Cruising With Children

[Cruisingdad]

Thanks PB.

[winddancer88]

Giu,

Where did you find the 12v blender? Been looking for one for years!

[sailhog]

Just thought of a potential chapter topic: How to have a knock-down-drag-out fight with the wife without waking the kids.

[Cruisingdad]

SH,

It is funny, but I will probably brush on that a bit. Not the fighting part, but the reality that a bunch of people in a confined space raises tensions, and the thing swe do to try and reduce them.

- CD

[Cruisingdad]

Windancer:

Sailnet sells them: Sailnet.com - community, sailing resources, shopping, sail, blogs

About $15 less than West.

[sailollie]

I posted this on the cruising forum, but here it is again....

My husband and I have an 8 month old right now, and are planning to start a 2-3 year cruise in 5 years. We are wondering a few things and hope those of you out there with kids can help us out.

First, anyone sailing with just 1 child? What's that like? Are they missing peers or does it seem okay? (At this point, it's hard to tell exactly what our son's personality will be, so general advice would be great)

Second, our son will be almost 6 when we take off. This seems like an ideal age, but what is your experience?

At this point, we're still not sure if we are going to go for #2, or if we do what the spacing will be. For many reasons, 1 child makes sense to us, but we are worried about isolating him too much when we take off on our journey. Since we plan to spend lots of time anchored and with other cruisers, I imagine that there will be plenty of other children for him to play with....

I suppose this is just the beginning of lots of questions...BUT we all have to begin somewhere!

[dakuehn]

CD--I will likely never cruise, but will be doing some sailing on Grapevine with the family as soon as the water receeds. I have 3 year and 8 mo. old boys and would be very interested in your advice on child-profing the boat--your advice about netting around the lifelines and stanchions to catch toys comes to mind.

[welshwind]

We don't cruise as in go away for months at a time. However, we do a week at a time and the most important thing I have learned is how to handle the boat in such a way that it pushes but doesn't cross the line of comfortableness (I made that word up). What do I mean by this?

I have the admiral and three daughters. Two of my daughters and I like it heeled over, blowing hard and going for the gusto. The admiral and my other daughter really get scared under those conditions. I have learned where their tolerance level is and how to control the boat in such a way to make the sail as enjoyable as possible for all. In return, they understand that there are simply times, no matter how much careful thought and preparation were given to weather reports and the like, when the winds and waves do something unpredictable and have learned to hang on and not blame the captain for the situation. This peace and harmony is very important to happiness on the boat and, equally important, when your destination is reached. Nothing worse than being in a beautiful port with the admiral angry about the manner of sail to get there.

[winddancer88]

Originally Posted by Cruisingdad

Windancer:

Sailnet sells them: Sailnet.com - community, sailing resources, shopping, sail, blogs

About $15 less than West.

Thanks, CD. I'll check it out. IIRC, Coleman used to have a battery powered version. . .

edit: Found it!: Joe's - Coleman Portable Blender

[Cruisingdad]

Sailollie,

We will cover it. Put as many questions and thoughts as you can here. Again, this is only the question session. I will put together an article to cover it all (though as Sialia said, it will likely be the size of a book).

Again, put some thoughts together on questions so we do not miss anything.

Dakuehn,

We will try and cover that too.

Welshwind,

Thanks for the thoughts.