What is cruising?
 

"Roger Long" wrote in
:

I'm not going to touch the posts in which this came up with a boathook
but it is a worthwhile question.

With the exception of cruise ship vacations, I think any definition
for a group like this has got to be pretty much in accord with
standard usage. In this part of the world at least, if you go out in a
boat and are not fishing, transporting anything to a specific place
(yourself included) and are free to alter your route according to
whim, you are cruising. Since there is a word "daysailing" for doing
this for short periods, "cruising" must include at least one night
spent on board. Power, sail, makes no difference. You just have to
sleep aboard and be in "The journey is the destination." mode.

The more restrictive definitions proposed would make this a rather
uninteresting place, just Geoff and Wayne posting back and forth as
near as I can tell.

I definitely don't suggest that this group should be limited to only
"cruising" discussions! My issue was when people apply extremely
limited definitions to the term "cruising" and then claim that anyone
who isn't meeting their definition isn't cruising.

As someone else stated in here, cruising is about the journey and not
the destination.

It's the people that you meet along the way and places you visit.

It's getting to know an area by sticking around after you find that
you're drawn to it.

It's fixing complex systems in exotic locations.

It's knowing that you can maintain your vessel because you have to do it
in places where there's no one else who can do it.

It's carrying more spares than you could possibly have imagined before
you started cruising.

It's turning your sleak, beautiful boat into something less beautiful as
you load it down with wind generator, solar panels, fuel jugs, etc.

It's visiting local markets and hauling groceries down dusty roads.

It's doing your laundry in little laundromats and catching hell when it
gets wet on the way back to the boat in the dinghy.

It's having your boat look like a Chinese laundry when you do laundry at
anchor.

It's dealing with officials in foreign countries where you don't speak
the language.

It's beautiful sunrises and wonderful sunsets enhanced by good friends
and cocktails in the cockpit.

It's catching your dinner off the back of your boat.

It's potluck dinners on the beach with groups of cruisers that you've
never met before and it's having your (new/good) friends over for
dinner.

It's days when you wonder if the wind will ever stop howling and other
days when you can't wait for a breath of air to appear.

It's lovely nights on a satin anchorage and other nights praying that
the anchor holds.

It's the days that you always dream of as you're flying along on a broad
reach behind a reef and it's bashing your way into seas and counting the
hours until you find shelter.

It's 99% tedium and 1% sheer terror.

It's huge learning curves and wondering how you ever survived when you
first started.

It's keeping up with friends that you met along the way and sharing
those common bonds.

It's desolate anchorages and pulling into a marina where you're stuck
among all of the pretty boats that never leave the dock and having those
people look at you like you're the Beverly Hillbillies because you're a
cruising boat.

It's day hops along a coast and multi-day passages.

It's lots of stuff that I forgot to put in here or haven't experienced
yet.

The vast majority of cruising has very little to do with moving a boat
as most of your time is spent at anchor. It's learning to live on a
boat in a foreign location.

Cruising is lots of things to different people. Have an open mind and
go experience it for yourself. Once you've been out there for a few
years, I think that you'll be much less judgmental.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

What is cruising?
 

Geoff Schultz wrote:

"Roger Long" wrote in
:


I'm not going to touch the posts in which this came up with a boathook
but it is a worthwhile question.

With the exception of cruise ship vacations, I think any definition
for a group like this has got to be pretty much in accord with
standard usage. In this part of the world at least, if you go out in a
boat and are not fishing, transporting anything to a specific place
(yourself included) and are free to alter your route according to
whim, you are cruising. Since there is a word "daysailing" for doing
this for short periods, "cruising" must include at least one night
spent on board. Power, sail, makes no difference. You just have to
sleep aboard and be in "The journey is the destination." mode.

The more restrictive definitions proposed would make this a rather
uninteresting place, just Geoff and Wayne posting back and forth as
near as I can tell.


I definitely don't suggest that this group should be limited to only
"cruising" discussions! My issue was when people apply extremely
limited definitions to the term "cruising" and then claim that anyone
who isn't meeting their definition isn't cruising.

As someone else stated in here, cruising is about the journey and not
the destination.

It's the people that you meet along the way and places you visit.

It's getting to know an area by sticking around after you find that
you're drawn to it.

It's fixing complex systems in exotic locations.

It's knowing that you can maintain your vessel because you have to do it
in places where there's no one else who can do it.

It's carrying more spares than you could possibly have imagined before
you started cruising.

It's turning your sleak, beautiful boat into something less beautiful as
you load it down with wind generator, solar panels, fuel jugs, etc.

It's visiting local markets and hauling groceries down dusty roads.

It's doing your laundry in little laundromats and catching hell when it
gets wet on the way back to the boat in the dinghy.

It's having your boat look like a Chinese laundry when you do laundry at
anchor.

It's dealing with officials in foreign countries where you don't speak
the language.

It's beautiful sunrises and wonderful sunsets enhanced by good friends
and cocktails in the cockpit.

It's catching your dinner off the back of your boat.

It's potluck dinners on the beach with groups of cruisers that you've
never met before and it's having your (new/good) friends over for
dinner.

It's days when you wonder if the wind will ever stop howling and other
days when you can't wait for a breath of air to appear.

It's lovely nights on a satin anchorage and other nights praying that
the anchor holds.

It's the days that you always dream of as you're flying along on a broad
reach behind a reef and it's bashing your way into seas and counting the
hours until you find shelter.

It's 99% tedium and 1% sheer terror.

It's huge learning curves and wondering how you ever survived when you
first started.

It's keeping up with friends that you met along the way and sharing
those common bonds.

It's desolate anchorages and pulling into a marina where you're stuck
among all of the pretty boats that never leave the dock and having those
people look at you like you're the Beverly Hillbillies because you're a
cruising boat.

It's day hops along a coast and multi-day passages.

It's lots of stuff that I forgot to put in here or haven't experienced
yet.

The vast majority of cruising has very little to do with moving a boat
as most of your time is spent at anchor. It's learning to live on a
boat in a foreign location.

Cruising is lots of things to different people. Have an open mind and
go experience it for yourself. Once you've been out there for a few
years, I think that you'll be much less judgmental.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org


Thanks Geoff.

I had about decided to blow off "cruising" and just go sailing instead.

:)

Richard

What is cruising?
 

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
I'm not going to touch the posts in which this came up with a boathook but
it is a worthwhile question.

With the exception of cruise ship vacations, I think any definition for a
group like this has got to be pretty much in accord with standard usage.
In this part of the world at least, if you go out in a boat and are not
fishing, transporting anything to a specific place (yourself included) and
are free to alter your route according to whim, you are cruising. Since
there is a word "daysailing" for doing this for short periods, "cruising"
must include at least one night spent on board. Power, sail, makes no
difference. You just have to sleep aboard and be in "The journey is the
destination." mode.

The more restrictive definitions proposed would make this a rather
uninteresting place, just Geoff and Wayne posting back and forth as near
as I can tell.

--
Roger Long

The standard, well-known, and universally accepted definition of cruising is
to fix your boat in exotic locations.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

What is cruising?
 

The standard, well-known, and universally accepted definition of cruising
is to fix your boat in exotic locations.

Eh, to OWN a boat is to be fixing it, location doesn't make a difference.

What is cruising?
 

"Bill Kearney" wrote in message
...
The standard, well-known, and universally accepted definition of cruising
is to fix your boat in exotic locations.

Eh, to OWN a boat is to be fixing it, location doesn't make a difference.



True, but cruising is fixing it in places other than the home port.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

What is cruising?
 

"Capt. JG" wrote in
:

"Bill Kearney" wrote in message
...
The standard, well-known, and universally accepted definition of
cruising is to fix your boat in exotic locations.

Eh, to OWN a boat is to be fixing it, location doesn't make a
difference.

True, but cruising is fixing it in places other than the home port.

And probably one of the items that I left out of my list is paying
outrageous sums of money to have parts shipped into your exotic location.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

What is cruising?
 

"Geoff Schultz" wrote in message
.. .
"Capt. JG" wrote in
:

"Bill Kearney" wrote in message
...
The standard, well-known, and universally accepted definition of
cruising is to fix your boat in exotic locations.

Eh, to OWN a boat is to be fixing it, location doesn't make a
difference.

True, but cruising is fixing it in places other than the home port.

And probably one of the items that I left out of my list is paying
outrageous sums of money to have parts shipped into your exotic location.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org


Heh... I watched that happen in the Med., which wasn't really *that* exotic.
Fortunately, I wasn't the one paying.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

What is cruising?
 

"Capt. JG" wrote in
:

"Geoff Schultz" wrote in message
.. .
"Capt. JG" wrote in
:

"Bill Kearney" wrote in message
...
The standard, well-known, and universally accepted definition of
cruising is to fix your boat in exotic locations.

Eh, to OWN a boat is to be fixing it, location doesn't make a
difference.

True, but cruising is fixing it in places other than the home port.

And probably one of the items that I left out of my list is paying
outrageous sums of money to have parts shipped into your exotic
location.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

Heh... I watched that happen in the Med., which wasn't really *that*
exotic. Fortunately, I wasn't the one paying.

The degree of exoticness is directly proportional to the amount that the
shipping company charges to get a package there! :-) I unfortunately have
several stories where the cost of the shipping/duty/taxi exceeds the cost
of the item by several multiples.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

What is cruising?
 

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
I'm not going to touch the posts in which this came up with a boathook but
it is a worthwhile question.

With the exception of cruise ship vacations, I think any definition for a
group like this has got to be pretty much in accord with standard usage.
In this part of the world at least, if you go out in a boat and are not
fishing, transporting anything to a specific place (yourself included) and
are free to alter your route according to whim, you are cruising. Since
there is a word "daysailing" for doing this for short periods, "cruising"
must include at least one night spent on board. Power, sail, makes no
difference. You just have to sleep aboard and be in "The journey is the
destination." mode.

The more restrictive definitions proposed would make this a rather
uninteresting place, just Geoff and Wayne posting back and forth as near
as I can tell.

--
Roger Long

==

Roger,, had some time to think on this one ..
I'm sure you read a number of boating, sailing magazines, we all do I think.
I like
Good Old Boat, DYI, and Latitudes & Attitudes. Oh, and the one you write
for
Points East.

The type of cruising L&A recommends is very different from what Points East
would write about. If I had to chose? L&A. Why? Because for me, cruising
is
about long trips, sun, Jimmy Buffet, beaches, babes, .. that whole scene.

I love Maine, and sailing in Maine. But, the weather sucks, fog sucks, the
season
is twenty minutes long. Even in the middle of summer, it gets cold on my
boat at
night.

So; in answer to your question. Cruising is what ever you want it to be.

I have my opinion, and others have theirs.

I do admire those sailors like the Pardeys who have sailed all over the
world,
long distances across open ocean, and as such; I put them on a pedestal.
These are folks who have experienced a broad range of cruising lifestyle
circumstances.
Good weather, bad weather. Anchorages all over the world. On and on.

What is cruising?
 

"Geoff Schultz" wrote in message
.. .

The degree of exoticness is directly proportional to the amount that the
shipping company charges to get a package there! :-) I unfortunately
have
several stories where the cost of the shipping/duty/taxi exceeds the cost
of the item by several multiples.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

And then, there's just plain stingy... had an owner (a very rich one) insist
on bringing every frikin' sail he owned on a delivery when it wouldn't have
cost him that much to ship them in a container. As a result, we were
walking, slipping, falling on sails for 2 weeks. I think we had near 2 dozen
sails on that boat. Fortunately, the weather was mild, so it wasn't truly
dangerous.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com