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