Here, Heather answers a few questions about how solar cooking has opened up a whole new suite of cruising food options for ...Read more]]>

Heather McCarthy has been sailing with her husband, Dan, and their three daughters, the “McMermaids” since 2011. They are currently cruising the Florida Keys, Dry Tortugas, and the Bahamas onboard s/v Jullanar.

Here, Heather answers a few questions about how solar cooking has opened up a whole new suite of cruising food options for her family.

The McMermaids (Calypsa, Jelena, and Marina) are preparing to solar-cook white rice and chocolate-chip blondies. Summerland Key, Florida.
Photo taken by Heather McCarthy.

CULINARY QUESTIONS

What kinds of foods do you cook in your solar oven?

I love to prepare dishes in the solar oven that I wouldn’t dare cook on my galley’s 2-burner propane stove – foods that require long cooking times like rice, dried beans, roasted meats and vegetables, potatoes, stews, chili, etc. 

I feel great about saving propane and sparing everyone from the “dinnertime sweat” by keeping the boat cool in the late afternoon. 

Our sailboat does not have a propane oven, so I use the Solavore Sport solar oven to do ALL baking – bread, cakes, scones, muffins, cookies, pizza, pies, etc.  I have tried stovetop ovens with little success – some part of the dish usually burns.  However, the baked goods coming out my solar oven never burn and are always crowd-pleasers!

In the galley of s/v Jullanar, Heather is preparing a small, 4-pound whole chicken to roast in the solar oven.
Photo taken by Calypsa McCarthy

The golden, juicy roasted chicken after 4 hours at 275°F in the solar oven! My kids said it was the best chicken they’ve ever had! Summerland Key, Florida.
Photo taken by Calypsa McCarthy

What kinds of adaptations do you make to your recipes for cooking in the solar oven? 

A solar oven cooks like a crockpot or slow cooker (low temperature, long cooking durations).  While the boiling point of water (212°F) is achieved, very little water evaporation takes place. 

That means that you can and should add slightly LESS WATER to your rice/grains, dried beans, chili, stew, and soup recipes.  One cup of jasmine rice to 1 2/3 cups of water turns out perfect for me every time. 

You don’t need to add ANY WATER to cook hard-boiled eggs, corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, and other vegetables that you might boil in a pot a water on the stovetop.

Can you bake bread in it?  If so, how long does that take?

Oh yes!  Bread baked in the solar oven is delectable!!! 

I have had excellent results with basic white bread, cornbread, and a variety of sweet breads like pumpkin or banana breads.  I try to keep the loaf size small, or spread the recipe between the two black granite-ware pots to keep cooking times shorter. 

Cooking times depend on the internal temperature of the solar oven, which, of course, depends on the sun’s intensity at the time.  For baking, I want the solar oven to be in its highest temperature zone when I place the dough into the oven – at least 275°F. 

I achieve this in two ways:

1. Pre-heat the oven for 20-30 minutes,
2. Use the reflectors – the more light rays diverted into the oven, the hotter it will get! 

Today, I cooked a small loaf of garlic and herb bread in 60 minutes with reflectors on and an internal temperature of 300°F.  Everyone on the dock was salivating as they could smell it baking!        

Baking bread in the solar oven is easy!
Use a bread loaf pan, split the dough between the two graniteware pots, or place the loaf on a cookie sheet. An 11” x 17” cookie sheet fits nicely in my solar oven, when raised up on two empty tuna cans. You can fit a muffin pan into the oven in this way too.
Summerland Key, Florida.
Photos taken by Calypsa McCarthy.

How long does it typically take you to cook a casserole, rice and beans, stew, etc.?  What time of day do you typically place your dish in the oven?

When estimating cooking times of dishes such as these, try to change your mindset from “oven” to “crockpot.”  Think about how your crockpot at home has time settings like 4, 6, 8, 10 hours – these are comparable to solar-cooking times.  My crockpot at home cooks at 200°F on its “HIGH” setting.  At 275°F, the solar oven cooks rice in about 1 ½ hours, roasts a whole 4-lb chicken in 4 hours, and cooks dried beans (soaked overnight) in about 6 hours. 

As long as you start thinking in the morning about what you want to cook for dinner, you can ensure that you have you enough time. 

If I am going to cook roast beef, pulled pork, or a whole chicken, I’ll need to start the cooking at about 10:00am, in order to give the dish up to 6 hours of bright sun to fully cook. Occasionally, my kids have begged to eat at 4:00pm, because dinner was basically done in the solar oven and smelled so good! Why not!?!

When cruising with three children gets a little crazy, I simplify meals by cooking box mixes like these in the solar oven. Here are “before” and “after” photos of boxed rice and beans and country white bread. I place baked goods on a sheet of wax/parchment paper for easy removal and clean-up. Summerland Key, Florida.
Photos taken by Calypsa McCarthy.

How often do you have to finish cooking a recipe on your propane stove or propane oven?

In this regard, solar cooking is a bit like cruising – if you try to force things in less-than-ideal weather, less-than-ideal things will happen! 

I did this once….  A week in advance, I invited guests over for a Saturday night meal of “solar-cooked pulled pork and rosemary scalloped potatoes.”  Well, Saturday ended up being a cloudy day, and the pork didn’t cook.  It went back in the refrigerator to wait for a sunny day, and we ordered pizza for dinner! 

Just watch the weather and pick sunny days (air temperature doesn’t really matter), and you will rarely (if ever) have to finish a dish using propane.

When baking pizza in the solar oven, our results are fantastic when we brown the crust first. Then, add sauce, cheese and toppings, and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Summerland Key, Florida. Photos taken by Heather McCarthy.

SAFETY QUESTIONS

How hot does a solar oven actually get?

Our youngest McMermaid (8 years old) baking an apple pie in the solar oven. You can see that the lid of the oven is cool enough that she can touch it with her bare hands, while handling the pots inside requires an oven mitt – the pots and food are very hot at around 300°F.

The Solavore Sport is engineered to withstand temperatures up to about 325°F.  I like to keep an eye on the oven temperature gauge, and if it starts to climb above 325°F (I’ve seen it do this on very hot, sunny Florida days), I just take the reflectors off or turn the oven slightly away from the sun to bring down the temperature.

Does the solar oven get hot on the outside?  Do you have to place something under the oven in order to cook on your deck?

When cooking, the black, exterior base of the oven feels barely warm to the touch.  This oven’s thick insulation keeps the heat inside, and the outside stays cool.  The lid can feel slightly warmer, but we can still comfortably lay our hands on it. 

I have no fear of my kids playing right beside the oven, and I can cook directly on my boat’s deck without anything under the oven. 

McMermaids cooking directly on the foredeck of s/v Jullanar – Spanish rice and brownies! The outside of the oven stays cool to the touch. The kids just had to “test” the brownies to make sure they were done! Eau Gallie Yacht Basin, Melbourne, Florida. Photo taken by Heather McCarthy.

Can solar cooking start a fire or burn food?

I can’t imagine a scenario in which the Solavore Sport could start a fire.  The average internal temperatures (225-275°F) of the oven are low enough that it is extremely safe.  Even if a piece of paper accidentally found its way inside the oven with your food, it would not catch on fire (it’s easy to remember the average temperature at which paper catches fire and burns, because author Ray Bradbury named his famous book after that temperature — Fahrenheit 451). 

Likewise, the relatively low cooking temperatures of this oven prevent foods from burning. 

Believe me, I’ve tested this!  When I first started using this solar oven, everything cooked faster than I expected, so I ended up with a couple over-cooked, yet quite edible, dishes.  Learn from my experience….  Cookies bake FAST (20-30 minutes), but, if left in too long, they simply turn dark golden and crunchy — still yummy! 

My best example is banana bread that I forgot about and left in for 4 hours (it cooks in 1 hour).  When we tasted the golden banana bread, we realized something magical had happened!  The bread wasn’t dried out or burned, but the sugars had caramelized!  This created a delicious, new, caramel-flavored banana bread! 

Not burned! Banana bread left in the oven too long did not burn or dry out, but the sugars caramelized into a moist, delicious “new” flavor!

LOGISTICAL QUESTIONS

Where do you store your solar oven aboard?  Can you store it on deck?

I’m often asked questions about storage!  When bringing any item onboard, every cruiser has to carefully consider the value of the item versus the space required to store it.  We REALLY do — we’ve got five people cruising full-time for six months onboard a 29′ sailboat. 

In response, I love this quote from s/v The Red Thread’s blog regarding a wafflemaker… “The last thing we wanted was to weigh down The Red Thread by hoarding unnecessary nonsense. “HOLD IT – doesn’t a waffle iron fall into the unnecessary nonsense category?” you ask. Well, I suppose it depends on how much you like breakfast!” 

Same idea with the solar oven — I LOVE solar cooking, so I’m going to make room onboard for my solar oven.  I derive great rewards from using and teaching others about the fuel-free, planet-friendly, time-saving power of the sun!  So, for me, it’s worth the space sacrifice.

My Solavore Sport oven weighs 9 pounds and measures 12 ¼” high by 27 ¼” long by 17” wide.  The reflectors fold flat and fit nicely inside the oven with the two pots.  I store the whole unit in a pillowcase on top of the engine when stopped and on the aft berth when underway.  If you have a place on your deck out of the rain and sun, you could store it there. 

When docked or anchored, we store our oven under the companionway on top of the engine cover in our 29’ Ericson sailboat. When underway, we store it on the aft berth. Summerland Key, Florida. Photo taken by Heather McCarthy.

I’ve brainstormed with clever cruisers about creative ways to
a) mount it like a grill on the stern rail (when not cooking, the oven should be upside-down to prevent rain or saltwater from getting in), and
b) suspend the oven from davits or some other part of the boat that allows you to rotate the hanging oven while cooking to follow the sun. 

I’m sure fellow cruisers can come up with other ingenious storage solutions!

Could you use the solar oven underway?  How do you cope with wind?

I prefer to solar cook when we are tied up at a dock, a marina, or anchored out.  I usually place the solar oven on the bow of our sailboat or on the dock beside it. 

An aerial view of our oven pre-heating on the dock next to our sailboat s/v Jullanar.

I suppose you could use the solar oven underway, if you found yourself in a stable situation like a flat day on the ICW.  I would be more inclined to cook quick, non-liquid dishes while underway – like cookies, which bake in 20-30 minutes.  I wouldn’t want to be cooking a soupy dish, if there was any chance of getting hit by a rogue wave or an unexpected boat wake that would cause the dish to spill.

Does Solavore sell a smaller solar oven?

Great question — I, too, wondered if it was possible for Solavore to make a smaller one-pot version, so I asked the CEO! 

At this time, the answer is no, because a minimum number of light rays are needed to get the oven to cooking temperature.  As designed, the convex surface area of the lid gathers and concentrates enough light beams to reach adequate temperatures.  Let’s say the surface area of the lid was reduced to half its current size to make the oven half as big (imagine a one-pot version)… Reflectors would be a MUST, and they would have to be twice as big to gather in and concentrate the same number of light rays to get the smaller oven to cooking temperatures.  Huge reflectors are difficult to stow and cannot be used during windy conditions. 

So, the engineers of the Solavore Sport came up with a design that balances size, usefulness, storability, and cooking effectiveness.

How much does a Solavore Sport cost?  Where can I order one?

For current pricing and shipping information and to find out more about Solavore’s humanitarian missions around the world, please check out Solavore’s website.   To make sure you don’t miss out on any special sales or promotions, sign up to receive the monthly newsletter and follow Solavore on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share solar cooking with other fellow cruisers!

About Heather P. McCarthy

The McMermaids (Calypsa, Jelena, and Marina) with Heather and Dan McCarthy, Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida. Photo taken by Joe Holland.

Heather McCarthy of Jacksonville, Florida, has been sailing with her husband, Dan, and their three daughters, the “McMermaids” since 2011. During their first two years of sailing, this family-of-five traveled on s/v Marcalena, a small, galley-less 25’ MacGregor sailboat.

During a two-week trip in the Florida Keys on this boat, Heather cooked meals for her family on a shoreside campstove and dreamed of a solar oven that would allow her to snorkel all day with her family and come back to a delicious-smelling, fully cooked dinner! She tried (unsuccessfully) to build homemade solar cookers, but, even after rounds of modifications, her drippy, hungry kids just kept coming back to crunchy beans and rice.

However, there was no shaking the notion of solar cooking out of her head! She did her research on the sailing/boating blogs, found herself inspired by The Boat Galley, Women and Cruising, and Sailing Totem (“Seriously? Roast a whole chicken!?!”), and decided to get a Solavore Sport Oven – the model that kept popping up as “tough enough” for boat life.

Heather and her family are currently on a six-month sailing sabbatical onboard s/v Jullanar, their 29’ Ericson sailboat, dining on scrumptious solar-cooked cuisine, while traveling Florida’s Atlantic coast, the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas.

Their blog is at: mcmermaids.com

Learn more

• Cruiser Anne Patterson makes solar ovens … And shares a recipe
• Good Cookin’: Why I Love my Solar Oven, by Ann Patterson
• Solavore’s website & Solar cooking recipes
• Cooking with a Solar Oven aboard, by Behan Gifford, s/v Totem

I am a single, laid back, 34 yr old female, that is physically fit, a college grad, and currently living in Florida. I’m seeking a life change and am considering a career in the sailing/boating industry.

I have been sailing most of my life…attended sailing camps in the summer as a kid, and then instructed ...Read more]]>

Amanda’s question

Gwen Hamlin answers

Dear Amanda!

 Your letter could have been written by me 25 years ago. I was just about your age when it all began for me.

If you go to my first Admiral’s Angle column, you’ll get a pretty good idea how I got started. No reason for me to type it all up again here.

What are sort of opportunities exist in this industry?

There are lots of opportunities, and unexpected pathways for getting to them. It may be hard to walk up to an island charter company, show a squeaky new captains ticket and expect to get hired as a captain, but you can work your way in.

Is it a disadvantage that I’m a woman?

I never found it an issue being a woman. Neither did most of my other woman captain friends. The trick is simply not to think of it as an issue. Be game to do whatever is needed; if you don’t know how, ask to learn. You’ll be amazed how many of the male charter captains don’t know how to do some of the mechanical stuff, that at least I thought they would have a head start in knowing how to do!

I know some women captains had issues with guests who gave them some grief in not being as assertive as they pictured a male captain would be. I ran into very little if that. I often attribute that to being their dive instructor too. Holding their lives in my hands, so to speak! But mostly, I found, people who will book a boat with a woman captain self select out to being better adjusted people!

The reality of course is that many of the crewed charter boats — whether with the big bareboat companies or private — are run by husband/wife teams, often experienced or returned cruising couples. That doesn’t mean you can’t work without being married, or that you must get pigeon-holed as a chef, but it is a typical arrangement. The good news is that charter boats are getting bigger and bigger and carrying more guests, so there is often a place for a third crew member. In such a situation, keep yourself positioned as an asset and avoid becoming in any way a burden or a liability. Take care to avoid being a third wheel or a threat!

When I was in the biz, I was one of a very few female owner-operators/captains. Other women captains found gigs with single males, some of whom needed paper captains (i.e. The guys didn’t have the correct licenses). Several worked doing captain-only gigs for the bareboat companies. Even with a captain’s ticket, many start out/ or double as charter chefs. Don’t let the “chef” moniker put you off. Just being a good cook can be enough on many boats.

Starting as a deck crew/stewardess is a great way to get sea time as well as inside experience on what is wanted and expected in the charter biz. Every boat and situation will be different, though, and the best asset you can bring is good people skills, natural hosting abilities, flexibility,…..and, like I said, a knack for cooking, cleaning and varnishing doesn’t hurt!

The more qualifications you can walk in with, the better. For the Virgin Islands I believe you would want as a minimum a captain’s license and the STCW endorsement, but you should check with the charter companies themselves and/or the clearing houses for the crewed charter yachts for the most current standards.

If you scuba dive, being a divemaster or dive instructor adds to your options and makes you more valuable. At least be a competent snorkeler.

If you have certifications from sailing organizations that let you teach and/or give certifications, that’s an asset with bareboat companies.

Is it better to be located within the area I wish to work- such as the Virgin Islands – to apply for a job?

Being where you want to work geographically is a huge advantage. Employers in the islands want to know you are committed to being there, that you can take living there! Too many vacationers breeze through with frivolous ideas of stopping to work. But moving there without a job can be awkward if your budget doesn’t allow you to get a place to live while you hunt.

Is the compensation, in general, enough to live on?

Compensation in the charter biz is usually enough to live on because part of the job is living aboard. It won’t make you rich, even (or especially) if you are an owner operator!, but it does afford the lifestyle.

Does working in this industry set myself up for an isolated lifestyle?

You ask if you are setting yourself up for an isolated lifestyle. It certainly was not my experience. There are isolated times, of course, and there are frustrations when your newest best friends — your current charter guests or a cruising boat team you’ve become friendly with — go home or move on. This does not mean the relationships are shallow, they just come and go, and often come back again. There are, of course, sailors, charter teams, and cruisers who choose to keep to themselves, but I would generally consider it a very social lifestyle. It is what you make it.

What you are setting yourself up for is not having a typical life, marriage or kids, pension etc. It’s a fact of life that, as a woman, your window to have children is small, and if that is important to you, you may be making it harder on yourself.

Are there networking sites or job boards?

There are job boards and crew agencies, many based in Ft Lauderdale. I personally think of these as catering to the mega-yacht trade, which is actually another possible way to go. There are all kinds of training opportunities in Ft Lauderdale for these kinds of crew positions. Mega yacht crewing is all a LOT more formal than Virgin Island chartering, and I’ve heard there is bias is against women in deck positions.

There are also boards that match volunteer crew up with boats making passages. This can be a good way to get offshore experience. Many of the major sailing rallies have crew wanted bulletin boards, and our W&C resources page has some suggestions.

Good luck,
Gwen Hamlin
Admiral’s Angle

If you have a question about going cruising that you want answered, email it to: kathy@forcruisers.com

My question, as we start to stock our boat, is:

I always thought ...Read more]]> We recently purchased a Com-Pac 23 (an upgrade from a Com-Pac 19). We take many extended stays on the water throughout the summer, hoping to someday take off for the big blue waters.

My question, as we start to stock our boat, is:

What organizing tips and tricks do your contributors have for us rookies?

I always thought it was Ben Franklin who coined the phrase, “A place for everything and everything in its place.“

But not surprisingly, according to Phrase Finder, several early citations are from nautical contexts. Here’s an example from Frederick Marryat’s Masterman Ready or the Wreck of the Pacific, 1842: “In a well conducted man-o-war, every thing is in its place and there is a place for every thing.”

Unorganized organization

I have my own version of this: “There is a pile for every thing and every thing is in its pile.”

I am a “pilot”. I pile it here and I pile it there.

However, on the boat that is not an option. We have to be able to put our hands on what we need quickly. So it is imperative that everything on the boat has a designated spot and is returned to that spot when not in use.

Anybody remember what we put in there?

We even tell each other where we are putting something new so that, hopefully, one of us will remember where it is.

Over the last several days we have been stocking Wrinkles. Storage on this boat is completely different from our previous boat. There is significantly more storage but in different configurations from the CP-19.

We have shelves with doors along the port and starboard sides of the cabin that we didn’t have before. There are also two long compartments under the side berths that provide room for the larger items. However, we lost the galley that Mike made for the CP 19 that had two pull-put drawers.  Now we get to find the perfect places for all the things we carry.  We need to remember that just because there is more room doesn’t mean we need to carry more stuff. Well maybe one more ……

Storage behind doors by side berths

I’m sure there will be a trip to the local discount store to find containers that will fit the various shaped cubbies.

The compartment under the side berths is long and narrow with only an 18″ square opening for access.  The previous owners used a system we had heard other sailors mention – rectangular plastic tubs hooked together by a rope in a train-like fashion.  The tubs can be slid back and forth so that the needed item is positioned under the opening.  I think this might be the perfect spot for canned goods, coffee press, pitcher, etc. on one side and water cannon, slushie mobile, flashlights, etc. on the other.

I’ve had to retrain myself for life on a boat.  I try very hard to not just set something down – I take the extra couple of seconds needed to make sure the item is returned to its correct spot.  Now if I could only accomplish this on my desk! (and my bathroom counter, and…)

Brenda

About Brenda Greene

Brenda is new to sailing. She and her husband Mike (high school sweethearts) began sailing five or six years ago. They started out on a Sunfish and were instantly hooked. They bought a Com-Pac 16 to learn more about sailing and then moved up to the Com-Pac 19 for more room. Last summer they spent 30 nights at anchor.

Brenda is definitely not just along for the ride when it comes to sailing. She splits time at the tiller, hanks on sails and handles the anchoring duties. Sailing as a team ranks high on her list. Recently they upgraded again to the Com-Pac 23 (Wrinkles). The goal, now that they are empty nesters, is to get as much sailing experience as possible in the next two years and then sell the house, buy a seaworthy boat, and sail to ports unknown. “We don’t have very deep pockets. We do all the work on the boat ourselves. (OK, Mike does most of the work). We aren’t minimalists, but rather prefer to keep things simple.”

Brenda is a middle school special education and reading teacher. Mike, no matter what his job, would prefer to be retired! When not sailing, Brenda is a keeper of memories – scrapbooking and blogging about their experiences to help their friends and family understand and share in the pursuit of their dream.

Here is their blog: Wrinkles in Our Sails

Read also on this website

• Ask your question – Women & Cruising contributors and readers answer your questions about cruising: Read all entries

What organizing tips and tricks have you discovered?

Let us know.

Email kathy@forcruisers.com (with pictures if you have them!) or leave a comment below.

I have been surfing the internet looking for ideas and suggestions on how to best tell them and have not ...Read more]]> Sabrina writes

We will be headed to my parent’s home next week. While we are there we will be telling them as well as my brother’s family that we are sailing away in 2013 (finally – yay!). I have been surfing the internet looking for ideas and suggestions on how to best tell them and have not been able to locate much. I didn’t see anything specifically on the Women & Cruising. Perhaps I missed it. Jessie’s book “The Cruising Woman’s Advisor” has some good info and so does Liza Copeland in “Cruising for Cowards” but I am looking for more input as I develop our discussion points and strategies for this discussion. Any advice, suggestions, hints or resources you have on this topic for me would be greatly appreciated. Fair Winds ~~_/)~~_/)~~_/)~~ Sabrina

Gwen Hamlin answers.

In truth, these days, it should be much less stressful than it used to be for families to watch you go because there are so many ways for you keep in communication to reassure them.

No longer is it the letter sent to a GPO address in some remote destination in hopes it will arrive before you pass through!

First: We had a slightly similar situation in that Don’s older, historically unadventurous parents , were very anxious about our going.

We did not task load them. We told them we were going for a cruise “down island” in the Caribbean. We added distance bit by bit, until his mother finally demanded when we were going to sail around the world like the couple in an article she’d read in the paper! We told her we didn’t really have any plans to sail around the word. That we wanted to go for the South Pacific.

I sometimes think that it is the enormity of a plan (in time or distance) that daunts onlookers. (Also by never claiming to be doing a circumnavigation, there was no sense of “failure” about NOT doing a circumnavigation. (We stopped in Australia after ten years.))

Then we made every effort we could to keep in touch. We added SSB/ham email on board so we could drop them a note every day if we wanted to, even in the midst of a long ocean passage. Back then it was a big deal to get his parents and daughter started on computers themselves, (not likely to be such a huge leap these days.)

Then we gave them planning scale charts, first of the Caribbean and Central America, later of the Pacific, and then set them up to receive our Winlink position reports so that his Dad could plot our progress across the big expanse of blue. Later we gave his daughter and nieces and nephews inflated globes so they could talk about where we were.

We sent post cards to all the family kids with appropriate pictures and pretty stamps as another strategy to fire their interest and keep them remembering who we were!

I started a website that was initially conceived for the family (and for former charter guests in the event we wanted to drum up charters in some foreign islands). I composed regular updates, which I posted on the website and later via a blog, but honestly, the persons who most appreciated that effort were never actually the family, but other cruisers! But in the end I’m glad I did it, but I’m glad I did it for me! It’s a fabulously detailed document of memories.

It is ironic, but it is a fact of life, as many cruisers will attest, folks back home often could care less about the details of your journey.

SPOT personal satellite tracker Photo: www.findmespot.com

These days it is so much easier. In addition to on board email, you can have a satellite phone, which eases their peace of mind about your ability to call out should you need help.

SPOT, the satellite tracker has a neat new model that in addition to posting position reports, interfaces with your SmartPhone to send out text messages over the satellite network. The nice thing about SPOT is you can carry it ashore on remote hikes as well.

Facebook actually is a real natural with cruisers. You can just say “All is well we have arrived” or you can add a link to a blog for those who want more info. I haven’t directly asked, but I see no reason why you couldn’t use SPOT to post to Facebook. A side benefit is you can friend all these cruisers you meet and part from, and keep a finger on the pulse of where they are and what they are doing.

Many destinations now have cellular networks (third world areas are often more advanced by having leapt over the whole wired network stage). In Fiji and Australia and in Indonesia this past year we were able to email and even Skype via cellular.

Plus, we made regular trips back to the States and made a circuit of our families. They see you are alive and thriving…plus you get to fill your suitcases with boat parts.

The long and short of it is, that if you wish to expend the effort you can stay as connected as you need to.

Understand, there are some cruisers who choose to just blow off those family connections and to live in the now of their experience. There is something to envy in that, but it would not have worked for us. For us the effort was worth the effort.

And here is the irony. We are currently back in the US, in Florida, and we regularly realize we have let days and days go by without a call or an email to his folks, which would never have happen when we were aboard. Even when they are here, just a few miles away wintering in their RV, our land lives can get so busy that a week can go by without touching base.

The truth is they heard from us much more regularly when we were cruising, and in the end there is no magic in geographical closeness. Just think how often people can be in the same town and not be in touch.

Cruising, on the other hand, can give you enough time to make the effort and something interesting to talk about! Plus, you are living a flexible enough lifestyle that if there is a calamity at home, you can jump on a plane and fly back. Try doing that with a full time career.

One last thing.

Safety precautions: Emergency MOB (Man Over Board) alert wristband

If you can explain to your family all the preparations you have made, the courses and certifications you have taken, the safety precautions you have installed, the equipment you have aboard to make passages safely, then you will help them have confidence in your ability to do what you are setting out to do.

Introduce them to this website (Women and Cruising Website) and have them read the Twelve Sailing Families collection. It will fire them all up to see that all those families had resistance from their families too but they can’t help but see in the end what a wonderful experience they all had. There’s also a little “If they can do it with kids, well then you should be alright” factor!

It won’t of course, completely stop them missing you, stop them worrying about you. But if you do what you can, they do adjust. And then there’s the fact that after 20+ years sailing, I feel much safer out there than driving down a highway back here. Bad things can happen anywhere, and are far more likely in our back yards than out there!

This is not my most organized response, but I wanted to dash out some moral support as promptly as I could. Good luck, and keep in touch with us. You might want to write a little post for the Women and Cruising website on how you end up addressing this and how it went.

Sincerely,

Gwen Hamlin
Admirals Angle

Read also on this website

• Communications Resources
• Staying in Touch  (Admiral’s Angle column #14)
  Out of sight of land no longer means out of touch: the ways and means cruisers stay in touch with each other and back home.
• Home for the Holidays (Admiral’s Angle column #16)
  Planning, compromises and new traditions keep holiday spirit alive.
• Logs and Blogs (Admiral’s Angle column #37)
  The tradition of recording voyage experiences doesn’t just preserve memories but encourages others to follow.
• Guests Aboard (Admiral’s Angle column #40)
  Some counsel about managing visits and visitors to enhance their experience and maintain crew sanity.

More information (external links)

• SPOT Personal Tracker
  Keep family updated with your location! SPOT notifies friends, family or an international rescue coordination center with your GPS location and status based on situation and need – all with the push of a button.

If you have a question about going cruising that you want answered,

- email it to: kathy@forcruisers.com,

- or join the next Women and Cruising seminar!

I cruised with a hard dinghy for a number ...Read more]]> Paul writes

I’m “right in the middle” on whether I want to take a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) or hard dinghy to the Bahamas and Caribbean.What do you recommend?

Kathy Parsons and Gwen Hamlin answer.

1) Kathy Parsons: I have used both. Next time I will get another RIB.

I cruised with a hard dinghy for a number of years.

We found a 12 foot Sears Gamefisher – it was actually plastic. It was getting a bit old and we ended up reinforcing it a bit with fiberglass especially in the transom.

It was a wonderful dinghy especially since those were years when we spearfished constantly.

It was a big dinghy, planed easily, didn’t pound in seas, and unlike many hard dinghies, it was easy to get into from the water. I could even stand on the gunnels without tipping it.

We didn’t have to worry that we would puncture it when we brought aboard fish and lobsters. And it rowed well!

It did have its disadvantages though:

• It required very stout heavy-duty davits when we carried it on the stern.
• It could be a pain in areas with a lot of current – it could bang against the hull if we didn’t have it tied well with fenders.
• It was hard to put up on deck for passages and took lots of room. (I had a Whitby 42 at the time so it was manageable: it would have been too big for my current Downeast 38!). It took a 15hp outboard.

And once (long story) we swamped it with guests aboard at 2 in the morning! Eventually it wore out and we gave it to a Trini.

We now have a RIB.

It is a good dinghy for our Downeast 38. We have a 9.9hp outboard that is easier for us to get aboard. We can plane with it. It doesn’t look like much anymore after 12 years in the tropics but it still holds air well thanks to refurbishing by a good dinghy repairman (we have done this twice).

If we replaced it, we would get another RIB.

My friend Debbie single-hands and found her 12 foot inflatable and large outboard too much for her and her 29 foot Island Packet. She loves her little Walker Bay dinghy and small outboard. She can row it too. Plus she has the sailing rig for it.

Good luck with your decision. And happy cruising! Keep in touch!

All the best,

Kathy

2) Gwen Hamlin: Dinghy choice depends A LOT on what you think you want to do with it.

For us, diving and snorkeling was a very large part of what we wanted to do while cruising, and the dinghy becomes a really important part of those activities, because it is safer and easier to position yourself on a desirable reef with a dinghy than with a big boat.  And if there is any roll, managing scuba tanks on the big boat deck can be dicey.  From the start of my charter biz through the end of my cruising career (which isn’t exactly over, just on hold), I set up my dive gear in the dinghy 98% of the time.

My first dinghy in the charter business was an Achilles with an aluminum floor and a soft bottom and a 25hp Yamaha.This was a great dinghy.

It was light enough to pull onto the beach and the aluminum floor gave a us a solid surface for standing and working with dive gear and the pontoons were small enough that it was easy for my divers to get back into from the water. The smaller pontoons did make for a slightly wetter ride in choppy conditions.

As a charter boat in the BVI, I never lifted the dinghy out, but towed it behind.  That meant the bottom got gross often and eventually I put bottom paint on it.  But then, on the one occasion I did go cruising down island with it, I got bottom paint all over the boat deck.  A mess.  It would have been easy to lift the dinghy at night alongside the boat as we did in later years cruising which would have kept the bottom clean without the bottom paint and work!  Live and learn.

My second dinghy was a really big 13′ Caribe that I bought from another charter boat.  This dinghy was a big mistake.

Yes, it was bigger so I could accommodate up to four divers, and the ride was drier, BUT the big pontoons made it very hard to get out of the water, and even dinghy ladders didn’t really help.

It needed a huge 40hp engine which went very fast…maybe dangerously so! — and the engine which did not have automatic tilt was a struggle to tilt.   It was very hard to see over the bow when motoring slowly, and the drag behind the boat was marked.  This dinghy came with the name Jaws, and it was well named; it loomed over you!

It was handy after the awful hurricanes we had in St. Thomas in 1995 for hauling ground tackle and tugboat boats around, but then I had few options for securing it during storms. (We staked it out like a big boat, partially deflated the pontoons, and pulled the plug to let it fill with water so it couldn’t fly around…a very effective system for any dinghy you can’t get on deck.)

My next dinghy, still in the charter mentality, was a great deal I got after the bad hurricane season.

This was a Boston Whaler v-hull all set up with a little dive platform (and bimini and railings which I got rid of). This dinghy also had a 40hp engine, but with power tilt and engine start battery!  It was speedy in a comfortable way and I equipped it with tanks holders which made it a great dive tender.  Still it was heavy to tow and, like the big Caribe, there was no option to get it out of the water onto my 44′, nor could I have hoisted either big dinghy alongside at night without producing a major list in the big boat!

Our last dinghy was an AB 10.4 RIB with a 15hp outboard.  We chose this for Don’s boat (same boat as mine was!) when we brought her into charter.  The AB RIB was just big enough to accommodate three divers, agile enough to get them and their gear to the dive sites, the pontoons were reasonably large to keep riders dry, but reasonably small with good handles for getting in from the water, and, most importantly, it was small enough to fit in the space on the cabin top under our staysail.

I liked the “deck” layout of the AB with the small locker forward and the rowing seat (which we used intermitently.)  I liked having the oars always there stowed on the sides (No oars the in the Whaler! – I took to carrying kayak paddles in case.)

We made this choice because we were thinking ahead to some cruising and the Whaler could not go!  The floor was great to work on with dive gear, but, of course, unlike the whaler the gear had to be laid down in the front part of the dinghy to get it up on a plane.

The RIB was, however, still quite heavy.  We could winch it up alongside the boat with the spinnaker halyard and mast winch on a nightly basis which worked very well, but we had to use the windlass and spinnaker halyard to lift it all the way onto the deck.

Getting it up a beach was pretty near impossible until we discovered Happy Wheels, dinghy wheels, which are very popular with Pacific America cruisers where the tides are much greater than in the Caribbean  BUT it was not something I could do single-handed!

I loved that AB and I loved the Achilles.  Both were of Hypalon material which is the only inflatable material to have in the tropics.  I know there are many new models of both these dinghies now, and I don’t know what I would choose.  I couldn’t deal with a floor that wasn’t flat, like the very lightweight AB.

I don’t like the Caribe’s bigger pontoons, and I really would prefer a dinghy I could beach myself.  (I singlehanded for a month and my solution was to anchor the dinghy off.)

I’m not sure I wouldn’t, for cruising, go back to a dinghy like the Achilles with a soft bottom and removable but rigid floor.  You do have to take more care with soft bottoms when beaching them, than a RIB, but it a LOT lighter.  Hoisting alongside would keep the bottom clean.  Achilles tends to be expensive, but all the old ones around I see are holding up.  AB has some similar models.  Those are the two manufacturers I would first consider.  And probably Avon, though I’ve never loved the Avons, myself, but they are good quality.  Just, be very wary of off brands.  I’ve seen some of them turn sticky in the tropical heat, and Zodiacs will eventually fally apart in the tropical UV.

I DO feel strongly about Yamaha.

The 15hp outboard we had the first 3-4 years of cruising was a Johnson, and it was a lemon from the get go.  It was finally stolen  (one night when we were too lazy to hoist it alongside!) in Huatulco,  Mexico and we almost pitied the thief while we celebrated the opportunity to replace it with a Yamaha. (We did get the dinghy itself back.)

I never had a lick of trouble with either of the Yamahas I have owned.  An old salt insisted that Johnsons would outlast a Yamaha, and my retort was “Why would you want them to!”  It was not the first problematic Johnson I’d had to deal with, but it came with a package price on that AB.

I guess you get what you pay for.  Plus, Yamahas are everywhere, and it is very easy to get service for them, although it is wise to pick a model that is sold world-wide, as opposed to some of the unique models sold to US customers.  However, 15hp is a nice size for cruising if you will be trying to move people and dive gear with any alacrity.  Bigger is better if more people than 2-3, however, and smaller is fine if not schlepping dive gear.

By the way, we also did a lot of spearfishing in our two years in Mexico, and one does need to be careful with spearguns around inflatables.  We never had a pop, but were were always ready in case.  So be sure, if you plan spearing to choose a dinghy with three air chambers.  No sure how they all come these days.  This is hindsight speaking.

Hope this is helpful.

Read also on this website

• Accessorizing the Cruising Dinghy by Gwen Hamlin (Admiral’s Angle Column #67)
• Choosing the Cruising Dinghy’s Outboard by Gwen Hamlin (Admiral’s Angle Column #66)
• Choosing the Cruising Dinghy by Gwen Hamlin (Admiral’s Angle Column #65)
• Any recommendations on outfitting a boat for scuba diving? Gwen Hamlin answers.
• Dinghy Driving 101 (Admiral’s Angle #68) by Gwen Hamlin:
  Driving the dinghy is a real skill worth learning early to support confidence and avoid dependence

If you have a question about going cruising

that you want answered,

email it to: kathy@forcruisers.com

or join the next Women and Cruising webinar!

What to do? Like all of the outfitting choices we have to make this one will require evaluation of the options.

If you could point ...Read more]]> Mizzy asks

I need your advice about outfitting to scuba dive. We plan to dive a lot. Neither of us does a lot of deep dives. I do have a collection of tanks. What to do? Like all of the outfitting choices we have to make this one will require evaluation of the options. If you could point me towards an informed choice regarding air aboard I would be grateful.Thanks.

Gwen Hamlin answers

If you love to dive and have room for a compressor, I would go that route instead of the hookah.

Lots of people do choose hookahs, but for me, it restricts you to diving somewhere you can have the boat or dinghy.  But understand I have no real experience with a hookah other than a long-hose version from a tank on deck we used for cleaning the bottom.  The boat we are joining for the summer in Indonesia has a hookah, so I’ll be able to better answer that eventually, but not in time to be helpful to you.

Good friends of ours who didn’t want to carry their own compressor chose instead to carry four tanks.  They could each do two dives before needing to fill (plus sometimes a third shallower dive). Often friends had compressors, or there were nearby land-based operations from which to get fills.  The reality is that in many  places you want to go diving there are dive operations to use.  Often, they know and go to the best dive sites available, and using them relieves you of the anxieties of diving on your own.

But, unfortunately, the above is not always true.  Some of the best dives we have had have been ones we did on our own.  But it does require you conduct your dives with much more vigilance and to equip your boat properly:

We had a Bauer 3.5 cfm gas compressor.  Bauers, built in Germany, are pretty international.  There are other 3.5 cfm compressors available.  You just want to be sure you can get parts, especially filters. I had an electric Bauer compressor on my first boat.  It was quieter, but the gas compressor is in the end more efficient, less costly, and more flexible.

For tanks we had 80 cu ft aluminum tanks.  These are the standard in most places.

However, many cruisers, especially women with good air consumption rates, use the aluminum 50s.  They are smaller, so less bulky. But frankly they have the same footprint as the 80s and then you don’t have the air reserve when you wish you did.

Obviously, if you are going to have your own compressor, you will need your own BC and regulator.  Don’t go for fancy tricked-out models.  Choose basic workhorse models with international distribution so that you can find maintenance anywhere.  Even so,  ask your home scuba shop to put together a service kit of the basic repair/service parts for your regulator and BC before you leave.  Any resort has someone who can service regulators; they may just not have parts for your brand or model.

I recommend a mesh weightbelt to protect your decks with plenty of spare weights.  We each had two belts set up in our locker: one for snorkeling and freediving and another heavier one for scuba when wearing neoprene. Also dive computers for both divers, ideally ones that can be set to a safer algorythm than normal (eg my Suunto).  When out on our own in Mexico or the tropics, we are more prone to dehydration, which can affect our susceptibility to decompression sickness.

So in addition to keep more conservative profiles, I recommend all independent divers carry an oxygen kit (available from DAN – Divers Alert Network ) and their booklet of emergency procedures.  When you are diving on your own, you are totally responsible for yourselves!

Try to find someone to do surface watch for you if possible, mind your tides and currents (especially in pass dives in the Pacific) and at the very least “file a dive plan” (i.e let someone else in the anchorage of within radio distance know you are leaving your boat on a scuba dive and what time you should be back.)

Finally, you should also keep current your DAN membership and recompression insurance.  Even if you don’t dive, we recommend cruisers carry it just for the air evacuation coverage.

For dive suits, what you use will depend on the water temperatures where you plan to dive. For the tropics, I recommend that you have a dive skin (we used Polartec Fleece neutrally-buoyant suits) plus a 2 mm jumpsuit.  Either will protect you from cold and stingy things in most conditions, plus you can layer them up for more warmth.  I also carried a neoprene vest and a hood to add for colder waters.  Also gloves.

I prefer full-foot-style dive fins (not short, floppy, snorkle fins) to the open heel ones because they are more comfortable for snorkeling, but my husband prefers the open-heel version with booties.  I like the idea of booties to have as foot protection and warmth, but I don’t like the idea that my fins will be uncomfortable to use should I lose a bootie!  I did end up wearing neoprene socks under my full-foot fins for extra warmth and foot protection.

Some auxiliary equipment I would recommend are a lift bag (in case you need to salvage something heavy…like a lost anchor or outboard!), a marker buoy, and a line on a reel.  I can’t tell you how many times we found these items useful.  You  might also want to have a third regulator set up with a long hookah hose which is mighty convenient for cleaning the bottom or for a quick jump over the side when something gets entangled in your prop.

You will also probably want to have a medium mesh game bag and possible a spear gun.  Hawaiian slings are legal most everywhere, but always check local fishing regulations.  In Mexico, banded spearguns were prevalent. (The longer the gun, the more accurate!) In the South Pacific, spearfishing quickly dropped off in popularity as the shark population increased.  Generally speaking, sharks don’t bother you unless you are spearfishing!

I also recommend carrying a dive knife and an inflatible emergency pylon (I think they are called.)  This is a gadget you carry rolled up hanging from your BC which in an emergency you can inflate to make you more visible for someone searching for you on the surface.

Although in lucky situations you can dive directly from your sailboat, more often you will use your dinghy to reach a site.  Therefore, you will want to choose a dinghy that is practical to dive from with an outboard substantial enough to move two people and gear across the water.  15hp will do it.

For the dinghy you will want a good anchor and a long rode.  We used a 15# (I think) folding grapnel with 5′ of stainless (so as not to trash the dinghy with rust) chain, and about 150′ of line.  I made it a habit to secure my anchor line twice: once off the bow backed up by a second tied to a stern eye. (In calm conditions I often anchored from the stern.) Finally, you will want to fly a dive flag. I attached mine to a dinghy gaff and stuck it through the handle of the outboard.

You need to be able to get back in your dinghy! The easiest way is to remove your weightbelt, then your slightly-inflated BC holding it by a hose as a tether. Use your fins to then kick yourself up and over the pontoon and then roll to a seated postion with fins still outside the boat. Remove fins, swing around to stand, then heft tank and BC out of the water.  I detail this because it’s amazing how many people don’t figure this out!  If you can’t kick up out the water, you will need some sort of boarding ladder.

Finally, you need some means of giving your gear a fresh-water rinse.  We had a washdown hose on deck connected to a Y-valve in our engine room so that we could switch to fresh water to rinse our gear and ourselves after a dive.  If you are doing multiple dives in one location, collect your fresh water in a bucket to reuse. And, remember that all this silicon gear shouldn’t be left out long in the sun.  UV is your enemy!

Finally, if you have only Open Water certification, I highly recommend at least Advance Open Water training, plus ideally Rescue Diver so you are better equipped to deal with emergencies.  In Advanced Open Water, tell your instructor about your cruising plans.  A good instructor can tailor some of the required exercises to simulate situations you might find yourself in cruising (for example, search and recovery of a lost stern anchor or items dropped overboard.)  Also, you really want to focus on underwater navigation techniques, since you will have to rely on yourselves to get back to the dinghy.  There will be no divemaster up top to come looking for you!

That’s my quick overview of the basics.  If I think of anything else I will let you know.

Hope it is helpful.
Gwen

Read also on this website

• Diving In: Preparations & Gear (Admiral’s Angle #47) by Gwen Hamlin
  How to prepare you boat and yourself to facilitate in-water activities like snorkeling and diving
• Gwen took her SCUBA passion cruising, by Gwen Hamlin

More information (external links)

• Divers Alert Network (DAN): a nonprofit organization that provides emergency medical information and assistance for underwater diving injuries.

If you have a question about going cruising
that you want answered,
email it to: kathy@forcruisers.com
or join the next Women and Cruising webinar!

How do we earn money while sailing? Is going into the charter business a good option?

Do you have to have a special license to do daysails or charters?

I am not a writer or a journalist, which it seems, most of the people who contribute to Women and Cruising are. I do ...Read more]]> Amy has more questions:

How do we earn money while sailing? Is going into the charter business a good option? Do you have to have a special license to do daysails or charters? I am not a writer or a journalist, which it seems, most of the people who contribute to Women and Cruising are. I do have a very nice camera and feel I am an adequate photographer. Amy

Gwen Hamlin answers:

• Is going into the charter business a good option (for earning money while sailing)?

Charter is a good way to enjoy the lifestyle and pay for it at the same time. It will, however, influence the boat you choose, for charter.

At minimum, you need a boat with two good cabins. Three cabins is probably better.  Or four! While cruisers often choose smaller boats, 37-44, charter boats are more likely to be 42-50′ or bigger.

My 44 was a good size for what I wanted to do — charter, then cruise — but it was hard to carry more than 2 passengers. Many feel that four passengers is ideal for making money while still keeping things intimate, with 6 guests being the limit without getting into much bigger boats and licenses.

Sticking with 2-4 to me allows it feel like you are cruising with friends, depending, of course, on how you present yourself.

Obviously, you can go cruising on a smaller, simpler, less glossy boat than you would need for chartering. So be sure that charter is for you before going that route. I loved it, but maybe I was just lucky!

• Do you have to have a special license to do daysails or charters?

It is as important to be a good host/hostess to succeed in charter as it is to be a knowledgeable captain. Photo: Shelly Tucker, s/v THREE MOONS

You have to have several licenses (captain’s license, business license, insurance….etc) to do any kind of chartering for money, but more importantly, you also have to have the “knack,” if you truly want to succeed at it.

It is every bit as important to be a good host/hostess to succeed in charter as it is to be a knowledgeable captain. Probably more so. You have to be okay with people in your space, and you have to have that “showtime” knack of making sure THEY are having a good time whatever else is going on (plugged toilets, engine issues, etc.).

Plus someone aboard needs to have the knack of fixing all those issues as much behind the scenes as possible!

The captain’s license you go after will depend on the size of the boat you choose and the number of passengers you want to carry and the amount of sea time you can document. The typical first level of license is the  OUPV (Operator of Uninspected Vessel, also known a “6 pack,” meaning you can carry a maximum of six passengers).  With more sea time you can go for a 50Ton or 100Ton Masters License.  Each license level has different requirements for sea-time experience and different testing.   To get all the details on current requirements for a captain’s license, see http://www.seaschool.com/requirements2.htm

If you wanted to jump right in, you could hire a licensed captain to work with you.  For specific information, if, for example you wanted to charter in the Virgin Islands, you could contact the Virgin Islands Charter Yacht League for up-to-date details (www.vicl.org) or The Charter Yacht Society of the British Virgin Islands (www.bvicrewedyachts.com).

• There are many other ways to support yourself while living the lifestyle: the more fixed in place you are willing to be; the more conventional the job options.

You don’t say what you and your husband do now, but, if income is an issue, you might want to think about starting now to training in a boating relevant skill, for example refrigeration, electrical, rigging, mechanics, canvas work…all of which skills are useful for you as boat owners, too. The cruising community is a funny one though, some skills cruisers expect and will pay for, eg those listed above, whereas help with computers (equally essential!) is usually exchanged gratis!

Let me differentiate, here, between help and work. Cruisers help other cruisers without compensation ALL THE TIME. It is just the way of the life. However, cruiser skills can get you work at boat yards or marinas nearly everywhere.

Other people are able to find work in their previous career fields. Teachers can often find job teaching English as a second language, or probably most any other subject. Doctors and nurses, too, can often work a term in a local hospital.  We’ve also had friends stop and work in computer programming for several years in New Zealand for example.

So it’s not all a matter of some talent in journalism. Few of us make much real money at that! Pick up some of Fatty Goodlander’s books, and he will paint that picture clearly!

Good luck,

Gwen Hamlin

If you have a question about going cruising that you want answered, email it to: kathy@forcruisers.com – or join the next Women and Cruising webinar!

Read also

• Cruising kitty: Will I have enough money?

• We are presently up against many challenges, least of those is not having any experience sailing. We live in central Ohio, therefore our opportunities to learn to sail are fairly limited.  I have done some extensive research about sailing ...Read more]]> Amy’s questions

My husband and I are very serious about eventually enjoying the cruising lifestyle. • We are presently up against many challenges, least of those is not having any experience sailing. We live in central Ohio, therefore our opportunities to learn to sail are fairly limited.  I have done some extensive research about sailing and have decided that we just need to take a week long certification class and get that taken care of. • We are both 40 and in 5 years our children will all be out of the nest.  I have always been a “fly by the seat of my pants” kind of person, so my fear is minimal, but my husband is an organized, bit conservative fellow. Do we sell our home and all of our belongings and just jump right in, or do we keep those assets just in case? • Where do you feel the best places in the world are to sail? How do we know what is required for different countries? We have been researching the Caribbean, but I love Bali and Thailand too. Thank you very much for your time.  Any advice will be immensely appreciated, as we are feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed right now. Sincerely, Amy

Gwen Hamlin answers.

Dear Amy!  Wow!

What you are asking is what everybody wants to know, and those of us who have “been there/done that” have answers…but not necessary the formula that will be what you end up following.

That, of course, is what Women and Cruising and my column Admirals’ Angle are all about, trying to present a bunch of building blocks so you can see how others have done it and pick and choose the bits that will work for you.

Let me just say that coming from the mid-West is not the ultimate handicap.

In 1989, Shelly & Randy Tucker, from Tennessee, chartered with Gwen Hamlin on s/v WHISPER. 8 years later, they bought their own charterboat, THREE MOONS, and …they are still in the yacht charter business!. Photo: Shelly Tucker, s/v THREE MOONS

My husband got started with Hobie 16s on a reservoir in Indianapolis that was so small he could tack down it in 15-20 minutes (hence the name Tackless for his first and second monohulls  because (heh heh)..he tacked less!)

When I was in the charter business, my very first season, I had a young couple from Tennessee book my boat.  Where they got the bug from I don’t know, but we had a grand week, after which they went back, bought a small fixer-upper to sail on a local lake, sold it, stepped up to a bigger fixer-upper…and so on.

Then they bare-boated in the Virgin Islands, then they started organizing bareboat groups to the Virgin Islands, and then nearly eight years later, they actually bought their own charter boat, a huge Irwin 65, and came to the islands as I was leaving to go cruising in 1998/9.  There are still at it!  (See www.sailthreemoons.com.)

So a crewed charter, where you can fully enjoy the lifestyle but also benefit from learning one-on-one from an experienced captain (be sure to make clear to your charter broker what you hope to get out of your charter!) is a very valuable education masquerading as a vacation.  Particularly if you have curiosity about the charter business yourselves.

Women on the Water Week. Photo from the Bitter End Yacht Club website www.beyc.com

You might also want to look into  Women on the Water Week, a favorite project of Pam Wall’s, which takes place at Bitter End Yacht Club (Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands) in the summers.

Many women feel that having the chance to learn sailing fundamentals on their own, away from the shadow of their usually stronger, often more experienced partners makes a huge difference.  Husbands just can’t stop being protective and chivalrous and wives tend to defer in areas they aren’t knowledgeable about.

Take a course together later, maybe even someday on your own boat!  Having an instructor oversee the working systems the two of you will need to work out would have to make that whole process go more efficiently,  I had Kiwi friends who did just that on their boat before leaving New Zealand northward on their first cruise.

Do we sell our home and all of our belongings and just jump right in?

Finally, re destinations and jumping right in…go cautiously to start; hedge your bets to whatever extent your finances will allow.  Don’t sell out your house, if you live in an area it will be hard to come back to if you feel strongly about coming back there.  But your kids will be grown and may not settle where you were anyway, so often selling leaves you more flexible for future choices.  I’ve written about this process a couple of times in my Admiral’s Angle columns.

But regardless, take at least one year in a cruising ground from which you can realistically return, both to shake yourselves down and your boat.  For the East Coast that is usually the Bahamas or the Caribbean, and for the West Coast that is usually Mexico or Central America.

You know, cruising is a wonderful lifestyle, but it doesn’t turn out to be for everybody.  I’ve just been talking with a late 50s couple who’ve just returned from 18 months up the East Coast.  Perhaps it was just bad luck, but the weather seemed to be against them continuously.  Stopovers were more expensive than they anticipated, and it turned out the two of them expected different things from their destinations.  Plus they stayed in the US, which to me is a different kind of cruising than I experienced.

We have many other stories to read on WomenAndCruising.com, particularly on the “12 questions to 12 sailing Families” page.  In fact Family #12 is a family that left with two teenagers!  Perhaps you will find inspiration to go NOW!

Where do you feel the best places in the world are to sail? How do we know what is required for different countries?

For cruising info, most of us get basic info from reference books and/or (these days) websites.  Tons of that info is available on WomenandCruising.com on the page called Resources.  On that page, under Reference Books, are some links to recommended reading.  Anything by Jimmy Cornell will give you info about places, particularly his new book World Cruising Destinations.

Also, one of the first things you should do is join the The Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) as an Associate Member.  This gets you their monthly Bulletin which will immerse you in the real world of cruising.  SSCA has conventions (called Gams) around the country several times a year where you will meet real cruisers and partake of good seminars.  SSCA has taken that a step further with their Seven Seas U (SSU), an online cruising university.  Excellent webinars (including ours) are available right in the comfort of your own home.

Finally, favorite places will be different depending to whom you speak.  Some people love the Caribbean, we loved Mexico and Central America (which were not even on our original plan!), others love the history and cultures of the Med.  The South Pacific and Indonesia and Thailand are also great destinations, but they are BIGGER COMMITMENTS (esp with what’s going on in the Middle East),  and, frankly, the weather is not as pleasant as the south sea tales make out!

I once had a mentor who always said, with reference to those of us living the boating life, “We have a responsibility because we are living other people’s dreams.“  What HE meant, was that we had to live the life to the biggest, fullest extent, and never cast a critical word.  But I, on the other hand, have always felt that trying to be realistic – to share some particulars of the not-so-great with the great – is the only fair way when asked for counsel on such a huge life choice.

So, hope I’ve been helpful.

Good luck,
Gwen Hamlin

Read also on this website

• Cruising Resources for Women Cruisers
• Getting Started (Admiral’s Angle column #3) – Examples of how (and when) some experienced cruisers got started show you don’t have to be a life-long sailor to take off cruising.
• Keeping a Home Back Home (Admiral’s Angle column #13) – Perspectives on the tough decision between selling all or keeping a home back home
• How We Choose Where We Cruise – Part 1 (Admiral’s Angle column #32) – Resources and strategies for planning your voyage to match your interests.
• How We Choose Where We Cruise – Part 2 (Admiral’s Angle column #33) – The role of whim, spontaneity and flexibility in voyage planning.
• How Does Chartering Fit (Admiral’s Angle column #53) – A look at how various chartering options may fit in at different stages of sailors’ cruising goals

More information (External links)

• Women on the Water Week
• The Seven Seas Cruising Association
• Seven Seas U
  
• World Cruising Destinations: An Inspirational Guide to All Sailing Destinations at Amazon.com

If you have a question about going cruising that you want answered,
- email it to: kathy@forcruisers.com,
- or join the next Women and Cruising webinar!