"Aw! But not to worry - the all-powerful Skipper can amazingly solve even this small yet important discomfiture - finds a very *small* bottle and puts in a tiny amount of acetone, and - here you are - that's actually nail varnish remover. What a absolute hero."
"People ask us all the time why we chose a monohull this time around and there are two reasons. One is that we had no desire to simply relive our first adventure. And two, the big one, is money. When we first set out to sail around the world in 2003 we were flush with cash, and more importantly, had every intention of sailing, finishing our trip, and returning to work. Of course after sailing around the world, and experiencing all that comes with it, who in their right mind would want to go back to work? So for the past five years we've been traveling on a different budget than we had back then. I feel no shame in admitting that."
"So far as I can see, e-Paint and Eco-speed are the only environmentally-safe antifoulings currently available to us – and the one is suitable only for people who can slip every year, and the other only for folks building new boats or willing to strip off every scrap of old paint; and rich folks, at that. Where does that leave the rest of us? Well, I think it leaves us mixing our own homebrew copper-epoxy anti-fouling."
"We try to make sure that our decks are always kept clean. Before we put any water in the tanks we always check it by collecting buckets of water that are pouring out from the scuppers before we divert it. We put a filter in the scupper, which we made, to prevent any particles to slip through. We also chlorinate our water with regular household bleach. Approximately 5 ml per 50 gallons. Our galley tap then has a water filter on it to make the water taste better."
I don't think everybody will experience cruising like the Rasmus people do, but they are definitely worth following. They just got started and are truly sharing their experiences. Should inspire people to leave the dock themselves.I don't know what it will take for you to see your dreams as something more, but you should do it. It is an incredibly freeing way to live. Scott and I feel like kids in a candy store who found a ten dollar bill on the floor. It's like nobody knows our secret, yet it's so simple and easy. How come we have this ten dollars when so many people don't? There really is power in dreaming. There really is another way to live. There really is a way to live a life less ordinary. You just need to step aside and extricate yourself from the status quo, it's designed to keep you there! Easier for some than for others, for sure. But I am a firm believer that where there is a will, there is a way.
Half of the crew will read a lot of books
Half of the crew will watch a lot of DVD's
Half of the crew will have no time to read books or watch DVD's; they are reading repair manuals
Where does it all go? Totem tries to answer that question based on their extensive cruising experiences, and they are obviously not the only one having to deal with the issue of having too little space for all the stuff we want to take with us. Bella Star compares it to playing a game of Tetris, and I think that is something we all recognize;-) But they have a tip for us as well, Snapware.Beyond stackabilty, the containers are airtight, leak-proof and have secure tabs that latch on each side, keeping them closed no matter what. After dealing with the results of a feta cheese catastrophe last week, the part about the latching tabs is important (see, a package of crumbled feta decided to explode in the darkest recesses of the fridge, which I discovered at 6:15am while blearily making Aaron’s lunch -- what a treat that was).
Yes, when sailing, you have a rudder. But that doesn't mean rules don't count anymore. I would be a bit surprised as well when someone would give me a response like it was given to the Knotty Cat.There was one fishing boat that was trolling along with huge lines out in all directions and it even had a kite flying way off its stern that apparently dangles bait in the water in order to draw more fish in. We were under sail and when we got too close they screamed, got on the radio, and when Hans told them we were under sail and they were powering, they said, "You've got a rudder don't you? You effing sailing people are all alike!" We then watched a couple of other boats come close but we didn't hear anything on the radio. Now keep in mind these were not commercial fisherman which we do have to stay away from. I just don't know why they didn't go further out and avoid all the smaller boats.
At 11 pm last night...only time we can only send and get email and weather...We read the news report that Geoff sent us about the vessel QUEST and our dear friends Scott and Jean and their crew being brutally murdered. It was a tough night on us, to say the least. I broke down from grief and tension and Chuck has never longed for a jet and bombs so much since 9/11. Our tax dollars paid for him to respond that way with his old flight training but it's understandable. He is also distraught but his anger came first! We look at these fine fellow cruisers as martyrs to the cause of our right to sail the free oceans in relative safety. They will not be forgotten by any of us cruisers and for those of us who were friends, we really know what a loss their deaths are. Our hearts go out to their friends and family at home.
The site supports and inspires women cruisers, and they've recently started a feature on cruising families. We're one of twelve different families are answering a set of questions about our experiences cruising with children: what are our biggest challenges in going cruising? What's a typical day? How do we handle education?
Every 15 minutes the person on watch is supposed to at a minimum scan the horizon looking for anything we might run into. 15 minutes is the chosen interval aboard Syzygy as we believe it balances differing factors such as: how far you can see at night, how generally busy with other vessel traffic the area is, human comfort. We have a wristwatch aboard Syzygy that has an alarm set to ring every 15 minutes. I would wear it around the band of my headlamp so that it was always extremely close to my ear. Just in case I was sleeping or simply had my eyes deeply closed. I would even wear the watch during the day so that if I got busy doing something, when the alarm rang I would be reminded to, at a minimum, look around for other boats, land, check our course, etc.
"I try never to look too far ahead. I heave to emotionally. It's a trick I learned from reading Monfreid. When everything is going wrong, you stop thinking, you just act on instinct, you just do what has to be done every day. And little by little, things become clear."
I've been looking for a solution to this laundry problem as well, but haven't found any. Boat Bits might be on to something though...It may surprise some, but the single biggest hassle most folks on boats have to deal with is not fixing engines, repairing sails or dealing with problematic customs and immigration officials...
The really hard part of cruising on a sailboat is simply doing the laundry.
Nice tip from aboard Visions of Johanna. I do not eat fish myself, but I know most cruisers do.We also got some interesting info on ciguaterra (fish toxin). Pierre said that most of the toxins are stored in the head (brain in particular) and guts, then the belly meat, then the lower loin, with the least toxin in the upper loin, so when in doubt you should just eat the meat from the midline (pin bones) up towards the back. This will reduce the amount of toxin you might ingest and limit your chance of getting sick. A good bit of advice we think.
We find, while preparing for our voyage in Hampton, Virginia, a number of folks planning voyages of their own and a few who have actually left the dock. The planners are dreamers, conjuring obstacles to maintain the dream. As soon as the boat is all ready; boats are boats, and will never be all ready. As soon as they have accumulated enough money; there will never be enough. As soon as the kids are older, or the kids have moved out, or … I recall a man I worked with years earlier who refused a sizeable Christmas bonus. “I always wanted a Cadillac,” he said, “but as soon as I get my Cadillac, the dream is gone. I just think the car can’t be as good as the dream.” People know when they leave the dock, the dream is gone.
We thought that you might be interested in what we have found on longevity. We’ll start with the photo of dinner. The shrimp are from Trader Joes, and at this eating 13 months in the freezer. They don’t compare with fresh of course, but they taste pretty good in the curried prawns dish. The tortillas are an amazing story. These are remnants of a big stack we bought in Mexico spring of 2007 - now over two years old. We vacuum packed them originally, but these have been in the freezer in a Ziploc bag for the past year. Really tasty too.
Sailing The World AloneA new chainplate was on order from the USA and it had not arrived. A deck mount chainplate is typically used to attach a shroud, forestay or backstay. Customs regulations in Trinidad state that "Yachts in Transit" can import repair parts duty free. On investigation they found the Customs Office had returned the part because "China Plates" are not repair parts for yachts.
I can’t tell you the number of times, in the worst moments, where I’ve just wanted to give up. Where it seemed impossible; where the sacrifices were too great… To do something like this takes a great amount of selfish endeavour and single-mindedness. Relationships are strained, severed, mistreated and broken. Friends come, go, and are lost after years of neglect… Family worries and wonders… Yet the vast expanse of ocean; those moments of the sublime are fought for and held onto by tooth and nail… I cannot explain what this is about, what it means, why it has to be done – It is what it is, and soon it will be complete.
Reading and writing about the cruising life of others is fun, but not nearly as much as having your own;-) Last week we bought the boat that will take us anywhere we want to go, it's a 1974 Trintella IIIa (Drift Away). And we immediately started a serious refit. New teak decks, Hotvac osmosis treatment, rigging refresh, new paint system for the hull, new upholstery, new navigation equipment, the list goes on...
