"Curious about circumnavigating/no experience"

[Emouchet]

I think there is somewhere a statistic from Jimmy Cornell, that counted that over the 2000 sail boats crossing Panama every year, only 100 boats made it to Le Cap in South Africa. So 5%.

[double u]

I guess we'd qualify...:
built a boat "in the forest" in the late 70ies with the idea to sail to the S-Pacific. Had never sailed on saltwater before. Turned into the first of 3+1/3 rtws.
(not to appear as a total fool: I had gobbled up every & all literature abt. sailing & practiced celestial on the balcony & from day one on the water, & we are excessivel careful people.)

[JPA Cate]

You know, "not a sailor, want to circumnavigate" sounds to me like a desire to escape something, whereas, "I wanna go cruising" sounds like wanting to explore. The person whose first post on CF is a question about extending cruising range on their boat is a much more likely candidate to find him/herself actually circumnavigating. It is that they are already sailing (they and their bodies know something about it), and they already have a boat--they have already "put their money where their mouth is." I love it when they show up. And look at the response KelseyB has received for her maiden voyage! Some are "much talk, little do"; and some get out there, pay some sweat equity, and go for it. Everybody's different.

I still like the Pardey's exhortation, more or less, "Keep doing it while it's still fun."

Ann

[AiniA]

We did a five year rtw. We started by going to the Eastern Caribbean after retirement. People kept asking what our plans were. That came as something of a shock since we thought retirement was not particularly about plans. I made a list of eight options for my wife from selling the boat after our winter in the sun to circumnavigation. She picked the latter. From that decision it was a question of where we wanted to go. We varied from the standard a bit by going to Ecuador and backpacking for a month, then going to Easter/Pitcairn/Mangareva from the Galapagos. When we did it the Red Sea was not really an option so it was off to South Africa which we loved.

It was my sense that at most 100 boats were in SA doing a circumnavigation. Most were finishing in Europe and the Caribbean. There would be a few more circumnavigators who didn't stop in SA (we met one boat going eastward toward NZ) or were non-stops. So, not many voyages done compared to the number started or thought about. There may be more now with the Red Sea route open but that is a guess.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by NedX

...How many people who start with the dream of circumnavigating though they have no experience actually do it?

I assume there are some here? I'd love to hear from you...

We didn't "start off with a dream of circumnavigating". In fact we carefully avoided stating that this was our intention. It was not. And, while we had lots of sailing experience, none of it involved ocean crossings or circumnavigation.

What we wanted to do when we went cruising was, to live on board in some different countries, mostly warmer ones.

First we headed south. Then we turned west. We just kept going, with many stops, some of them long stops. If you keep going west you will eventually circumnavigate. It took us 18 years. We visited 35 countries, mostly warmer ones. So our objective was met. We stayed long term in 6 or 7 countries, and living there, immersed on the country and culture, was by far the highlight of our trip. The ocean passages varied from pleasant to arduous, mostly I found them boring.

We knew we would stop some day, when we found the right place, and our thoughts kept returning to Mexico. Finally when a return to the Pacific and to Mexico came within our grasp, we hastened to do it. Then the circumnavigation itself became an objective, for the first time.

Now we love our live-aboard life and cruising but crossing oceans no longer interests us, and even though we'd love to have visited Europe, which we did not do, we won't be going there now. We realized that you can't go everywhere.

We are good with that.











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[NedX]

Originally Posted by double u

I guess we'd qualify...:
built a boat "in the forest" in the late 70ies with the idea to sail to the S-Pacific. Had never sailed on saltwater before. Turned into the first of 3+1/3 rtws.
(not to appear as a total fool: I had gobbled up every & all literature abt. sailing & practiced celestial on the balcony & from day one on the water, & we are excessivel careful people.)

We had a saying in a previous profession of mine, which involved taking risks:

You aren't a fool if we're talking to you now.

Regarding two previous posts, one of you said you'll probably never end up leaving Oz... see, I'd love to be in Oz, and cruise around Oz, but I can't be bothered to cross oceans to get to Oz. So we have something in common there.

I read Dove in the 1970s. Great story.

I appreciate those who are trying to encourage me to give circumnavigating a try, but that's not what my original post was about. I enjoy feeling in touch with my yacht for a couple of days, then feeling in touch with a couple of margaritas in some harbor I've never visited.

[NedX]

Originally Posted by wingssail

We didn't "start off with a dream of circumnavigating". In fact we carefully avoided stating that this was our intention. It was not. And, while we had lots of sailing experience, none of it involved ocean crossings or circumnavigation.

What we wanted to do when we went cruising was, to live on board in some different countries, mostly warmer ones.

First we headed south. Then we turned west. We just kept going, with many stops, some of them long stops. If you keep going west you will eventually circumnavigate. It took us 18 years. We visited 35 countries, mostly warmer ones. So our objective was met. We stayed long term in 6 or 7 countries, and living there, immersed on the country and culture, was by far the highlight of our trip. The ocean passages varied from pleasant to arduous, mostly I found them boring.

We knew we would stop some day, when we found the right place, and our thoughts kept returning to Mexico. Finally when a return to the Pacific and to Mexico came within our grasp, we hastened to do it. Then the circumnavigation itself became an objective, for the first time.

Now we love our live-aboard life and cruising but crossing oceans no longer interests us, and even though we'd love to have visited Europe, which we did not do, we won't be going there now. We realized that you can't go everywhere.

We are good with that.

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Thanks for sharing your story and these fun pictures!

[NedX]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

You know, "not a sailor, want to circumnavigate" sounds to me like a desire to escape something, whereas, "I wanna go cruising" sounds like wanting to explore. The person whose first post on CF is a question about extending cruising range on their boat is a much more likely candidate to find him/herself actually circumnavigating. It is that they are already sailing (they and their bodies know something about it), and they already have a boat--they have already "put their money where their mouth is." I love it when they show up. And look at the response KelseyB has received for her maiden voyage! Some are "much talk, little do"; and some get out there, pay some sweat equity, and go for it. Everybody's different.

I still like the Pardey's exhortation, more or less, "Keep doing it while it's still fun."

Ann

Thanks, Ann.

I'm loving the Kelsey B thread. As you know, she had already thought (and worked) a lot of things out, which is what made the additional advice she was getting so much fun.

[jmschmidt]

No experience means no insurance so those who fit this description should buy a boat for cash, don't take anyone with them that they love and just go for it.

On second thought, tell them to forget it, I might be out there on my boat.

[DomPerignon]

Originally Posted by DocBrauer

Actually crossing the Indian Ocean and Atlantic two years ago the majority of the sailboats were crewed by husbands and wife’s, and a few singlehanded sailors.

Yes and 15 years old Laura Decker a few years before .

[larsfforsberg]

I plan on it. It's crazy of course, but that's what makes it fun. I have very little experience sailing offshore. I grew up on a boat yard. Spent the first 19 years of my life fixing boats and moved to the Rockies to avoid working at the family boat yard - with family, ugh. Now that I'm old (48) I want to give it a shot. So I'm going all in. We'll see how it goes. I expect to spend a few years learning the ropes before I set off, with whatever I set off in. Working until I'm 65 and tired, so that I have a "comfortable" retirement sounds lame, frankly. To each his own I guess. I sincerely mean that - no bad thoughts towards whoever goes that route, but it's not for me.

[NedX]

Originally Posted by larsfforsberg

I plan on it. It's crazy of course, but that's what makes it fun. I have very little experience sailing offshore. I grew up on a boat yard. Spent the first 19 years of my life fixing boats and moved to the Rockies to avoid working at the family boat yard - with family, ugh. Now that I'm old (48) I want to give it a shot. So I'm going all in. We'll see how it goes. I expect to spend a few years learning the ropes before I set off, with whatever I set off in. Working until I'm 65 and tired, so that I have a "comfortable" retirement sounds lame, frankly. To each his own I guess. I sincerely mean that - no bad thoughts towards whoever goes that route, but it's not for me.

Sounds great, except for the old = 48 part. Which I know you don't mean.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by NedX

Sounds great, except for the old = 48 part. Which I know you don't mean.

I moved into this cruising lifestyle at age 48. I've always been self-employed, so don't really know what retirement means. But I do avoid paying work as much as I possibly can. Since this lifestyle is a lot cheaper than owning a land home, I can avoid it most of the time .

[waynetmazan]

The real question is... Why do you care what other people have done ??? A journey of 1,000 miles is begun with a single step..

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by waynetmazan

The real question is... Why do you care what other people have done ??? A journey of 1,000 miles is begun with a single step..

^^^THIS^^^.