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CRUISING LIFESTYLES-CHANGES AND CHALLENGES

We all have our own definition of cruising. How we do it, where we do it and the way we do it, all work into the definition. However, there are certain elements that we all virtually agree on. Freedom is a common quest. The freedom to be able to go where we want and to be able to live in the way that we want is something we strive for.

In years past, preparing to go cruising involved work in a number of areas. We took courses in Coastwise and Celestial Navigation.

This was before GPS for those of you that are too young to remember. We plotted on paper charts using a parallel ruler and kept our positions through Dead Reckoning. We were very careful to impute into our calculations factors such as set and drift of the vessel as well as compass and helmsman error. If we were fortunate we had a fathomter which was quite helpful. There was little else to help us know our position and the good navigator was always very respected amonst the crew.
We also had to prepare for bad weather as weather forecasting was at best a good guess and at worst having to deal with storm conditions. As a result we learned how to run off in front of a storm or to lie a hull. We read about how one could pour oil down the head to calm breaking seas (today this method is not considered environmentally correct). We read stories of famous sailors who pitch poled and broached in heavy seas. We spent serious time preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
Our preparations also included preparing the ships larder. Many boats had only ice boxes. There was discussion of how to maintain canned goods included how to remove the paper labels from the cans and mark the cans with impermeable marker as to contents. We learned how to buy non refrigerated eggs, how to Vaseline them and how to rotate them. How to keep onions and other vegetables stored so as to extend their life.
How to conserve energy was another important area as most boats had just a few batteries and an a small alternator to keep them charged. As a result many boats used kerosene lighting. Many cooked with kerosene or alcohol stoves.
Most boats did not carry large anchors as they did not have anchor windlasses and therefore the art of anchoring was very carefully studied and great pains went into setting ones anchor.
When we arrived at our anchorage, life was pretty simple and in most places we were received warmly. Anchorages were readily available and local food stuffs were inexpensive. While we were anchored we rested, read and dreamt of all the things that could make our life better. Better sails, easier sail handling, refrigeration, anchor windlasses, easier navigation, more AC and DC power to support our lifestyles and the list went on. When we finished dreaming, we jumped into the water and took our bath in salt water and then “rinsed off” with water from our modest and carefully monitored fresh water supply.

From boatshow to boatshow and monthly magazine to monthly magazine, as the months and years passed, the number of innovations for sailors grew at a mind boggling pace restricted only by the size of ones wallet. Electronic navigation, high output alternators with large deep cell batteries, solar panels, windvanes, refrigeration, chartplotters, satellite communication systems, weather forecasting that had a basis in reality supported by simple methods of access, water makers etc. Today when a cruising boat makes for a destination, many have chart plotters and radar as well as AIS. Add to this list a grouping of gauges that can measure the conditions around us (wind speed, speed through the water, wind direction etc) and we have a cockpit that has become largely electronic. We no longer have to “feel” the wind on our face or try to note the current; we simply let our machines do the work. Ditto for making water, getting weather forecasts, charging our batteries, inverting them for AC electric and so forth. As a result when we arrive at a destination, after we anchor (more likely pick up a mooring as anchorage areas have become more and more limited), we spend time reviewing the equipment on the boat that does not work to see if we can find a reasonable solution. These changes in the cruising lifestyle determine where we invest our time and thus ourselves. Whereas before we spent time meeting the locals, we now put ever more time into finding the local mechanic or electronic maven. Before you conclude that I am writing against all of the equipment that we have become accustomed to, consider that it is not the equipment that I am commenting on but rather the changes that the equipment has imparted to our cruising lifestyles; both positive and negative. There is no doubt that we get there quicker (better course plotting) and that we get there safer (better weather forecasting), and that we are more comfortable (refrigeration, hot water showers, water makers, better stoves etc.). On the minus side we have the cost and the maintenance of our equipment. We have more systems to take care of and more breakdowns to deal with. We lose an AC or a DC charging system, and our water makers and refrigerators, to which we have become very accustomed, stop working.

Were it that that is the whole story, the sum and summation would end on a discussion of how much equipment one should put on ones boat to go cruising. Do we really need all those gauges? Two radars? Two VHF radios? Huge inventory of deep cell batteries? That large tower on the back deck that supports all of our equipment that now makes our sailboats look like offshore drilling rigs?

However change is surreptitious. It is not easy to see at first glance and always extremely difficult to understand as to its effects. When the cruising lifestyle changes, we must learn how to manage change to go cruising. We spend a great deal of time equipping our boats for which we take great interest and great pride. But we do not spend time preparing for what we will encounter along the way or do we take responsibility for how we will be seen. We reduce the danger of cruising by getting better weather forecasts. We carry heavier anchors so we can be better anchor. We carry better electronics to avoid collision. We work hard on convenience and safety. However we have a blind spot. In fact we have a number of them.
In the first case we forget that if we travel the beaten path, we will no longer meet those who want to meet a cruising boat but rather meet those that have met many cruising boats. Whether it is boat boys, or immigration officials, or a plethora of moorings and chain restaurants, the focus wil be on our wallets. We become moving targets. Between our need for service and the availability of our plastic cards we become the next arriving profit center. And we get fleeced. Entry fees, harbor fees, high tech mechanical fees, marina fees, and one high priced restaurant after another. We forgot that where demand exceeds supply, price rises. And many times, satisfaction decreases as well. The solution is two fold. Be careful what equipment you add to your boat because the danger is, you may not have more equipment, the equipment may have you! The second part is to take the path less travelled by. Look at your cruising area carefully. Evaluate it and try to understand it before you set sail. Cruise to those destinations where the supply of cruising boats is low and as a result you are seen by the locals as a precious commodity and not just another profit center.

There is an additional factor to be considered as well. Years ago we slept with our hatches open. Today crime at anchorage has become an ever increasing concern. Rather than bemoan it, let’s try to understand it. Along the beaten path we are viewed by legitimate businesses to be the arrival of another profit center. Those that are not legitimate businesses also see the arrival of an opportunity. In years past, when cruising boats were humble and simple, there was very little that was worth stealing. We have failed to take responsibility for how we look today when we arrive at an anchorage. We have a beautiful dinghy with its highly valued outboard. Plus we have all that equipment arrayed on the back deck. While most thieves really want the outboard which is the most marketable piece of gear, they are encouraged by the sight of what appears to them to be “highly outfitted rocket ships” inhabited by “beings that have an endless supply of plastic money that can be used to retrieve real money from ATM machines”. Because of this we can no longer sleep with the hatches open and there is more and more discussion of installation of motion detectors and automatic alarms, blinding lights, hotwires to the lifelines, firearms and so forth. Crime is encouraged by the sight of abundance especially when the unemployment rate is above 40% and the average lifetime income less than the value of the boat at anchorage. Is there a solution for this. Perhaps not a perfect one, but everything does make a difference. APPEARANCE. We must take responsibility for how we LOOK and how we ACT. Both our boats as well as ourselves must try to avoid attracting attention. Try to keep the look of our boat as simple as possible.

Perhaps not quite this simple!

Keep the outboard motor out of sight as much as possible. Avoid displays of cash when making payments. Always say you have to go to the bank to get cash as you do not carry or store cash.
Avoid the beaten track. Get off it and stay off it. Go where you find that you are appreciated and that the focus is more on helping you enjoy the culture and the country than on your wallet and credit card.
Always remember that AVOIDANCE is the best part of risk reduction. We have learned to do that with weather and storms. Now we need to learn how to do it with the WHERE WE GO CRUISING.

On a final note regarding AVOIDANCE, if we have information as to areas where pirates operate, there is but one and only one tactic and that is avoidance. Forget those that say there are still good areas and that the people are friendly. The history of pirating has always been the history of the absence of law. When a country loses control of the rule of law, everyone who lives there and everyone who visits there is at risk. We go cruising to be free and to enjoy. To learn and participate in different cultures. We do not need to cruise where we are not appreciated and where we are taken advantage of nor do we need to cruise where there is an absence of law.

If Robert Frost were a sailor, perhaps he would have written the final verse of his poem like this:

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two destinations diverged in sea so grand , and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.