For lots of reasons, cost among them, we try to anchor
whenever possible. In the nine months between Vancouver Island and Chile we
spent less than two weeks tied up to a dock (the police dock in San Diego was
the notable exception). One of the other major reasons is that we way prefer
places where there are no docks - the more remote the better. In order to make
this kind of lifestyle interesting/bearable, however, we have made sure that
exploration off the boat is easy, possible and fun. We have two fourteen foot
kayaks on board and gear for paddling in any kind of weather. Paddling allows us
to explore places hard or impossible to get to by sailboat and allows us to get
some of the exercise seriously lacking in a liveaboard lifestyle. It also allows
us to be completely independent - if we had to coordinate dinghy rides
constantly I'm not sure how long we would last. I know that Steve was worried at
first about having the boats on deck in rough weather, but after three offshore
passages the conclusion is that things seem fine.
Describe a "typical day" on passage on your boat
While on passage we both spend lots of time reading. We
both have Kindles and lots of digital books. Steve spends lots of time chatting
on the radio (I chat when we set up scheds with boats we know - nets, not so
much). I am learning to knit (although I spend more time thinking about knitting
than actually knitting). Also, hours and hours are spent just sitting on deck
and looking around. There is an amazing freedom to the singularity of the
project of passage making; unlike most of life, which can be complicated and
confusing, the project of sailing from point A to point B has a marvelous
simplicity.
What type of watch schedule do you normally use while offshore?
From chats with other passage-making cruisers, I think that our passage routine is a little bit unusual. In the interest of being able to sleep for longer, we choose to stand six hour watches. We break the night into two - Steve stays up to talk on the radio for the evening and early night and wakes me up in the wee wee hours. I stay up until sun rise and then go back to sleep until noon. We are very relaxed about the schedule and things obviously change based on weather conditions. When on watch we do mostly all of the sail changes etc. alone. We have found that few things actually require two people and can usually wait until daylight/watch change.
Tell me your favorite thing about your boat
To be clear, it's not my boat. However, after my time aboard, I know it pretty well. It's hard, because I think my favourite thing about the boat might also be the thing that most commonly frustrates me. The boat is homemade and was built with function, not fashion, in mind. To this end, it works incredibly well - every system has been thought through and most are in their third or fourth reincarnations. Steve knows the boat inside out and is always looking for ways to improve things. However, it is not a luxury yacht - the center cockpit is small and very secure but not very comfortable. It is perfect for one or two people to sit in while sailing but gets really crowded when we try to socialise. The same goes for the main cabin. However, I wouldn't change this for the world - it speaks, I think, to one of the most important things to think about when considering a boat for cruising: what kind of cruising exactly are you going to be doing? The Silas Crosby is decidedly NOT a tropical destination, social drinks for all kind of boat. However, with the diesel heater, secure cabin and cockpit and pilot house/dodger combo it is perfect for the high latitude sailing that it mostly does.
How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad?
What type of watch schedule do you normally use while offshore?
From chats with other passage-making cruisers, I think that our passage routine is a little bit unusual. In the interest of being able to sleep for longer, we choose to stand six hour watches. We break the night into two - Steve stays up to talk on the radio for the evening and early night and wakes me up in the wee wee hours. I stay up until sun rise and then go back to sleep until noon. We are very relaxed about the schedule and things obviously change based on weather conditions. When on watch we do mostly all of the sail changes etc. alone. We have found that few things actually require two people and can usually wait until daylight/watch change.
Tell me your favorite thing about your boat
To be clear, it's not my boat. However, after my time aboard, I know it pretty well. It's hard, because I think my favourite thing about the boat might also be the thing that most commonly frustrates me. The boat is homemade and was built with function, not fashion, in mind. To this end, it works incredibly well - every system has been thought through and most are in their third or fourth reincarnations. Steve knows the boat inside out and is always looking for ways to improve things. However, it is not a luxury yacht - the center cockpit is small and very secure but not very comfortable. It is perfect for one or two people to sit in while sailing but gets really crowded when we try to socialise. The same goes for the main cabin. However, I wouldn't change this for the world - it speaks, I think, to one of the most important things to think about when considering a boat for cruising: what kind of cruising exactly are you going to be doing? The Silas Crosby is decidedly NOT a tropical destination, social drinks for all kind of boat. However, with the diesel heater, secure cabin and cockpit and pilot house/dodger combo it is perfect for the high latitude sailing that it mostly does.
How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad?
We faced our worst weather in the last couple of weeks
before arriving in Chile (at about 40 degrees south). Steve generally thinks
that I am overly nonchalant about these situations but it's because I have total
faith in the boat and the work and thought Steve has put into it over the years.
From our few heavy weather moments, I have learned that it's rarely a mistake to
have less sail and if the thought "perhaps we should chuck out that drogue"
comes up, it's probably time for the drogue. We put out the jordan series drogue
twice coming into Chile and it was really cool to see how well it worked.
Another thing that we discuss a lot on board is how hyped offshore heavy weather
gets - to be sure, it can be really challenging and definitely dangerous.
However, if the boat is prepared and all of the sail combos/heavy weather gear
has been thought through and nothing breaks, the boat will be able to handle it.
It's all of the hard bits (ie. navigating near land) that is the really
challenging part of sailing.
What is your most common sail combination on passage?
What is your most common sail combination on passage?
Our sail
combos while offshore are almost totally dictated by the ability of the windvane
to steer. Therefore, while sometimes we may be able to squeeze another half knot
or knot out of the conditions, if the windvane is overpowered and can't steer,
we're happy to reduce sail and go a bit slower in order to not hand steer.
Therefore, we almost always have at least one reef in the main and more sail up
forward. We are almost constantly reefing - both the roller furler head sail and
the main (it has three reefing lines). Some squally watches I think I have
reefed/unreefed ten times.
Another sail
combo that we use to exhaustion whenever the wind is even remotely behind us is
wing on wing with the headsail poled out. The whisker pole is unbelievable
important, as far as we are concerned, and we are generally surprised by how few
people have them/know how to use them. The boat seems to calm right down and
great naps/book reads can be had.
What do you miss about
living on land?
Life on board lacks almost all of the convenience of life
on land. Everything requires effort and thought - grocery shopping almost always
takes an entire day and requires lots of walking with a heavy pack and laundry
either costs or takes a long time. I don't miss the convenience, but sometimes I
miss the independence of living normally. Not many other twenty five year olds
choose to live on a small sailboat with their uncle for a couple of
years.
I definitely miss being part of a fixed community
(remember running into people you know on the street? I don't) but that said the
cruising community goes a long way to make up for that.
I also miss regular, land based exercise. When at anchor,
it requires serious motivation to paddle ashore and go for a run. Things were
awesome in Mexico when I could just jump overboard and swim for an
hour.
What is something about the cruising culture you like and what is something you dislike?
Generally, I
like the cruising community for the fact that everyone has opted for a life less
normal. However, I was surprised and a bit disappointed by how hard so many
people seem to try to make their cruising lives more closely resemble the lives
they lived on land. It's hard to explain, but a few hours at the La Paz morning
coffee hour will more than explain my point; so many people seem to spend so
much time trying to make their lives on board easier rather than
more interesting. Hours are spent trying to fix broken, superfluous systems
rather than choosing the simple option and actually getting out to all the
amazing anchorages a day's sail away.
I was also
surprised/disappointed by how few cruisers are seriously into sailing. It might
sound funny, but it's overwhelmingly true. We are by no means purists - we have
an engine and it lets us get places that would be seriously hard/impossible to
get to by sail alone. However, sailing is always the
background project. We will wait days for wind to avoid motoring and are always
pumped by perfect downwind conditions (does it get any
better?).
I kind of knew
this before hand, but apart from a few notable exceptions, there are relatively
few young people out there sailing. Obviously, it's an expensive project and not
many can get the funds together to make it happen on their own. Without a doubt,
if I see a boat with anyone under thirty five on board I'm bound to be knocking
on the hull before too long.
All of this said, what an amazing community - friends are made fast and everyone has interesting stories to share.
What do you think is a common cruising myth?
All of this said, what an amazing community - friends are made fast and everyone has interesting stories to share.
What do you think is a common cruising myth?
I think that it's important to acknowledge that cruising
is pretty just like normal life; it's not always fun. We have met lots of people
that seem to be waiting for the real fun to start - always looking into the
future to the next destination for the moment when they will be stretched out on
deck in a bikini with a margarita in hand watching the sunset. This is possible,
don't get me wrong. However, with such fixed ideas of what success or fun looks
like, it is too easy to be disappointed. Those who seem to be having the best
time are up for anything and recount with relish the rainy, cold, windy moments
just as readily as the sunny, margarita bikini moments.
What do you find most exciting about
your cruising life?
Every landfall after being offshore is absolutely
exciting (even if I pretend to be really nonchalant). There is something about
gliding into a new harbour and dropping the anchor thousands of miles away from
the last place it was dropped that is seriously cool.
