s/v Nine of Cups
Frequently Asked Questions
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Not very much at all. Unlike some cruisers we know who have sailed with their families since they were children, we never sailed until we were adults. We took a week-long sailing class in San Diego in 1990 and bareboat chartered several times in the Caribbean and southern Florida. When we lived in Denver, we actually bought a sailboat which we kept in the Keys, but we never got to sail it very much (what a surprise!). When we left the dock in Kemah, Texas to cross the Gulf of Mexico, it was our first overnight passage and our first time being completely out of sight of land.
Living on a sailboat requires a whole new group of skill sets and a different knowledge base. We read a lot...there are a lot of good reference books available...and other cruisers are also a great source of information. Mostly, you just have to be willing to try things, be adaptable and very innovative.
Of course, we do! We e-mail frequently (we have Winlink and SailMail email aboard) and send photos. We try to get home
once a year or so. We´ve found that the time we do spend with family is concentrated and high quality... sounds trite, but it´s true.
If we´re doing daytrips, we simply find a viable anchorage spot and anchor for the night. When on a longer passage or when no anchorage is available, we continue to sail during the night. Someone always has to be on watch, so we take turns...3 hours on watch, 3 hours off watch. After a couple of days, you get used to the routine and it´s not that bad.
First of all, we do have a galley (kitchen) with a 3-burner propane stove and an oven. The stove is gimbaled so when we´re on a heel, it tilts to compensate for the heel of the boat. There are retaining arms on the burners which hold pots and plans in place while I´m cooking. Cooking under way when the weather is foul and the waves are big is a challenge. Things fall out of lockers and sometimes it takes three hands just to retrieve a bowl out of a locker. I usually make big stews and soups before leaving on a passage which we can heat easily and eat while we´re trying to get our sea legs. When the weather is calm, we bake and cook regular meals like you´d eat at home except no fast or convenience foods. Marcie does most of the cooking.
Nope...no pirates. We ´ve heard of a couple of instances of pirates off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, but we´ve never had any bad experiences ourselves. We have, however, been approached by fishermen during the middle of the night asking for water or food and it many times startles us, but we´ve never felt threatened or been accosted. In Charleston, SC, we were boarded by some very friendly pirates (with advance notice) as part of the Tall Ships Festival.
We encountered a bad storm on our way from Easter Island to mainland Chile. It seemed to last forever (36 hours). The wind speed indicator was broken at the time (along with many, many other things). The waves were huge and the seas were foaming. We think it was probably a Force 8+, but we really don´t know. The sound was deafening. It was uncomfortable, exhilarating, tiring, but I don´t think we were afraid...just concerned and hopeful that it would be over quickly. We actually wonder if we haven't experienced bigger storms since then, but have been better prepared and they just didn't seem as bad. We've seen up to 70 knots wind and big seas in the South Atlantic and Cape Horn area.
Well, no, actually it´s 2-1/2 crew...David, Marcie AND Jelly. Two (and 1/2) is the perfect size crew for our size boat (45´). Though space is tight,, we do tend to find our own space we need "alone time" and we both have our own interests. However, we really do like each other a lot which is convenient under the circumstances. As of Fall 2007, Jelly has gone to live with Marcie's mom, Bea, in Mansfield, MA, USA on a semi-temporary basis. We're heading across the Pacific and visiting animals are not welcome in many countries especially New Zealand and Australia.
When we left in 2000, we said we´d cruise for 10 years. We´re in year 8 and we´re still saying 10 years. We suppose we`ll cruise until it´s not fun any more.
To date, our longest single passage has been from Cape Town, South Africa to Charleston, SC, USA... a total of 7,150 nautical miles (73 days), although we did make stops at both St. Helena and Ascension Island en route.
We have two 60-gallon tanks for fresh water, but we have a watermaker aboard which converts sea water to fresh water via a process called reverse osmosis, so water storage isn`t as critical for us as it might be (as long as the watermaker is working, of course). Depending on length of passage, we usually carry at least 30 days of food for two people (and a cat) plus 30 days.
That`s a hard question because each place is unique unto itself and holds it own special allure. For sure, Cartagena, Colombia is near the top of the list. Our inland trip to Macchu Pichu in Peru was fantastic. However, sometimes simply watching a sunset off a deserted island is awe inspiring and most memorable.