10 Questions for Wondertime

Sara, Michael, Leah (11), & Holly (8) Johnson began cruising in 1999. Their most recent cruise was aboard Wondertime, a Benford 38 Ketch hailing from Seattle, WA, USA. Before they had kids, Michael and Sara cruised to British Columbia and Alaska (their honeymoon!) and a few years later down to Mexico for the winter. With their children Leah and Holly, they departed Seattle again in 2011, circumnavigated Vancouver Island, continued down the west coast to Mexico then did the puddle jump to New Zealand in 2012. They are still in New Zealand but are preparing to take off again for a third time at some point.

They say: "We sold Wondertime in 2014 and after spending the past three years on land (in a house for a year, then a year of RV travel in NZ, then an apartment for a year) we’ve just bought another boat, a German-built 12m steel Feltz Skorpion II (name TBD!). We’ll be in New Zealand for another few years then we've got to see Fiji, at least."

You can learn more about their cruise on their website or by email.  Editor's note: Sara is a co-author of Voyaging With Kids: A Guide to Family Life Afloat.

Why did you change boats and what do you see as the major pros and cons of your changeover?

Our Benford 38 was the perfect boat when our girls were young (they were 1 and 4 when we moved aboard). But we simply outgrew the boat; the dinette was only big enough for just the four of us and by the time the girls had doubled in size we were simply too cramped. We also needed a break from cruising so decided to sell Wondertime in Auckland.

After a couple of years of living on land we missed the simplicity of liveaboard life and started looking for the next boat (which would be Michael’s and my fifth together!). We had several criteria: sloop or cutter-rigged (we felt Wondertime’s ketch rig was far too complicated for a boat under 40 feet), comfortable living space (BIG saloon table, separate beds for the girls, comfortable double for us), fun to sail, and 40 feet or less. After a year of searching around NZ we finally found the one: a 12-meter steel boat built in Germany and recently arrived in NZ after being sailed across the Atlantic and Pacific by a meticulous German couple. She’s tough and simple and fun to sail and has a great comfortable layout. I think she’ll take us through the teen years and beyond just fine.

The major con is all the money we wasted with the changeover. Thankfully the new boat is set up with much of the same cruising gear we had on Wondertime (and definitely in better shape at this point!)

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

You do NOT need a catamaran to take children cruising. Seriously though, I see parents online who think they need 50’+ boats to take their kids out on and if they can afford that kind of boat AND handle and maintain it that’s great. But plenty of families are out and about in 40 feet or less and are having the time of their lives. Kids really don’t need a lot of room (but layout—a space everyone can call their own—is definitely key).

Over the time that you have been cruising, has the world of cruising changed? 

Oh yes it has. We navigated to Alaska in 2000 with paper charts. I had a website even then and to update it I’d have to copy the files onto a CD and bring it into an internet café to upload. Now

everyone’s posting on Facebook via their sat phones. Cruisers are so much more connected these days than twenty years ago, both with each other and with those back home. Since sailing has always been about "getting away from it all" this kind of goes against that idea. On the other hand, we too love staying in contact with not only other cruising friends that have sailed on but also our families.

But the great thing is that it’s still so easy to disconnect by sailing a few miles offshore or to an anchorage without cell coverage (always plenty of anchoring room in those!). But the good news also is that this connection is all optional: the most fascinating cruisers we’ve met the past few years hardly ever even check email.

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

How painful it is to stop. Even if you want to.

Was there anywhere you visited that you thought was overrated (not as good as you had heard)? Was there anywhere you visited that you thought was underrated (better than you had heard)?

We thought Bora Bora was overrated, quite touristy. But we only had a couple of days there as we'd already checked out of French Polynesia so didn't get the chance to explore outside of the main harbour. Like anywhere, finding those hidden nooks is where the best cruising happens.

Our favorite cruising ground is still Mexico; we love anchoring out in Mazatlan's "old harbor" and taking an open air Pulmonia taxi into the city. It's rough and dirty and our dinghy was nearly stolen in the middle of the night one time (too bad the guy didn't see the locked cable!) but we still love it there. Mazatlan is a beautiful old city. Actually, now that I think about it, the entire west coast of Mexico is really underrated: there are so many amazing anchorages, the weather is generally good, the food is to die for and it's insanely affordable. I feel bad for the Pacific-bound east coast cruisers who miss it! We can't wait to go back one day.

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

The mizzen mast. A ketch rig on a 38-foot boat is cute, but our upwind sailing ability was pathetic (the mizzen would just slat and slam so we'd take it down, thus losing 1/3 of our sail area) and it was twice as expensive to replace the standing rigging before we left (not to mention the additional sail). All our other boats have been sloops or cutters and we're glad to be in the single mast club again!

How did you (or did you) gain offshore experience prior to leaving?  

Michael was a cruising kid as a teen, and besides sailing with his parents he crewed on a friend's boat across the Atlantic when he was 15. Our first offshore trip together was in 2000 when we sailed directly from SE Alaska to Seattle offshore. It blew about 30 knots the whole trip. It was a bit rowdy and I didn't know enough then to be nervous. In 2002-3 we sailed from Seattle to Mexico together, hopping down the coast. When it came time to leave with our two kids, we grabbed a friend to do the trip with us. We left Ucluelet, B.C. and sailed directly for San Francisco. Our daughters were 2 and 5 at the time and having a third adult made the trip so much more pleasant. We also had a crew member on our Pacific crossing from Mexico to the Marquesas. I think we're still friends.

Are you attracted more to sailing itself or cruising-as-travel and has that changed over time? 

All of the above: we love sailing (the feeling of the boat steering herself in tradewinds day after day just can't be beat). We love slow travel, even if it's just gunkholing locally. We love the simplicity and affordability (compared to a city mortgage!) of living on a boat even if we're not moving for years at a time. I love having my home where ever we go. Boats and cruising, for us, really is the ideal platform for an enjoyable life.

Cruiser rant: What is something that drives you crazy?

My major beef with the cruising community is this unspoken idea that you cannot “quit” (i.e. take a break from) cruising ever. To do so means you’re not a “real” cruiser. Or you’re a quitter. Or something. Also only “real” cruisers circumnavigate, or cruise for 10 years without stopping, or….you get the point. In our opinion, it doesn’t matter how long, or how far anyone cruises. It’s all about the experience, no matter how or where you sail. There isn’t any one right way to do it.

Michael and I have been on again/off again cruising since shortly after we met in 1998 and we have to take breaks from cruising -- both for our sanity and our finances. Like right now, we’re living and working and going to school in New Zealand. We’re saving money and dreaming of places we might want to go (which is far more fun aboard our own boat than in a rental, let me tell you). This is one of the best phases of cruising, the dreaming one.

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

Is cruising the best way to raise kids? 

Yes and no. It depends. Just like some adults, not all kids enjoy the constant change of actively cruising, often leaving friends behind, etc. Parents need to respect their child(ren)'s individual personalities when planning a cruising life, even if that means swallowing the anchor if a kid is really miserable or just wants to go to school, for example. Maybe part-time cruising would work better for some kids or shorter, local cruises. There are many different routes to enjoying sailing as a family.

We think the best way to raise kids is to spend time with them and provide interesting and varied experiences and there are lots of ways to find that outside of cruising. But boat life is definitely our favorite way to do that.

Read the full interview

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 Leander

Paul Robertson, Sima Baran, and Alexander Robertson have been cruising since 2007 aboard Leander, a Bristol 41 hailing from  Boston, Massachusetts, United States. They have taken a circumnavigation route, starting in Boston, heading down the U.S. east coast, through the Panama Canal, through the Pacific Ocean and Islands, visiting New Zealand, Australia, SE Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and are now in the Eastern Mediterranean. Readers can read about their adventures on their website.

They say: Paul is originally from Boston, and Sima from Istanbul, Turkey. We met when we were both working in Boston. We had only modest prior sailing experience, and we started cruising as a husband and wife team of two shortly after we bought the boat, our first, and got married. We’ve since been joined by a third crew member, our young son Alexander, who was born in November 2010. 

Why did you decide to cruise?
We were both working long hours, Paul as an attorney and Sima a management consultant. We thought that our all-enveloping careers were causing us to miss out on other meaningful aspects of life. For two non-sailors, the prospect of sailing across oceans to far-away lands posed a particularly exciting challenge, and would be a good way for us to see a bit more of the bigger picture.

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?
Most marine vendors do not share your goal of having quality work done at a reasonable price. Learn to do as much as possible on your boat, and be vigilant in those situations when you must pay for parts or services. Time and again we’ve paid for work that was both overpriced and deficient, and typically found we have no recourse after the fact. Who cares about you – you’re sailing away to the next port! With a little bit of practice, reading, and speaking to others, you will ALWAYS do a better job than someone with less of a vested interest in the outcome. When others must be called in, define the scope of the work as concretely and narrowly as possible, get things in writing, and watch the work like a hawk.

Over the time that you have been cruising, has the world of cruising changed?
Useful information available for cruisers on the Internet has exploded. Sites like IWAC, “Wiki Cruising,” and the numerous blogs and photos posted by other cruisers are providing a more complete picture of the cruising life and potential cruising grounds.

Describe a positive experience you have had with local people somewhere you have visited?
The people on the island of Tanna, in Vanuatu, were exceptional. In the place of TV, the internet, and consumerism, there were nightly kava rituals, community meetings, and a family garden. And the islanders reached out to us. During our three-week stay, Paul drank kava and played soccer with the local men and Sima learned to weave mats with the local women. It was pleasant, relaxing, and magical.

What is something that you were dreading about cruising when you were dreaming, that is as bad or worse than imagined?
The amount of work we need to do to keep the boat in shape. Non-cruisers sometimes don’t get it, and when we tell them of how much time we are spending on fixing this or maintaining that, they wonder if our boat is a “lemon.” But we’re all out here doing the same thing. The ocean environment beats on things, and although our boat is one-tenth of the size of the house that we lived in before we left, it is ten times as much work. Really.

When have you felt most in danger and what was the source?
Traversing Pirate Alley – the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the start of the Red Sea. We made the passage in 2010 after concluding that the odds were strongly in our favor. But our hearts were still in our throats for the month and half it took to get through. In light of the subsequent attacks, we wouldn’t do that that trip now. And as we think back, maybe all the preparation we did gave us nothing but false comfort, and was an attempt to control things over which we had, in retrospect, no control.

How has cruising affected your personal relationship?
We figure that one year of life together on the boat is the equivalent of about seven years of life on land. All the time together has accelerated the pace of our relationship. Challenges that might have developed five or ten years down the line had we been together less, have become manifest more quickly. But we’ve also been able to develop tools to anticipate and resolve problems at the same quickened pace. So, in the end, we’re in a better place. (Said another way, laughs Sima, although I’ve become more accurate at throwing frying pans, Paul has become just a little more adept at ducking them!)

What type of watch schedule do you normally use while offshore?
We have found that watches of less than four hours are not practical for us because we each need sleep in chunks that are at least that long. We are both on watch during the day. Sima takes watch from 8 p.m. to midnight, Paul from midnight to 4 a.m., Sima from 4 a.m. until Paul awakes in the morning, and Paul from that time until Sima awakes later in the morning. But this was before young Alexander joined us, and we will perhaps need to modify this.

Share a piece of cruising etiquette.
Bend over backwards to be polite to others. You’ll find people on the water who are willing to mix it up with you if you’re game, but it is a draining game. Try to assume the best. Smile and wave at the next boat you encounter, even if the three before didn’t return your greeting. Accept that the boat has anchored a little close. They couldn’t find a better spot, probably. And don’t you remember? Last time that was you.

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

What has it been like cruising with an infant son?

Challenging! We figured that with Alexander, we’d have one less person with a free hand, but he often takes us both out of commission. So things take twice as long as before. For us, an “early” start now means 10:00 a.m. And we don’t do drinks with others at sundown so much anymore. But he loves to hike with us, and we can strap him to our back and go explore, one of our favorite things to do. We certainly wouldn’t want it any other way.

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10 Questions for Driver

Dave, Jaja, Chris, Holly, Teiga cruised from 1988 until 2003 first aboard Direction (Cal 25 hailing from Seattle, WA, USA) and then aboard Driver (Chattam 33, hailing from Oriental, NC, USA). They completed a circumnavigation plus a trip to the Arctic. You can read more about their trip on their website or reach them via email (jaja@midcoast.com).

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

Don’t over-prepare. For someone who is currently living a land based life, it’s difficult to know exactly what will be needed on the boat. Living aboard ifs extremely different than a land based life. Entertainment, education, privacy, cleanliness, space constraints, noise and discipline are a few of the everyday things that might be concerns.

On board life with children is incredibly rewarding. Each day presents new learning opportunities and bonding moments. For us, being able to spent so much time with our children was incalculably valuable for us and our children. Often boat kids are precocious and adult savvy. Since they spend so much time with adults, listening to and understanding conversations, they are able to contribute in mature ways. On our boat we almost always included our children in decision making in one capacity or another. Because we became such a close family unit it was important to each person to have a say in major decisions - even when our children were very young.

Some of the challenges to bringing up children on a boat are noise, space constraints and privacy. Each person has a unique threshold of noise level tolerance. Although I was rarely bothered by loud, excited children, Dave sometimes needed a little quiet time to think. The problem was finally solved one day when I came home with a pair of industrial ear protectors used by people working in airports. This was a wonderful and easy solution.

The biggest difficulty often concerns space - there never seems to be enough. Toys can take up an amazing amount of room and become a bone of contention when they’re strewn around a small cabin. To prevent toy overload think about bringing toys that can be used in conjunction with other toys as well as everyday hardware - like Lego. Lego also stows well. Depending on your boat storage capacity, it might be a good idea to have a  designated toy locker. Whatever fits is all the kids can have. If they only bring a few toys, and the locker is half empty, there will be room to get new stuff. Also, cruisers often trade toys to keep things interesting.

Biggest advice - Have fun with your kids everyday!!!!

Where was your favorite place to visit and why?

This is a hard question to answer because the criterion for what constitutes a “favorite” place morphed for us over time. Before we had children we loved the places where there was solitude and beauty, like the Tuamotu atolls. It was paradise for us to walk hand and hand, naked along an endless, deserted beach. White sand, sun, turquoise water and palm trees - it makes me want to go back just thinking about it! When our kids were little, they shared our love for deserted beaches. We spent hours beach combing, playing in the sand, swimming snorkeling, and walking. Australia and New Zealand stand out as being “favorite” places at that time, with low key, cool people and welcoming play groups for the kids.

When our kids grew to school age we loved each of the communities we settled in. Iceland, Norway, and Newfoundland were all places where the people were unbelievably accepting, kind and supportive. All three of those places have natural beauty and opportunities to experience raw nature. It would be impossible to leave out Spitsbergen. This was one of the most unique and captivating places we visited.

But when we’re pressed to answer which place we loved the best we usually come up with Cocos Keeling in the Indian Ocean. The reason? Well, it is a beautiful island with protected bays, deserted white sand beaches and a small community. But the reason we remember it so well is because it was a haven in a storm. We crossed the Indian Ocean early in the season and subsequently we experienced very rough seas and strong winds every single day. Cocos was a brief and welcome respite.

Describe your first sailing experience

The first time I went sailing was on the Shrewsbury River in New Jersey with my Dad. I was eight at the time and my father was new to sailing. He had joined a small club that had half a dozen 420’s. Sailing was the best thing I had ever done. I loved it from day one. I wanted the boat to heel farther, the wind to blow stronger, and I wanted to capsize and go swimming.

Dave's first sailing experience took place on the Cal 25 at age eight. He went out on Seattle's lake Washington with his mom, dad and sister. He hated it. Every time the boat heeled he screamed! At age 22, he rebuilt this same boat and renamed it "Direction".

My first ocean passage was on Direction with Dave. We crossed the Bay of Biscay in November. This was the best thing I had ever done up till that point. The passage was rough, windy, chilly and everything my heart could have desired.

What do you think is a common cruising myth?

Everyday is a holiday.

With the benefit of hindsight, what are the boat selection criteria you would use to purchase a boat for long term cruising?

• Price
• Cruising destination
• Hull integrity
• Sailing performance

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?

Be fearful of getting stuck on land, and not going!

Things I wouldn’t worry about:

• Don’t try to bring everything with you - it’s easy to find stuff along the way. - Don’t worry overly much about medical problems - there are good doctors everywhere.
• Don’t try to bring every type of medicine along - pharmacies exist in most places.
• If you have kids don’t worry about education - living on a boat is an experience that surpasses almost anything they can learn while sitting behind a desk.
• Once you’re out there and committed to a long passage, don’t worry about adverse weather - most boats are designed to survive extreme weather conditions. Sometimes the boat does better than the crew.

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

We swam under our boat and scraped the bottom weekly instead of buying bottom paint. Never used paper towels, or disposable diapers, and rarely used a laundromat. Stayed away from marinas and restaurants.

Basically we spent as little money as we could. We worked often. We never felt deprived. We never felt that we were making compromises. It was our lifestyle, and we loved it (even scraping the boat!)

How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad?

We had our share of storms. Some were pretty bad. Two that come to mind are our passage between New Zealand and Fiji (we experienced 50 knots for several days with our 5month old and two year old as crew). The other, was our passage between Northern Norway and Spitsbergen. It was blowing a gale and the seas were large, stacked and confused.

In your first year of cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

When I first started to cruise with Dave, I was in my young 20's and all my belongings fit in a backpack. Dave and I met in the Virgin Islands where we were both working for a resort giving out snorkeling gear and teaching sailing. After a while, when I moved aboard Direction I wasn't really changing my lifestyle and didn't have to figure out what to "pack". And, cruising to bays where the wind blew us was what I had been doing metaphorically since college. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the transition to cruising life for me was fairly seamless. I was cruising through life on a boat instead of on land, which was actually easier in many ways.

Space could have been an issue, but I didn't have much stuff, and Dave and I spent most of our time outside. Given the warm, tropical weather we never felt cramped. I had no ties or commitments to shore other than writing the odd letter to siblings a few times a year. All that I owned was on the boat. Dave and I had no house, apartment, insurance, bank account, bills, stuff in storage, cars ... nothing. I believe, at that time in our lives, we truly experienced freedom. Probably, the hardest transition was trying to figure out how to make a phone call from different ports. Back in the 80's you had to go to a post office to place a long distance call. If you were lucky and your call went through you were directed to a "cabin" to talk. Between the business hours of the PO and the time differences between countries it was sometimes a challenge to get a line through.

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

How did you deal with diapers?

I hand washed cloth diapers for all three kids. Every morning I washed out dirty diapers (10 - 12 of them) using two buckets, a pair of gloves, a scrub brush, and as little water as I could get away with. Dave carried the water aboard in heavy five gallon jugs so I tried hard to conserve. I used solar power to dry them (i.e. the sun) a clothes line and clothes pins. Consequently, all three kids were potty trained, both day and night, by 14 months. We rarely had an accident. When at sea, it was more tricky but we managed. Using salt water to wash diapers doesn't work. I never even considered trying it, although it was advise frequently given to me. "Imagine washing your underwear in salt water" was the observation I would throw back.

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10 Questions for Zia

Christy, Joe, Cassie and Juliana cruised aboard Zia, a Sud Composites Switch 51 hailing from Annapolis, MD. Their cruise lasted from July of 2005 until March of 2010 and during that time they cruised through the US East Coast, Caribbean, Bahamas, Atlantic, and all through the Mediterranean. At the time of this interview's publication, their boat is for sale. More information about their cruise and their boat can be found on their website.

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

Kids are amazingly adaptable. They can do most anything you ask them to do and love to make you proud by doing it. The cruising life is great for developing a kid's sense of independence and their confidence. Make them part of the team. Give them as much independence as you can. Teach them to drive the dinghy and help sail the boat.

What is something that you looked forward to about cruising when you were dreaming, that is as good or even better than imagined?

The opportunities you have when you are cruising - to meet people, to explore places, to discover new things - are so much richer than I could have ever imagined. In fact, you find you don't always have the energy to take full advantage of all the opportunities that are presented to you. You learn to pursue the things that you enjoy the most, but we also loved to delve into new and unexplored territory. Learn something new every day - it keeps you young!

What are your impressions of the cruising community?

The cruising community is a mixed bag, just like every other group of people. It is always easier to meet other Americans, or Canadians or British, because of the language barrier. I would have liked to have meet more Europeans and embraced every opportunity to socialize with a more diverse crowd. Beware of taking advice from other cruisers. Other people's perceptions are always different from what you will experience. I can't tell you how many times we went someplace someone had loved and hated it or vice versa. They are usually right when they talk about the anchoring conditions but take everything else with a grain of salt.

Was there anywhere you visited that you thought was overrated (not as good as you had heard)?

Georgetown, Bahamas. You hear so much about this cruisers' paradise but we found it to be an overcrowded anchorage full of busy bodies! Of course, our kids loved it, and it really is fantastic for socializing, and it is GORGEOUS, but too many people get stuck there and never venture beyond to the hundreds of spectacular anchorages within easy day-sailing distance.

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

Joe and I did plenty of five or six night passages ourselves. We stood long watches - Joe taking it from about 8 or 9pm until midnight or 1am and then I would be on until 7am or so. I went to sleep after dinner and then again in the morning and easily got my eight hours of sleep in two chunks. Of course, we had mostly mild conditions and if it had been worse, we probably would have shortened up the watch schedule. For our two Atlantic crossings, we brought along an extra watch-stander and divied it up into three hour shifts.

How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad?

Our worst passage by far was our first ocean passage with the Caribbean 1500 from Norfolk, VA to Tortola, BVI. We had three or four days of 40 to 45 knot winds ahead of the beam. This perfectly illustrates the dangers of participating in cruising rallies. Although they say that they will postpone departure for adverse weather, there is a huge amount of pressure on the organizers to stick to the original plan. We left in no wind and by day three or four were pounding into it. When you plan your departures yourself, you can pick your weather window more wisely.

Which spares do you wish you had more of? Less of?

This is really a question for Joe as he always keeps the boat running in top form. I was responsible for keeping the galley well stocked and I took my job very seriously! We have a big freezer and refrigerator on Zia so are able to carry plenty to keep five well fed for a month at least. Of course, we had loads of cans too, just in case!

What is your biggest lesson learned?

Slow down, take your time, ENJOY. That boat project will be waiting for you when you come back. I also found that we didn't have to do everything the way everyone else does it. We actually sail upwind when that is the direction our desired destination lies. We are spending this hurricane season along the Caribbean coast of Mexico so our kids can go to a bi-lingual school here.

How do you fund your cruise?

Joe and I owned our own computer business for 15 years. Never knowing how good the next year would be, we were always very conservative with our money. We sold the business nine months before we left cruising. We had a payment from that sale for the first five years of our cruising. We also own two rental properties that generate a monthly income. We are very fortunate not to have to worry too much about a budget. That said, you spend a lot less money cruising than you do living in the States. No car or car insurance, telephone or cable bill, electricity, gas, dry cleaning, etc. You need a plentiful wardrobe of bathing suits, shorts and t-shirts. It's wonderful.

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 ever regret your decision to leave everything and go cruising? NEVER!

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