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Attainable Adventure Cruising

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Tips, Tricks & Thoughts:

cruising

  • Season Extender

    9 CommentsReading Time: 2 minutesFree

    Winter is fast approaching here in Nova Scotia, so we hauled our J/109 a week ago.

    We would be kind of bummed, except now we get more time to play with our turbocharged (sliding seats) Whitehall.

    Most years we go on rowing until early December and are back at it in March. No worries about storms because she lives lashed down on our wharf.

    Loverly attainable adventure today:

    • Row to a nearby island
    • Walk around the island on the foreshore
    • Eat great picnic halfway
    • Row home

    No chart plotter, no lithium batteries, no tech at all (other than the carbon oars) and easy to maintain…we wash her down once a year whether she needs it or not.

    There’s a lot to be said for small simple boats.

    We used our version 2.00 dinghy pullout system for the first time today. I will update this article with the improvements.

  • Cruiser Under $20K, Bayfield 29

    0 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree

    My last post got me thinking about the importance of just getting out there in some boat, any boat, if we really want to go cruising and make a success of it. We can always buy a bigger and better boat later.

    With that in mind, there’s a Bayfield 29 we go by on our regular rows, that caught my eye as a functional cruiser we could get for half the price of cars most people buy these days.

    So buy a modest car and a Bayfield 29 and get out there. Better still, forget the car and use the money to cruise for a year.

    A guy I met the other day had a Bayfield 29 on Great Slave Lake, got drunk one night in a bar and boasted that he was going to sail it across the Atlantic. So then he had to, and did…and back—testosterone is a dangerous drug.

    That said, I have no special knowledge on the Bayfields, so do your due diligence.

    More on buying boats.

  • A Boat While You Wait To Go Cruising

    2 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree

    I came across this cool article on old small boats available for less than the cost of a good dinner out.

    One of these would make a great project while waiting and saving to go cruising:

    1. Learn some useful skills while fixing the boat.
    2. Then hone sailing skills.

    The O’Day Day Sailer for US$78 jumped out at me. When I was a teenager this was the boat I lusted after. Sails well and even has a tiny cabin.

    If you want to sleep aboard (definitely camping), look for a Rhodes 19 originally built by the same company, albeit for more money, but you might find an old one for less.

    At one point I taught sailing to adults in one of these, and even spent a few nights aboard sleeping on an air mattress.

    Owning, fixing, and above all sailing one of these old boats is way more fun, and will impart way more useful cruising skills, than watching YouTube about lithium batteries and the Unattainable 45.

    More about getting out there cruising.

  • Great Credit Card For Cruisers

    9 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree

    If you are a cruiser and need to manage multiple currencies and make payments in many countries you need @Wise.