Cruising Knots

For some it is just a dream;-)

2012-02-20T09:08:00.000+01:00

Where you explore

2011-12-28T16:50:00.000+01:00

I have often wondered how many people are undertaking long voyages by boat, and I'm really glad someone has taken the effort to find out. Jimmy Cornell has done a very interesting study (Cruising World, November 2011, page 36 - 41) into the number of boats actually engaged in world cruising. Below you see his summary map (click to enlarge) with the total number of boats per region. He estimates 10.000 boats in total, of which 200 complete a circumnavigation every year. The numbers have been pretty stable over the last few decades, but due to the piracy threat in the Indian Ocean behavior has changed. The Pacific has seen an increase for instance.

Who needs a watermaker?

2011-11-22T10:45:00.001+01:00

One of the things I am still considering before we start living aboard is whether or not we should install a watermaker. I prefer not to do so, and to try to catch the rain instead. After chlorinating and filtering we should be able to use and drink it. Sim and Rosie aboard Alianna explain how that works for them as well.

"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."

What we learn from leaving the dock?

2011-07-07T14:31:00.000+02:00

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.

Things you never knew about cruising

2011-05-05T09:37:00.000+02:00

I read a lot of blog posts and magazine articles on the topic of what it is like to be sailing around the world. Many learnings come back again and again. The Aspen crew has summed (some of) them up, so you at least know these things before you leave the dock;-) A few examples:

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

The storage and provisioning challenge

2011-03-24T06:04:00.000+01:00

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).

The lookie bucket

2011-03-16T05:01:00.000+01:00

Want to check on the set of your anchor without getting wet? Here's a good tip from the Katana folks.

You've got a rudder

2011-03-01T04:31:00.000+01:00

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.

The Quest for a safe passage

2011-02-24T04:15:00.000+01:00

It's been the story of the last few days amongst cruisers, the crew of sv Quest has been killed by Somalian pirates. To me, personal reports of people who actually knew the Quest crew have a lot of impact. Especially when they were sailing in the same area at the same time, like Lynn and Chuck on Cyan did. Update: they wrote a more extensive piece on this matter for the Seven Seas Cruising Association Commodore's Bulletin.

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.

I'm on a boat

2010-08-12T09:07:00.000+02:00

Are you;-)?

Sailing families

2010-07-28T05:38:00.000+02:00

The Totem crew was interviewed by Women and Cruising on what it's like to be sailing with a family including kids. Read all about them and the other 11 families here.

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?

When on a passage

2010-07-23T04:02:00.000+02:00

What's it like? Jonathon, cruising on Syzygy, describes it, in 15 minute intervals.

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.

On Moitessier and looking forward

2010-05-13T04:12:00.000+02:00

Sailing the longest possible ocean passage isn't easy for everybody, so it's no wonder Moitessier's name comes up every now and then (not only Aboard IO). Here's what he has to say.

"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."

Remember that, the next time you're asking yourself what you are doing out there far away from any land.

Laundry, yes laundry....

2010-05-02T13:42:00.000+02:00

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.

Eating risky fish

2010-04-29T05:50:00.000+02:00

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.

Leaving dreams at the dock

2009-11-08T04:56:00.000+01:00

Planning to sail around the world is not the same as actually doing it. Lots of books have been written about the latter, a new one is coming: Sailing Faith: The Long Way Home (The Gregg A Granger Family Adventure). And it begins with an inspiring (and recognizable) story of how it all started.

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.

Long lasting food

2009-11-02T03:02:00.000+01:00

I'm sure that anyone who ever spends, or plans to spend, a lot of time aboard without guarantees of having access to fresh food will have asked themselves this question: how long will it last? There are many great resources on this topic, but sometimes a simple first-hand account (In this case coming from Wind Horse) is nice to read.

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.

Your favorite cruising movies

2009-10-26T09:22:00.000+01:00

I just ordered 13 DVDs from Amazon (update: 14, thanks to a tip from Behan), most of them because they were on this list of best nautical and sailing movies in history. I don't see a lot of interesting movie titles appearing when searching for them on several cruising blogs, but let me know when you have some nice additions to this (randomly ordered) list:

Sailing The World Alone
Alone Against The Sea - The Dangers Of Solo Sailing
Being Out There
White Squall
Deep Water
The Bounty
Captain Ron
Wind
Kon Tiki
Mutiny on the Bounty
Lionheart - The Jesse Martin Story
Blue Water Odyssey
The Incredible Voyage of Bill Pinkney
Ice Blink

The impact of a typo

2009-10-23T04:40:00.000+02:00

You expect your boat to be in the water, but it is not. It's happened to me several times, but not for the reason it happened to Robert and Trish with their Bristol Rose.

A 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.

The final leg

2009-10-21T09:23:00.000+02:00

All good things come to an end they say. Nick and company on Kika have retuned to Falmouth after spending 4 years at sea, and it is also the end for (another) Nick and his Constellation. I have enjoyed his adventures, around the world on a budget.

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.

We've bought our boat!

2009-10-19T09:43:00.000+02:00

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...

Yachties or cruisers?

2009-10-04T12:44:00.000+02:00

So, what do you prefer they call you when they visit the zoo? At least, that's what it feels like to Bristol Rose's Robert and Trish.

The lady announcer informed those on the tour boat the "yachties come from all over the world to spend the summer in Charuaramas Bay to keep safe from the Hurricanes". She also told the group, and the rest of us listening, that Yachties prefer to be called Cruisers, "if you get a chance to met a cruiser, don't call them Yachties", she warned.

Home is where the boat is?

2009-10-02T02:02:00.000+02:00

And that makes traveling by sail a bit different from let's say a backpack experience. Christian shares some thoughts on this topic that will be recognizable for most of you. He also recommends a book, Many Miles to Go, that you should read when considering to be on the road or ocean for a few years or more.

Last July, after not being in the US for over a year, I was ready for the "regularity of a quiet life." So does this make me a true traveler or just homesick? Who knows, all I know is I needed a break. And the fact that when cruising on a sailboat, your technically always home, because "home is where the boat is" makes things a little confusing. I think if I traveled outside the country for a full year without the boat, constantly living out of a suitcase, cut off from my stuff, I would have fatigued quickly. It has come as a bit of a surprise, my enthusiasm, dare I say exuberance, at the thought of returning to Christa to sail again. I simply miss the boat.

Sailing a tsunami

2009-10-01T15:57:00.000+02:00

It makes you feel very lucky not to have been caught in the action when reading the first hand accounts of people that have survived the tsunami as a result of the recent earthquakes in American Samoa. This quote by friends of Independence best describes what it was like, but reality must feel a lot worse.

Just as I was considering the ramifications of that little fact... all hell started breaking loose! Our boat was on the move! My first reaction was to start the engine and dash up on deck to see what was going on. I witnessed the water around us was rapidly dropping! Rapidly! In a blink of an eye, we were on the bottom and the boat was falling away from the dock! Three of our big dock lines popped and we fell right over into the mud - the entire basin we had been floating in only moments ago had completely drained! People were screaming!

Cruising in privacy

2009-09-14T15:22:00.000+02:00

Anchorages can be very crowded, but sometimes they are not. And that makes life a little bit easier. In a way. For Nakia's crew at least.

I'm sure you're still wondering about the 'nude' part. Well NAKIA is the only boat in the anchorage and there's no reason to get your bathing suit wet if you don't have to. So instead of changing out of one suit into another we just took off our clothes before getting in. Really, I'm surprised the mantas didn't bolt from fright.