Some random thoughts on things we've learned so far
10 February 2010
Richard
The wind is your friend.
It cools you off, keeps the bugs away, and moves your boat.
The wind hates you.
It always comes from where you want to go, is too light to do any good, or quits altogether when you need it the most, or blows so hard it makes you scream like a little girl.
In the Virgins the water plays second fiddle to the wind.
You don't have to pay as much attention to the water as you do the wind. The tides are puny, the current is weak, and rarely has there been a swell that you had to think more than two seconds about.
A good anchorage is everything.
Good holding for the anchor, plenty of room to swing around, plenty of water under the boat to keep you off the bottom and calm water so the boat doesn't act like those pony rides in front of the grocery store.
We've already discussed the benefits of the wind, but one other thing the wind does for you at anchor is keep all the boats pointing in the same direction. When the wind dies, the boats have no sense of purpose and start to wander all over the place. You don't want them bumping into each other do you?
You have to watch where you are going.
There's traffic of course. But also there's rocks, and shallow water and reefs in the strangest places. And an occasional ghost ship goes by with no one apparently at the helm. You know, the ones where you keep saying, "He's going to turn soon, I'm sure."
Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places.
There is always stuff to fix, repair, unclog, stow, polish, plug, unplug, or replace. We keep a list of things to do, and one time I crossed off the last item on my list before I realized I had started a second list. The boat is working very well for us at this point, but it also has us working very hard for it.
Communication is hard.
Cell phone calls get dropped. When we are in the BVI we can't get 3G or data on our phones. The VHF is subject to the elements. One day it rained for hours, we were cold and wet and ready for some shelter. I called a marina on the VHF to see if they had any room for us and the lady called back that she couldn't understand me. She said it sounded like I was calling from inside a fish bowl. Well....I was, and I told her so. She replied that she couldn't hear what I said, but she knew what I meant.
The boat is small.
If you want to move about the boat, you are going to have to touch someone, or wait for them to move out of your way. If you want to sit somewhere, you are probably going to be touching someone, or wait until they get out of your seat. If you want to put something away, you first have to move something else out of the intended storage location, or eat it.
Sailing is exercise.
There's a lot of climbing. Up stairs, on chairs, over people, up hatches, down hatches, down into the dinghy, or up the swim ladder. Also a lot of pulling ropes, lifting heavy stuff, and pushing little boats away from bigger boats.