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

On Feb 21, 6:29*pm, "Roger Long" wrote:
I'm not going to touch the posts in which this came up with a boathook but
it is a worthwhile question.

Roger Long

Humm, Well........ I can start by saying what Cruising is NOT. Its not
fixing a boat in diffrent places.

For me crusing is a walk to the market place just before it closes and
picking up some local near spoiled fruit for near nothing cause it
wont last till the next market day and the old lady knows it and is
willing to sell it cheep.

Bob

On Feb 21, 4:29 pm, "Roger Long" wrote:
I'm not going to touch the posts in which this came up with a boathook but
it is a worthwhile question.
...[you're cruising] 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, [and]... include at least one
night spent on board. ...

I think that even that is too restrictive. Some pretty serious
cruising was done around the turn of the last century in canoe yawls
but those cruisers inevitably camped ashore. Even if folks found
accommodation ashore I think they'd be cruising if they didn't return
to their home port at the end of the day. How about this:

"You're cruising if you go out in a boat of any kind for pleasure and
with no commercial purpose and spend at least one night away from your
home port."


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.

Hey, I think I'd qualify!

-- Tom.

Having done a fair amount of double paddle canoe beach cruising in my youth,
I guess I would have to agree with you.

--
Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote
free to alter your route according to whim

Sometimes I do that without even knowing why...

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:29:25 -0500, "Roger Long"
wrote:

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'm honored to be mentioned in the same sentence as Geoff but it just
isn't so unfortunately. Maybe someday but not yet. We cruised for
years without making anything resembling an epic voyage - summer
vacation sails up and down Long Island Sound, Cape Cod, Maine and the
Cape Cod Islands - weekends at Oyster Bay, Port Jeff, Northport, etc.
It's all cruising if you stay out one or more nights somewhere other
than your home port. Now that we're retired and have a long range
trawler, we are trying to make up for lost time.

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:36:32 -0800 (PST), Bob
wrote:

Humm, Well........ I can start by saying what Cruising is NOT. Its not
fixing a boat in diffrent places.

And sometimes it is. That sort of thing happens, even to well
maintained boats, and you just make the best of it when it does.
Spare parts, a good set of tools and lots of contingency plans are
your friend.

I'd trim it down to:

On 2008-02-21 21:29:25 -0500, "Roger Long" said:

If you go out in a boat and are in "The journey is the destination." mode.

It's more an attitude than anything measurable. For instance, when we
did some of the ICW for a couple of weeks, we met some rushing to get
to the next spot, rushing to "complete" the trip. We moved when we
wanted, stopped (or stayed) when we wanted, and generally arrived
relaxed at the next anchorage

-- where we joined most of the harried "rushers" of the previous day.

But even on daysails, the idea holds. One blustery day, the most
respected cruiser on the dock wandered past and remarked at how unusual
it was for him to see us at the dock. When I said "We know we *could*
handle that slop, but *why*?", he said "That's the cruising spirit."

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

"Roger Long" wrote in news:47be3380$0$16694
:

The journey is the
destination.

I always thought this was true because when you get to the destination,
you're pretty much stranded, unless there's public transport, a bike or you
can borrow that old beat up pickup the marina uses to haul the garbage
away.....(c;

"Roger Long" wrote:

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 don't think it invalidates the definition of cruising to have a plan
or an ultimate destination in mind. If you include that in
"transporting anything to a specific place" than that's stupidity and
not cruising.

There's a very fine line between having a destination and making for
it hell-bent-for-leather like a delivery skipper, and having a general
destination in mind and deciding to go or not go on the next leg (or
going farther or not as far) depending on the weather or other
factors.

Some people are incapable of modifying their plans - the type A people
who have to have a goal. It may take them many years to relax into
the cruising mode. Some people are so fearful or indecisive that they
can never leave the dock. It takes a lot of courage for them to make
the leap into cruising. [I think that is why we see so many boats
traveling in a group in the ICW - I never quite understood that. If
you can read the charts and guides, why do you have to have a group
leader to go up and down the ICW or to the Bahamas?]