I woke up at 4 in the morning and shortly after Doug drove me to the airport. My flight was on time and we were in the air at 6:15am.


I got to Norfolk around 9:30am and found my car still sitting in the marina parking lot. That was a relief because it had been sitting there for two weeks, although Doug did say he had permission for us to leave them there. I was excited to get on the road and start heading home! I got home around 2 in the afternoon and had a lot of things to catch up on. It is nice to be home, to sleep in my real bed and have a normal hot shower for the first time in two weeks.

Would I go on another crew opportunity like this? I am not sure, but I probably won't have the free time anytime soon. Will I cruise down the east coast again? Yes, I definitely plan to do that in the future, but next time with friends and/or family. I would also make many more stops in different ports to tour around. I learned that going offshore for several days at a time is quite boring. Your days just fade together and you lose track of what day it is. I got into this mode of having my watch from 8-12 in the morning and at night. In between watches I slept at night and read a book or looked around up on deck. This trip would have been much more enjoyable with family and friends. Going on this trip I learned how much I take for granted being able to see and talk to family and friends while at home. While I was out there living with two strangers for two weeks, I missed everyone back home. This also gave me a taste of what it would be like to leave everything behind. I was thinking about taking a job opportunity in Iraq for a year. After this trip, I have a better idea that I think I would prefer to stay at home, enjoy my sailboat, my place (not living in tents and shipping containers in 130F weather), and still have everyone here.

This trip also gave a good idea of what cruising is like. My whole idea that I had last winter of selling everything and cruising the world on a larger cruising boat than my C-25 is no longer something I have any desire to do. I was even thinking I would do it single handedly after reading some blogs and websites of people doing just that and since I most likely wouldn't have anyone that could join me. After having the easy 8-12 watch on this trip, I found out how exhausting even that can be. Staring out at the vast empty ocean just makes me tired. To take short cat naps all night long while single handling, I think I would be miserable. Then since I found this trip boring offshore at times, to be offshore by myself for weeks at a time it would be very boring and lonely. I do tend to be on the quiet side, but I do enjoy talking and interacting with people. It would be very hard to not talk or see any person for weeks at time.

This trip also reinforced what I have read that with boats, larger is not always better. Yes, the space of the 42' hull was nice, but there were just more systems that could go wrong and everything is larger and more difficult to handle. I was not a fan of the in mast main sail furling system. First off, it was so finicky and took 2 people to furl in or out. One person had to very carefully feed the furl line with one hand as they pulled the other end of the line tight with their other hand. The other person pulled the main sail outhaul line to let the sail in or out. I thought it was supposed to make things easier! One of my biggest reasons of disliking it was how easily the line jumped off the furler winch on the mast. It happened several times on the trip, the worst being that early 3am morning in the rough seas offshore. Doug had to go out on deck to fix it and this can be a big safety hazard. Another reason is there are no battens, so the sail shape suffers. It also furled/unfurled the sail so slowly, and if you had to get it down (in) quickly, it takes several minutes to roll it up. I was not a fan of the device at all, neither was Ray.

I learned about other things to look for in a boat. One example was how poorly designed the cockpit was on this Hunter 420. The seat backs were worthless, maybe 4" tall which made sitting in the cockpit very uncomfortable. The portable fold-up seats that are supposed to give you a backrest were almost worthless because as the boat pitches up and down you often fall backwards. There was also nothing to brace yourself against while the boat was heeling, just the steering pedestal. What was the designer's intention in removing the backstay and using swept back spreaders? This Hunter could not sail downwind well at all. The boom could barely be let out, the aft end would line up with the hull's side and the main sail would be already touching the spreaders. Without a backstay you also cannot adjust the tension of the mast. The headstay and headsail luff was loose under sail because you could not apply more tension. Then there is the whole issue with the rig being dismasted, mostly a factory defect in one of the rigging swedges. That really provides confidence in Hunter's quality.

Overall this trip was a great experience. I accomplished one of my goals, to sail down the east coast. I did not think this would happen for many years from now, but I did it. It was over 1,000 miles added to my sailing resume and I have the U.S.C.G form filled out that I can use toward my captain's license in the future should I pursue one. I gained some offshore experience, although we never did hit some really rough weather or seas. I will remember this trip as another one of life's adventures.