10 Questions For Totem

Jamie, Behan, Niall, Mairen, and Siobhan Gifford sail on Totem, an S&S designed Stevens 47 (47’) hailing from Eagle Harbor – Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA. They began cruising in 2008 when their children were 4, 6 and 9. The kids are 8, 10 and 13 at the time of this interview.

They say: Departing Puget Sound in 2008, we hopped down the US west coast to Mexico. We explored much of the Pacific coast of Mexico and a hurricane season up  in the Sea of Cortez. In 2010 we sailed the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Society Islands, Suwarrow in the Cook Islands, Vava’u Group in Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Lifou in the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, and on to Australia. After parking in Australia for a bit to recharge the cruising kitty, we sailed north to Papua New Guinea in 2012. Early 2013 finds the Totem crew heading west through Indonesia. We keep our position current and our ruminations semi-current on the blog.

Anything else readers should know about you?

We met sailing. Behan sailed a little growing up, but college dinghy racing got her hooked. Jamie grew up sailing in Mystic, Connecticut, and has broad racing, coastal cruising, and sailmaking experience. In 2002, we began family cruising in Puget Sound with our children, then a 3 year old and a 14 day old. Seasons didn’t matter, family time together on the water did. As our family grew (with a 3rd child), so did our family boating experience - one weekend at a time.

What mistakes did you make in your first year of cruising?
 
I am sure we made many, but the lingering memory was that we believed everything onboard Totem needed to be perfectly prepared by departure day. When our milestone day arrived, project lists remained uncompleted. We were ready enough and cast off without hesitation, but with some trepidation; especially after exhausting months of preparation. Jamie’s  image of being perfectly prepared grew out of calibrating our budget to the right safety gear, the right sailing gear, proper systems with full documentation, generous spares and tools, and common comfort amenities. All of this is well and good, but everything onboard is a compromise in one way or another; and there will always be work onboard fixing things. Even high quality, expertly installed stuff can and does fail prematurely. What we realized is that lots of time spent weekend and vacation sailing is the closest you get to perfect preparation.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

“Stop and take your own pulse first”: From a physician and friend Curtis Edwards, who taught us wilderness first aid. The context is of a first responder to a medical emergency, but the notion definitely applies to cruising. In a stressful situation, take a little extra time to calm yourself and really assess the situation.

“Be able to fix it yourself, live without it, or don’t bring it”: From Jim Jessie, our cruising mentor, marine surveyor, racing sailor, circumnavigator, and salty dog. As a typical cruiser’s onboard systems continue to increase in both quantity and complexity it may appear that less skill is ok and comfort is easy to come by – but when things break, do you still feel as comfortable and secure?

“Listen to other cruisers, but don’t trust a word of it.” From an unknown fellow customer in Downwind Marine in San Diego. It’s not a paranoid stance, rather a reminder to be open minded. Very often we’ve heard about how awful or great a place is, and yet we found it to be just the opposite. A town or an anchorage or a situation is created by countless variables easily changed; making it different for the next person.

What is a tip or a trick you have learned along the way?

Be prepared, e.g., it may be a picture- perfect, protected, glassy calm anchorage- but put everything away, keep decks clean and be prepared for a 2am squall that throws it all to hell. Be prepared enough to readily get away in the middle of the night so that in the rare even that it occurs, you’re ready.

There are dangerous herds of group-think that form around major passages. When you choose to leave the harbor, remember that it was YOUR choice. Similarly, when you enter an anchorage and see two boats at one side of it, their presence does not indicate “the best spot.” Use your judgment (and give us some room!).

What are some of your favorite pieces of gear on your boat and why?

In no particular order:

• Cabin fans. We’d never go the A/C route and the fans are great for comfort level… probably present at the moment because we’re only about 25 miles from the equator.
• Cockpit shade. It seems like you can’t get enough.
• Fish finder, because you not only know where the fish are, but the topography of the bottom- great for spotting bommies in the tropics. Cheaper than depth sounder and doesn’t require putting a hole in the hull.
• A dinghy with some oomph. We know lots of cruisers love to love their rowing/hard dinghies, but you miss a whole lot of exploring if you don’t have at least 15hp to jam to the outer reef. We also have a 3.5hp to sip fuel when we don’t need the extra zoom, and like the redundancy. It sucked when our 15hp died in French Poly and we finished the Pacific run with a shared 2.5.
• Cocktail shaker. We don’t even make ice on board but this is an essential part of the Crew Morale Package.
• Proper plates and glasses, because plastic stinks for many reasons.
• Rock solid anchor and ground tackle. Too much depends on it.

What is something about the cruising culture you like and what is something you dislike?

We love the camaraderie, the fact that we can know someone we’ve just met in an anchorage better within a day or two than some of our immediate neighbors from land life. We love the bias between cruising boats to offer mutual aid, although it seems to be on the wane as cruising becomes more accessible and a rapid-fire circumnavigation something money can more readily buy.

What we try to distance ourselves from is the group think that tends to occur when a group of cruisers are gathered with a similar goal (e.g.:  at a jump off point before a big passage engaging in weather analysis paralysis, at those ports around the world were cruising boats tend to get stuck to the bottom).

What advice would you give to parents thinking about taking their children cruising?

Tip toe in, and if it’s working, then run with it. Friends, family, and fellow sailors will give you many “great” reasons why you shouldn’t go: safety issues, irresponsible parenting, ruined education, financial doom; your kids are too young or old, etc. It’s true that cruising isn’t financially enriching, but be it a yearlong sabbatical or longer sailing lifestyle choice for some it sure beats the routines of mainstream life.

What we’ve found is that it gives us a strong bond as a family, is providing our children with excellent learning in many more dimensions then a conventional education, and- well, it’s just a lot of fun! We think it provides a tremendously fulfilling childhood. Despite my fears, their education has not suffered. At some point, it won’t work for everyone on board, and then we’ll stop…but for now this is as much a joy to the kids as part of their identity, and we see no sign of stopping soon.

In reality there are a so many individual reasons/dynamics why cruising will work or fail for a family. My optimism about what worked for us may be just as unsuited to your situation as the pessimistic opinions you’ll get. Spend time as a family unit afloat, and find out for yourself.

What type of watch schedule do you normally use while offshore?

Being shorthanded and with kids, we lean towards the crews’ conditional awareness more than formality. A crews’ rested condition is like the daily balance on a credit card. Sleep is the asset that keeps your balance in check. Or lacking sleep is a liability from which you barrow against and can pay big for with fatigue.

In daylight boat chores are much easier. So we have no daylight watch schedule and a strong emphasis on keeping up with, or catching up on sleep. We have some structure to night watch, worked out to fit our natural sleep tendencies. Behan can stay up late and get up early, but isn’t as happy in the middle. Jamie does fine in the middle and is ok waking early. So we setup for that schedule, though watch change vary somewhat based on conditions. When it’s colder or rougher, watches are shorter – 3 hours or less depending on severity. On nice nights when rested, we’ve done 4, 5, and 6 hours watches.

Our method works well for us because we can each “read” the others conditional state AND neither wants the other person to get fatigued. It also helps that we have trusted Niall, now 13, to stand a short daylight watch since he was 10. Or, if Jamie’s feeling sleepy on a night watch but want to let Behan sleep longer, he’ll wake Niall with the news that we have dolphins around the boat. Sometimes they may not be there by the time he is tethered in cockpit, but his enthusiasm is always energizing!

Describe the compromises (if any) that you have made in your cruising in order to stay on budget.

Cruising seems to cost whatever you have. We scale expenses to work with our budget with an eye on local rates. We could afford to eat out in Mexico and Fiji because it was delicious and cheap. In pretty much the rest of the Pacific, it didn’t fit our budget to go to a restaurant. We try to avoid environments that suck money from you, like posh towns or marinas. There’s a lot of extra gear that we have shunted into the “luxury” column: we’d love to add a lot of discretionary items, from sat phone to SUP board, but we don’t need them. Ultimately, we parked t work when it was time to refill the kitty- but a pause, not an end, to adventuring afloat.

Where was your favorite place to visit and why?

This is one of those impossible questions- but that’s the good news, right? Jamie and I both keep coming back to Suwarrow, in the Cook Islands, as a favorite place, for two reasons: partly the wild remoteness and natural beautify of the place, but also because of the great experienced shaped by the rangers who were stationed there during our visit. Their active involvement in helping us really understand the nature of life in an atoll made it truly unforgettable.

We both agreed as well that some kind of special mention has to be given to the Sea of Cortez and to Papua New Guinea. They are all very different places, but like Suwarrow, the affinity draws from a combination of raw beauty and remoteness. It takes work to get there, and to stay there, but if you’re into that kind of thing- the rewards are tremendous.

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it?

What is it about the cruising life that drives and fulfills you?

• Meeting other people in the countries we visit: sharing stories, making them as welcome on our floating home as we have been made in theirs ashore
• Living a leaner, greener life. We tried to live with a light footprint ashore, but it’s impossible to compare with the way we’re able to live on the boat. We reduce, reuse, and reuse again: with limited space, every item is considered before acquisition. With no garbage service or utilities, you think more about unnecessary packaging and what goes overboard
• The opportunity to raise our children in an environment that helps them internalize from their earliest days the beauty of our planet, and the importance of taking care of it for foreseeable generations

Read the full interview

10 Questions for DreamKeeper

Gar Duke and Nicole Friend circumnavigated from the winter of 2006 until the summer of 2011 aboard SV DreamKeeper, a Pacific Seacraft 40 hailing from Sausalito, CA, USA. You can learn more about their journey on their website.

They say:  We started in our home port of Sausalito in the San Francisco Bay, CA, and went south in winter to Mexico then across the South Pacific to New Zealand.  Year 2 took us thru Melanesia to Palau, Micronesia, with a 4 month layover in Palau.  Year 3 we dropped south into West Papua/Raja Ampat around PNG into east Indonesia and all the way to Bali, then up to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.  Year 4 was a big mile year, first crossing the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea, thru the Med, across the Atlantic and to the Caribbean to end the year.  Year 5 started heading west to Bonaire, the Kuna Yala of Panama, then thru the Panama Canal, up the central American coast and Mexican coast, and finally Baja-bashed it back to San Diego with the last leg up the California coast to San Francisco.  4 ½ years total San Francisco to San Francisco.

What mistakes did you make in your first year of cruising?

Gar:  there were a lot, but here’s a few:

First mistake we made was day 1 out the gate of San Fran, where we turned left and proceeded to do an overnight passage to Monterey Bay.  We were so fast we had to heave-to in the bay all night in sloppy seas, super cold temps, and pitch black conditions leaving me seasick all night long in sensory deprivation and Nicole needing to deal.  I was a total mess.  In hindsight, we should have planned better and just done a day hop down to Half Moon Bay to finally GO and commit to the journey, but in a much easier way for where we were at then.  Thankfully we had leftover Thanksgiving dinner for brunch the next day in Monterey as I was famished!

Leaving the US without a few spares that we wanted for the South Pacific and thinking they’d be easy to get in Mexico.  Not easy and definitely not easy to ship to Mexico either.  Nicole had to fly back to the US and load up a couple bags full of gear so we had what we wanted for the South Pacific and then still brave the dreaded “green light/red light” at the Mexican aeropuerto customs.  Unlucky you if you get the red light!

FYI, It’s much easier and way cheaper to get everything you think you might need in the US on your boat if you can, but at that time we were still very much “green” on our boat and figuring everything out.  All this being said only because we come from a place of liking to be very self-sufficient and prepared for as much as possible and also our intention to head west quickly across the South Pacific the first season out.  If you stay in Mexico long enough, like most cruisers, you will probably be high-tailing back to good ‘ole USA anyways at some point.

Worrying about and spending time and energy getting a HAM radio license.  So many people told me I should DEFINITELY get this license in Mexico before the SoPac, but, for me, not being a big radio talker, I never really used this with the exception of the services of winlink in the beginning of our journey.  Later, after seeing the advantages and convenience of using the services of UUPLUS email thru our satphone, winlink became only a back-up for us.  

And not to say we never chatted on the SSB with friends or on radio nets, but none of them were ever “Ham only” nets, so my whole ordeal of getting a HAM license was, for me, a waste of time.  If you LOVE to talk on the radio, then by all means, get a HAM, but if not, forget about it and go surfing or do something fun instead.

Nicole: Telling my mom I would call her by a certain date.   My parents bought us a sat phone for emergencies and perhaps more specifically so we could talk while on passage and they wouldn’t worry about us.  I made a bad call and told my mom I would call her by a certain date.  Somehow, we didn’t quite figure the sat phone out while travelling south along the Mexican coast and my phone date was passing.  I knew my mom would be worried sick and start calling anyone she could think of so we had to detour to Abreojos, a tiny fishing village along the Baja Pacific coast, in deteriorating conditions to make that call. We found a phone card and then found the phone. I called to let her know we were fine and then we headed back out through bigger surf and out to our bucking boat.  Note to self, never give anyone a time line you can’t keep.

Describe the compromises (if any) you have made in your cruising to stay on a budget?

Gar/Nicole:  For us, our budget living on the sailboat was a lot cheaper then our budget living on land.  We had just sold our home, cars, and most everything else we owned that wouldn’t come with us and so we axed everything like property expenses, utility expenses, auto expenses, and all the other pieces that add up so quickly living in the US.  In cruising, boat expenses are hands down the most expensive reality.  But…most of the boat expenses can be coined “luxury” expenses like good electronics, a water-maker, a new sail, etc., and you can get by with very little if your boat itself is solid and safe.  

In our opinion you can cruise on almost ANY budget once you own a boat.  It’s all choices and how you tailor your lifestyle and choices around your “wants” in life.   It’s no different then how you choose to live your life on land.  If money is tighter for you cruising, then don’t eat out much or use the engine as much or buy lots of fancy boating gear you don’t really need.  And, lastly, learn how to fix and work on your own boat; that, in itself, will save you lots of money in the long run.

What is something you think potential cruisers are afraid of that they shouldn’t fear?

Gar/Nicole:  Passage-making. It’s scary at first if you have never been offshore on your own boat with a small number of people and we get that.  But, in reality, this is a great time to actually just “be” with the ocean at all times of the day and night that you will most likely never experience any other way. 

For us the first few days are the most difficult of a passage as we are adapting to a new schedule.  But, if you plan well with the weather, make some pre-prepared meals, have a good book (or 2 or 3) put aside, maybe some podcasts or audiobooks for rougher weather, and have a good watch schedule so you get some rest when you need it, you will most likely really enjoy the experience.   Keep a journal or write a daily blog just to keep notes on the little things you see and feel and hear.  It’s a unique experience, embrace it and don’t fear it.

What is something potential cruisers don’t worry about that perhaps they should?

Gar/Nicole: Being thoughtful about locking your gear and boat up.  Cruisers have a tendency to be very lazy sometimes.  Lock up your dinghy and outboard, put away or lock up any gear on deck that is worth anything to you, and lock up your cabin when you are away from your boat.  It seems so simple, but we have seen boats all over the world complaining in hysterics about how someone stole their laptop from their un-locked cabin or stole their unlocked outboard or dinghy in the middle of the night.  Well, did you lock your cabin? “uhhhh…no, I never do…it’s just so hot.”  Did you lock up or raise your dinghy at night?  “Uhhhh….no, it was windy and rough and rainy out and I thought no one would come out on a night like that” (but that’s when they always do).

Cruisers need to realize that no matter what their budget is or how non-fancy their boat is, they are still looked upon as “rich” in almost any country around the world they travel to.  So many of the cultures you will connect to will be living with almost nothing and there are always people on the look out to make a quick buck the easy way.  Also, it felt important for us to acknowledge some communities don’t have things like private property so ours was even more interesting.  You will still stand out even if you are dirt-bagging it with a half sunk boat and not a penny to your name.  Ask any long-term backpacker traveller you meet, it’s not about being paranoid, it’s just being extra-aware of where you are.

What are some of your favorite pieces of gear on your boat and why?

Gar:  Electric anchor windlass and oversized anchor, wind generator, and AIS system.

A good solid and reliable electric anchor windlass with an oversized anchor makes a huge difference when you are cruising.  Of course, these are still luxury items, but they do make life much easier and safer when you drop your hook and don’t worry about it dragging and also know you can always get it back up without a hurting your back in any conditions.  I can’t count the times we have needed to move anchorages in inclement weather in the middle of the night because of bad weather or change of wind or swell direction and how thankful we have been that our electric windlass was working well.

We have a KISS and wouldn’t think of having another type of wind generator unless it had the same specs.  It is quiet, simple, and puts out lots of juice.  If you have a noisy wind gen you will absolutely hate it and so will your neighbors, plus they usually don’t make much energy anway.  We try to anchor in places with some wind in the tropics as it cools down the boat and usually keeps us pointing into the prevailing swell so you don’t roll as much.  We cruised without a generator onboard, so a good wind generator makes a huge difference in keeping your batteries up regardless if you have solar or not.

We added an AIS system halfway around on our circumnavigation when we were in Thailand.  It made a huge difference with piece of mind and safety when it came to passages through busy shipping areas and especially at night with just 2 of us onboard.  Radar was still a great tool for us to use, especially for fishing vessels not usually on AIS, but the reality of today is that AIS is used now on ALL big ships and you will wonder how you got by without it once you start using it.  A simple AIS receive unit is not very expensive and will be invaluable if you are choosing a route where you will be in shipping lanes and around shipping traffic often.  Of course, if you are only a coastal cruiser and are one not to be crossing oceans much or ever, then an AIS will be just another ‘not needed much’ luxury piece of gear.

Nicole:  OK I love all three pieces of gear Gar mentioned and would prefer not to go without them.  All three in my mind are fabulous luxury items we were grateful for every day.  The AIS completely changed my stress level on night watch. I, for some reason have always had a hard time with depth perception even with using radar and tracking and all of the tools I could use.  The AIS system changed all of that.  I still kept a thorough watch but I could tell where ships were going and coming and if I needed to make a course change without any guess work.

And another piece of boat gear, our Monitor windvane.  I can’t imagine having left without him.  He has served us well as third crew on all of our passages that had wind.

Also, with regards to food and fishing gear, I loved our fishing hand-lines and squid lures, my “yo-gourmet” yogurt maker (bought in New Zealand), along with our jar sprouter, and Braun hand blender.  Sometimes it’s the little things that mattered like being able to eat fresh things on day 20 of a passage.

In your own experience and your experience meeting other cruisers, what are the common reasons people stop cruising?

Gar/Nicole:  If you are a younger cruiser, then most folks are only out for a short time and need to either stop to work or could just make a season or perhaps 2 work. Retired-from-work aged cruisers usually stop because of health issues or because they are over the novelty of cruising and want to be home again closer to kids and grandkids. 

But there are still many people of all ages that go out for a bit and just realize that it’s not for them for one reason or another.  The reality of the cruising lifestyle is very different from where most people are coming from before jumping on their boat.  I would say that most people have no idea how much work both physically and mentally it is if you are a full-time cruiser and actually moving your boat around.  The romance of margaritas in your cockpit while the sun is setting can definitely ring true sometimes, but the other pieces of constant wear/tear on your boat and body and the need to be constantly ‘on it’ in regards to planning, maintenance, traveling, and safety takes a lot more energy then most non-cruisers or wanna-be cruisers realize until they do it for a while.

The people we met who were out there for a while moved their boat less, and stayed places longer, they over-wintered and spent two summers in the Med, they spent two winters or more in Mexico or the Caribbean, they stayed in Fiji for hurricane season.  Or they tied up their boats and went home or somewhere for a 4-6 month break or to go back to work and then returned to their boats again.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

Gar:  I read quite a bit about cruising before we left on this journey and so feel like I had a pretty realistic picture of what it all entailed.  However, that being said, I think I still had an unrealistic perception that the cruising “community” was a pretty adventurous, and mostly open-minded, and just plain open to everything and everyone, group of people.   What we experienced quite a bit, unfortunately, was a lot of people traveling on boats that were more interested in their easy “nationality clicks” and “sundowner” lifestyles then really putting themselves out there to embrace local people, local cultures, and other cruisers from other countries.   We always pictured all these different folks from random countries hanging out together and hanging out with locals onshore (which certainly happened), but we felt like this was really a minority of the people we met cruising around the world.  The boats that were more like this were the ones we really wanted to get to know and spend time with cruising, but were pretty few and far between.

For us, what was very important, was that we really tried to make a conscious effort to get out of the cruising “American-only click” circles and befriend folks from other countries traveling, as well as do our best to meet and embrace the local people in the countries we were visiting.  We feel lucky we made some good friends.  For us, this made a big difference in our experiences and we hopefully feel like it made an impression being more-thoughtful, conscious American ambassadors in the world too…which we feel the world could really use more of right now.

Do you have any specific advice for couples cruising?

Gar:  First of all, if you don’t know how to communicate with your partner, you are in for a long ride or perhaps a short ride with one of you leaving the boat.  You absolutely have to talk to each other and, more importantly, listen to each other.   And don’t just “listen”, but actually HEAR what they are saying.   Did you say this was just for cruising couples?  J

Next you need to learn to compromise.  You will be sharing a pretty small space, perhaps for years, and it’s not always possible to just leave that space.  For many couples this will be the first time ever in this situation.

You will have different needs/wants/desires for your own experience and to be who YOU want to be while cruising, but you need to also remember that your partner has the same.  Talk talk talk about what you can each do to help support each other with their own personal process’ and what will keep him/her happy, content, and full while living this unique lifestyle.  This will, of course, change over time so you’d better keep communicating so you can do your best to keep understanding where each other are at as time goes by.

And if you need a time-out, you’d better learn to take one.  And if your partner says she/he needs a break from the boat SOON, you’d better listen and make it happen somehow.

Nicole:   Ok, seriously, communication is the key!  In addition, be sure no matter how long your “to do” list is, go have fun regularly.  It was easy for us to get sucked into needing to do all of our jobs and fix everything that needed fixing.  But, truthfully, there will always be something waiting for you to do, so I say, play, do something spontaneous, get exercise, go on walks together, go snorkeling and just have fun whatever it is.

What is your most common sail combination on passage?

Gar:   For us, on a cutter-rigged boat, on passage we always had our mainsail up for stability possibly with a reef or 2 tucked in and the genoa out. Down wind, we always had a preventer on.  Don’t ever get lazy and not rig a preventer.  The last thing you want, especially in the middle of the night, is an accidental gybe.

We have both our jib and our staysail on roller-furlings, which we really like as the reality is that we are usually single-handing while on passage, so we can easily make jib changes and reefs based on the weather by ourselves in the middle of the night.   Having a staysail has been a great option for us when the wind  and seas really pick up and as it allows us to shorten sail while keeping our boat balanced and very stable.

Lastly, I will just add that the reality of cruising around the world on a sailboat is that it’s not always so dreamy with the sailing aspect.  We have been thru so many parts of the world that the wind is just non-existent or non-cooperative or directly on our nose and we did many times choose or have to run the engine.  That being said, this was a conscious choice to travel to places that didn’t always have great sailing potential, like in PNG, eastern Indonesia and the Red Sea, but were high on our list for being really cool travel destinations.   If you were only after good sailing then you would need to stay in the higher latitudes or the Pacific to have the more consistent, but stronger winds.   For us, we feel we have always been more interested in being travelers and adventurers then purist sailors.

What piece of gear seems to break the most often?

Gar:  What doesn’t break?  Seriously, at one time or another we have had to fix or repair or replace something, or all of, every system on our boat.  If you are pushing your boat hard and making lots of miles each year, then parts wear out.  If you are sitting around a bay in Mexico for months at a time or only moving a few hundred miles a season then you will fare way better then the passage-making sailor crossing oceans.

One of you on your boat should definitely learn how to wrench on a diesel engine, repair a sail, test and repair electrical wiring, and be able to take apart the toilet.  If you don’t know how to do it all, that’s OK, just have a good resource library that will walk you through repairs and if you aren’t too far off the grid, there will usually be another cruiser close-by that can help you out if you get in a bind.  If not, you will learn to live without something.  Most of the stuff that breaks are luxury items anyways.  Toilet broken, use a bucket.  Water-maker broken, catch some rainwater or run jugs to shore.  Generator broken, use less energy or turn off the fridge.

I would say from our experience the pieces of gear that cruisers are wrenching on the most are generators, water-makers, diesel engines, and outboards.   The other pieces of gear that give lots of people trouble are autopilots and laptops, not always possible to fix yourselves.  Please just don’t throw your laptop overboard if it breaks like some cruisers do.  Seriously.

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I’ve asked you and how would you answer it?

What are some tricks and tips you’ve learned for being a more thoughtful and conscious cruiser around the world?

Within the cruising community, say hello or wave to your neighbor who anchored next to you who you don’t know, especially if he/she is from a different country.  It has been amazing to us how many boats drop their hook beside us and never even smile or wave when we initiate a greeting.  The other side of that is if you find yourself anchoring in a more remote place, then don’t just drop your hook right next that one boat there already, give them some space and drop your hook some distance away so you can both enjoy the remoteness of that special place.  But, when you do see the other people, don’t ignore them, actually say hello and smile.  It’s the little things in this community that make a big difference.

Regarding the ocean and reefs, if you truly care about the health of the planet, the cleanliness of the water, and enjoy traveling to pristine coral reefs and visiting island communities, then give back, police yourself, and be conscious of your actions.

In small communities find out about the customs and proper protocol before arrival or immediately after arrival.  Following this gains you acceptance, respect, new friends, and the opportunity for unique experiences.

If you catch a big fish or lots of big fish, bring some of them into the village and share with the locals who live there.   This goes a long ways and will immediately open doors for you within that community. 

When you drop your hook on your big boat or your dingy, look where you drop it and do your best not to damage the healthy coral around you.  Seems like a no-brainer, but in our experience, we have seen countless boats in crystal clear water dropping their anchor and chain haphazardly directly over pristine reefs and not even thinking about the reality. 

Don’t just throw your compostable trash overboard where you anchor, but actually put it in a container and take it in your dinghy out into the deeper water hopefully where there is some outgoing current or at least away from the shallower anchorage area where all the eggshells and banana peels pile up in the coral underneath your boat. 

Only fish in areas where there are still an abundance of fish and make sure in an island community that it is allowed to fish a certain area as many of them are locally managed as protected for their sustainable use. 

When you are remote, do not leave your trash on an island as they most likely have a trash problem themselves already.  Separate trash well.  When you are out on passage in the deep water this is where you should sink your cans and glass (if you don’t have enough room to store it) and get rid of other non-plastic trash.  Aluminum can sometimes be recycled on certain islands and some of your trash you will most likely have to burn at times.  Some of it you will probably have to carry with you until you make it to a larger city or port.  Point is, be thoughtful about it and do your best to manage your waste well.

If you feel comfortable with the locals, invite some of them out to your boat for soft drinks/coffee/tea/cookies/dinner or whatever.  They will love it.  We have been to so many communities that always invite cruisers in their homes but many would tell us no one would ever invite them out to their boat.  Reciprocate. 

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10 Questions for TimeMachine

Editor’s Note: There are actually 14 questions answered (my fault – the readers’ gain) and TimeMachine introduces themselves: We are Cheyenne & Joshua from s/v Time Machine. We left San Francisco in 2005 and sailed down the Pacific, through the canal, and up the Caribbean back to TX, landing in 2007. I had never sailed before but Joshua grew up in and on boats and had tons of sailing experience; his father built a 40-foot version of our boat in the late 70s-80s. Time Machine was a 31' Jim Brown Searunner (trimaran), home built out of plywood, fiberglass, and a crapload of epoxy. The boat looked kinda Star Wars and sailed beautifully. We bought it with the initial intention of toodling around the bay but that immediately turned into "Let's quit our jobs and go to Mexico!" and six months later, we did, and we just kept going. We are taking time now to raise a kid but are planning the Next Trip as soon as the toddler moves beyond the highly volatile tantrum stage and becomes more predictable. We started a blog when we purchased the boat and chronicled our trip through June 2007.

Describe the compromises (if any) that you have made in your cruising in order to stay on budget
I guess this sounds weird, but we really didn't have a budget. Cruising was the cheapest way we had ever lived, and we always lived fairly conservatively. We could easily have halved our expenditures if we had cut out the booze, but we like booze. Part of this might have been because we sailed a fairly small and spare boat: no refrigeration, no windvane, no radar, no through-holes in our hull of any kind, no SSB radio, no inboard motor (though we had a 6-horse outboard), no oven, no dodger, we did our dishes in a bucket at the edge of the boat, and we did not pull up alongside a dock or marina after leaving the US until we landed in Texas 18 months later. There just wasn't a whole lot that could go wrong. We did break the rudder though off Honduras; we jury rigged it with some rope.  

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why? I had a few things packed that I didn't end up ever using--and of course which took up precious real estate. As one example, I envisioned us dining upon Caesar salads nightly (I actually brought along a small salad spinner.. I know!) but this notion was shot all to bits when we discovered romaine to be nearly nonexistent in Mexico. Furthermore, lettuce of any kind doesn't keep worth a damn onboard in the tropics. Ditto cilantro, but that's another story. About 14 months in, we had a lot of little expired tins of anchovies to attend to... Things got creative then.  

What is the most difficult aspect of the cruising lifestyle? My absolute least favorite part about cruising was the possibility of having to pull anchor in the middle of the night and get out of there because of prevailing wind change, sudden lee shore squall, etc. For example, we were happily sleeping nestled amongst the gorgeous Murcielagos off Costa Rica when we had a sudden and alarming wind change at 1am. Fearing the start of the dreaded "papagayo" wind, we beat upwind until we were somewhat in the lee of the mainland, trying to get coffee started on a bouncing boat, all of us grumpy as all get-out (we had a guest with us).  

What are some of your favorite pieces of gear on your boat and why? Handheld backpacker's waterproof GPS (our primary). It was blue and sparkly and the size of a cell phone. It was also tough, easy to carry around with us if we felt like taking a land excursion, and it did well with batteries. Other things I could not have survived without: Really good knives and nice general galley gadgetry. It is a pleasure to cook in a confined space when you are dicing with a Shun santoku, on a beloved mesquite cutting board, with some good rum in an actual stemmed glass next to you... We went with the theory that when one is paring down to the essentials, one should select really excellent essentials. I would also have to nominate the kayak for a favorite piece of gear (we had an inflatable due to space issues). It's so lovely to be able to slink around the ocean silently, efficiently, discretely. You get to sneak up on so much wildlife this way, fit through narrow channels, up streams and rivers; the kayak was our dinghy most of the time.  

What piece of gear seems to break the most often? The citrus squeezer. Seriously; you'd think limes were made out of acid or something.  

How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad? We were very conservative sailors (my doing, most surely) and did not budge unless the weather was favorable. That said, we did not always encounter following seas and fair winds. We had 15-18' seas and a gale rounding Pt. Conception, of which I had no idea until after since it was 3am, I only had two days of sailing experience under my belt when I took over watch/driving, and all I could see anyway was glowing green foam (whoa, groovy). We got 50+ knots of wind along the Tehuantapec, which was so unpleasant I had to change clothing to skin-tight things lest I get shirt-burn (shirt burn is serious business!). We had the worst sea conditions coming around Punta Mala (Point Bad, and it was) into the Bay of Panama, where we played frogger all night long with the tankers in large and confused seas. And finally, our very last day sailing crossing the Gulf of Mexico, we got hit by the nastiest squall we had ever seen. It was raining lightning bolts everywhere and Joshua saw balls of lightning racing along the wavetops. It all sucks pretty badly while it is happening but once you are through it, you remember it as just another wild story.  

In your own experience and your experience meeting other cruisers, what are the common reasons people stop cruising? We met many people who had started off on their around-the-world cruise but had stopped along the way. Every single port we visited (starting with Ensenada) had at least one boat that just found what it had been looking for and needed to go no further. And there they stayed, three, ten, twenty years.. They always had good stories and LOTS of advice. We never met any of the people who had stopped cruising for other reasons because they had apparently gone home.

In your own experience and your experience meeting cruising couples, can you convince a reluctant partner to go cruising and if so, how? I started out being afraid of open ocean, deep water, tipping over, sharks, of being along sailing a boat at night, of sea monsters... basically everything one could possibly be afraid of on a boat. I didn't know how to sail when we left, but it turns out that it's really pretty easy, and boats like ours don't easily tip over. Once I was forced to actually do all of the things I feared: be miles offshore in the ocean in the dark at night by myself sailing the boat, with sharks and sea monsters surely lurking beneath, it wasn't actually bad at all. I had just never done it before. Joshua always said we could call it quits when it stops being fun. We decided to take our break when I discovered I was pregnant but I wouldn't necessarily say we have quit yet.  

What is a tip or a trick you have picked up along the way? You can keep cheese for a long time if you put it in a jar covered with oil. You can buy the cheapest, plainest, most tasteless white cheese, pack it under veggie oil of some sort, and after three weeks to a month, it starts to get sharp. The longer you leave it, the sharper and better it tastes. I also kept ginger in vodka for a long time (ginger always went bad immediately otherwise).  

Is there a place you visited where you wish you could have stayed longer? My favorite places were the Sea of Cortez; we were there in the winter and so had to split for hurricane season (we decided to go south). I would like to spend a spring and summer there as well. Then we loved the western Islands of Panama. So much to see and so many deserted islands. We were down to half an onion and some random tubers by the time we got to Panama City.

How do you learn about the rules and regulations of your next port of call before arriving or do you just arrive and find out? We had various cruising guides (i.e., Charlie's Charts) that listed the basics, but regulations and procedures change quickly everywhere. We always brought everything we thought we could possibly need and then expected to be directed from there. Usually we ended up crossing town a few times to visit various auxiliary offices for random stamps or additional copies, etc. We ended up with amusing stories with every check-in and check-out, so I'd say it was always worth the hassle.  

What is your most common sail combination on passage? 
I think we did them all with regularity and probably averaged 2-3 different jibs per day. Maybe we were finicky with our sails but our boat was very lightweight and touchy. We did not have a roller furling but rather a hank-on system. We had four jibs: the mule, the 170, a gennaker, and a storm jib for those exciting moments that are only really exciting when you look back later, you know, knowing you lived through it and all that.   

What is something you think potential cruisers are afraid about that they shouldn't fear? And what is something potential cruisers don't worry about that perhaps they should?
Sharks. Whales.  

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it?   

What is your favorite part about cruising?

Arriving in an anchorage after a passage--more so of course if a nasty passage, but even the smoothest passages were best ended with a lovely quiet cove in which to rest. We didn't draw much so we always had the pick of the place as to where to drop our anchor. First we would sit for a moment, soaking in the calm. Then we would start wandering around the boat, picking things up, stowing the sails, tidying up things that got knocked around. Maybe jump overboard to cool/rinse off and check the anchor. Once things were relatively squared away, the rum would come out and we'd sit on the top of our cabin checking out at our new temporary home. We would talk about how to spend the remaining day, where we would go tomorrow. And plan something awesome for dinner.

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10 Questions for Hotspur

Jim & Meri Faulkner have been cruising since 2008 with their children Tim (16) & Carolyne (11) on Hotspur, a 41' Tartan TOCK (Tartan Offshore Cruising Ketch) hailing from Olathe, Colorado, USA. You can learn more about their voyage on their website.

They say: We went from San Diego down the Baja peninsula and into the Sea of Cortez. We loved the Sea of Cortez so much that we spent 2 summers cruising there. We headed off to mainland Mexico and are preparing our trip south to Central America this fall. Our sailboat is our home and we are taking our time to get the most out of our travels and enjoying the people we meet.

We left Colorado and began our cruise on a 35' Cal Cruiser, Windfall. We upgraded to a 41' Tartan TOCK mid cruise when the kids began getting too big to share the V-berth divided down the middle.

Our trip south to Central America was postponed in 2011 due to failing equipment. We're currently waiting out hurricane season in Mazatlan, and plan to head to El Salvador in November after replacing the SSB & HAM radio and VHF radio.

What mistakes did you make in your first year of cruising?
Our biggest mistake was not upgrading our watermaker. It made only 1 gallon every 45 minutes. It simply did not provide enough fresh water for 4 people and a dog. Our children, however, disagree with us. They will tell you that having them share the V-berth was the worst mistake we made.

Describe the compromises (if any) that you have made in your cruising in order to stay on budget.
We began with a budget divided into categories and soon realized it was unrealistic to try and stick to the confines within each category. We now follow a simple annual budget. This allows us freedom and alleviates stress. We can purchase boat parts for repairs or go to special events or travel inland when it strikes our fancy. We then pull back - anchoring out for longer periods of time if needed and spending no money whatsoever - enjoying nature - when we want to conserve.

What is something you think potential cruisers are afraid about that they shouldn't fear?
Though we aren't personally fearful of pirates, that seems to be the biggest question we get from non-cruisers anymore. Aren't we afraid of pirates? No, we are not. The dangerous areas are well publicized and represent a minuscule percent of the world.

The second question we get a lot: "Why are you in Mexico? Aren't you afraid you're going to die?"  No. We've cruised all over Mexico and it will be hard to leave this country. The people and marine life have been exceptional. Our encounters have been rich and the loveliness of the culture and terrain is forever etched in our minds and in our hearts. Cruising Mexico is wonderful.

My personal fears were very different - more general and seem silly to me now. An online article I wrote called FEAR ON THE WAY describes my feelings at the beginning of our cruise.

And what is something potential cruisers don't worry about that perhaps they should?
A floating dinghy with an outboard motor bobbing up and down in the water when the crew is asleep is an easy opportunity. Dinghy and outboard theft is common everywhere in the world and most times it happens when cruisers leave their dinks in the drink at night. Raise your dinghy out of the water each night and lock them up - the same as you would probably lock your car every night on a dark street.

What are some of your favorite pieces of gear on your boat and why?

**These answers are from a family poll**

Solar panels: We watch movies at night, use the computer, run our watermaker, sewing machine, shop vac - and, enjoy cold beverages from the fridge on hot days.

Watermaker: Fresh water showers make such a difference in crew morale. We can do laundry aboard if needed, dishes, wash the decks - and no running back and forth to land with jerryjugs. Our watermaker aboard Hotspur makes 6 gallons an hour and is sufficient for our crew.

Engel Freezer: Can you say 'ice'? That may not mean much now, but being at anchor in the tropics with 95% humidity - ice is so nice! Our Engel uses only 3 amps when running. We make ourselves smoothies, enjoy ice cream and frozen yogurt and have a place to put that 40 lb. fish we landed that we can't eat in one day.

SSB/HAM/Pactor modem: Our connection to the outside world is important to us. Ham and SSB Nets, emails and weather faxes are wonderful when you are at anchor and don't have internet capabilities.

Autopilot: Though we have to hand steer at times if weather conditions are rough, the auto pilot does the work 95% of the time. We carry spare parts for our autopilot and our passages are more relaxing because of it.

In your own experience and your experience meeting other cruisers, what are the common reasons people stop cruising?
Because so many cruisers we've encountered are retired, many of them have to abandon cruising due to health problems or aging parents.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn't find to be true?

"Cruising is easy".

I find myself saying mind over matter frequently. Boat equipment breaks in the harsh conditions or from constant use, weather can produce sleepless nights, spending 24/7 with your loved one(s) can make you cross eyed, and doing laundry in a bucket with a toilet plunger sounds quaint - but isn't. It's hard work and sometimes it's frustrating.

For example, I was feeling very pleased with myself for finishing up a new outdoor shade cover my husband designed and I constructed. The day I scratched it off the list felt so rewarding - until on the very same day we added to the list: repair outboard handle, repair leaky porthole, and termite alert. Scratch one item off the list - add three more.

Do you have any specific advice for couples cruising?
Plans are good, but let your plans be loosely woven. Go with the flow - be as flexible as possible. I think that is a good recipe for this kind of lifestyle - because it is ever changing and moving, just like the tide.

What is your most common sail combination on passage?
Our 16 year old son has been doing watches since he was 13. We have 2 hours on and 4 hours off at night between three people. Super nice! During the daytime hours, we give our 11 year old daughter an hour watch every so often, supervised. She still daydreams and gets distracted easily, playing mean homeschool teacher with a bag of clothespin "students".

What piece of gear seems to break the most often?

Outboard motor: In fact, we've spent 4 days looking for a part in Mazatlan as I write this. The part is obsolete - no longer made. We'll either luck out and discover an old engine that can be parted out or we'll find a machinist to build us one... I hope.

Head: We always have spare head rebuild kits aboard. Our head seems to need something every few months - clogged hose, joker valve, new hose clamp, stuck Y valve... endless! We use vinegar regularly to clean and de-calcify. And, we learned early on that the captain gets cranky when working on the head. Now, the crew leaves the boat when the head needs servicing.

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it? 

What is a clever tip that you have learned while cruising to help solve a problem?

An Australian sailor told us you can use honey in a pinch if you have a slipping belt on the engine. We tried it and it works better than belt dressing!

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10 Questions for Irie

Mark Kilty and Liesbet Collaert have been cruising since 2007 aboard Irie, a Fountaine Pajot Tobago 35', hailing from Newcastle, Delaware, USA - they've never been there. They went down the ICW to Florida and then have spent their time in the Bahamas,Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, USVI, BVI,  St. Maarten/St. Martin and the Eastern Caribbean island chain down to Grenada. You can read more about their travels on their website and their blog or reach them by email (crew@itsirie.com).

Liesbet says: I am a former teacher, freelance writer and avid traveler from Belgium and my husband Mark is an ex-software engineer from the United States. We left the US with our two wonderful dogs (Australian Shepherd mixes) Kali and Darwin. We lost Kali in Puerto Rico at the age of 10.5 and recently lost Darwin during a visit to the US at the age of 9.5, both to cancer. It changed our lives and our family. Mark and I belong to the younger side of the cruising community and new family members are considered.

Why did you decide to cruise?
I love to travel, explore and expand my horizons any interesting way; Mark likes to sail. He was sick of the "American Dream", after 10 years of hard work and I'm just open to anything new. He planned on going cruising at some point in the future and meeting me made it (kind of) happen a bit quicker. I'm the traveler (I do like to sail as well), Mark's the sailor and together we are cruisers! We love being mobile with our own house. This interview covers our second attempt (the first one failed after two days) to be cruisers, even though back then I didn't even know what "cruising" meant!

What did you do to make your dream a reality?
Nothing special really. We just followed "the steps" to make it happen, just like any other time I had an adventure in mind. But the story goes like this: When I met Mark in California while camping around the US in 2004, he had a long-term plan of going cruising. Since I decided to give up my travel plans to be with him, I encouraged him to do it sooner, so we could go travel by sailboat, something entirely new to me. Mark bought a 25 year old monohull, quit his job, sold all his belongings and all four of us moved into F/Our Choice/s for 5 months, working on her hard every day and getting her ready to go cruising. Two days out of San Francisco Bay, the dogs hated the heeling of the boat and were uncomfortable. Within 5 weeks, we sold the monohull, bought a camper and traveled overland to Panama and back for 1 year. Then, the sailing bug bit Mark again. We sold our set-up, bought a small pick-up truck (initial plan was to move to Belize, but that was right before the sailing bug bit) and camped in a tent with our dogs for two months in search of a decent and affordable catamaran. We found her in the Annapolis area, right before our self-appointed two-month deadline was up. Take two started after four months of preparation, in October 2007. The dogs loved it!

What do you think is a common cruising myth?
That life on a sailboat is (always) romantic, easy, wonderful, exotic and something to be envious of. That sailing equals freedom. That we cruise, because we are fortunate and/or rich! The reality boils down to one word: choices.

Describe a perfect cruising moment that will make cruisers-to-be drool with anticipation.
The wind is blowing a perfect 15 knots out of a favorable direction (off the beam), the sails are full and we are moving through the water smoothly. The sun beams in a blue sky and the breeze keeps us cool. The autopilot does the work, the crew is smiling, and the pup is relaxed in the cockpit. We approach the coastline of St. Lucia, where the giant Pitons loom picturesque on the horizon. All of a sudden a pod of dolphins greets our sailboat with playful jumps and speedy group movements through the clear water off our bow. Wow! (Oh, and then we catch a giant tuna and have sushi for dinner)

What is a tip or a trick you have picked up along the way?
Keep an eye on the weather and use a "weather window" to get to your destination, instead of a deadline (like meeting friends or family at a certain day). This is common sense more than a tip, but it is so true. Nothing is more annoying than having to bash into heavy wind and seas to HAVE to get somewhere.
Talk to other cruisers to find out about the lay of the land (custom and immigration rules, points of interest, good harbors .)

ALWAYS make sure your anchor is set, no matter how light the wind is.
Do as much as you can yourself; it saves money, frustration and time, you know it's done right (albeit after a few tries sometimes) and who to blame and you learn more about your boat.

In your first year of cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?
Our first year of cruising was actually the best one. We discovered new places, enjoyed being with our dogs on all the beaches, didn't stress about finding and having jobs, had a sailboat in good working order and I was living in my biggest "house" ever! What I remember as finding "difficult" was the fact that there are barely any other young cruisers out there and that we were soooo dependent on the weather (and had to find safe havens each time a cold front made it down), something -in my opinion- that takes away from your sense of freedom. Being so reliant on the weather (which means skipping new places, islands and countries) still bugs (and restricts) me.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?
I didn't really hear or read about cruising before we started doing it ourselves. But, what I would like to add as a benefit to cruising (which I might as well have read, or written about myself) is that it is very easy to meet other cruisers and be part of the cruising community, that it can be done cheaply, that you become accustomed to "social drinking", that there is a lot to do (1, 2) and that sailing in perfect conditions is awesome.

What I heard from other cruisers before we left the US is that The Bahamas are one of the best and most pretty cruising grounds. Back then I found that hard to believe (they are relatively close, the closest, to the US), but now, after three seasons in the Eastern Caribbean, I have to admit that I do agree (so far)!

Are you attracted more to sailing itself or cruising-as-travel and has that changed over time?
I am a traveler by heart, not a sailor. I just love exploring new territory and experiencing new cultures, languages, sights. However, when the conditions are "right", I do love the sailing as well. Just feeling the boat, the wind, the elements, and staring at the horizon. Very peaceful. I have learned to really enjoy it, especially during daytrips while and after months of sitting in the same place, working.

Of the changes, choices and compromises you had to make along the way, which were you happiest and most satisfied about, which do you wish you had chosen otherwise and why?
During this second sailing attempt, we decided to get the boat ready enough to live and sail comfortably, without more gadgets than needed. We made that "mistake" the first time around, and worked on that boat for eight months in total to turn it into the "perfect" cruising boat. This time, we got her going after a few months (note: Irie was a newer boat than our previous one as well) and learned through experience what was needed.
Since we've left, we bought and installed solar panels and a wind generator, very good decisions. We also collect water in an efficient way now. Living off and with Mother Nature is very satisfying! Sitting in Luperon, the Dominican Republic, during a whole hurricane season was easy and safe, but not good for the boat and a bit boring (that was before we had jobs as well). We vowed not to do it again and rather pick a hurricane destination where some exploration and sailing can be had (like Grenada).

We started our own business from our small sailboat in the Caribbean and are still not sure whether that was a wise and good decision.

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it?

How can you afford to cruise? 

Since Mark and I are relatively young, we get that question asked a lot, especially by non-cruisers. Obviously we are not retired and by choice we want to live this lifestyle longer than a one or two year sabbatical. We can only function and be happy onshore for a couple of years at the time, so a floating house is a good compromise of having our own place and being able to travel.

How we afford it is by working along the way, what in turn takes away from the cruising experience. Most of the time, we are stuck in one place trying to make money and the enjoyment of cruising, sailing and traveling has dwindled down to only a few weeks out of the year.

We pick our anchorages based on WiFi (wireless internet) availability (and dog friendliness in the past). I write, translate, find miscellaneous jobs, and help out with our business, Mark runs the business, customer service, website, part of the sales, and so on. Not always easy from a simple boat in a simple location. Together we run the daily boat errands and fix all the boat issues. It's a busy life to be cruisin'!

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10 Questions for Om Shanti

Heather Bansmer and Shawn Breeding have been cruising since 2003 aboard Om Shanti, a Westsail 32 (LOA 40) hailing from Bellingham, WA. They sailed around Vancouver Island then south down the US coast and Baja peninsula. They have been cruising on the Pacific coast of Mexico and Sea of Cortez ever since. You can learn more about their cruising and publications on their two websites: Blue Latitude Press and Exploring the Sea of Cortez. (Editors note: Heather and Shawn have written several cruising guidebooks for the West Coast of Mexico.)

What do you think is a common cruising myth
I think the most common myth is that there is a only one type of "real" cruiser out there - a hard core old salt of a sailor with a truly minimalist boat sailing the oceans of the world, in which constant hardship is a badge of honor. I think the stereotype can probably be traced back to a time when we didn't have the luxuries that we do today. While getting from point A to point B has not changed greatly over the years in terms of boats, sails, engines, etc., the amenities that provide us comfort and safety have changed dramatically. GPS systems, autopilots, refrigerators, satellite phones, email, water makers, weather routers, EPIRBs, and even laundry machines are all available and widely used by boaters today. I have come to believe that cruising and being a cruiser is more of a state of mind and less about the gear you use. Whether I make lengthy ocean passages, send emails from a marina slip, chill beer next to an evaporator plate, or take daily fixes with a sextant matters less to me over the years as I think of what constitutes a "cruiser" to me today. To me, being a cruiser is about self reliance, being part of a wonderful and helpful community, being intimately in touch with the surrounding natural world, having an appreciation and acceptance for everything new - whether good or bad, and recognizing what truly has value in life. Some get caught in trying to live up to a stereotype of cruiser who existed years ago, thinking that they need to withhold some of today's modern amenities or travel the ends of the world in order to be considered part of the "club" but in truth cruising is whatever you want to make it.

Describe the compromises (if any) that you have made in your cruising in order to stay on budget
We are what we like to call "commuter cruisers" - we cruise Mexico for approximately four to six months out of the year and return home to Washington to work and replenish the cruising kitty. Because we continue to work each year, we tend to not pay too much attention to a fixed cruising budget. We live pretty simply by nature and much of the cruising we do is in remote areas of the Sea of Cortez where spending money or staying in marinas is not really even an option. I would say more of our actual budgeting comes into play when we are back at home in the US working. The less we eat out, the fewer bands we see, the fewer road trips we take, etc., the more we save and therefore the quicker we can stop working and get back to Mexico. If we have expensive maintenance or gear items on our boat project list, we usually end up working a little longer in the states in order to finance the items.

What did you do to make your dream a reality?
Shawn was turned on to the cruising lifestyle when he crewed on a handful of boats throughout the South Pacific and New Zealand. During his travels he realized that he wanted to get out cruising on a boat of his own, and began asking the fellow blue water cruisers he was running into, what they thought were the most important qualities in a cruising sailboat. Returning from New Zealand, he was armed with a new a found passion, and moved from landlocked Kentucky to Washington state to begin his search for a boat. At 28 years of age, the most obvious restrictions to his cruising dream were finances. He determined through his research that his goals were 1) a good solid, safe boat, and 2) cruise sooner than later, therefore affordable to a single 28 year old. The result was a clean, stout, although fairly spartan, Westsail 32 named Om Shanti. Over the next five years, the boat loan was paid off and gear was added with the thought that safety comes first with comfort and cosmetics somewhere down the line. New rigging, sails, windvane and engine came before refrigeration, new cushions, shower, hot running water, etc. (we're actually still waiting for several of those comfort items to work their way up the list!).

Two years after Shawn's purchasing Om Shanti, we met and I was drawn to this new form of world travel that included taking your home with you. With no sailing experience behind me, we spent most weekends out on the water, while I learned a whole new language for boat terminology and the physics behind getting a boat to move under sail power. Shawn continued gaining offshore experience with multiple trips up and down the west coast of the US and a trip from the east coast to the Virgin Islands. We read every magazine and book that had the slightest bit to do with cruising (this was before the age of sail blogs). We attended boat shows and seminars, listening to talks on rig tuning, engine maintenance, heavy weather sailing, provisioning, etc. We lived simply and narrowed our budget by moving aboard the boat, downsizing to one vehicle, vastly curbing our entertainment dollars, and limiting travel to boat-based adventures in the nearby San Juan Islands. We sold all our household items, which at first was a bit upsetting, but in the end turned out to be liberating and furthered our excitement toward the "vagabond" lifestyle.

Having a fairly bare boat and being budget conscious, we installed and fixed everything that we could ourselves. We browsed swap meets and want ads in order to save on buying the more expensive new gear. As a result, we received intimate and invaluable knowledge of each working system on the boat. This knowledge ultimately helped us easily and inexpensively repair systems down the road when we were in remote cruising locations and outside help was not available, as well as building a thorough spare parts inventory.

With the boat nearly paid for, all important systems nearly complete, and a cruising kitty growing, we set an official "dock line cutting" date. We knew we could only be gone for a year or two at the most, but we decided we would deal with our "future" day by day and let life lead us where it may - not necessarily the career path mindset our parents had probably envisioned for us, but it was a lot more fun!

In your own experience and your experience meeting other cruisers, what are the common reasons people stop cruising?
I would think the most common reasons people stop cruising is due to a lack of finances, completing their cruising goals, and missing family and friends back at home.

What mistakes did you make in your first year of cruising?
I can't think of any real mistakes that we made during our first year of cruising. Being our first time cruising on our own boat, we were entering unknown territory and took every experience as a learning tool. Without really knowing what to expect during our first year, I suppose we remained blissfully ignorant.

Do you have advice for having visitors?
We love to have visitors down to the boat as it is a great way to share our "mysterious" lifestyle with friends and family. Over the years, we have found that visitors are either most comfortable sharing our lifestyle via the comfort of one of our settees or via the comfort of an air conditioned hotel room. Figuring out which category of guest you have visiting before they arrive is very important to keeping everyone on board happy! For our friends who like to stay on the boat and cruise with us, we usually carry a tent and thermarest cushions for camping on a remote white sand beach if they would like (or we would like!) to have their own space for a night or two. For guests who prefer to visit Mexico via the comfort of a hotel room, we usually bring the boat into a marina in a city like La Paz or Puerto Vallarta where there are more shoreside tourist activities. In a marina slip, our guests can come and go from the boat as they wish while enjoying the privacy of their own bathroom and bed in a hotel room. We generally head out for day sails from the marina and anchor for the afternoon at a nice beach for swimming and lunch. That way they can still get a sense of the beauty of the cruising lifestyle and area, without having to abandon the creature comforts of shore.

What is the next piece of gear you would add to your boat if it were free?
The responsible, safety-first cruiser in me would say AIS, but the comfort-seeking cruiser in me would say a custom built v-berth mattress.

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?
I wish someone had told me how difficult passages can be in colder, wetter climates for women in foul weather gear. It seems like a silly thing, but I can't say that I heard much mention of this topic in sailing magazines or cruising guides. Maybe it didn't bother others like it did me, but I remember having enough frustrating moments that I would seriously consider altering my foul weather pants for our next trip down that cold, wet coast. My ensemble included the following: numerous layers of thermal clothing, foul weather pants with suspenders that did not breathe or leaked resulting in damp clothing, foul weather jacket, combo life jacket and harness. Coupled with lots of hot coffee to keep you awake during late night watches and ramen soup for late night munchies, trips to the head seemed frequent and cumbersome. In the middle of a rolling ocean, one hand is always needed to secure yourself, the other is left having to tackle the removal of the life harness in order to remove the jacket in order to removal the suspender pants in order to pull down the tight fitting, somewhat damp thermal pants. This ultimately puts you in a compromising position: your pants down around your ankles on a pitching and rolling boat trying to reverse the cycle to dress once again. After enough times of bursting through our head doors with my pants down, I can say that next time I'll be looking for better suited non-suspender foul weather pants.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?
Dislike might not be the correct term, but I was surprised to be so sad each time I had to say goodbye to cruising friends we had really connected with due to different cruising schedules or destinations. Even though you know that you're both going to continue on with wonderful future adventures ahead, it is many times difficult to say goodbye after sharing many exciting adventures together. I did not realize the close friendships you can form over a fairly short period of time in the cruising world that would make it so difficult to say "until next time."

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it?

Having left earlier in life and being forced to cruise simply, would you prolong your departure date in order to have a better boat/bigger kitty?

No. Too many people end up not going because they think they have to recreate their land lives on the boat and it becomes prohibitively expensive. We tend to think of our lifestyle on the boat as luxury camping instead of trying to recreate the life we are leaving. A safe and seaworthy boat is all that is needed to go. It's amazing all of the gadgets that seem so necessary when armchair sailing are so quickly forgotten when the first dolphins appear under the wake of the bow.

The most common thing we hear from many of our retirement age cruising peers, is that we are "Doing it right... experiencing the cruising  world before life gets in the way and before you know it, it's too late". We have taken this wisdom to heart and have no regrets at all.

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10 Questions for Berlin Express

Stefan and Chloe plus about 50 other crew over 3 years have been cruising since 2007 in Berlin Express (or BE for short), a small boatyard Folkes in Canada, 39ft hailing from Berlin, Germany although they have never been there by boat. Since 2007 they have cruised from Melbourne, Australia to Fiji (eastwards) then to Europe (westwards, of course). You can read more about their travels in their website or contact them by email (stefan_huebbe@hotmail.com).

In your first year of cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?
To stop spending money. I was so used to earning money and my cruising kitty seemed kind of endless that I still hit the club bar and went far to often to these money-traps called ship chandleries. Thousands of shiny stainless shackles later, I slowly realized what is really important and I probably sailed for the last 2 years on the same money I spent in the first 6 months.

In your own experience and your experience meeting other cruisers, what are the common reasons people stop cruising?
Speaking for myself, it was the need for money and the desire to discover something other than empty beaches.  I also wanted some new challenges. However well knowing that this will just make me miss cruising again, which is kind of good, because otherwise over time I may not appreciate anymore how amazing the sailing life can be.

Hard to say about others. Reckon there are many who see cruising more as sight seeing and as a proving ground. They haste around the world in flash boats, take photos for the web page and then are happy to return home with some adventures stories. And this is more than fine, too. Only a few find a sustainable long term-stimulating lifestyle in cruising, I guess... looking into any anchorage you will also see these two groups of sailors.

Is there a place you visited where you wish you could have stayed longer?
The Pacific! Leaving Australia, I sailed there first and had no idea what I had there until I left 6 months later. I am looking forward to the day I'll be back there with heaps of time sailing all they way east to west.

Why did you decide to cruise?
I always sailed and loved the sea. I just needed to do it 100% to fully be one with this amazing energy. Especially passages and remote places are my thing because they give you something you can never experience on charters or weekend sails. I believe cruising is the only way how you can actually
find real freedom.

Describe a "typical day" at anchor on your boat
Sleeping-in avoiding any thoughts about a dragging anchor. Long breakfast ignoring the long list of maintenance needing to be done. Just doing nothing and ignoring the clouds that could make this peaceful anchorage very uncomfortable. Finally arriving at the happy hour and realizing that this is actually heaven! maybe a little occasional scream of joy depending on if we are alone in the anchorage or not.

What did you do to make your dream a reality?
Saved like there is no tomorrow.

Describe the compromises (if any) that you have made in your cruising in order to stay on budget
I always did everything myself on the boat which really helps to save money but in the beginning I still treated myself to some upgrades here and there like a newish Spinaker, a Pactor-modem, new chain when the old one was still doing the job or overpriced 'International' paint, etc. Later I discovered so many alternative ways to get these things much cheaper. A sail can mostly be fixed even and there are good second hand ones, there is an alternative to Pactor and Satellite-phone, chain doesn't fail just because it starts slightly to corrode and the fishermen always know where to get the cheapest and best paint.

Describe a perfect cruising moment that will make cruisers-to-be drool with anticipation
When you feel that the boat is perfectly balanced and running fast with great easy in a fresh breeze with an unobstructed horizon around you. Playful in tune with the nature's forces, cutting through the water like a dolphin. You feel the movements through your whole body and know that this is very special. (Again maybe a small scream of joy as there is no one around for hundreds or thousands of miles other than your friends...)

Finish this sentence. "Generally when I am provisioning..."
I think the huge pile of Asia-noodles and cookies will last at least for half a year... only to find them all gone in a month.

What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it?

Do you think cruising has changed over the decades?

Yes! I can only envy the pioneers who sailed when most islands had no resorts and another boat in an anchorage was a pleasant surprise. Working with essentials on a small boat and being closer to the real thing looking at the barometer and not Navtex. But on the other hand,  I am still out with the sextant by over 50miles, so I will quietly sit down and just be grateful for what we still can experience out there.

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