Larry wrote:

Vic Smith wrote in
:

Yep, and if the cruise ship crew would let you lend a hand in fixing
things in exotic places, you'd have it all.

If I went on a cruise, would I HAVE to fix their electronics and
electrical problems....like I do cruising on sailboats?...(c;

If you watch the stories from anyone, not just Rosalie, notice how most
of the stories involve the marina, boat maintenance, navigation, etc.
with casual mention of restaurants/sightseeing/etc., which is the reality
of cruising on a boat....that docks.

If you are just sailing around in the ocean, there's not much to write
about.

No matter where you're going, the "view" from the boat is either a ditch
full of bouys in the middle of a non-descript swamp, a river with
mountains and cows on both sides and the occasional town, or the ocean

The first year we went down the ICW, we went 'outside' only when
strictly necessary (like to go around the Julia Tuttle bridge). After
that, we did more and more outside up and down the coast. After the
first time down, we always did Miami to Fort Pierce or v.v. outside.
The St. Mary's River to Charleston, and Charleston to Cape Fear. (We
always go into Charleston because our son lives near there, and ditto
Miami where one of our daughters lives)

which never varies the view until something just awful happens in a
storm. After you seen a few hundred hours of these places, I get awfully
bored of them.

It makes me sleepy.

I've never tried living like a hermit-on-the-hook, trapsing back and
forth to land begging for a little dockspace to leave a dink, which most
marinas don't want, so you can do a little sightseeing. That's gotta be
just awful boring after day 3. There's only so many times I could
replace toilet parts to keep me occupied.

The first year we went down the ICW, and a lot of the time in the
Bahamas we did the anchoring out thing. It is perfectly possible to
cruise for a LOT less money than we spend. But we pick what we want
to spend our money on. We can, but usually don't eat on board the
boat very often. We'd rather eat out.

But we are careful. That's why we planned to be in Crisfield on
Thursday and not Friday or the holiday (even before I knew there were
going to be the hard crab races and the carnival) - because it was
cheaper. And when we order in a restaurant, we often eat an appetizer
as the main entree because it is cheaper and the main entree often has
too much food for us to eat.

I always wonder about someone whos boat is packed with books. Books are
an escape from your natural surroundings, traveling to far off exotic
places where terrible things usually happen, if the author wants to stay
in business. It's ESCAPE. Is the guy with all the books trying to
escape the sheer boredom of being a hermit on a boat so much? I've
sailed with guys like that. They open their book and might as well be
walking across Mars, having escaped the boat we were sailing.

This kept me from buying my own boat. I like the occasional sail,
followed by long periods away from boats, entirely, that recharges the
thrill of fighting the sea. I'd hate it if I actually had to own one,
with all the expense and work. I'd hate it much worse if I were forced
to live on one, which is a LOT of really hard work, just hauling life up
and down the docks. I love to sail to X and back. But, when I get back
and have cleaned up the mess, I'm ready to abandon boating for a year,
the thrill being gone, the boredom having set in.

Why people spend half a year going to live in a ditch in Florida is even
a greater mystery. There's nothing in Florida to see from a boat unless
you love Real Estate!

Larry

That's why we don't do the ICW to Florida anymore. There's a lot to
see from the boat (crazy people pulling their children in a tube in
dense fog), but there's really not many places to actually sail.