What do cruisers do?

If you can't figure out what to do in a remote spot then it is pointless for someone to explain - and I don't mean that in an unkindly way. There are some people (a few) who just like to sail and only stop briefly before carrying on. I can think of a boat from our yacht club that went to Bermuda years ago. They cleared in and then went and anchored. The crew got ready to go ashore for dinner and a dark and stormy or three and asked the captain if he was coming along. His answer was, 'No, I've been here before'. They stayed for four or five days and then headed back home. Remember this is a trip to/from Lake Ontario so mast down and up twice and going through the Erie Canal and Hudson twice. Not a casual undertaking.

Sounds like you should just pick the routes and timings that give you the best sailing with stops only to do repairs and provisioning.

It just occurred to me to quote an example. The most relaxed place I can ever remember was in Mangareva in the Gambier Islands of French Polynesia. We were there for three or four weeks and did basically nothing and loved it. We anchored off the local metropolis (population 600 or so). The busiest and most stressful time of the day was when you went into town to pick up the baguettes at the boulangerie. You had to order for the next day and it was so hard, sometimes we would talk about it for half an hour. How many do we want? Do we want them in the morning (out of the oven at 7 am) or the afternoon (4 pm). Once we decided to live life with all the gusto possible and ordered one for the morning and one for the afternoon. I was getting treatment for a bad infection on my leg so alternate days I would go sit outside the clinic with local ladies and their babies (and the old ladies with their swollen legs) waiting to see the doctor and/or nurse. BTW, there never was a charge (I asked) for the six or so visits I made. We did nothing at all except walk around and try to speak French a bit. It was heavenly.

I've no problem with the being alone part. I'm also pretty good at entertaining myself. At home, in a mid sized city with a car, I am never bored. Actually, it's hard to make myself go to bed at night, because there are still so many things I want to do that day.

The problem I had was when I anchored at places where there was no town. To me, that's a one night/one day place. Maybe there's a trail, a hill to climb, a lake, some pictures to take, but then that's it really, and unless there is some kind of attraction there, they are all very similar.

It's why I don't understand when people tell me to go to this anchorage x, you'll love it. Well, a lot of the, are just really tiny islands and there is nowhere to go and nothing to do really. I don't drink, so that's out, it's good really, but maybe bad too because it seems people wait around for evening and drinking makes things less dull.

It's really why I think most people in my position would be "go to Alaska!" But I don't really have the motivation. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just seems like more cold, rain and isolation. That's why I want to go south. San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterey, all the way to San Diego sounds great! So much to see and do.

I'm sure it's different if you're in the tropics, and let's not forget, or let's use your French Polynesia example. At least there is a culture, you didn't do much, but the entire description, wasn't what you did, but you described a different culture, even if you didn't mean too. I think that's what I want, some culture. B.C. And Alaska outside of the towns, there's really no culture.

That's part of the fun of travel, trying different foods, and seeing the way of life of different people.

Oh, but the sailing part. I loved sailing. I could sail all day. I went north last summer and the absolute best part of it was the trip there. Everything was new and I didn't know what would be around the next corner. But once I got there, I was ready to keep moving.

There are some that love the chance to slow down and do very little. I love the idea of watching spiders spin webs. Sounds very meditative. On the other hand, it takes me a while to disengage my uber-type-A multitasking go-go-go personality. I can do it, but it takes a while.

Some people can't. What your asking sounds like when people ask, "what will you do with your time when you retire?" Other say they are busier when they retire.

I did a lot of boating with a millionare guy who had a mega-yacht. He could only go full throttle, and even when he was in his 7th decade of life, he'd wake up at 5am each day and wash his entire 67ft boat with a face-cloth and 2 gallon bucket. The guy was like a permanently coiled spring. When we hit a log and folded over a blade on a propeller we had to spend the next 7 days "limping" home at "only" 9 knots. He was going stir-crazy going that slow. I reminded him that we were "limping" at a speed faster than my boat ever goes.

Sailing is different for different people. If a month under the same palm-tree with an umbrella drink in hand is not your thing, don't try and make it your thing. Maybe you're more like Motessier. He liked being at sea for months at a time, while many of the umbrella drink crowd like to avoid long passages. Use marinas instead of anchorages if that's what you crave. Get a dinghy with a high powered outboard for when you do anchor, and perhaps a bike to augment staying at marinas and exploring the urban areas.

Make it whatever you want it to be.... The Bumfuzzles didn't much like remote anchorages during their circumnavigation. They preferred the urban areas, and they felt judged by the cruising majority that always told them they were "going too fast" and were surprised that they didn't like the idyllic anchorages that everyone else liked. So, make it whatever you want it to be ....even if you're not the remote anchorage type though, I will be surprised if you don't like hot springs cove.

MedSailor

Oh I know I'll like hot spring cove! Ok, this time I do have the outboard dinghy, that will help. I'm bringing along a folding bike I didn't have last year, another great suggestion.

I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I'm definitely not all go go go. On my way to desolation sound last year I sailed pretty much the entire way, even though that meant some days sailing upwind, and tacking and making under 30 miles in ten hours. I loved it.

Ok, maybe I'm just not a remote anchorage for extended periods kind of guy.

What I need is a mission. Give me a mission and I'm happy. I don't really like hiking too much, but, tell me there is a view from the top, a waterfall and it's a photography mission and I love it. So maybe this has to do with purpose. I'm happy to sit at anchor, planning the next day, and provisioning, waxing the boat, but I need that goal I'm trying to achieve, even if it's small. Like, "go to hot springs, hike to the springs, you'll get good pictures." Sounds good. I have a reason to go there. I don't know if I'm explaining this well. I would do well retired. I can occupy myself with hobbies every day for the rest of my life. Today I'm doing some computer stuff, to get some last things ready, charts, ebooks, music and movies. I'm not really doing anything, but it's fun.

Today I got up early and went into town to buy some baguettes before they were all gone. The last boulangerie on Nuka Hiva closed a while ago, and now baguettes are available in the morning at one of the local markets, though they are generally gone by 0730. This morning my wife is doing school with the kids. Later on my son might go for a sail or a row, my daughter may do some arts & crafts or go for a swim, we might go on shore to try and find some eggs since there weren't any this morning.

Yesterday I cleared in to customs and we went into the little town here, had a nice lunch, walked around, waited for the bank to re-open after lunch, then came back to the boat and relaxed. We have been taking it easy since we just did the long sail here and only arrived Saturday; the gendarmes weren't workgin then to clear us in.

Tomorrow, who knows? At some point we're going to find some of the walking paths, take some touring time, move to a different harbor, go on some hikes, do more school, go snorkeling, eat more local meals on shore, move to a different island, cook on the boat, do laundry. Later, rinse, repeat.

It's life, not a one week vacation. This is the key difference. There is no RUSH to see it all yesterday and zoom off to the next place.

It just happens to be life on a boat in a very different place with a different pace of life, where you can change things up and see new and different things. Lots of different people to meet from all over the world, cruising like you or local to where you are visiting. Different cultures and histories to explore, foods to try, etc.

I've differing opinions from people that have "seen" or "done" a place like St. Martin by stopping there on a cruise ship for a day or two, or a one week charter. We were there for three months and I still didn't "see" the whole place. I know where to go for good food, good prices on supplies, nice dinners, beaches etc. but there is still a lot there we didn't see.

You get to know a place a lot better when you are there for a while, not when you blow through, take a picture of next to the landmarks that are in the brochures, then move on to the next place.

Doing nothing is doing something.

Or you could...

...read a book
...write a book
...clean your boat
...fix your boat
...explore the shore on a hike
...take photographs
...sing a song
...daydream
...fish
...take a nap
...cook something unique
...practice splicing
...repair your sails
...mingle with other cruisers
...watch the sun rise
...find yourself

I've done all of the above while cruising.

I've never been the kind of person that could do absolutely nothing and enjoy it - it's just not my nature. I really enjoyed being/living in Marathon, Florida, and every day I found something to do, sail, go snorkeling, fishing, bike riding on 7-mile Bridge, and of course, fixing things on the boat, which is always a necessity with an old boat. But most of all, I enjoyed meeting the myriad of people, other cruisers, from all walks of life. It was the people I met along the way that made cruising a wonderful experience.

A couple nights a week, I played music at one of the local resorts and at the city marina. The crowds loved the music, I loved playing for them, and the parties grew exponentially in size. When it was time to head back north, I really didn't want to leave, and the folks down there didn't want me to leave. I hope to go back again next year, make some new friends along the way, play music in some new locations, and have another wonderful time living aboard/cruising.

Cheers,

Gary

MedSailor said:

I did a lot of boating with a millionare guy who had a mega-yacht. He could only go full throttle, and even when he was in his 7th decade of life, he'd wake up at 5am each day and wash his entire 67ft boat with a face-cloth and 2 gallon bucket.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but referring to a 67-footer as a "Megayacht" is laughable In today's world, such boats are a dime a dozen, not even REMOTELY close to deserving such recognition...

In recent years, a new designation has entered the industry lexicon:

"Pocket Megayacht" has come to refer to boats in the 80-100 foot range... "Small, but perfectly formed...", as in this selection featured in BOAT INTERNATIONAL:

Pocket Superyachts ? small, but perfectly formed

Megayacht News: Moonen has long focused on what you call pocket-size superyachts. How did that phrase first come about?

Emile Bilterijst: Interesting question. Actually, it was the journalists first writing about Moonen in 1985 who described what we were building as pocket size. The word superyacht is a very relative one, as is the phrase pocket size. What we called a superyacht 25 years ago is not at all big today. I think the word superyacht does not signify size alone, I believe it firmly describes the quality to which it is built.

...

Megayacht News: Do you envision a time when a 50-meter could be become "pocket size"?

Emile Bilterijst: We deliver at the quality the market expects from us, based on the vessels we have delivered in the past. This means that if we do grow to bigger sizes, it should be in a controlled way. For this reason the most logical boundary would be for the time being the 500-gross-ton mark. Gross tonnage is more important than the length, as it is directly related to regulations, both for building as for operating the yacht. Also the price is more related to gross tonnage than to the length, because ultimately it is the volume that counts. So, if we would have a client that wants us to build a 55-meter yacht at Moonen, we would not say no, because we know we can do it. If we were to develop a yacht ourselves, it would be one with a maximum gross tonnage of 499. Perhaps in today's world that is still pocket sized.

Read more: Megayacht News Leadership Series: Emile Bilterijst, Moonen Shipyards - Megayacht News Megayacht News Leadership Series: Emile Bilterijst, Moonen Shipyards - Megayacht News

Click to expand...

Now, Paul Allen's OCTOPUS - this is a Megayacht...



At the rate things are progressing, I fear in another decade or so, Steven Spielberg's 268-footer might have slipped downwards, depressingly close to "Pocket Megayacht" status...