10 Questions for Arctracer

Jerry & Nina are currently cruising on Arctracer, a Fastback 43 (Catamaran) hailing from Norwich, Vermont, USA. Since 1994, they have cruised through the East Coast USA, Caribbean, Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, & Southeast Asia. They sailed a traditional 45' steel gaff-rigged schooner from Maine to Australia, and then traded it in 2001 for their catamaran. Readers can learn more about their voyage on their website or through email (ninajerry@arctracer.com).

In your first year of cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?
Most difficult was being away from our families and out of contact with them, especially on our first Thanksgiving aboard. We got together with other cruisers for a pig roast, but that wasn't as good as a family reunion. In those days we had no mobile phone and no email aboard. Now it is much easier to keep in touch with friends and families, so this transition should not be as difficult for new cruisers today.

How would you recommend that someone prepares to cruise?
Read everything, talk to cruisers, join SSCA and sail as much as possible. Once you move aboard you are still learning and preparing so take easy steps at first. Don't plan big adventures until you have adjusted to
cruising.  Make your lifestyle fun. You are cruising so don't adopt racing attitudes. Reduce sail in rough seas to keep things comfortable for everyone aboard. Don't get trapped into doing something you'd rather not
just to meet a deadline. (For example, sailing into weather you don't like in order to meet someone on a particular date.) We spent three years along the East Coast and in the Caribbean learning to cruise before we did any long-distance sailing.

Describe a positive experience you have had with local people somewhere you have visited?
Getting to know local people, their customs and beliefs has given us great pleasure in almost every place we have visited. We've had many positive experiences, especially on Pacific islands where we got to know the people and could help them in various ways.
Here are some examples: We shared meals ashore and on our boat in the Marshall Islands, drank kava with groups on several islands in Fiji, played with children, sang with locals, taught school children in Indonesia, picnicked with locals in the Cook Islands,  learned how to collect shellfish and prepare them the local way  in Kiribati, traded clothes for local produce in Guadalcanal, sponsored a model outrigger canoe race in the Louisiades, and repaired a solar power system and other equipment in Tikopia. We took locals aboard from several islands for overnight fishing trips, to visit their ancestral atoll in New Caledonia, took a family for two weeks to a Melanesian Arts Festival in Vanuatu and slept on crowded ferryboat decks on the Irrawaddy River in Burma.

In your own experience and your experience meeting cruising couples, can you convince a reluctant partner to go cruising and if so, how?
Most people are reluctant because they do not understand the risks of cruising and are afraid of unknowns. Education and experience are needed to change their minds. Don't push too hard. Think long-term. Read about people who have gone cruising and discuss their experiences. Gather cruising information of all sorts and make it available to your partner too. Take tiny steps if that is all your partner can handle. For example, rent a rowboat on a lake for an afternoon and you will be essentially learning to use a dinghy. Take sailing lessons in a school where everything is safe. As your partner gains skills and knowledge you can take bigger steps such as chartering a boat for a few days with more experienced friends. The key is to proceed slowly enough for you both to be comfortable with what you are doing. Consider everything to be a trial. Don't commit yourselves to doing anything for a long time until you've actually tried it for a while. Getting a really solid cruising boat can be a big factor in relieving a partner's fears.

Across a year, what do you spend the most money on while cruising?
Boat maintenance. That includes haulouts for antifouling, new equipment, new rigging and new sails.

How has cruising affected your personal relationships?
This life has greatly strengthened the relationship between the two of us. One cruiser expressed it as one brain in two bodies. We often know what the other is thinking before a word is spoken. We know we can depend on each other completely, and know how we will each react in almost any situation.

What are some of your favorite pieces of gear on your boat and why?
The electric windlass has made pulling up the anchor quick and easy, compared to the manual windlass we once had.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn't find to be true?
That it is very dangerous. We feel cruising is less dangerous than driving on Interstate highways. We also found more food available in more places than we expected.

Where was your favorite place to visit and why?
This is impossible to answer. Almost every place where we have stayed for a while has some favorite aspect such as weather, scenery, wildlife, local people, culture, history, food, and the other cruisers who were there. We especially liked small places in the Pacific which were off the beaten path, but also liked the modern facilities of countries such as New Zealand and Australia.

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10 Questions for Celestial

Scott, Donna, Nathan, and Celeste began cruising in 1978 on a 24 footer, moved up to a 29 footer in 1981 and ultimately circumnavigated from 1988 to 1996 on Bluejay, a J-36, departing and returning to Seattle, WA, USA. In 2009 they began cruising on Celestial a Tripp 47. You can read more about their current adventures on their blog or contact them via email (hansentripp47@gmail.com).

With the benefit of hindsight, what are the boat selection criteria you would use to purchase a boat for long term cruising?
We have always believed in the phrase, “a fast passage is a safe passage”.  We have always had borderline racing boats.  A teak interior is beautiful but you are going to want to move without running an engine constantly, choose a boat that can sail.  I asked for two heads this time and a closed berth when friends could stay but that’s because we want those grown kids to come visit as well as other friends.

Can you think of a sailing tip (e.g., sail trim, sail combination) specific to offshore passages (e.g., related to swells)?
When you’re going downwind, it is important to use a spinnaker or whisker pole to stabilize the jib especially is a seaway.  We’re surprised how many cruisers don’t do it.  Even on a broad reach, a pole will give you better performance and more stability.

Over the time that you have been cruising, has the world of cruising changed?
Yes, hugely.  Boats have become bigger and navigators are less competent.  The larger boats of today are far more complicated, expensive and difficult to maintain.  When we started cruising in ‘88, a 36 foot yacht was the middle of the fleet if not on the larger size.  Electronics were far more limited and yachtsmen had to be more diligent navigators.

What piece of gear seems to break the most often?
Sails, and electrical connections are at the top of the list, for sure.  With our Tripp 47, we had to quit using our high tech Kevlar main and switch to a used Dacron delivery main for better dependability in offshore conditions.

How would you recommend that someone prepares to cruise?
Start with a smaller boat, sail often, make mistakes, learn and then decide on the vessel you want and do your best to make it seaworthy. We had a 24 footer in ’78 and sailed Canada extensively, a 29 footer in ’80 which we sailed down the coast to Oregon and to Hawaii and back.  We decided on the 36 footer in ’87 which we circumnavigated on and now the Tripp 47 in 2009 which we sailed from Portland, Maine through Panama to Seattle and now heading back to Mexico.

Describe a positive experience you have had with local people somewhere you have visited.
We have so many stories!  Numerous people even this trip have said, ‘how can I help you, I want to be of service.’  One lady in Hawaii saw us walking (we weren’t even hitchhiking) and said, ‘Where are you going?’  She took us to town, got out of the car and told us, ‘take it back to the pier when you’re done and leave the keys in it, I’ll pick them up the next day.  We came to the islands as normal folk who need staples, or a ride, who want to be friends and most people went out of their way to include you in their festivals, invite you to come to dinner or to the church potluck after we enjoyed their local service.

How has cruising affected your personal relationships?
We sailed for 8 years before we had kids but planned the circumnavigation with our 2 year old in mind.  I finally got to be a full-time mom and Scott, who loves to learn and teach others, encouraged Nathan and 6 years later, Celeste, to approach every situation in life as a learning experience.  When we tried to engage a nephew in thoughtful expressions of the world around him and theories on how it all worked, he came back with, “What, I’m not at school right now”, something our kids couldn’t understand.  Of course, today, they are both great well-educated adults!

We still are in contact with sailors we meet in the 1990’s, especially those we spent more time with as we waited out hurricane seasons together or were on the same cruising track, the ‘milk run’, whom we met often with. Being ‘in the same boat’ meant a lot to cruisers who wanted to help each other, learn from each other, etc.  We could relate totally with each other.

What is your biggest lesson learned?
The biggest lesson is that all of life is about learning and you keep at it until you’re satisfied.  There are so many small things when you start out, you ask so many small questions, like how things work, what do you do when, where can you anchor, etc. but we had no mentors to ask and had to research the problems, go out and try it, have trial and error.  Go to the boat show, join a cruising club but in the end, just do it.

“It depends” comes up often when people ask us questions because many times, there are no hard and fast answers, just try it and see.

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn't find to be true?
Poverty leads to crime.  We trusted many islanders with our property and kids.  The poorest people we met were some of the most hospitable and honest. 

Other poor countries are dangerous and America is safe.  Most of those countries were safer than being in our urban cities back home.  We did see pirates and crime but it was few and far apart.  Even Mexico today is still a safe place, during the day and in the quieter ports.

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

What role does religion play in cruising?

Cruising friends that we knew, were often amazed at all the people we got to know and places we got to go as we came to a new place.  We’d say we had family in every port and we meant the Christian family we had met in churches along the way, enjoyed and allowed them to partake in our life.  Our son wanted to go to a week church camp so we took our one year old daughter and we were camp counselors for the week.  A Christian Samoan needed materials delivered to an island 200 miles away and we took a huge boatload but they celebrated ‘Bluejay day’ the day we arrived.  Another church needed materials delivered from American Samoa to Western Samoa and so we did that, praying the cockroaches would leave with the boxes and not decide to stay.  Jesus was our way of life at home, and we were happy to see we could enjoy Him and help His kingdom along the way.

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10 Questions for Grace

Shane, Nicole, Neisha, Jessica and Jackson Collins cruised from June 2007 - October 2010 aboard Grace,  a 49 foot Halberg Rassy hailing from Mooloolaba, Australia. During that time they cruised through Scandinavia, the SW coast England, the Atlantic coast Europe, the Med, and the Canaries, the Caribbean, and the Pacific through to NZ. Readers can find them on their two blogs or by sending them an email (slowtravel@gmail.com). They report that the hardest decision for them to do this, was to make the decision to do this.

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?
Go slower then go slower again.

Describe a perfect cruising moment that will make cruisers-to-be drool with anticipation
Sailing the inside passage on the west coast of Scandinavia. To be in 30 meters of water but to nearly be able to touch the rock face's you pass. To pull into magically beautiful towns and tie up ( for free ) in deserted boat marinas. To wander through fantastic forests, picking berries. To view amazing archipelagos from cliff top perches. To walk in the paths that have been walked for hundreds of years. To marvel at the worlds amazing history. To experience strange and new foods. To learn new languages. To laugh out loud with locals when you get it wrong. Then to contrast. In the warm waters of the Caribbean and South Pacific. To take a early morning swim off the back of the boat. To snorkel and dive fantastic coral and to swim with turtles. To find great surf breaks with no one there. To catch Mahi Mahi and cook it immediately. To kayak with humpback whales. To walk secluded beaches. To have sundowners with friends on a beach watching the sun go down and the kids playing along the shore. To share all this and more with the people you love most!

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?
What's to dislike?!! I can't say we actually disliked anything that much. Maybe sometimes the lack of space, but that wasn't a major concern. I would say the fridge annoyed me. Its only that to get to the thing you most want you have to pull other things out to get to the said item......Actually that is true for a lot of storage on the boat. It is usually at the back or the bottom.

What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?
CQR anchor. Why? Because if you leave it (and change anchors) you won't have to worry so much that you may be dragging.

Have you found "trade goods" to be useful on your cruise? If so, what kinds?
No, but dock sale can be great. A dock sale is like a cruisers garage sale. Usually held in the winter months or coming into spring when everyone starts thinking of sailing again. It is a trade, swap or sale kind of day. Cruisers even bring out their crafts and preserves they have been working on over the winter to sell. Our kids made and sold jewelery. Lots of fun.

Was there anywhere you visited that you thought was underrated (better than you had heard)?
Morocco, specifically Rabat. The city has just opened up to cruisers and was a amazing place to visit. The authorities were friendly the facilities great. We were worried about visiting with children, but we need not have been. The colorful spectacle and smell of the markets attacked the senses. The architecture is spectacular.  It is a wonderful base to leave the boat to travel inland.

What do you think is a common cruising myth?
There are so many! People often ask or presume you have to deal with big seas. While that may happen, if you sail with the seasons and don't have to rush, you quite possibly won't see any. We certainly didn't.

How do you recommend securing your vessel while going ashore? And your dinghy?
For the vessel the most you can do is close and lock hatches and lock the main entrance.We also would sometimes turn off the engine isolation switch and take personal items off the deck i.e. fishing rods, etc. There are more options of course but if someone is serious about gaining entry, they generally will. I would add we had no problem what so ever.

The dingy and outboard is a different matter. Get the heaviest chain/cable and padlocks you can. Lock the outboard, fuel and dingy ALWAYS! When traveling in Sicily we had a attempt to steal our dingy but they couldn't get through our heavy duty locks.

How has cruising affected your personal relationships?
Strengthened them. Prior to leaving we ran a business that required allot of commuting, so to then go to a 24/7 existence was a big change. You see the best and worst of someone living so close. You learn not to sweat the small stuff and appreciate your partners and children's special skills. You depend on one another and the buck stops with you.

Are you attracted more to sailing itself or cruising-as-travel and has that changed over time?
Shane loves the sailing and the cruising to travel, I love the destination but over time have come to enjoy cruising to travel.

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 cruising given to you and your family?

Cruising has given us the ability to spend time together as a family and to really get to know each other again. It has enabled us to 'linger a little longer' while traveling as we did not have constraints of time or accommodation costs. It has allowed us to meet some amazing people in amazing locations. Cruising together has made us truly appreciate what we have.

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10 Questions for Constellation

Nick sailed from 2007 to 2009 aboard Constellation, a Jeremy Rogers (original UK version) Contessa 26 (26 feet) hailing from Southampton, UK. During those years he sailed in the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Caribbean, New York, California, Hawaii, South Pacific, and from Europe to Australia. More information can be found on his website. Despite the hailing port, he is Australian, not British, gets seasick, and calls himself a terrible sailor.

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

Prior to departing, I had very little offshore experience. I gained any real tangible offshore experience sailing for several weeks with a friend who had just sailed solo across the Atlantic. We were caught in miserable conditions in the North Sea, and sought refuge in Belgium. I then spent around 6 weeks coastal sailing every day down the coast of Europe, slowly making longer and longer passages, until I did my first overnight passage. I then did a three day solo passage, and progressed to ten days, before jumping to my thirty day solo Atlantic crossing.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

As I was most often alone, I found it rather interesting that I felt most lonely in port, rather than at sea. It wasn't so much that I disliked any one particular thing, however, because I was a solo cruiser, sometimes the loneliness of walking around after making port was awful. Also, because of my age (I was 26-28 during my cruising), it was sometimes hard to find people I could socialise with. More often than not, the 'cruising community' is made up of people who are significantly older. In the south Pacific, I did run into some younger sailors which really made a big difference to my social experience of the voyage. I really enjoyed socialising with older cruisers, especially the highly experienced ones, but sometimes it's nice to mix with your own social group. I guess I found the whole social aspect of cruising quite a surprise.

What piece of gear seems to break the most often?

I had such a complete and utter LACK of gear, very little really broke. It was the complex things like the engine that gave me the most hassle. However even the Yanmar with regular work seemed to stay alive and run when most needed. I think the fact that my boat was more or less stock standard and built in 1972, is really a testament to simple cruising in a well built boat. That's not to say things didn't break... I tore two sails, broke my boom, and lost my electrical system.

Can you think of a sailing tip (e.g., sail trim, sail combination) specific to offshore passages (e.g., related to swells)?

Don't leave home without a really good set of light wind sails! Unless you're venturing out of the tried and true cruising grounds, the fact is, you will encounter more LIGHT wind that you will HEAVY wind. Carry a nice drifter. For offshore cruising, I would also recommend making a lot of canvas dodgers. Keep yourself and your cockpit dry. Mind you, this may be more specific to me, since my freeboard consisted of about 2ft.

How much does cruising cost?

How much do you want to spend? This is such a general question... I mean, really if you leave with a well found boat, cruising costs as much as food and port fees. It also really depends on how much you can withstand in the name of budgeting. If you don't mind cooking every meal, never drinking, and sometimes dieting on pasta for weeks on end. You can do it for very little. But, that tends to take the enjoyment out of it. I'd estimate $140USD a week with several thousand in the bank for repairs if you're on a small boat. This assumes you do all the work yourself, mostly cook your own food, stay out of expensive marinas, but treat yourself to the odd dinner out and protected slip every month. I tended to live on less than that, and met people who lived on $100 a month with considerable success. Having debt makes things very hard - I would recommend on the topic of money, to leaving on your cruise with no debt - For most, this means a smaller boat and cutting up your credit cards.

Share a piece of cruising etiquette

Just be generous with what you know, and accept the knowledge of others who know better than yourself. Also look after the environment and people you meet along the way, so people behind you can experience the best of us sailors.

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

I found my boat to be exceptional at sea, but miserable in port. I would suggest a boat you can stand up in (I had no standing headroom), and easily cook aboard. It will be your house, so whatever size it is (and really, size means very little), invest some time and effort in making things comfortable for yourself. Invest in quality and forget about size. Buy outright.

What did you do to make your dream a reality?

I left the dock. And I kept going regardless of what people told me I could and could not do. Even when you're tired, broke, and angry, the only way a dream will ever become real is if you just keep going. It cannot be forgotten that my dream was assisted by many very generous and wonderful people around the world too, as are most dreams. They rarely eventuate without others.

How has cruising affected your personal relationships?

It was very hard maintaining any semblance of a personal relationship when I was attempting to sail solo for many years at sea in a small boat. I won't go into details, but, it wasn't easy, and didn't really work.

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

I wish you had asked me about sea monsters. So, if you had of, I would have answered as such:

One night while sailing somewhere in the Pacific, I dreamt of the tentacles of a giant squid squirming through my hatch. This, as you can imagine, is an awful dream to be having, hundreds of miles from anywhere, alone in a small boat. I awoke with much panic, only to find myself sailing briskly along under a full moon, on a near-flat sea, without a single sea monster to be found. There is no moral of the story, but, I do wonder if those tentacles adjusted my windvane, because without any reason or logic, we were in fact, sailing in the wrong direction.

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