![]() ![]() Anne dreading another two years living on a damn boat. ÂSecond question, would you ever go back to a monohull?â At this point, the owner would look at Anne as if to ask, âAre you his nurse?â while answering with an emphatic, âNo wayâ.Īnd so, having further strengthened my case we'd dinghy off shorewards, me dreaming of a life on two hulls. ![]() âFirstly, did you own a monohull before buying your catamaran?â And the answer was always, âYesâ. They'd give me a guarded look and hesitatingly say, âOKâ. Sorry to bother you but would you mind if I ask you two questions?â Pulling alongside I'd knock on the hull and, when the occupier appeared at the guard rails I'd say, âHi. To recap, in an anchorage I'd dinghy over to the nearest catamaran with Anne going, âOh, please. Long term blog followers might recall a piece I wrote describing my research preceding our move from one, to two hulls. Others rediscover their youth, fitness, energy and Lycra, getting back into, or even starting road cycling, travelling farther in a day than they ever would have by yacht.Īnd finally of course, heaven forbid, there's always golf. Said trawlermen then essentially transform into Level 6 the gleaming trawler now providing the function of garden shed whether at the marina or conveniently at the end of the garden. These folk enjoy the absence of sails, ropes, pulled muscles and the like, motoring around when and where they like irrespective of wind direction and tides but suddenly find they're not in the most environmentally responsible form of cruising and also simply dread the prospect of arriving at the fuel dock, not to mention the engine packing up. Some cruisers, reluctant to let go of the water add in Trawlering between Ocean cruising and the motor home. (Said the old guy clutching his Cadet Section Knots badge). Mind you, if they were that scared, maybe they shouldn't have skipped levels one to three. skip the early levels jumping right in at Level 4. Millennials, are whatever you might call the YouTube cruising generation âBIGGEST waves I've ever seenâ or âI was SCARED for my lifeâ etcâ¦. This latest scale, which is still a work in progress is as followsâ¦. Cruising also has a finite lifespan, largely influenced by Stuart's patented Scunnerrometer. Progressing up the scale if you like, all the time building experience and skills. Getting into the ocean cruising life, sometimes referred to by those who've never done it as, âliving the dreamâ, follows a series of natural steps. I got to thinking about scales after my last blog. So, with three reefs and the Solent in just twenty knots, we're still doing over seven knots when we need to be doing five.Īnd so, finally, after three thousand, seven hundred and fifty miles after leaving our pals in the V&A Marina, Cape Town, (friendliest marina in the world), hardly a drop of fossil fuel burned and twenty three nights at sea, we are NEARLY THERE! Unfortunately, if there's a breeze, this boat just does not do slow. And of course, and predictably, we are now trying to slow the boat down to give us a daylight entry to Recife. ![]() Having learned nothing from the tale, we've knocked ourselves out trying to optimise our mileages every day. Sheets being trimmed by the millimetre, peering up at the sails trying to get the last milli - knot out the boat, yer man looks at them and says, âKnow what youse two? You guys just don't know how to cruise.â As the new crew member looked on at our two heroes, winches quietly goingâ¦. It all reminded me of a comment a newly recruited crew member made to two of my racing friends (and blog followers), as they sailed their new cruising boat out the Med. gybe to port, gybe back, code zero up, code zero down, code D up, Code D down and on it went for days on end. Having spent the last seven days, sails up and down like a â¦â¦ better not sayâ¦. ![]() Of course, the wind didn't play ball and we had a dead run pretty well right up to this morning where we are finally on a broad reach hurtling towards the lee shore that is Recife, Brazil. Part of the cunning plan to make a brief stop at Ascension Island was that it would give us a better chance of a broad reach where we could sit back and relax rather than a dead run where we're always on edge waiting for the crash gybe. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |