of having someone different to talk to. Don’t get me wrong, we still love our solitude from time to time, but once you have that for too long, things can get a little lonely in this life.

Enjoying the waterfalls in Jamaica with a large group of buddy boats.

(Photo courtesy of Jason Windebank)

Is there anything you would like to say to the readers of this interview?:

Yes! Please get involved with the crew of Serendipity! E-mail us, comment on our website, and on our Facebook posts. We’d love to hear anything you have to say! As I said, this can be a lonely lifestyle sometimes, but just knowing there are people out there following along makes us feel much less isolated, and any sign that you’re out there is an instant mood lifter.

Strolling the streets of Cuba.

And now, a few questions our readers want to know about us and our cruising lifestyle**:

How hard is it to get food and supplies along the way?

It depends on if you’re trying to fully provision your boat or just get through the next few days to make meals, ect, as well as your taste in food, and what you’re willing to pay for it. Once we got out of the States and into the Bahamas we had a fully stocked boat from Florida. We know that the Bahamas are quite expensive and didn’t want to spend money on non perishables that we could bring with us. The Bahamas didn’t happen to be great for fresh produce, but hey, our meals usually consisted of Pop Tarts and Ramen Noodles, so it wasn’t an issue for us. Other than that, you could find what you needed, but at a price. Every place else we’ve been so far we’ve been able to find decently stocked markets and stores within a mile or two walk, although Cuba was quite hard for provisioning as well. I wouldn’t planning getting much more than produce or meat there.

How have you found fellow sailors as you’ve traveled?

There’s been two main ways we’ve found other sailors on the water. One is actually this website, which has brought me in touch with some of my now best friends Jackie and Ron back in Michigan, and other cruisers like Ryan and Tasha on s/v Hideaway, and Frank and Yu on s/v Moitessier. All other times we’ve found other cruisers by approaching or being approached at anchor, or run-ins on land. It’s pretty easy to spot other cruisers, and even easier to strike up conversations. Which always lead to sundowners on someone’s boat or in a local bar. It’s just that easy, and it works every time. (I will admit, we can be a little shy sometimes, so we’re usually the ones getting approached at anchor. It’s how we met our now great friends on s/v Skebenga, and I’m so happy they came over to say hi!!)

Would you do it again?

For those of you who are new to the site or haven’t been following along for long, you might not know that both Matt and I just about had a complete meltdown back in June and wanted out of the cruising lifestyle.

One year in and somehow the lows felt more frequent than the highs and we were tired of constantly caring for a boat that is always in need of maintenance (as all cruising boats are, unfortunately), or visiting an island that looked pretty much like the one we just left. I am still thankful that Guatemala, with it’s high peaks and lush green forests, was our next landfall after this breakdown, or you might have seen Serendipity for sale on Yacht World. Luckily some time at a marina, a visit home, and experiencing traveling via backpacking, gave us a new perspective on cruising. We felt refreshed and invigorated, excited to get going again. Over this time we realized what we like about cruising, what we don’t, and we think we’ve redefined our future plans to make it work out for us. Just ask us another year into cruising though, hopefully Serendipity is still on our possession and we’re still out on the water.

*Our first accident with the davits was when we were traveling 10 miles in Lake Michigan, and had the dinghy up on the davits along with our 9.9 hp outboard. Beating into some waves, the strain was so much that the arms literally bent in half. We had them replaced with larger stronger davits, but we always made sure to take the large outboard off after that. Our second accident was in the Exumas in the Bahamas, when the bracket that mounts the davits to the pushpit snapped, and we had to do some quick and fancy work with ratchet straps until we could find a welder to fix the bracket.

**If you asked a question on our Facebook page and I haven’t responded, don’t worry, I’m not ignoring you. I’m planning on doing a second question and interview post where I include them. Anyone else have a question for us? We’d be happy to answer it!

Wimahl at 4 months

2013-10-04T20:48:00.002-07:00

Welcome Wimhal to Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally published on their blog.
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Ariel, Mahonri and Lenin (the boat dog!) on a Cape Dory 28 (our short list boat!) that we got for a very nice price the start of this year. We named it Wimahl but still haven’t painted it yet, so it says Bantam on it. We lived aboard while doing repairs until we felt good about heading out to sea. Our goal was to head north to the San Juans and Canada. For those curious, little baby Lenin (of leninthedog.tumblr.com) LOVES to sail, and loves to kayak, he just hates to get wet. He wears a lifejacket and stays harnessed in for safety as do we all :)

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting cruising?

Ariel: Honestly, we didn’t even finish packing before we left. We got all amped up and just left with some of our stuff that we wanted to bring with still in storage in Portland. But of the things we don’t actually own, we’ve considered sculling oar, a wind vane, a wind generator, a pedal electrical system and a pedal propulsion system, as well as a drifter and a storm sail, all of which we don’t have (or don’t have yet) for various reasons. Maybe a hammock for passages.

Mahonri: should have gotten rid of the engine, which is the opposite of that. pedal engine, sculling oar! light air sail, as in a drifter or something.

Is there a place you visited wish you could have stayed longer?

Ariel: a part of me was happy to stay off Sauvies for a while. Beer, nude beach and summer time.

Mahonri: not really yet. I feel like we’ve stayed too long in a few places.

When you are offshore, what keeps you awake at night (that is, what worries you most)?

Ariel: the Pacific is loud and big. It sounds like it is smashing the boat to bits, even though I know in my mind it isn’t. It feels like it is lifting the boat up and dropping it. Also, sometimes, puking.

Mahonri: collision at sea.

Favorite thing about about the boat?

Ariel: solar panels and composting toilet. Green living!

Mahonri: I’m bad at these types of questions.

Tell me your least favorite thing about your boat?

Ariel: the galley is kind of weirdly shaped and the cabneits are spaced weird, but thats it.

Mahonri: could be bigger?

How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad?

Ariel: We came down the Columbia, to the Pacific, up to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Is there any other kind of weather? JK, it was summer, there was some good weather. For real though, the Columbia gets rough!

Mahonri: The worst we hit was up in the [Columbia] Gorge.

What is your most common sail combination on passage?

Ariel: we usually fussed around between the jib and the genoa, but we were trying this awesome downwind set up that I called butterfly sails and he called twin sails, and then our mainsail tore in half (again) so we had to get a new one because it was super old and just couldn’t be repaired again :(

Mahonri: clubfooted working jib and main

What piece of gear seems to break the most often?

Ariel: seems to me that its always the damn sail, but its probably something else. We also frequently loose everything out of the kayak by not taking stuff out of it at night.

Mahonri: the mainsail (getting a new one!).

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

Ariel- there is alot of transition. Taking a kayak to just go for a walk, being in a new town, state, country every week. sometimes we don’t even have phone. things get broken from other boaters wake. It’s like living in a permanent earthquake.

Mahonri- having the lady and the goddamn dog around 24/7.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

Ariel: we heard this almost mythos surrounding the crossing of the Columbia River Bar, and the idea of crossing it, and sailing NORTH? impossible! but we read and did our own research and realized people are just scared to sail windward and are scared to even go out and try things, and we aren’t like that, so we stopped listening to fearful gossip and tried to tune in to more reliable sources. Up in Puget Sound, and the Straits, it’s the same way. But now we know.

Mahonri: that going north from Astoria to Puget Sound is IMPOSSIBLE!

Serenity at 12 months

2013-09-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome Serenity to Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally published on their blog.
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The blurb:

In August 2012, Jeff and Harmony laid down their land-based responsibilities, sold most of their possessions, moved onto their 30 foot sailboat in Portland, OR and shoved off on an adventure. After a month of serious (and unbudgeted) boat repairs at the mouth of the Columbia River, they set sail for anywhere further south. Over the past year they have cruised along the Pacific coast of the US and Mexico and are currently based out of Puerto Chiapas, Mexico. Their beloved boat, SV Serenity, is a Nightingale cold-molded cedar-strip planked sloop, which originally hails from Seattle, WA.

You can follow along via our blog: www.taketothesea.us, or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/taketothesea

The dirt:

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

J: I wish we had known more about the "seasons" of cruising and their associated weather patterns and ocean currents. I thought I knew the gist before we left, but it was a surprise to me to discover how much they can narrow your travel options and your feeling of freedom. When we set out we had zero itinerary beyond getting to La Paz, but once we got there we were all of a sudden beset with all the natural rules: If you want to go south, you have to leave by X time if you want wind at your back and get there by Y month if you want to avoid hurricane season. If you are interested in a crossing, there is a relatively small window of time in which to set off a chain of events or else wait for next year. If you go up into the Sea, don’t stay too long or you’re committed to staying there through the brutal summer. Oh, and heading back up north is going to suck pretty much no matter what time of year you do it.

We went from feeling like the world was flat all around us to feeling like we were threading a needle of time, weather, and money. Of course I've never read the Cornell World Cruising Routes book either, so it's definitely my fault and I'm also now helplessly gullible regarding all the old sea wisdom that has come our way.

H: Three things. 1) It takes a LONG TIME to get anywhere, especially if you’re determined to sail. Slow down. Enjoy yourself. Goals can be great, but don’t get hung up on them. 2) Wind and water will expose and exploit any vulnerability you have, be it physical, mental, emotional or otherwise. In other words, prepare to have some pretty intense self-talks, invest in some fist pumping, booty shaking music and don’t be afraid to strike a Super(Wo)Man pose every now and again just to feel like you have your s^&% together. 3) A sense of humor is the most important thing you can bring along with you on your trip…second only to mechanical ability and perhaps guts…oh and actual sailing knowledge/experience.

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

Jeff and our cat, Tack, after a long passage.

J: For me it was the shock of just how exhausting it would be to sustain continuous travel. When we started we were only focused on getting south, reaching a destination. We allowed ourselves some opportunities to rest or explore a place in passing, but the majority of our time was devoted to preparing for the next leg of the trip. This also caused us to motor more than we planned just to get through areas that we'd heard would be difficult to traverse. By the time we reached La Paz, we were physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted.

Since leaving the Sea of Cortez, Harmony and I have adopted a "comfort first" sailing policy. Serenity has the multitudinous blocks, poles, and hard points of a racing boat, which we use to pursue comfort like methodical scientists. We will sacrifice a knot of speed if it means that the overall trip is gentler through the wind and waves, and we avoid using the diesel engine as much as possible because it shatters the calm. Tack (our cat) is our canary in the coal mine and chief metric for judging when a sail configuration has gone from manageably comfortable to 'something must be done'. This codependency likely has the effect of making Harmony and me less extreme than seafarers of yore, but we are no less action-focused and a whole lot happier.

H: That’s a great question. I’d have to say the whole cooking thing. We have a very rudimentary kitchen. Our diesel stove is great for the North Pacific coast where you can just keep it lit all hours of the day, but it is decidedly less awesome when the air and water are 94 degrees (stifling!). Fortunately I’ve become very adept at cooking pretty much everything on our magma grill in the cockpit and Jeff recently built a gimbaled stove, which is great for simple one pot meals while we’re on passage (or when the mosquitos form a dense cloud around our boat and I don’t feel like subjecting myself to their insatiable appetites). Most people probably won’t struggle with this same challenge. Every visit to another boat results in maddening galley envy.

What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

J: Not enough netting! On our first passage we had stuff flying out of cubbies, rolling across the floor, and flopping out of cupboards that didn't have good latches. Additionally, there were all kinds of little preparation steps that we had to learn to do before we set sail (e.g., boil some water for later, make sure all the knives are put in drawers, have all potential clothing needs ready), because we learned that it's better to assume that the ride will not be as smooth as you hoped.

H: Oh goodness, too many to recount. We have learned quite a few things the hard way; it’s hard to pick one. I think one of the earliest lessons I learned (while we still had our training wheels on in the Puget Sound) was the importance of tidying up your docklines. A simple but important lesson. One of our docklines went overboard and fouled our prop. Since it was my fault I insisted on jumping in to rectify the situation (also, Jeff is allergic to cold water). Even though it was a calm, beautiful day, the experience was utterly terrifying. Let me just say that jumping into 52 degree water stops your heart and, in doing so, shatters any disbelief you may harbor regarding your own mortality. It took me a long time to not be paralyzed by my fear of cold water. Being in 94 degree water helps with this quite a lot…but now my fear has just transferred to getting eaten by a shark. Also, don’t start a thread on Cruiser’s Forum about bureaucracy in Southern California and forget to babysit it…word to the wise.

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

J: I love being on the water at nighttime, whether we're anchored or underway. There's just a lot of magic to the experience that only pales in the telling of it. There is so much beauty around us in general that the quotient of "wow" moments is far higher than I'd imagined.

A picture of Harmony taking a picture of the most beautiful sunset EVER.

H: I really love long passages, as long as the weather isn’t too crazy. While I wouldn’t necessarily characterize most of our passages as “exciting” (we spend the majority of our time doing wild and crazy things like sleeping, bathing, cooking, reading, petting our cat and playing card games), it’s one of the realizations that surprised me. I was expecting to simply endure passages rather than cherish them. “Unplugging” is really difficult for me, so the self-imposed exile can be quite welcome and revitalizing. I’ve also found that I really enjoy living off of the grid (for the most part). Again, not “exciting” per se, but definitely rewarding. In that vein, it’s interesting to see the spectrum of human experiences in the places we’ve visited. It shows us that we can choose how we live; we can choose to live simply and still lead a full life. Oh, also, my husband is MacGyver resurrected and it’s fun to see his latent tinkering abilities emerge.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

J: There's an experience that I think is maybe specific to younger people cruising (although maybe not), in which some of the other cruisers, out of helpfulness and experience, assume that we don't know what we're doing. We've had people telling us how to dock, how we should anchor, how we should break loose an anchor, or how some piece of our boating system is inadequate - all unbidden and usually right in the middle of us completing said action or maintaining said boat system (which we have found entirely adequate). When people try to grab our dock lines or push on our stanchions or plan our next moves for us, it's so hard not to say, "This has been our boat for five years! We just came 2,000 miles! We've got a system!"

H: It depends on which day you ask me. Right now we’re home (in the Pacific Northwest) for a visit, so I’m ridiculously nostalgic and positive. If you asked me after a gnarly passage I’d probably tell you that I dislike everything about cruising, but today I’m having a hard time coming up with something concrete.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn't find to be true?

Leaving Newport, OR on a cool, fall morning.

J: There are some really incredible experiences to be had out here, that's for sure, but it's also true that we have traded the difficulties of one life for those of another. It is no more or less meaningful than life on land, nor will the simple fact of it confer upon you transcendence. You will find no end of white sand beaches, but we have found no easy paradise. Cruising is an escape, but in all the ways that don't matter. That's what I found anyway, but at least the water is warm now and man is it pretty!

H: Jeff did most of the reading and preparing. I was busy finishing up my Master’s thesis and didn’t have as much time to think and dream about our big adventure or to establish many expectations. I will say that I did expect a different community dynamic. We’ve made some great friends but we have spent a disproportionate amount of time alone on passages and in anchorages. It turns out that we were generally behind the pack or had a different route/itinerary than most people we met, making it difficult to be at the epicenter of social happenings. It can also be difficult to infiltrate well established social scenes in certain places – some people are more welcoming than others and we tend to be a bit shy. Sometimes it feel taxing to cultivate new relationships everywhere we go, and sometimes it comes naturally. I’m excited to report that when we reached Chiapas we met several awesome cruisers that we hope to “buddy boat” with in the future.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

J: We'd heard from a couple sources that it takes about six months to settle into the cruising lifestyle, and that proved more or less true. The first six months were all about getting south. We were frantic, we were uncomfortable, and we didn't have all the little systems of living figured out. After the six month mark we paused for breath and decided to slow down and focus on doing what we wanted to do instead of what we thought we should be doing. Being out here in a lifestyle with fewer time queues has been a good exercise on discovering what our natural pace is and living within it. After six months, too, we got more used to the feeling of not having the structure of a job and a stationary location.

H: I love having books onboard that provide a lens through which to process this whole experience, give us tips and tricks for improving our systems and help us learn new skills. There’s a lot of great information out there. I really appreciated the Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach, which advocates for smaller boats (“pocket cruisers”) and simpler systems. It also provides meaningful insight into how to approach cruising from a more philosophical perspective. We’re usually the smallest/funkiest boat in an anchorage and it’s nice to know that we’re not alone in that respect.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

Poor man's wet suit.

J: I'm regretting that we never built a proper dodger and bimini. I sewed our own out of sunbrella and clear plastic (sans a frame), but it requires a lot of babysitting to be useful for keeping out the sun while underway. We've only had rain a couple times so far, so I don’t yet know how well it’ll protect us when we get to Central America. Also, I wouldn't mind a watermaker, though it's outside our budget. Our tanks let us go about three weeks between top-ups, which turns out to be our limiting resource most of the time.

H: I think a windvane would be pretty awesome, especially if we ever decide to do some trade wind sailing. I wish we had invested in wetsuits for snorkeling adventures in the Sea of Cortez (water temperature was in the 60’s!). We just donned polypropylene long underwear and wool socks and tried to fill our heads with images of Mexico…wait a second…

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

J: With a boat as small as ours, we've really had to keep our gear down to the essentials. I can't think of anything that we haven't found indispensable at one time or another. Though I will say, the folding bikes, while amazing to have the three times that we bothered to pull them out of the quarterberth, are a bit of a pain. There aren't a whole lot of roads where they're appropriate, and if you're out at anchor they would be a nightmare to load in and out of our little porta-bote.

H: I feel like we did a pretty good job leaving things behind that we didn’t need. When we left home we realized that we would probably need to purchase things along the way (lots of Amazon purchases right before we crossed the border). We kind of let the trip dictate what we needed, which worked pretty well. Jeff would likely tell you that we have too much kitchen stuff, which is partially true. He has to steer me away from the kitchen section of pretty much every store we enter. Although we’re “gear light” we still have a lot of clutter, but that’s just par for the course on a 30 foot boat.

What are your plans now? If they do not include cruising, tell us why.

J: We're still working our way south into Central America, but we've had to start thinking about how we're going to get ourselves home eventually. We always planned a general timeline of two years because we know we still have careers and babies in our future, and we haven’t found a way to make this life pay for itself. We're not too interested in bashing north, but do we have the guts (and the boat) to cross to Hawaii and back to the PNW from there? What about the South Pacific? If we don't go now, will the islands still be above water when/if we can afford to do this trip again someday? Should we just ship the boat home? Should we sail to Australia and sell it? Is there any reason to go through the Canal to the east side? All these questions keep us entertained in conversation at the dinner table.

H: Cruise for another year or until our money is gone or until we throw our hands up in the air and say “whose bright idea was this anyway?” Who knows. We change our minds pretty much every day. Some days it’s more about the lifestyle, some days it’s more about the sailing adventure, some days it’s more about travel and culture, some days it’s just about maintaining the momentum.

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it?

Meet the co-captains.

J: How do you make decisions underway? We adhere to the “alternating captains” approach when we’re on passage. The person on watch gets to make all decisions regarding navigation, sail trim, sail selection, distance from shore, angle to the wind and waves, necessary chores, and so forth. The other person is on hand when necessary to assist or offer a second opinion, but ultimately one person is in charge at a time. We like this system because we both tend to be a) stubborn and b) indecisive. It’s nice to routinely be able to completely disengage from operational concerns (as much as possible, with an ear always open for changes in sound), but if you end up disagreeing with the other captain’s choices, you can feel free to change them on your shift. Sometimes this leads to us sailing in a zig zag when we have different preferences for how far offshore to be, but overall we’ve found that it increases the peace to have these periods of enforced patience for each other’s strategies, comfort tolerances (read: laziness), and experimental sailing theories.

H: A good album for rough seas? We really, thoroughly enjoy Of Monsters and Men’s latest album My Head is An Animal. They hail from Iceland and have an intimate relationship with the sea, which is apparent in a lot of their music. It’s also an awesome album to sing along to if you’re caught hand-steering through some sloppy seas. Music can make uncomfortable or scary situations more manageable, boring situations more interesting and interesting experiences downright magical.

El Mezteno in the Sea of Cortez.

Mother Jones at 11 months

2013-08-14T13:08:00.001-07:00

Welcome Mother Jones to Newly Salted. Read this interview as originally published on their blog. Editors note: Due to my own negligence, this interview was published on their blog months ago but is going up on this site just now. My apologies!
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So, there’s this really, really cool couple of blogs managed by Livia of S/V Estrellita. The blogs, Interview with a Cruiser Project and Newly Salted, both feature interviews of those who have been cruising for some time and those of us who just started out. I found them to be tremendously helpful when we were still sitting at our desks dreaming and scheming of a way to become . . . Cruisers.

Because these interviews were so helpful to me, and because we’re no longer sitting at our desks – (drumroll, please)
~~we’ve become~~we’re everday becoming Cruisers, I thought we’d add our thoughts to the project.

Liva asks participants to self-publish our interviews and then re-formats and links back – how easy, peasy!

About Us

S/V Mother Jones hails from Austin, Texas and is Captained by Damon and Laurie Jones, with minimal support by our Chief Security Officer Kemah (our dog). We moved aboard in December of 2011 in Punta Gorda, Florida and sailed to Panama stopping in The Bahamas, Jamaica and Providencia. We have blogged about our travels overland and aboard at www.SoManyBeaches.com. We love hearing from other cruisers; so don’t be shy, drop us a line!

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising

D: I wish we had told ourselves to take a couple of navigation/sailing courses. Although I know now that, no matter what anyone teaches you, you (well, I) don’t really learn how to sail until you actually do it on YOUR boat. BUT, a “basics” of anv knowledge and sail trim physics would’ve been helpful…

L: We did a TON of research before we left, scouring blogs of other cruisers and basically soliciting any advice from anyone willing to share it. So, I’m not sure there were too many surprises. But, one piece of advice we got over and over and I’ll restate here was: GO NOW! We heard from a lot of old salts who said they or someone they were close to waited and waited to go and then they couldn’t due to health, financial or other reasons. They told us to go now and we’ll figure it out (financially) and so far that’s been true.

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

L: In terms of being a cruising couple, learning how to sail together was challenging at first: we learned we deal with stress differently (he springs into action trying to figure out what can be done and I prefer to quietly think on it before acting and his action makes me more stressed), and we had different ideas of what makes a good sail, anchorage and social life. Navigating those new waters together takes time but we found slowing down, asking “why do you think that?”, “where do you want to anchor?” or “how do you want the day to go?” and then really listening to the answer has made a big difference towards being in sync.

L: Personally, I had a hard time transitioning with the distance from friends, family and making new friends – when everyone is a proverbial ship passing in the night. I love being a part of a community and D prefers his solitude. So, that means he’ll begrudgingly join me in meeting new cruisers, attending pot-lucks, etc and/or I’ll just go by myself while he hangs back. And, it means that as we look at going back out for the Season (and leaving our community in Bocas del Toro), I’ll be facing this challenge again.

D: Sleeping. On land, it’s easy to sleep through the night; you don’t wake up every few hours wondering if your house has wandered down the street or if someone else’s house is going to knock into ours if the wind changes. On the boat, I find myself waking up every couple of hours to close the hatch if it starts to rain, check our position and otherwise mind the boat.

What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

Ha! We’ve made a few for sure! We’ve run aground a couple of times (luckily, we’ve been able to just get out and push our shallow-draft boat off a shoal). We sailed wing-on-wing in 10 foot seas (and then ripped our head sail). We’ve drug anchor because we anchored on a slope and then the winds changed. We were too optimistic about sailing and almost ran out of gas a couple of times. Yep, we’ve made a few.

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

We love having the opportunity to spend so much time together. We love the challenge of learning new things (“what’s leech line, a weep hole, a Obida?”). We love being self-sufficient and spending so much time outdoors. We also love being part of an international community with so many different backgrounds and perspectives represented. And, of course, there’s all the exploring: from travelling a well-worn cruising path like Boo-Boo Hill in the Bahamas to finding the secret fish market or just a boat part, it’s always like a treasure hunt! Finally, there’s the striking physical landscapes of all the new places. My good friend who’s spent 16 years cruising says it best: “I love standing in my galley with my same old pots and pans and looking out on a whole new country!”.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

I’m amazed at how some can be so narrow-minded when commenting on other cultures and living amongst other cultures as expats. I understand how things can wear on you, but if you wanted it “they way it is in X”, stay there or go back!

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

While I had read a lot about other people’s budgets for cruising, I mistakenly thought we could out-cheap other cruisers. I thought we could stay under or around $1,000 per month, because, you know, wind is FREE! But, of course, the wind isn’t always with you, parts are expensive and depending on where you go, provisioning and Zarpes can also add up.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

We have definitely found it to be true that there are always boat projects; it’s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge: once you’re down to the bottom of the list, start again at the top! I’ve also found the cruising community to be amazing. Regardless of who you are, how much money you make, your politics, race or religion, if you are in a jam, another cruiser WILL help you out. A couple of quick things, too: The Bahamas is expensive, everybody has an opinion and don’t worry about food so much – they’ll have it there.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

We wish we had an SSB for sure. We had an incident hundreds of miles from shore and only had a SPOT and VHF. Luckily, we were able to get someone on the VHF three hours into our ordeal that could relay to the Coast Guard. But, we’d love to have the added safety of the SSB for emergencies and for weather forecasting.

Also, given that Damon is a working electronic musician and I a writer, we’ve found our battery bank to be limiting to powering our equipment. We run the genny from time to time, wait for sunny days or go ashore to use computers.

Another cruising couple also told us they heard from others cruising the Tropics that they couldn’t have enough fans. We’ve added a couple here and there over the last year and would definitely second this recommendation.

Finally, a wish list item that hasn’t proved a deal-breaker yet is a windlass. We *are* the windlass on S/V Mother Jones. Luckily, because of the grounds we’re cruising and because we have a shallow draft boat, we rarely have a problem pulling up anchor. But, at 4lbs a foot (280lbs) anchoring in more than 20 feet can get difficult to pull up, especially if there is any wind.

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

Clothes, books and leather; we brought too much of all of it and in the Tropics, everything leather has molded.

What are your plans now?

If they do not include cruising, tell us why. This Season we’re headed to the San Blas, then up the Western Caribbean Coast (Providencia, the Bay Islands of Honduras, the Rio Dulce, Belize and Mexico). And, we’re excited!

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I’ve asked you and how would you answer it?

Having a dog aboard presents both pluses and minuses: we never worry about security, but have limited independence from the boat and in places we can cruise. Several folks have wondered about the strange looking PVC lined mat we have at the bottom of our swim step: it’s Kemah’s swim step allowing him to easily enter and exit the boat without our assistance. More info about our homemade, $40, swim step can be found here.

Madrone at 21 months

2013-01-18T12:09:00.002-08:00

Welcome Madrone to Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally published on their blog. -----------------------------------------------
I (Matt) live aboard and travel with my wife Kristin on a thirty foot Rawson ketch named Madrone. The boat has been kind to us and we love her. It says Portland Oregon on her sides but she most recently called Olympia Washington her home. I don't know if she is so much cruising the Salish Sea as being driven like cattle across the plains, left to graze where the kelp is greenest. Right now I am taking her to a marina in Blaine, Washington.

In 2011, we spent six months heading north from Portland around the inside and then the outside of Vancouver Island and finally south down the west coast to San Francisco.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions or want to chat.

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

The following three things may be obvious as the day is long, but they were not obvious to me.

Nothing, not even scary things, are all that scary in the moment. You will worry and fret about small things when its not clear what to do. But when things are scary you know exactly what to do. When I first started anchoring I spent an amazing amount of energy and some sleepless nights in conditions so mild my chain alone without the anchor would have kept us in place. But then I didn't worry one bit sailing with a broken engine from the open ocean between reefs back into Effingham Bay because I was too damn busy steering. While still keeping safety in mind, try to never ever worry. Worrying hasn't helped me.

There are things you can't learn in books. If you don't have experienced boating friends find some somehow. Take classes, crew, invite people aboard your boat. A friend helped me anchor my boat for the first time in the Willamette river for the fourth of July. It was a little tricky because it was a bow and stern anchor so the boat would face the wake from passing motorboats. I knew that part, and how to deploy them in a reasonable order, but I had no idea what proper scope looked like. I knew what proper scope was of course, but not how to visualize it in the real world. Also, my friend showed me how calm you can be if you know what you are doing. See the first point about worrying. In a moment, I learned things missed over a hundred hours of reading. Of course I could have done it myself and maybe learned even more, but I would have suffered more as well.

Lots of cruising destinations can be reached by car or plane. Plan on sailing to Baja? New Zealand? The Mediterranean? A vacation of several weeks will still be a small fraction of the cost of outfitting a boat and sailing there. It will never be a waste of money. If you love it there then it was a good vacation, and you will know more of what to expect when you sail there. If you hate it then the vacation was even more successful, having saved a costly and perhaps dangerous voyage. Of course you can't reproduce the feeling of accomplishment at having sailed your home there, or of comfortably baking bread in an isolated anchorage. But to get some idea, go to the port town and walk down to the marina. Try to time your visit with the cruising season of the area. You can see the people you'd meet if you had sailed there, and maybe help them buy some groceries. I got a better sense of the long term cruising lifestyle from a few hours with the characters in the La Paz marina than I got from a lot of literature.

Don't worry, and get as much real world experience with the skills you need and locations you are going as you can.

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

Our trip around Vancouver Island was an unending cascade of wonders. I loved the way each new day brought something amazing, sometimes a new bay, sometimes an exciting catch, sometimes a new friend, sometimes a new problem. It was a relaxed but also frenetic adventure, like a child's Christmas morning when they are old enough to know how to pace themselves and enjoy the experience but young enough to want to open every present at once. Each day was a new present and at night we'd shake the box to guess what might come next.

Now that we are not underway, the knowledge that my home is mobile, that I am fundamentally not stuck in one place is an ever present comfort. I like that I don't know where I am going, but that because of my choices I am headed there.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

As we looked forward to our trip down the west coast from Vancouver Island we decided to get a sea anchor shipped to us in Uclulet. That was a silly idea as it cost extra and we relied on the kindness of strangers to get the job done. They were Canadian strangers so there was no trouble, they are a wonderful people. Still, if you are on the fence about some safety gear, get it before you go. We never used our sea anchor and I doubt we ever will, but it gave us peace of mind for the trip down the coast.

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

As I looked forward to long ocean voyages I knew I wanted a wind vane. I'd read Moitessier and Pardey and loved the idea of a simple passive device steering by the wind and taking its power from the water that flows by the boat. I still do but I bought a cranky old Aries vane that I have never made work right. Meanwhile my much maligned auto helm 3000 that came with the boat has been steering thanklessly now for over 1000 miles. A boat I was crew on for an ocean passage used a powered steering system, and it worked flawlessly the whole time. We often abused its compliant nature, making it steer the boat despite an unbalanced sail plan. I may still fix that Aries, but don't ignore powered steering for romantic reasons.

What gear do you love the most?

The surprise hit in Canada was the Kindle, an e-ink model with cell data capabilities. It used almost no power and allowed us to check email if we were patient with its limited web browser. We even used it to buy that sea anchor. Because they want you to be able to buy books anywhere, Amazon has deals with most cell providers. This means free access in other countries, where normal cell policies punish roaming.

Our wood stove had a fire in it most nights, as the normally chilly Canadian summer was almost a no show the year we rounded Vancouver Island. A wood stove is many things: a romance generator, a trash incinerator, a free source of heat, and reason to row to shore (to collect more twigs). We had a Newport solid fuel stove but it's firebox was cracked by a previous owner so we had poor control over the draft. I just installed the "Tiny Tot" by Fatsco, and I love it. Much smaller than the Newport, it still has roughly the same size fire box. It is also really cute. I am moored off Patos island, the northernmost in Washington State, and it is 30F degrees outside. This wonderful stove is keeping me toasty. They are less than 300$ with shipping. Even dog houses should have them.

After sailing to San Francisco and preparing for a trip across the Pacific, you had your boat trucked to Bellingham, WA. What were you thinking?

Several things, as you might imagine. One thought I had, having seen the path I was on while I was crew on a Pacific crossing, was that I didn't think the risks, costs, and discomfort were offset by the numerous rewards. I didn't like that it was a one-way ticket to Australia or New Zealand. I prefer open ended futures. But I have been learning, and thanks to good examples set by others, I realize that the options are much more complex than I had imagined.

Also, I was looking ahead to a trip down the warmer half of the California coast and Baja and wishing I could return to the Salish Sea. Not because I hate warm water and tuna, quite the opposite, but because I knew I was leaving behind the most wonderful place I had ever been, and leaving it for good. Then Kristin got a job in Portland, and if she took it we wouldn't live on the boat there, so we decided to bring the boat back to the top of the waterslide and reset the clock. Now I can cruise as many seasons up here as I want before heading down the west coast again. Maybe then I will like the cost/benefit picture of a Pacific crossing better.

I'm going on a road trip to Baja now, trading in the v-berth for a Coleman 4 person tent and two sleeping bags that zip together. My boat gets 9 miles to the gallon and tops out at 7 miles per hour. My car, which admittedly lacks a head, gets 28 miles to the gallon and goes so fast I don't really even know how fast it can go and for how long. Indefinitely at 70 miles per hour though. I can be in Baja in about the time it takes a boat to go from Portland to the ocean. And then come back that fast as well.

But everything has costs. Its really easy to hop in a car and drive down there, so there isn't the same selective process that applies in sailing. The bunch you meet at the end of an ocean crossing are a rarefied lot, full of vim and vigor. And I am bound to gaze out at the the warm blue bays down there and wish my boat was anchored just offshore. And I bet we'll spend more money on things like food, lodging and entertainment than we would if we had a kitchen and bookshelf with us.

But its cold and rainy here right now, what would you do?

Luckness at 12 months

2013-01-08T12:38:00.001-08:00

Welcome Craig to Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally published on his blog. -----------------------------------------------

Hi. I'm Craig McPheeters. I'm an early 50's single man who was raised on the prairies far away from the ocean. I moved to Seattle from Toronto in 1996 and started enjoying the ocean in various ways. After Sea Kayaking for a number of years, I started sailing in 2006 and still remember approaching a sailboat for the first time and being a little overwhelmed by all the lines, wires and apparent complexity that there was to figure out. I figured it out, going through the Windworks sailing program pretty quickly. I bought my Pacific Seacraft 37, Luckness, in 2009. Luckness arrived without a lot of equipment and I started outfitting her for coastal cruising in the PNW. In 2010 I started outfitting her for offshore cruising. In early 2011 I retired from my job as a software developer which I had held for 20 years, sold my house and moved onboard. On September 1st 2011 I left to go cruising, single handed. I had a one year plan which I thought of as an initial trial. I had a lot to test out in this year. My plan was to sail a triangle: Seattle down the coast to Mexico, Mexico to Hawaii and finally Hawaii back to Seattle. I thought that if all that went well, I would continue the cruising lifestyle with an open ended trip. That brings my story up to date with where I am now, in Seattle, working on the odd boat project, waiting for summer to arrive so I can leave and head south again.

You can follow my adventure on my blog. Feel free to contact me with any comments or questions.

Luckness in Neah Bay after returning from Hawaii

Why did you decide to cruise?

I had reached a point in my life where I was asking myself the question: are you working to live or living to work? I needed a change and this change seemed to be about as dramatic as I could imagine. Cruising also seemed to be a sustainable new lifestyle, something that if I enjoyed it I could spent years and years doing. I was attracted to the possibilities, the freedom each day could bring, the variety, the people I would meet along the way and the adventure of traveling around by sailboat.

Is there a place you visited you wish you could have stayed longer? I was only out for 12 months, split pretty evenly between the west coast of the USA, Mexico and Hawaii. If I could rearrange those 12 months I would spent more time in Mexico. From my experience so far, Mexico is a cruisers paradise. You are welcomed where you go, the country I saw (the Southern Baja Peninsula) was absolutely beautiful, its warm, sunny. Hawaii was not nearly as cruiser friendly in comparison, although I met great people there and had some good times.

Tell me your favorite thing about your boat

There are so many things to like about this boat. She sails well, moving in light air as well as gracefully handling heavy weather and larger seas. She is very well built, does not creak or groan while moving through larger seas and tracks well. She's also a pretty boat, Crealock really nailed this design - she's pleasing to the eye. I have no regrets about my choice.

Tell me your least favorite thing about your boat

Having a canoe stern, I lose a lot of interior volume compared to wider stern boats, so storage can be a challenge. (I feel a little conflicted saying that as I have friends on a Dana 24 who are getting by with much less storage, extremely well, so space may be something you can make do with what you have but you always wish for more.) Also backing up in close quarters can be nerve wracking - I love going forward in this boat. Backwards, not so much.

What are some of your favorite pieces of gear on your boat and why?

I have a few favorites. AIS is fantastic. I have a VesperMarine AIS receiver which also has an anchor watch mode that I use while I'm at rest. Its the best anchor watch I've seen and having a very low power consumption dedicated AIS receiver has been fantastic. I'll be upgrading this before I leave this summer to a VespeMarine AIS transceiver as I want to transmit as well. I have a small Katadyn water maker which was an easy install, does not occupy too much of my limited storage space and has been reliable. I would run it every day to make water as it only creates 1.5 gallons/hour - but water makers are happiest being run frequently. I have enough solar power to power the boat if the days are sunny, indefinitely (2x135watts.) My chart plotter is a couple of generations old (Simrad NX45) but is very low power, drawing only 0.75amps with the backlight on full, meaning I can leave it on full time while moving. My sails are fantastic, made by Carol Hasse and her merry crew. I have an Iverson's dodger which is super strong with lots of very firm hand holds making moving into and out of the cockpit in heavy weather much safer than what I used to have. I have a Rocna 20 anchor which I've been really happy with - it sets quickly, holds well and seems to reset quickly when necessary as well. My Watch Commander timer is an essential piece of gear to enforce my sleep patterns on passages.

How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad?

I experienced two gales, one off the Oregon coastline, which seems pretty standard when leaving the PNW heading south. The winds reached 38 knots with the seas maybe 15+ feet. I hove to for almost a day as the conditions south of where I was appeared to be worse from the weather information I was receiving. That wasn't pleasant, but the boat felt fine and I didn't worry - there were far worse gales that season other boats were caught in off that coast. The second gale was as a Norther raced down the Sea of Cortez while I was trying to head up to La Paz from Cabo San Lucas. Sockdolager, Clover and I ended up anchored off of Muertes for around a week, through Christmas 2011. That was fine too - the anchor held without budging and if I had dragged anchor I would have been blown to sea (not onto a shore or another boat, which would have been nerve wracking.) Aside from those two times, all the rest of my sailing had winds of less than 30 knots, I had some really nice sailing over those 12 months. There were some strong winds in Hawaii between the islands or several times while at anchor, but not into the gale category while I was there.

What type of watch schedule do you normally use while offshore?

This depends on where I am and how long the trip is. As I am single handing, I was always on watch...however, I wasn't always awake. I was normally never close to shore (less than 30 miles) for more than a day. That is, on my hops down the coast to Mexico, if I was going any distance I would arrange to be farther offshore so I could sleep more easily at night. My sleep schedule is to never sleep more than 20 minutes, and I have an alarm (a Watch Commander) which enforces this. I kept to this sleep schedule for all of my passages, the longest of which was 21 days from Hawaii to Neah Bay. I was able to put up with this schedule, although I was always very happy to arrive at anchor and be able to sleep soundly through a night. If the trip I'm on is not too long (no more than roughly 30 hours) or close to potential traffic, I'll won't sleep at all - but obviously this only works for shorter trips. If the trip was long enough, I would plan it in a way that I could sleep in 20 minute intervals somewhere along the way.

Finish this sentence. "Generally when I am provisioning..."

...I buy too much. So far all my trips have started from a port which had lots of provisions available to me, and I would find myself loading up on goods to ridiculous amounts. I would be going through 'what if...' scenarios constantly and find myself walking by a grocery store and stop in and load up, again and again.

What is your biggest lesson learned?

That a prairie boy can do this! You don't need to have been born on the water into a family which has sailing in its blood back for generations. That might help, but if you dedicate yourself to learning everything that is required, you too can go cruising. Buy lots of books, take lots of classes, listen to smart experienced people every chance you get, get out and gain your own experience. Its working for me, which is still a little surprising sometimes.

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

I just love the life of possibilities you have when cruising. You are constantly presented with choices which can alter your future in meaningful ways. The people I met during the year I was out were fantastic and one of the best things about my experience. I also found cruising very satisfying - every now and then I would be out in some remote anchorage or on passage reflecting on where I was, how I had gotten there, being astounded at how beautiful the area was and how centered and present I felt.

Its not all "beautiful sunsets and cocktails in the cockpit" - this life can be a lot of work at times, from what I've seen of it so far. But the rewards so far outweigh the other loses and costs.

I'm looking forward to starting my cruising adventure again this summer as I leave Seattle heading toward New Zealand via Mexico.

Nyon at 15 Months

2012-12-20T21:27:00.001-08:00

Welcome Kyra and Rick to Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally published on their blog. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canucks abroad

We are Rick and Kyra, our homeport is Victoria, BC, Canada. Our floating home is the sailing vessel Nyon. A Lapworth 36, Nyon is a 54 year old wooden sailboat that we refitted over a period of 4 years. (Admittedly we are still in the process of refitting her, but she is a solid bluewater boat.) We have been cruising full-time for 15 months. In September 2011, we sailed from Canada, down the west coast of the United States, and into Mexico. We have been cruising in Mexico since November 2011. We are now in the Sea of Cortez. It is our hope to continue cruising for as long as it is possible (and fun), stopping to replenish the cruising kitty when need be. There are still countless places we would like to explore, including the South Pacific. You can follow our adventures on our blog. Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments.

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

Kyra: The funny thing is, people told us a lot of things. We had some great resources: Friends who’d cruised extensively, like-minded individuals who encouraged us to go simply and go now. They would mention certain discomforts or challenges they’d come across, and I would nod. I realize now that I did not always grasp what they meant, or did not see how affected by certain things I would be until I actually experienced them for myself. For example, our friend Barb talked about the boat’s motion when you’re offshore, and how it can still be exhausting and frustrating even in not-so-terrible conditions. I grimaced, but was thinking “Really, how bad can it be, unless we're in a storm!” It can be bad, let me tell you. I’m ashamed to admit that I have had temper tantrums after running into the same table corner 5 times in 20 minutes of rolly seas. This is a roundabout way of saying, we were told plenty, we just needed to have our own experiences.

Rick: It won't be the experience you expect it to be. Some things that you think will be hard, will be manageable. Some things that you think will be easy, will drive you crazy. Things you hadn't really thought about will become the things you most look forward to.

At anchor in the Sea of Cortez

Of the changes, choices and compromises you had to make along the way, which were you happiest and most satisfied about, which do you wish you had chosen otherwise and why?

Kyra: We started cruising abroad without a watermaker – for our first year in Mexico, we lugged “garrafons” of water to the boat. Sometimes it was a real hassle; often it was just another boat job. Through a series of events, we had the opportunity to buy a second-hand watermaker which Rick installed at anchor while we were in the northern half of the Sea of Cortez. It still feels like a luxury to be able to make water at will. It has allowed us to go farther afield, and be away from “civilization” for longer periods of time. While cruising is more than doable without one, we are very happy to have a watermaker now. (Of course, we had to compromise stowage, which is limited at best on Nyon, that’s an ongoing challenge, made just a little harder with a watermaker. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.)
Rick: In our pre-cruising life, we questioned a lot of the default choices made by peers, family, and our cutlure in general. We tried to make choices that were right for us. Sometimes our choices were outlandish, and sometimes they were common; but either way, we tried to make our choices consciously. We are happiest with the choices that took us off the usual path, or kept us in a great anchorage, after other boats had moved on.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

Kyra: I would like to have an SSB radio – especially for when we cross to the South Pacific – I can see how only having an SSB receiver and maybe a SAT phone would be more isolating. And I like the idea of being able to use Sailmail to let our loved ones know we’re okay when we are “out there”. The debate on that one continues aboard Nyon. Also, it would have been nice to be better prepared for the amount of snorkeling and fishing we are now doing – however, this has not stopped us from pursuing our new passions.

Rick: Coming from cold water sailing grounds, we underestimated the amount of time we would spend, and number of things we would do in the water. We should have had more, and better snorkeling gear, including spares. We took up spearfishing, with a pole-spear, and hook and line fishing. We could have brought more of the basic fishing gear with us. A lot of the gear available in Mexico is very expensive, for the elite sport fishing business. Then there are toys like kayaks, boogie boards, surf boards, kite-boarding outfits, etc. If we had the money, and space, we would have it all.

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

Kyra: I think what I found hardest was not having my close friends nearby, we have been fortunate in that they’ve come to visit us while we’ve been cruising in Mexico, but it’s not the same as weekly coffee, art dates and gab sessions. Having said that, we are lucky to have met some great folks while cruising (whom we are sure to develop steadfast friendships with); but friendships take time to grow and deepen, so at times I have struggled with the loneliness that comes with a transient life.

Rick: It was challenging to be alone together all of the time. We are both social people, but when we initially started traveling, we had few opportunities to get to know people. We would sometimes go weeks without anything more than superficial conversations with strangers. Many of the boats we connected with, sailed off in different directions. We were probably about 8 months in, before we started connecting with boats that had similar cruising plans. We really miss our close circle of friends.

Nyon doing what she does best
Photo courtesy of Tom (SV Eagle)

What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

Kyra: Oh, I know we’ve made lots of mistakes – when you’re new at something like voyaging, you’re bound to. What’s important is learning from those mistakes. More specifically, I mindlessly assumed that once I was out there, I would take to the lifestyle just like that. I realize now that it takes time to develop a variety of skills when you are actually voyaging, and they don’t necessarily come naturally or quickly. Another big lesson we had to learn was to limit the number of things on our to-do list in a day. You’ll hear or read over and over again how long it takes to get anything done. Grocery shopping can be a half day to a whole day trek, etc. We have learned to limit what we expect to get done in a day, which means we have a better chance to get that ”feeling of accomplishment” instead of coming up short, and being exhausted and grumpy at the end of the day.

Rick: We spent our first 2 months cruising doing a lot of passagemaking. We were under-weigh for an average of over 50 hours per week. We were moving along at a rate where we didn't feel like we could really enjoy each place we stopped. The cruising was exciting, but it felt a lot more like work than an escape. This is what we had prepared for; our boat in motion all of the time. Once we slowed down, we began to realize that cruising is really about enjoying the place you are in. We spend almost all of our time at anchor, only moving along when we really want to. Our focus and expectations had been very passage-centric. We weren't mentally prepared, or as outfitted as we would have liked, for enjoying ourselves at anchor.

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

Kyra: Voyaging on a sailboat is not boring and that’s exciting! There is no room for monotony. Some days I’m restless or frustrated, but I’m never bored. I love discovering new passions, developing my skills as a sailor, observing the wildlife, being at one with nature, pushing my comfort zone to new levels, and learning about a different culture.
Rick: A good sail is still pretty great. There is nothing like reaching in a fifteen knot breeze with your destination appearing over the horizon. Fishing has become a lot of fun. I never really did much fishing back home, so my enjoyment of fishing has come as a bit of a surprise. I particularly like spearfishing. Seeing all of the different fish in the reefs is great, and there is something thrilling in the hunt, especially if it is successful.

What is something about the cruising culture you like and what is something you dislike?

Kyra:) One thing we'd heard and read, was how helpful the cruising community is. Complete strangers will offer assistance in all kinds of amazing ways. In our experience, we found this to be absolutely true. We have witnessed an inherent generosity of spirit time and again within this community. This is two-fold, however, cruisers can also be very opinionated and pushy with how you should tackle a problem or issue - and that can be exhausting and frustrating at times, especially when we disagree. This also brings up the herd mentality that sometimes takes over the cruising community. There can be some bullying if you choose the "wake less traveled" - I think you need to be comfortable with your plans and choices, whether or not the next two boats agree with you - it is important to build trust in yourself and your boat. We have also found that we are often the youngest ones around. And we are not that young: 40 and 43 years old respectively. We don’t usually care how old people are, if we click with them, we click. Some of our favourite cruisers are our parents’ age – but sometimes it is also nice to hang out with people our own age or younger. You connect on a different level.
Rick: The cruising community has the village mentality of helpfulness and inclusion, that has disappeared from our home land-based culture. Boats are not only willing, but also able to help each other out with emergencies, and minor troubles. The more boats there are in a particular area, the more political the community becomes. I don't like the politics that are part of the bigger ports. The resources in the bigger ports draw us in, but the petty politics make the more remote anchorages even more attractive.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn't find to be true?

Kyra: Me personally – I heard people say it can be boring. I don’t find cruising boring. Sure there are times I feel restless, but bored? Never. I’m pretty good at keeping myself busy and am getting better at sitting still, and staring out at the sea.

Rick: We heard that the people you meet along the way become instant close friends. The reality is that we have a lot in common with fellow cruisers, but we make friends, and develop depth in friendships in the same way we did before we left.

What is the key to make the cruising life enjoyable?

Kyra: Attitude. It’s all about attitude. I’m not saying I always have the right attitude, but it certainly helps me cope with unexpected challenges more constructively when I manage to have a positive attitude. Also, being open to what is, (instead of pining for what-should-be), has allowed us to appreciate this incredible adventure all the more.

Rick: Life is still life, while you are out in paradise. You leave behind a lot of the responsibilities and baggage that is common with a shore-bound life. However, you get used to what is normal. One sunny day, after another sunny day, with beautiful sunsets, and warm waters become your everyday experience, you realize that your enjoyment of life isn't dependent on your lifestyle. Don't wait to enjoy life, until you are anchored off a tropical island sipping rum and coconut water out of a fresh green coconut. Learn to enjoy life now, and then take that enjoyment cruising.

How would you recommend that someone prepares to cruise?

Kyra: Go sailing, in all kinds of weather conditions. Learn to work on boat projects at anchor. Seriously, get off the dock as often as possible, even if you have to motor to get to an anchorage. It’s important to experience a variety of conditions – you will find you need to adjust things such as: Where you stow certain items, what you require for comfort, etc. This was especially true for us, as we mostly anchor out. In 2012, we stayed at a dock for a total of 4 nights. Living aboard, (at least for a little while), ahead of time is not a bad idea either – There is enough to adapt to as it is, once you begin to cruise full-time. We lived aboard for 4 year in the PNW prior to going cruising, we figured out how to give each other space in a diminutive living arrangement, as well as how to move around each other as we go about our daily activities. Finally, I also spent a lot of time reading a variety of cruising blogs – it’s inspiring, informative, and fun!

Rick: Go sailing. Go frequently. Get out for as long as you can. The only way to figure how you want to set up your boat, is to use it. Use it in all kinds of conditions. Live on your boat. The only way to figure out how you want to set up your boat is to spend time on it. Get used to day to day living aboard. Make sure your berth is comfortable. Learn how to make the most of the stowage you have available. Every crew has different goals, a different cruising style, a different boat. What is a good decision for one crew, is not necessarily right for another. Consider the advice you get, try it on in your head and see if it seems to fit. You and your boat will never be ready, so cast off the dock lines and get ready along the way.