Another 'Bluewater Boat' Poll to Really Tee You Off!!

[DMF Sailing]

Forumers.

Can we be real with each other for a moment?

Folks come on here all the time looking for the perfect "bluewater" boat.

It kind of blows my mind, really, because, having lived most of my life either at the helm of a monohull, or dreaming of being at the helm of a monohull, I cannot conceive of going straight from the dock to the mid-Atlantic without first going through the brown, gray, green, blue-ish, green-breaking-over-your-bow, GREEN-REALLY-IN-YOUR-GRILL-AND-WILL-I-SURVIVE-THIS-NIGHT-water.

And this from a guy who has only ever skippered a boat that was 30 miles from the shore.

So.

How many of you have actually gone from new-to-sailing to ocean passages?

And if not, what was your progression?

[hpeer]

I bought a 33’ steel cutter, bot 2 jour lesson from PO, too off up Nova Scotia coast solo. Eventually made it to Sydney, Cape Breton. The next year I left Sydney for St Pierre, an over nighter.

I still don’t know how to sail for beans. Am slowly getting better. Veeery sloooowly.

[Mike OReilly]

Ours (my spouse and I) have taken the slow roll to where we are today. We had decided to make a boat our home ten years before it actually happened. In that time we honed our skills, learned what we really needed and wanted, and then slowly upgraded our second boat once we understood what we were looking for.

When we started we both took cruising courses. We took one together, and then took others apart. But mostly we built our skills by doing. We were lucky enough to be living on the largest lake in the world, which offered a good range of extensive coastal cruising, but also long "offshore"* passages, and all the big blue (and green) water one could ever want to see.

(* On Superior, it's easy to be more than 50 nm offshore. Our longest passage west-to-east was nearly two days).

After more than a decade, we sold our land home and began this cruising lifestyle. Since then, we haven't really gone that far. The length of the Great Lakes, out the St. Lawrence, and 1/2 way around Newfoundland (northern 1/2). Our longest passage has been three days, 100 nm from shore, across the northern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was great (until it wasn't ).

We're still learning, and hope to resume this spring, Covid-gods willing. Neither of us are great sailors, but that was never the point. To me, sailing is just an entirely desirable way to move my home around. It's the lifestyle, not the activity, that draws me (us).


Not sure where any of this puts me in your poll. Not sure what any of the above really means. Just fun to babble I suppose. Thanks .

[Dogscout]

American here. Sailed little boats and dinghys as a kid. Took a few vacations on bigger boats. Retired at 52 and got my RYA Day Skipper. Then bought a production boat in the Med where I live full time some years and part time others (covid). I overnight once in a while and will cross the Atlantic in a year or two, im kinda having fun in YURROP. It aint hard.

[DDabs]

blue water, green skipper

great memoir by Stuart Woods, not sure how it applies to all this but it made me think of it.

[Len hornick]

I went for #1 Just want to add that decision was made 36 years ago, I a still onboard the same boat ..

[stormalong]

Kind of #1. Lived in a big city. Sailed weekends and summer trips. Have owned 5 boats. After 20 years of that bought the boat I have now. Lived aboard for 19 years, circumnavigated and then some. Bought a house and have live ashore for the last 11 years. Take long summer excursions in the PNW and Canada.

[rramsden]

Took sailing lessons. Got a bare boat cert. on a 7 day live aboard in BVI.
Sailed a few times with a club on the Chesapeake.
Connected through one of the crew finder sites with a guy who sailed the Eastern Caribbean on his 38' cat.
First inter-island passage St. Lucia to Martinique. 8 to 12' seas, 25 to 30 kts sustained. I was hooked.
I've logged thousands of miles since, and own a blue water cat.

[noel32129]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Ours (my spouse and I) have taken the slow roll to where we are today. We had decided to make a boat our home ten years before it actually happened. In that time we honed our skills, learned what we really needed and wanted, and then slowly upgraded our second boat once we understood what we were looking for.

When we started we both took cruising courses. We took one together, and then took others apart. But mostly we built our skills by doing. We were lucky enough to be living on the largest lake in the world, which offered a good range of extensive coastal cruising, but also long "offshore"* passages, and all the big blue (and green) water one could ever want to see.

(* On Superior, it's easy to be more than 50 nm offshore. Our longest passage west-to-east was nearly two days).

After more than a decade, we sold our land home and began this cruising lifestyle. Since then, we haven't really gone that far. The length of the Great Lakes, out the St. Lawrence, and 1/2 way around Newfoundland (northern 1/2). Our longest passage has been three days, 100 nm from shore, across the northern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was great (until it wasn't ).

We're still learning, and hope to resume this spring, Covid-gods willing. Neither of us are great sailors, but that was never the point. To me, sailing is just an entirely desirable way to move my home around. It's the lifestyle, not the activity, that draws me (us).


Not sure where any of this puts me in your poll. Not sure what any of the above really means. Just fun to babble I suppose. Thanks .

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

Forumers.

Can we be real with each other for a moment?

Folks come on here all the time looking for the perfect "bluewater" boat.

It kind of blows my mind, really, because, having lived most of my life either at the helm of a monohull, or dreaming of being at the helm of a monohull, I cannot conceive of going straight from the dock to the mid-Atlantic without first going through the brown, gray, green, blue-ish, green-breaking-over-your-bow, GREEN-REALLY-IN-YOUR-GRILL-AND-WILL-I-SURVIVE-THIS-NIGHT-water.

And this from a guy who has only ever skippered a boat that was 30 miles from the shore.

So.

How many of you have actually gone from new-to-sailing to ocean passages?

And if not, what was your progression?

Give them a break. What is blue water to one isn't for another. If they are just getting into it maybe a mile off shore is blue water?

[Dockhead]

I don't think sailing far from shore is necessarily more challenging than coastal sailing. The challenges are different, and being far from shore the skills you mostly need are not so much sailing, as they are logistical, and mechanical, because you have to be more autonomous, so have to be better prepared and supplied and equipped.


The sailing itself is much harder inshore. The dangerous stuff is where the land is. Toughest sailing I've ever done is around the English Channel and North Sea, with big tides, strong tidal currents, rocks, shoals, difficult harbour entrances, gnarly weather, plus intense ship traffic. That takes a really high level of skill and seamanship. Easiest sailing I've ever done, on the contrary, is in the middle of the ocean, in a benign tropical latitude, on a boat with plenty of supplies and spare parts and a high production watermaker.

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by hpeer

I bought a 33’ steel cutter, bot 2 jour lesson from PO, too off up Nova Scotia coast solo. Eventually made it to Sydney, Cape Breton. The next year I left Sydney for St Pierre, an over nighter.

I still don’t know how to sail for beans. Am slowly getting better. Veeery sloooowly.

I hope I bump into you someday on a dock or a hook. I would love to hear your stories.

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Ours (my spouse and I) have taken the slow roll to where we are today. We had decided to make a boat our home ten years before it actually happened. In that time we honed our skills, learned what we really needed and wanted, and then slowly upgraded our second boat once we understood what we were looking for.

When we started we both took cruising courses. We took one together, and then took others apart. But mostly we built our skills by doing. We were lucky enough to be living on the largest lake in the world, which offered a good range of extensive coastal cruising, but also long "offshore"* passages, and all the big blue (and green) water one could ever want to see.

(* On Superior, it's easy to be more than 50 nm offshore. Our longest passage west-to-east was nearly two days).

After more than a decade, we sold our land home and began this cruising lifestyle. Since then, we haven't really gone that far. The length of the Great Lakes, out the St. Lawrence, and 1/2 way around Newfoundland (northern 1/2). Our longest passage has been three days, 100 nm from shore, across the northern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was great (until it wasn't ).

We're still learning, and hope to resume this spring, Covid-gods willing. Neither of us are great sailors, but that was never the point. To me, sailing is just an entirely desirable way to move my home around. It's the lifestyle, not the activity, that draws me (us).


Not sure where any of this puts me in your poll. Not sure what any of the above really means. Just fun to babble I suppose. Thanks .

Honestly the poll was for laughs and to elicit stories like these.

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by Len hornick

I went for #1 Just want to add that decision was made 36 years ago, I a still onboard the same boat ..

Would love to hear your stories as well

[svhydra]

yeah, what mike o'riely said. this is kinda fun. the poll is chum to attract different responses some with elevated heart rates. so, as the aussies say when they hook one "come in spinner"