All Questions Answered Here
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Sun 1 Jun 2008 20:33
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Hello Friends
"16:13.3N 61:31.8W"
With the hope of answering all those
questions, let's have a different sort of blog ...
- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About
Sail Cruising, but were Afraid To Ask.
1 Is it Fun ?
You bet ! We're still having a great time
out here and there are always new things to see, new places to visit and new
friends to meet - and we've only sailed about 150 miles up the islands and 250
miles down the islands from our arrival here in Guadeloupe nearly 18 months ago,
so there's lots more to do just here in the Caribbean. Thereagain, if you don't
like swimming or can't cope with the heat, then I guess you might not have too
much fun.
2 Don't you miss the
Routine ?
Unbelievably, people really do ask this
question, but hopefully they aren't let out too often !
I suppose if you call waiting in the drizzle
on Greenwich station platform for a cancelled 0812 train to Charing Cross each
morning, then yes, I guess we do miss the routine, thank goodness.
3 Do you get on OK, being
cooped up in such a small space together ?
Amazingly we manage just fine (probably due
to George's tolerance). Though it depends on the personalities it is important
to respect other people's space and wish to be quiet sometimes, even more than
if you are land based. We think that you adapt to living in a relatively small
space, though our living space on Blue Sky is a lot bigger than the average
cruising yacht. We spend a lot of time in the cockpit which is a bit like being
on your terrace all Summer.
4 Do you need to be a very
experienced sailor ?
Well being relatively competent gives you an
advantage, though there appear to be plenty of sailors out here who don't know
the first thing about sailing (see "Charter Boats ?") Of course you never stop
learning more about seamanship, but hopefully after the first 10,000 miles you
begin to get the hang of the basics.
5 Is it All Frightfully
Expensive ?
Not really. We tend to live within our
budget which offers us a bit more flexibility than what we guess is the average.
But we do know a number of cruisers who live well on a modest budget of less
than £10,000 a year and some manage on a microscopic budget of less than £2,000
per year, including doing all your own work on the boat and fishing a
lot.
6 Do you miss anything
that you can't get at home on land?
A delicious pint of Youngs ordinary in the
Tolly, though an ice cold bottle of Carib with a slice of lime does fairly well.
Broadband internet 24 hours a day would be nice and we suppose a normal toilet
which flushes without being pumped, though you do get used to it.
7 Do you ever want a break
and go and stay in a hotel ?
No names will be mentioned on this one, but
no, of course not unless the boat is out of action for maintenance. Many people
live on the boat when it's hauled out for work, though our budget allows us a
little more comfort.
8 What's the scariest
thing that happens ?
Settling down with your sundowners after
another glorious day and seeing a charter boat racing in as the light fades.
They attempt to park (let's face it, their miserable attempt could hardly be
graced with the title 'anchor' ) just in front of you. They glance over the bow
at the anchor chain just to check that it's slightly wet and then all jump in
the tender to go out to dinner. No thought at all for what happens if the wind
gets up etc. etc. (and see below)
Or at least they would if they were not
enthusiastically discouraged by our repertoire of charter boat repelling
techniques ....
9 Anything else a bit
scary ?
Catching a really large fish would be scary,
and we'll report in full if it happens !
10 OK, so what is all this
about 'setting the anchor' ?
Yes, of course no one has actually asked
this, but we're going to tell you anyway!
- if there's a fresh breeze, then the other
boats will be lying to their anchors, rather than just a bit of their anchor
chain - so you can estimate where the other boats' anchors are and can move in
closer than if there is no breeze.
- approach your anchorage slowly so you get
a feel of the spacing between the other boats - what you want to see is the view
from the clouds but what you get is the view from a few degrees above the
horizontal, so take your time and circle about if you want.
- drop the anchor upwind of where you want
the boat to lie to allow for the chain paying out.
- use enough chain ! never less than 3 times
depth and preferably 4 times; though 6 or 7 times works well in the hurricane
season in case of violent squalls.
- twiddle your thumbs peacefully while the
boat falls back and lies bow to wind.
- put the engine into idle astern, then
slowly increase revs astern over a minute or so until you have, say, 1500 revs
astern and your propeller wash is making waves against the breeze.
- if you're staying put then you're anchor
is looking good.
- but if you are really keen like us and
there is enough light and water clarity, go snorkel the anchor so you can see
it's set nicely.
11 Charter Boats
?
Sunsail = 'Scumsail'
Dream Yacht Charter = 'Nightmare Yacht
Charter'
Moorings = 'Draggings'
Sparkling Charter = 'Fizzy
Hire'
Yes, we know it's terribly unfair, but for
every charter boat that seems to be well managed, there are ten which are
worryingly incompetent.
12 What do you do for food
?
We visit a supermarket or shop just like
anyone else. It's true to say that the choice of food available in Martinique is
better than that in Cumberland Bay, St Vincent (blog 6 Dec 07) but you adapt to
what is available. Delicious ripe mangoes are about 5p each in Dominica, nutmeg
is free on the ground in many islands and fresh fruit and veg are plentiful and
generally inexpensive.
But you do have to tolerate that sometimes
there will be no tomatoes and that avocadoes do have a season (just starting now
!) and so on. So I guess it would suit those who whinge about Tesco stocking
everything 12 months of the year.
Whilst on the subject of food, it's worth
mentioning that wine is readily available at fair prices almost everywhere,
though St Vincent seems more expensive. The French islands are obviously
well-stocked.
13 and Laundry
?
There are plenty of laundries which wash,
dry and fold in all the islands. Most of the laundry is just the bedding and
towels as there's not the need to wear a huge number of clothes !
14 What's your Carbon
Footprint ?
Well, it's a bare footprint most of the
time. Our power comes almost entirely from sun and wind, which must get gold
stars from the eco warriors. We do use a certain amount of diesel, but not more
than 400 litres a year. Generally we try to eat locally produced food and George
is expert at new ways with yam, plantain and dasheen which is cheap and
delicious.
Probably manufacturing the yacht in the
first place is not very eco friendly, but once you've got going it's easy to be
quite green.
15 And where's the blog
photo this week?
OK OK - this could just as easily illustrate
Q5.
 On the left a racing trimaran, the sort of
thing that gets here from the English Channel in less than 10 days. On the
right, the strangest thing we've seen out here well under 2 metres long it has
the URL www.stern-global.com on the
side which may shed some light (site not checked by us) and it looks like a
bathtub with a mast.
So that's all for this week folks. Our new
crew, Federico, joins in an hour or so and the next blog will report on how he's
settling in.
And if you have further questions, you know
the email address.
Best Wishes
George & Michael
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