Why do you cruise?

[david knowles]

Wait till you see an island rise above the horizon you'll never forget your first sun rise. If I don't like my neighbors I'm gone I never pack and unpack and I do sleep good at night

[Greg Mason]

If I was to buy a boat based on the cover of Sail or Cruising World, I would probably be disappointed. Let me put it to you like this. I also bike. In the forest. There are hills. I like to go fast. I order to be in the forest at the top of the hill, I had to pedal there. We say you have to earn your downs. Boating is like that too. My dentist tells me not to floss all my teeth, just the ones I want to keep. So boaters take care of stuff that's important, sometimes that falls into the 'Zen, and The Art of Motorcycle Repair'. And then there is cruise time, the days that get added to your lifetime.

[jim King]

Cruising to me is meditation and escape from the worries and concerns of the world back on land. Once I leave the dock and head for another island, the stress of the world back home disappears and I can settle back with the flow of the wind and water and am at peace. There is no feeling like cruising into an isolated bay somewhere on an island in the Caribbean, dropping anchor and claiming the spot for your own for a day, a week or longer.
Jim

[Serene86]

It's the boredom mixed with a little terror and some excitement that has me hooked!

[Mike OReilly]

Funny how a few people have mentioned boredom or doing nothing. I’ve never felt bored or had nothing to do while on my boat. On land, for sure, but never on my boat.

That’s one of the things I like about my boat life; there’s always something to do.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Funny how a few people have mentioned boredom or doing nothing. I’ve never felt bored or had nothing to do while on my boat. On land, for sure, but never on my boat.

That’s one of the things I like about my boat life; there’s always something to do.

This shows how different people can be. (One size doesn't fit all)

I'm bored and ready to sail usually the very next morning after I arrive at an anchorage, but will usually paddle my kayak ashore and hike for a couple hours before leaving .... if the wind is up and right

I sail/cruise om weekends and vacations so some of this is learning to slow down which I have never been good at

I do enjoy sailing at sunrise though if there is good wind and the coffee is ready, and seeing an island or headland rise is always enjoyable especially if it is your destination

[redhead]

Originally Posted by Group9

Yep, and adventure. And, testing yourself. And, learning new things. And, seeing new places. And, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures. And, having fun.

It's a lifestyle, and you either love it, or you don't.

This. I have always wanted to know what's around the next corner.

[Apollo366]

Adventure, experiencing new things & people, Love of Sail.

BTW, buy a boat you're comfortable with, not a slick ad in the magazines.

[trimarannaga]

This is where i fit.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by thomm225

This shows how different people can be. (One size doesn't fit all)

I'm bored and ready to sail usually the very next morning after I arrive at an anchorage, but will usually paddle my kayak ashore and hike for a couple hours before leaving .... if the wind is up and right

I sail/cruise om weekends and vacations so some of this is learning to slow down which I have never been good at

Maybe that’s the difference. I’m not on vacation. Cruising is just how I live.

[CF32907]

Back in 1978 - 79, I was a contractor in central Florida. Over a cycle of 5 years, I went from having a fat bank account to almost broke 3 times, I now had 30 employees and five trucks. Building in all of central Florida. The first broke, could not get blocks or trusses, two years later, could not get money for mortgages, house loans were 15%, not many people building, after weathering number two, we had the fuel embargo's and gas shortages, I had men waiting for hours to get gas, put in a 2000 gallon tank skid tank, fuel companies would not sell gas to me because I did not buy gas the year before.
I sold my companies, warehouses, equipment, bought a 60' Schooner "Altair" and went cruising for 6 years. I was 32 at that time and never looked back. As it worked out, I lived on the boat with a wife, girl friend and a 4 year old son. We all got along famously. I would not have traded that experience for a million bucks. The only thing that was negative to this whole experience in life was my mother, who we only visited when we were stateside. She says to me one time, Eric (my son) is going to think it's perfectly OK to live with two women, what are you going to tell him, I told her, more power to him if he can pull it off. No crap, she took me out of her Will. The day we were leaving to go back down Island, she asked me why I would throw my life away and do what I'm doing. Again, these are true quotes. I told her that "I'm revolting", her comment was "you certainly are Son". That was the last time I talked to her in almost two years. What I was referring to, that she did not want to hear, was that I worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week, rat holed copious amounts of cash, and payed tens of thousands of dollars in taxes, an through no fault of mine virtually started over from scratch each time almost broke.
When you are living on your own, cruising throughout the Caribbean, you are in control of your own destiny, you make money where you can, you rat whole money without having to pay big brother. I made more money day chartering, by accident than I made stateside on purpose. There is just not a feeling of freedom like there is cruising your own boat. Capt. Vince Rakstis, Ret.
PS: If you wait to when the time is right, you will never go. If your tired of life the way it's been, go cruising, do it!!!!!! You don't need a 60' schooner, most friends we made along the way had boats 26 - 40' . Cruising is a mind set, just get your mind programmed, as I did, and do it......

[texwards]

Unfortunately, I can't yet speak as a 'true' cruiser, but only as a sailor who has been pleasantly tortured by 'the dream' since childhood.

Spend one day sailing the brisk breeze out into crisp welcoming waters, fully prepared for the day and completely uninterrupted by concerns of your current 'land world'. Experience all points of sail, an occasional light spray across the bow - then race alongside a playful pod of dolphins. As the day draws to a close, head home - gliding back to the slip only after the sun has fallen behind your quiet harbor.

When you successfully catch the waiting dock lines to securely tie up your near-perfect day, pause to see if you can hear it. There you should hear the answer to your question - whispering through the peaceful ping of rigging and the water's gentle lapping...

[oceanshoretiga]

For me, this is a wonderful thread and I know that every reply is full of passion and an understanding of life as a cruisers. While I have sailed many thousands of miles on the open ocean, I've never lived on my boat at anchor more than six months at a time. But, I have a PhD in sociology and have been studying why people cruise since 1977 (as an academic and a participant living in anchorages and sailing oceans).

I just finished a book chapter on ocean sailing for a book in the sociology and tourism. I included some of my original work (which may not format properly here).
Table 1 Why Cruise?
Source: Macbeth 1985:117
Departure stage Commitment stage
1 Escapist, fleeing, going from Going to, searching
2 Disaffected Satisfied
3 ‘Because’ motives dominant ‘In-order-to motives’ dominant
4 Security based on external world Security based on internal world, on self
5 Work ethic dominant Work ethic not dominant
6 Stereotyped, mythical Realistic
7 Imitative Designing, building, creating
8 Simplistic view Complex view
9 Activity focus Lifestyle or holistic focus
10 Unknown/unknowing/ignorant/vague Known/definable/concrete
11 Implicit Explicit
Note: this is not a ranking list.


For those who would like to read more, here are some academic references that will fill in the picture.

Lusby, Carolin Meisel , and Stephen Anderson. 2008. "Alternative Lifestyles and Well-Being." Loisir et Société / Society and Leisure 31 (1):121-139.

Lusby, Carolin Meisel, and Stephen Anderson. 2010. "Ocean cruising – a lifestyle process." Leisure/Loisir 34 (1):85-105.

Lusby, Carolin Meisel, Cari Autry, and Stephen Anderson. 2012. "Community, life. Satisfaction and motivation in ocean cruising: comparative findings." World Leisure Journal 54 (4):310-321.

Lusby, Carolin Meisel, Cari Autry, and Stephen Anderson. 2015. "Recreation specialization in ocean cruising." World Leisure Journal 57 (4):273-283.


Macbeth, Jim. 1985. "Ocean Cruising: A Study of Affirmative Deviance." PhD Research, School of Social Sciences, Murdoch University.

Macbeth, Jim. 1988. "Ocean Cruising." In Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness., edited by Mihaly and Csikszentmihalyi and Isabella Selega Csikszentmihalyi, 214-231. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Macbeth, Jim. 1992. "Ocean Cruising: a sailing subculture." The Sociological Review 40 (2):319-343.

Macbeth, Jim. 2000. "Utopian Tourists - cruising is not just about sailing." Current Issues in Tourism 3 (1):20-34.

And for those interested in RVers:
Hardy, Anne, and Brady Robards. 2015. "The Ties that Bind: Exploring the relevance of neotribal theory to tourism." Tourism Analysis, 20:443-454.

Sorry if you get indigestion with all this. Cheers, Jim

[oceanshoretiga]

Sorry that in my long post, the Table lost it formatting in the posting process. You probably can decipher the two columns. Let me know if not and maybe I can find a way to post the table intact.

cheers, Jim

[daletournier]

The dream to cruise was more a antidote to customers and staff.

I used to rush to the newsagents once a month for the latest edition of Cruisng helmsman and Multihull magazine's, couldn't wait to open the pages and dream of the day I escaped "the creeping death of sameness"

Was it what I expected? nope! It was much better and much worse, it was real, it wasnt a magazine and a dream ,its life, a good life.

Master of my time, crystal clear water, coral reefs, great friends and a new country every couple of mths but mostly freedom that I cant get at home, cruising gives me something to do and something to look forward to. Even when it goes wrong, I'm living and owning my life, not part of the herd.

I even ended up on one of those magazine covers ...lol.