What is your most common sail combination on passage?
In the trades, poled out foresail and no main. Otherwise main and foresail. Before sunset always reefed the main. Once on the "Coconut Milk Run" it's all downwind sailing.
When you are offshore, what keeps you awake at night (that is, what worries you most)?
What do you miss about living on land?
What is your favorite piece of boating related new technology?
Describe a negative experience you have had with local people somewhere you have visited?
What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?
What piece of gear seems to break the most often?
Tell me your favorite thing about your boat.
Good storm handling. She took care of us when we hove to. Second would be the bigger windows.
Do friends visit and how often?
What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it?
-- What were some of the best things about cruising?
Thanks for asking. So many people only ask about the worst. I realize future cruisers can learn from the answers but it is sad how the landlubber is so conditioned to ask for the negative, not the positive. (enough griping!)
It was wonderful out there! We were delighted with our fellow cruisers. Everyone was so helpful and sharing with everyone else: Borrow cars, mark charts with favorite spots, sing Christmas carols.
Bora Bora was a good anchorage where we could see our anchor dug into white sand 30 feet below. Dive off the boat and swim over to a coral reef and see so many beautiful fish. Watch sea rays gracefully somersault by the boat. Feel so protected inside the barrier reef and hear the roar of the surf on the otherside. Dinghy in for a cocktail on the beach at Hotel Bora Bora. Dinghy around the island stopping at world class resorts. Listen to amazing singing in an historic thick-walled church.
There were many other stops that had several of the above attributes. After a nice open ocean passage it was fun to look forward to the next island.