Welcome Wimhal to Newly Salted! Read this interview as originally published on their blog.
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Ariel, Mahonri and Lenin (the boat dog!) on a Cape Dory 28 (our short
list boat!) that we got for a very nice price the start of this year.
We named it Wimahl but still haven’t painted it yet, so it says Bantam
on it. We lived aboard while doing repairs until we felt good about
heading out to sea. Our goal was to head north to the San Juans and
Canada. For those curious, little baby Lenin (of leninthedog.tumblr.com)
LOVES to sail, and loves to kayak, he just hates to get wet. He wears a
lifejacket and stays harnessed in for safety as do we all :)
Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting cruising?
Ariel: Honestly, we didn’t even finish packing before we left. We got all amped up and just left with some of our stuff that we wanted to bring with still in storage in Portland. But of the things we don’t actually own, we’ve considered sculling oar, a wind vane, a wind generator, a pedal electrical system and a pedal propulsion system, as well as a drifter and a storm sail, all of which we don’t have (or don’t have yet) for various reasons. Maybe a hammock for passages.
Mahonri: should have gotten rid of the engine, which is the opposite of that. pedal engine, sculling oar! light air sail, as in a drifter or something.
Is there a place you visited wish you could have stayed longer?
Ariel: a part of me was happy to stay off Sauvies for a while. Beer, nude beach and summer time.
Mahonri: not really yet. I feel like we’ve stayed too long in a few places.
When you are offshore, what keeps you awake at night (that is, what worries you most)?
Ariel: the Pacific is loud and big. It sounds like it is smashing the boat to bits, even though I know in my mind it isn’t. It feels like it is lifting the boat up and dropping it. Also, sometimes, puking.
Mahonri: collision at sea.
Favorite thing about about the boat?
Ariel: solar panels and composting toilet. Green living!
Mahonri: I’m bad at these types of questions.
Tell me your least favorite thing about your boat?
Ariel: the galley is kind of weirdly shaped and the cabneits are spaced weird, but thats it.
Mahonri: could be bigger?
How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad?
Ariel: We came down the Columbia, to the Pacific, up to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Is there any other kind of weather? JK, it was summer, there was some good weather. For real though, the Columbia gets rough!
Mahonri: The worst we hit was up in the [Columbia] Gorge.
What is your most common sail combination on passage?
Ariel: we usually fussed around between the jib and the genoa, but we were trying this awesome downwind set up that I called butterfly sails and he called twin sails, and then our mainsail tore in half (again) so we had to get a new one because it was super old and just couldn’t be repaired again :(
Mahonri: clubfooted working jib and main
What piece of gear seems to break the most often?
Ariel: seems to me that its always the damn sail, but its probably something else. We also frequently loose everything out of the kayak by not taking stuff out of it at night.
Mahonri: the mainsail (getting a new one!).
As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?
Ariel- there is alot of transition. Taking a kayak to just go for a walk, being in a new town, state, country every week. sometimes we don’t even have phone. things get broken from other boaters wake. It’s like living in a permanent earthquake.
Mahonri- having the lady and the goddamn dog around 24/7.
What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?
Ariel: we heard this almost mythos surrounding the crossing of the Columbia River Bar, and the idea of crossing it, and sailing NORTH? impossible! but we read and did our own research and realized people are just scared to sail windward and are scared to even go out and try things, and we aren’t like that, so we stopped listening to fearful gossip and tried to tune in to more reliable sources. Up in Puget Sound, and the Straits, it’s the same way. But now we know.
Mahonri: that going north from Astoria to Puget Sound is IMPOSSIBLE!
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Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting cruising?
Ariel: Honestly, we didn’t even finish packing before we left. We got all amped up and just left with some of our stuff that we wanted to bring with still in storage in Portland. But of the things we don’t actually own, we’ve considered sculling oar, a wind vane, a wind generator, a pedal electrical system and a pedal propulsion system, as well as a drifter and a storm sail, all of which we don’t have (or don’t have yet) for various reasons. Maybe a hammock for passages.
Mahonri: should have gotten rid of the engine, which is the opposite of that. pedal engine, sculling oar! light air sail, as in a drifter or something.
Is there a place you visited wish you could have stayed longer?
Ariel: a part of me was happy to stay off Sauvies for a while. Beer, nude beach and summer time.
Mahonri: not really yet. I feel like we’ve stayed too long in a few places.
When you are offshore, what keeps you awake at night (that is, what worries you most)?
Ariel: the Pacific is loud and big. It sounds like it is smashing the boat to bits, even though I know in my mind it isn’t. It feels like it is lifting the boat up and dropping it. Also, sometimes, puking.
Mahonri: collision at sea.
Favorite thing about about the boat?
Ariel: solar panels and composting toilet. Green living!
Mahonri: I’m bad at these types of questions.
Tell me your least favorite thing about your boat?
Ariel: the galley is kind of weirdly shaped and the cabneits are spaced weird, but thats it.
Mahonri: could be bigger?
How often have you faced bad weather in your cruising? How bad?
Ariel: We came down the Columbia, to the Pacific, up to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Is there any other kind of weather? JK, it was summer, there was some good weather. For real though, the Columbia gets rough!
Mahonri: The worst we hit was up in the [Columbia] Gorge.
What is your most common sail combination on passage?
Ariel: we usually fussed around between the jib and the genoa, but we were trying this awesome downwind set up that I called butterfly sails and he called twin sails, and then our mainsail tore in half (again) so we had to get a new one because it was super old and just couldn’t be repaired again :(
Mahonri: clubfooted working jib and main
What piece of gear seems to break the most often?
Ariel: seems to me that its always the damn sail, but its probably something else. We also frequently loose everything out of the kayak by not taking stuff out of it at night.
Mahonri: the mainsail (getting a new one!).
As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?
Ariel- there is alot of transition. Taking a kayak to just go for a walk, being in a new town, state, country every week. sometimes we don’t even have phone. things get broken from other boaters wake. It’s like living in a permanent earthquake.
Mahonri- having the lady and the goddamn dog around 24/7.
What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?
Ariel: we heard this almost mythos surrounding the crossing of the Columbia River Bar, and the idea of crossing it, and sailing NORTH? impossible! but we read and did our own research and realized people are just scared to sail windward and are scared to even go out and try things, and we aren’t like that, so we stopped listening to fearful gossip and tried to tune in to more reliable sources. Up in Puget Sound, and the Straits, it’s the same way. But now we know.
Mahonri: that going north from Astoria to Puget Sound is IMPOSSIBLE!
