Yes, its a different world indeed! When your only ambition is to
daysail, you don't have to be concerned with the wind strength or your
speed. You go out for an hour, you come back for an hour. The
destination is of no importance; you can decide at the last minute
which way is most favorable. And it matters little whether you go
first to the bridge and then to the rock, or vice versa. And if you
miscalculate, it just means you start the engine a few minute early.

By your own admission, this is virtually all you ever do. Even on
your "long trips" you waited until the conditions were absolutely
perfect, and more often than not you canceled out! This forum is
filled with your promises of a major trip "real soon now," but it
never seems to happen.

Cruising, on the other hand, requires certain commitments, planning,
and an ability to handle whatever comes up without scooting back to
the safety of your slip.

For instance, when we leave Boston, roughly half the time time the
current is against us, over 2 knots for a considerable stretch. If
the wind is light, I'm not going to hesitate to fire up the engine.
Why not just accept it and spend 3-4 hours working out of the harbor?
Because often as not we have another 30-50 miles to go once we get
out! A daysailor would just avoid the mouth of the harbor when the
current is running; a cruiser has to deal with it. If we do an
overnight trip to get Down East, it doesn't serve any purpose to drift
around 20 miles offshore in the middle of the night.

And most of our routes involve high current passages such as the Cape
Cod Canal, Wood's Hole, the Blynman Canal, etc. When you make a
commitment to transit the Cape Cod Canal, it doesn't do you much good
to sail 30 miles and get there after the current has turned.

I could go on at length, but everyone here understands this. Everyone
except booby, of course.

BTW, We only left the dock 7 times last summer: Twice for daysails,
twice for overnights anchored in the harbor, and three times for 2
week trips. We powered and motorsailed a fair amount, but more than
half of the longer passages were under sail alone. So how often has
booby done a 50 mile spinnaker run?


Capt. Rob wrote:
if
we're doing under 5 knots we're likely to fire up the engine.


Nuff said. Jeff, you're in another world, basically a powerboating one.
I can't believe anyone would post such a thing, especially here.

RB
35s5