Why cruise where you cruise?

[Tayana42]

I hope you do make it here one day. Be careful on the busy California freeways. If you get here by motorcycle you can park it at my place and we can cruise for a while on my boat in relative warmth.

[gamayun]

Oh Mike, Newfoundland sounds amazing until you mentioned "the icebergs." Why'dya have to ruin it for me? I've given this question a lot of thought because in 5 years I'll have the mortgage on 2 rentals paid off and I can start drawing from a small pension. I absolutely adore San Francisco Bay. Learning to sail here has been amazing. I'm heading again to do a round-trip to Hawaii this summer, which is such a cool passage. When I'm ready to finally go for good, I'll head to the PNW to experience what everyone raves about. Maybe poke my nose a bit into Alaska - but only in the summertime! Then meander down the North and South America Coastline as far as possible avoiding areas with any possibility of meeting "the icebergs." Then touch as many South Pacific Islands as I can before heading to Australasia. I have family in France, some of whom are serious sailors, so would love to figure out a way to get there, but that's too far beyond my geographical planning horizon and crossing the Southern Ocean kinda freaks me out. We'll, that's the big picture plan anyway. It sounds like you're ready for cruising NorCal, PNW and Alaska. Lots of friendly people here to welcome you and yours. And you won't find any place colder than offshore NorCal in the summer! It's year-round sailing and NO icebergs, thank God

[Mike OReilly]

Icebergs are cool . I've only seen a couple of smaller ones so far during our journey last season. But we're now based in "iceberg alley" over on the east coast of Newfoundland, so I expect to get up close and personal with a few this season.

The PNW and Alaska sounds great to me. And I'm sure I'd love NorCal's climate -- what could be better that icy cold water .

[slug]

The way to make northern cruising fun is to install a Webasto

A simple auto transmission type finned cooler , plumbed to engine hot water , and located in the hanging locker provides dry toasty warm sea boots and gear

[Pegu Club]

We cruise the US east coast and Bahamas, like You we lived where we started. We like going off shore when Mother Nature cooperates, otherwise we do the ICW, and have great fun visiting as many small and big towns as we can. The Bahamas allow us to avoid winter, and are excellent cruising grounds, great sailing, and endless places to drop the hook for the night or as long as one likes, with a bit of research you can find good groceries, RO water sources, etc. the water is absolutely fantastic, from jade green to endless hues of blue to gin clear, very good snorkeling to go along with it. Lots of day hikes to do too.

We have read and been told by far more experienced cruisers that the Bahamas are among the best areas to cruise worldwide, and so far we agree. We hope to visit Bermuda as well at some point, as well as points south of the Bahamas, but we are in no rush, I read some where, Why go fast when you can go slow...

Fair winds,

[Captain Puget]

So far, I've not run out of anchorages to explore in the PNW (I'm 65 ;-). Great scenery, protected waters (always close to an anchorage), fishing/ crabbing, and plenty of hiking and wildlife to see. Planning for currents/ tides can be a surprise until you get used to it... but every area has in challenges.

I do think I'd like to explore other areas, especially the Baltic, New Zealand, the Lake District in Chile and the UK/ Ireland area (esp N Scotland/ Oarkney's), but cost is always an issues, as is being away for grandkids for too long. Like you, I can only stand the tropics for a few weeks at a time..... but I'd still like a short cruise there to see the area. Ive done a little Caribbean cruising, but not the more remote areas, which sound fantastic!

I'm intrigued by the idea of a "hosted boat swap program" .... I host someone for a few weeks one year and show them my local area, then they reciprocate and host me in their area the following year. Not a boat swap but more of a guided tour on which we share the work and expenses. Less risk to your boat than a true swap and no charter confusion and time wasted. Seems like a great way to get a local experience curated by someone that knows the area and a good way to meet similarly minded people from around the world. Seems like if you stick to similar boats, all would be fair and no money needs change hands.

Any takers?

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Captain Puget

I'm intrigued by the idea of a "hosted boat swap program" .... I host someone for a few weeks one year and show them my local area, then they reciprocate and host me in their area the following year. Not a boat swap but more of a guided tour on which we share the work and expenses. Less risk to your boat than a true swap and no charter confusion and time wasted. Seems like a great way to get a local experience curated by someone that knows the area and a good way to meet similarly minded people from around the world. Seems like if you stick to similar boats, all would be fair and no money needs change hands.

Any takers?

I love this idea! As long as everyone is able to get along with each other for a "few weeks." It's a little like picking an AirBNB in which you interact with the host but in MUCH smaller quarters. We could call it HostNSail.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by slug

The way to make northern cruising fun is to install a Webasto

A simple auto transmission type finned cooler , plumbed to engine hot water , and located in the hanging locker provides dry toasty warm sea boots and gear

Using an automotive radiator type heater is an excellent way to heat your boat very quickly if you have a good fan installed as well, only works when your motoring but still very useful for cold days.
Webasto and similar brand heaters are also great for cool weather sailing especially for coastal cruisers and marina hoppers as you can constantly top off your batteries...if your in colder climes and actually cruising full time and you don't have a genset you are much better off with a drip pot heater that doesn't use any power. We have an Espar heating system onboard but because my wife only sails where palm trees grow it really doesn't get any use.

[penguin6429]

Originally Posted by redhead

Mike we sailed the East Coast, from the Chesapeake to Maine and puttered around Florida in another boat. Then I was searching for the "right" boat and went crazy on Yachtworld, never limiting my search to my side of the continent. That was crazy.

Well I found this boat up the coast of British Columbia and we drove out and the rest is history. We sailed it south and imported it into the States, thinking we would spend 6 months on the refit and then sail further south to warmer weather.

Thank the fates that that didn't happen. PNW sailing is out of this world. No, I shouldn't say that, because we only sail about 20% of the time. That's a bit of an exaggeration but not much. When summer happens (usually on a Tuesday in August) the wind dies. We do a lot of motor sailing since this boat needs a lot of wind to get her moving. But the scenery, the waters, the depths, the whales and seals, the eagles. the silence, are literally breathtaking. We have been the only boat in a cove for up to 5 days. We've found old deserted cabins by the water that make me wonder "who used to live here?" "what was their life like?".

Challenging waters - currents of 16 knots, whirlpools 30 feet across, rapids, sometime three of them in a row. Depths so deep your depth meter laughs at you. Logs floating under the surface, lots of them. There's a "pucker factor" each time we approach a new challenge.

But without a doubt the most magical, unexpected waters I think I will ever be on. We're getting ready to go south now and to tell the truth, a huge part of me isn't ready yet. I want to see more. Come out to the PNW!

SHHHH... 🤫

[donradcliffe]

When I met my wife, she had already circumnavigated. When I asked her were we should go, she said 'we could circumnavigate again, but we would probably be better off with 5 laps of the South Pacific. We ended up circumnavigating, but I now agree with her.

[Sojourner]

This is for liveaboards with hypothetical global mobility (which we are), but we fight tooth and nail to avoid the FOMO syndrome....fear of missing out. The grass is greener, ocean bluer kinda stuff. Once you let that go, it's pretty easy: are you enjoying where you are? If not, go. If you are, stay another day. We were supposed to cross to caribbean last year, got stuck in Mallorca over winter, then sailed towards Italy with the idea of wintering in palermo and coming back to cross this season. Found Corfu and got stuck again. Maybe this season we'll poke around Greece then head somewhere to cross. But more likely we'll end up stuck in Cyprus. Or Turkey. But it absolutely doesn't matter, as long as we're having fun.

[slug]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

A few of you have teased us with the joys of the PNW. I actually have a long-term vision, which is less than a goal but more than a dream, that I'll eventually make it over there. I'm over on the east coast right now (Newfoundland). At the pace we travel you can expect to see me in about 15, maybe 20 years.

Actually, it's a serious thought right now. Once we've explored the wonders of the Atlantic coast, do we head south towards the Caribbean, and then eventually through the Canal. Or do we head east, across the Atlantic to Norway or Ireland?

Or maybe global warming will really get going and the NW Passage will become less of a crazy route. If that happens I could be there in a season, and I wouldn't even have to dig out my speedo .

A major reason you cruise is culture

The Caribbean is sterile

Half of what you are looking for is missing

When sailing east it would be a grave error to sail directly to Northern Europe

The traditional route is to make landfall at Finesterre then cruise the Basque Country , Atlantic France , the Low Countries to Hamburg

Once your visa runs out you hightail it across the north Sea to Southern England

Only After your British cruise and visa expire you make way to Denmark and the north

[sailorboy1]

Currently in the Bahamas for the sand and water on the way south to DR and the caribbean. But we mainly are here to meet up with old friends.

We cruise based on what we want to see/visit/do and it doesn't bother us that it may take 3-6 months to get there.

[Amapola]

Before retirement, we cruised the Chesapeake Bay because it was close to home and had lots of great places to visit. After retirement, we moved to SW Florida and love it here mostly because of the weather. Now we cruise the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. We love the Bahamas because of the beauty of the islands and go almost every year. We stay several months and have visited the Abacos, Exumas, Eleuthera, Bimini, Spanish Wells, and the Berry islands. We still cruise the Chesapeake Bay about every 5 years to visit family and friends.

[SVRocinante]

As many have already stated, we cruise the East coast of the U.S.A not only because this is where we started (NY/NJ), but because there is so much to see/experience!

Before we started sailing, we did a lot of road trips and it’s been a wonderful experience visiting some of the same places under sail instead - what a difference!

We typically cruise as Sojourner noted; if we like where we are we stay another day; if not, we move on. This past summer we only made it as far north as Nantucket, where we stayed for about a month! Likewise, this year we stopped in Beaufort, SC in early December “on our way south“ and opted to stay the entire winter!

Two summers ago, we spent a bit over a month exploring Casco Bay (Maine) and loved it, so our plans are Penobscot bay this summer, we’ll just have to wait and see!

Fair winds