CNN did a nice piece on some some friends of my family who retired last year and took off across the Atlantic aboard their sailboat. My parents did the same thing between 1998 and 2008.
If you’ve ever had the urge, you may find this interesting: http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/09/retirement/dream-retirement-sailboat/index.html
I never understood the appeal of making long ocean passages in small vessels…
am I alone here?
While passing through the Med, we passed a sail boat with two couples on board. It was a beautiful morning, the captain was at the helm with his cup of coffee and the other three were sitting on the forward deck snacking on fruit. Everyone talked about how lucky it was to be them. Then about a month later we read they were missionaries from the west coast and the Pirates killed them
Around '80, A captain and I flew out to Hawaii for a 30 day relief job. Capt told me he only took the job to buy a sail boat as Hawaii was the cheapest place to find one. “How’s that” I asked? He went on to explain “About once a week, someone retires in LA, sells their house, buys a sail boat and will try to sail around the world. They sail to San Diego and have a big party. Then to San Lucas for a fiesta. Then to Acapulco for a hiho time and re-victual for the big jump to Hawaii. Somewhere during the jump, they get the shit kicked out of them in a storm and the boat goes up for sale in Hilo.” About a week later, he drove from Kailua Kona to Hilo and picked up a bargain. At the end of the hitch, he had 4 offers to buy it. I guess it’s not as brutal with the internet nowadays.
[QUOTE=c.captain;156982]I never understood the appeal of making long ocean passages in small vessels…
am I alone here?[/QUOTE]
Nope. . . . don’t get me wrong. I like being on the water. . . so long as I am getting paid. Even though I stopped sailing many years ago, I still make the odd trip out for the day job. I enjoy it, for the most part. Just don’t ask me to get onboard any vessel if I am either not getting paid or am paying for the experience.
Of course it would not appeal to you, alone on a sailboat with no one to belittle or listen to your endless rants… Come to think of it I’ll pitch in for the boat if you promise not to have sat-coms.
[QUOTE=c.captain;156982]I never understood the appeal of making long ocean passages in small vessels…
am I alone here?[/QUOTE]
“Though a large vessel is usually more comfortable than a small one, size has little to do with safety in open water. A little vessel yields to every movement of the sea – herein lies her safety. The huge unyielding bulk of a great ship exposes her to the full force of every blow.” - Claud Worth
Besides, there’s nothing like a small boat in big weather to teach you how to work through seasickness.
After sailing about 75,000 miles offshore, I don’t have any great desire to go back.
But I wouldn’t trade that time and experience for anything.
[QUOTE=water;156992]After sailing about 75,000 miles offshore, I don’t have any great desire to go back.
But I wouldn’t trade that time and experience for anything.[/QUOTE]
Where did you sail?
Started in '72, sailing from San Diego on a Kettenburg 50. Headed down through Mexico, Central America, then out to the Galapagos and on to Marquesas and Tahiti. Raced on the Great Lakes, including 2,500 miles one summer in 5 weeks. SORC races. Deliveries and races on the Great Lakes, Eastern Seaboard and Caribbean. Yacht captain in the Caribbean, Bahamas and FL. Trans Atlantic crossing. Quit racing when I figured out I could get out on boats on deliveries and captain work.
All on other people’s boats.
Sailboat People, I swear to God. My favorite YouTube video; google Cowes Race tanker collision. Whenever I’m irritable or depressed, I watch this and howl. The crew on the sailboat were later revealed to be British Naval Officers. Ha, LMFAO.
No, no, no! That was a navy-douche problem, not a blow-boater-douche problem! Did any of them other blow-boats get sucked up into an anchor? Hell no!
[QUOTE=water;157023]Started in '72, sailing from San Diego on a Kettenburg 50. Headed down through Mexico, Central America, then out to the Galapagos and on to Marquesas and Tahiti. Raced on the Great Lakes, including 2,500 miles one summer in 5 weeks. SORC races. Deliveries and races on the Great Lakes, Eastern Seaboard and Caribbean. Yacht captain in the Caribbean, Bahamas and FL. Trans Atlantic crossing. Quit racing when I figured out I could get out on boats on deliveries and captain work.
All on other people’s boats.[/QUOTE]
Nice, I helped my parents deliver their Valiant 40 from Sri Lanka to Sudan (enroute to the Med) in 2006. That trip pretty much cured by desire to circumnavigate on a small sailboat.
It’s nice not to have to hear the engines for extended periods of time. Just the wind and the water. Very Zen.
"Men go back to the mountains, as they go back to sailing ships at sea, because in the mountains and on the sea they must face up, as did men of another age, to the challenge of nature. Modern man lives in a highly synthetic kind of existence. He specializes in this and that. Rarely does he test all his powers or find himself whole. But in the hills and on the water the character of a man comes out.” - Abram T. Collier
I read a book about a guy and his wife crossing the Atlantic in a squall a giant tanker runs them down and the man lives and gets revenge by sinking the “Leviathan”. All he saw was the name on the stern. It was fiction but the way the author described the feeling of watching the giant ship go by not even knowing they ran him and his wife over.
I saw a derelict 80 foot sailing vessel 24 miles off Fouchon in May of 13 float by our boat twice. It looked like a nice sailboat which we heard the USCG rescued some guy and his wife off from because his sail wire broke or something. I wanted the capt to let us go over and tow it over to where we were working with the fast rescue boat but he would not make the call. One of the mates said it was at least a 300k dollar boat. All there for salvage but some shrimper probably grabbed her. If things can go wrong in the gulf you all can imagine the North Atlantic or worse, the North Pacific.
A certain amount, probably 60 days, of offshore small sailing vessel passage making experience should be a requirement for every ocean license. As should a similar amount of commercial fishing experience.
Absolutely. I think a lot of people lack basic seamanship understanding, which you undoubtedly get from those experiences. I work with mates and captains that can’t splice mooring line or “refuse” to work on deck. Sad if you ask me.
[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;157034]I read a book about a guy and his wife crossing the Atlantic in a squall a giant tanker runs them down and the man lives and gets revenge by sinking the “Leviathan”. All he saw was the name on the stern. It was fiction but the way the author described the feeling of watching the giant ship go by not even knowing they ran him and his wife over.
I saw a derelict 80 foot sailing vessel 24 miles off Fouchon in May of 13 float by our boat twice. It looked like a nice sailboat which we heard the USCG rescued some guy and his wife off from because his sail wire broke or something. I wanted the capt to let us go over and tow it over to where we were working with the fast rescue boat but he would not make the call. One of the mates said it was at least a 300k dollar boat. All there for salvage but some shrimper probably grabbed her. If things can go wrong in the gulf you all can imagine the North Atlantic or worse, the North Pacific.[/QUOTE]
I think I heard all that on the radio as it happened. It wasn’t the guy’s wife, if it was the same event, maybe his girlfriend … older couple. She really, really, really wanted to get off that boat. He really, really, really did not want to get off that boat. The Coast Guard said both or neither. After she got hurt, or said she got hurt, it was both.
Reminded me of that sailboat in “The Perfect Storm” – you now, the one the Air Force PJs died while trying to rescue folks from? As of a couple of years ago that boat was sitting in a marina in Port Aransas, Texas.
People usually break before well-found vessels do.
Westsail 32. Great boat to cross an ocean with.