Cruising - I don't get it

I'll happily stay in one place while cruising to soak up the atmosphere. During my last major cruise I averaged just 60 miles a week for two and a half months. When I sail somewhere its generally because I want to visit there, not leave as soon as possible.

Personally I don't like the ADHD method of cruising where you have to be sailing from one place to another a every possible opportunity. But each to their own.
 
Some friends of friends have been cruising the Med for the last several years and had done a total of about 200 miles over a three year period at the last count!
 
Camelia said:
They were in the Med, not a lot to do there. Relax and enjoy the sun.
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Last time I went sailing in the Med, I ended up in the middle of a riot in Syntagma square - jolly good fun it was - got some excellent piccies. Not as good as Tahrir square but better than Clapham Junction.
 
Woodlouse said:
Personally I don't like the ADHD method of cruising where you have to be sailing from one place to another a every possible opportunity. But each to their own.
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In the Caribbean you can tell liveaboards from charterers simply by how long they spend anywhere. We found a deserted anchorage by an uninhabited island off Antigua and were looking forward to a peaceful evening when we saw a boat approaching at speed. They anchored a short distance from us, lowered the dinghy and went ashore. The spent 20 minutes looking for shells on the beach (as advised by Doyle's cruisng guide), went back aboard, up anchor and away. Peace returned and we settled back to sundowners and a good book.
 
Haha, yup, ' tick box' ten day cruise schedules ....

I wus discretely fishing in this lovely cove, the squeeze ( between squeezes) was topping up the tan, the reading, the writing.. Trouble is there was this bloody pressure washer half way up the hill. And crikey was he sloow.
We reckon he's only half done so we shal nip round the corner tonight to somewhere quiter , and dinner ...
 
Twister_Ken said:
Last week, stayed in a property overlooking a small bay, French Med coast.

When I woke, there was a Lagoon cat, about 45 ft, anchored in the bay. It was there all day, left in the evening. Seemed to be at least two people aboard, and whenever I looked they appeared to do nothing, unless I missed the bit where they popped below for horizontal jogging.

I guess they must have cooked, eaten, maybe gone for swim, perhaps a little light cleaning or some gentle maintenance.

Sitting on a boat, going nowhere, for 12 hours or more would drive me potty. Is that what cruising means to many?

PS. There was a half-decent breeze from about lunchtime onwards.
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Probably describes about a third of our days when liveaboards. Sounds lovely, great to sometimes just stop and enjoy the moment
 
I like being out on the water, but I also like getting 'there' as I can relax in the knowledge that we got 'there'.

Cruising is my bag baby ...I don't get going around in circles faster than the others. Seems like a waste of time to me, which is why we bought a cruiser not a racer. Surely the cat you mention was doing as intended?
 
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We'd sailed non-stop from Gib to the French coast, just the two of us, arriving at 3am. Anchored in a nice little bay I know, ready to catch up on sleep and start our holiday.

Phone goes off at 5am, and it's the Singapore office. All hell's breaking loose - the big deal that should have been put to bed this week is unravelling. Spent all day on the phone, emailing and in video conference, placating the customers, tearing a strip off the bloody fools at Cologne who had dropped the ball, and trying to rework the numbers to get everyone back on the deal. Feeling like death warmed up with tiredness.

To top it all there was some fool jet-washing something up on the hill above us on-and-off all bloody day, so there wasn't even any peace between phone calls.

Didn't get away until the afternoon, and now we're going to have to curtail holiday and sail another 2 days non-stop to XX without having had a real rest, leave the boat there for a couple of weeks while I fly over to New York to rescue the situation. Twister Ken would be proud of us if only he knew. ;-)
 
Twister_Ken said:
When I woke, there was a Lagoon cat, about 45 ft, anchored in the bay. It was there all day, left in the evening. Seemed to be at least two people aboard, and whenever I looked they appeared to do nothing, unless I missed the bit where they popped below for horizontal jogging.
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So you lot are the people who actually fall for the old "park the yacht innocently while the frogmen slip out the airlock underneath to stash/recover the atomic weapon/gold bullion" ruse. I thought they were having a laugh when they taught us that at supervillan night class.
 
Compared to last weekend:

Get down to the boat on Friday evening after a two-hour drive in thick traffic, have a drink and supper and go to bed.

Wake up Sat morning. Spend several hours reinstalling the primary winches, then reinstalling the Webasto heater which needed removing before I could even get to the stbd winch nuts, finally readying the boat for some actual sailing.

A quick soup for lunch, followed by a pretty hard motor over to Cowes in F7 gusting 8 wind-over-tide with 1.5m standing waves.

Moored at the Folly, third out on raft, had to adjust the whole raft because the first guy on had made a hash of everything and was badly positioned with a right cats-cradle of old lines all over the place before he'd disappeared. Had a drink, cooked supper, went to bed.

Sunday morning and up for breakfast, then sailed over to the Beaulieu to meet friends for lunch, then a fast reach back to the Hamble, get the boat put away, get ashore and leave ASAP to get my young son back to his mother's.

Victim of road rage on at the junction of the M3 and A34.

Got son back to his mother's 45mins late.

Egg for supper and early to bed - exhausted.

So, please give me 12 hours doing absolutely nothing at all!!
 
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Babylon said:
Compared to last weekend:

Get down to the boat on Friday evening after a two-hour drive in thick traffic, have a drink and supper and go to bed.

Wake up Sat morning. Spend several hours reinstalling the primary winches, then reinstalling the Webasto heater which needed removing before I could even get to the stbd winch nuts, finally readying the boat for some actual sailing.

A quick soup for lunch, followed by a pretty hard motor over to Cowes in F7 gusting 7 wind-over-tide with 1.5m standing waves.

Moored at the Folly, third out on raft, had to adjust the whole raft because the first guy on had made a hash of everything and was badly positioned with a right cats-cradle of old lines all over the place before he'd disappeared. Had a drink, cooked supper, went to bed.

Sunday morning and up for breakfast, then sailed over to the Beaulieu to meet friends for lunch, then a fast reach back to the Hamble, get the boat put away, get ashore and leave ASAP to get my young son back to his mother's.

Victim of road rage on at the junction of the M3 and A34.

Got son back to his mother's 45mins late.

Egg for supper and early to bed - exhausted.

So, please give me 12 hours doing absolutely nothing at all!!
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I've spent the last ten years building a business from nothing. This year we'll turnover £1m for this first time. I'm knackered. I'd love to spend twelve hours doing nothing.

Rob
 
Just Cruising.
Is something I’m really looking forward to.
I used to cruise with my uncle on his boat. It usually meant big plans on destinations never reached, stopping and enjoying a particular favourite pub instead, relaxing with no real pressure or need to go anywhere just enjoying where we were. Always went ashore though.
I chartered boats for a week lots of times. I always felt we had to put in a good days sailing. Paying for the boat and not sailing it just felt like a waste of the opportunity. Rather than hanging out somewhere.
My old boat was just a bit small and had no comforts we went sail camping it was fun but our trips generally short.
My only voyage in my new boat was a 300 plus mile delivery. Fun, but under pressure of time constraints and a need to get to destination by a certain day. We stopped only to sleep. Still a great experience
Looking forward to.
Just cruising.
 
I have an ex-colleague who could tell you exactly how much his pension had paid him during that 12 hours - without breaking a sweat!!! Hard life really
 
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