Starting our long range plan to cruise around world.

[diver dave]

700,000+ litres?

That's one cheap supertanker

But unlike a supertanker, this one has 4 prime movers, sleeps 80, and a movie theater.

 

[Simi 60]

But unlike a supertanker, this one has 4 prime movers, sleeps 80, and a movie theater.

The extra info required, thanks

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/19...-steel-hull-2871948/?refSource=browse listing

 

[diver dave]

Someone already harvested the anchors, for some reason. Maybe Rocnas will fit in there?

I think 40 or 50 of us on this forum could make a go with this. Start up a go-fund-me and start cleaning plastic out of the Pacific or some related green activity. Deck cranes, diesel ribs; would be great fun. Need a captain, any nominations? 100T won't do it....
In 5 years when we tire of it, it will sell to a org that will clean it up and sink it for dive tourists somewhere

 

[homeby5]

The truly nasty weather was the last three days into Ireland.
But that's what you get at the end of August on the North Atlantic.

Crossing the North Sea at the end of September was also "interesting".

The 6,000 mile stretch between North Africa and the Panama Canal is a one time event, that I won't miss nor repeat.

Waiting in port for favorable weather is the worst however.

...head winds.

Is there a thread on that journey? Thanks

 

[homeby5]

Let me clarify a couple things.
I'm not hell bent on crossing an ocean. I just assumed that was the only way to see the South Pacific Islands and/or the Greek Isles in my own vessel. I honestly didn't think about the shipping option.
Another question....do you still need a "ocean going trawler" if you ship the boat and sail around Europe? Same thing with the Bahamas and the Caribbean? I've done the Bahamas several times in my own boats but I have never ventured into the Trawler world. I guess I'm simply ignorant on the differences between a coastal cruising trawler and an Ocean going one? Is it recommended for those in the USA to cruise the Bahama Islands and even stretch it to the Caribbean Islands in a coastal Trawler?

 

[Simi 60]

Is there a thread on that journey? Thanks

Blog in the signature

 

[psneeld]

USCGC Acushnet already has a go fund me page.

 

[diver dave]

Wow. I didnt know that!

 

[Imp]

I guessing you've not spent much time on the AICW. One of the common complaints about sailboaters is that many don't monitor the radio.
Ted

Actually, I have cruised the ICW, at least partially, from Florida to Oriental NC. It was one of my Bucket List items, & the only one that disappointed me. Not all sailboaters are cruisers, & I imagine that daysailors may not be aware of the radio protocols.

 

[psneeld]

Actually, I have cruised the ICW, at least partially, from Florida to Oriental NC. It was one of my Bucket List items, & the only one that disappointed me. Not all sailboaters are cruisers, & I imagine that daysailors may not be aware of the radio protocols.

That's the interesting point....it's not just the daysaiors....it's many cruisers who should know better...especially on the AICW.

 

[BandB]

Let me clarify a couple things.
I'm not hell bent on crossing an ocean. I just assumed that was the only way to see the South Pacific Islands and/or the Greek Isles in my own vessel. I honestly didn't think about the shipping option.
Another question....do you still need a "ocean going trawler" if you ship the boat and sail around Europe? Same thing with the Bahamas and the Caribbean? I've done the Bahamas several times in my own boats but I have never ventured into the Trawler world. I guess I'm simply ignorant on the differences between a coastal cruising trawler and an Ocean going one? Is it recommended for those in the USA to cruise the Bahama Islands and even stretch it to the Caribbean Islands in a coastal Trawler?

You require less boat to cruise around Europe on in the Bahamas or to the Eastern Caribbean than you do to cross an ocean. Two of the biggest factors are:

1-Range
2-Weather window

Crossing oceans requires fuel range of over 2000 nm. Crossing oceans takes typically 14 days or so, although can be more or less but it's long enough that weather can change considerably during your trip and that your ability to bail out and get back to safety is very limited.

You could easily spend years along the coasts, do the Big U, then do the Eastern Caribbean, then ship the boat to the Mediterranean and from there cruise Europe for a few years. Next ship it to the South Pacific and enjoy Australia and New Zealand for a few years.

Another approach is to get the boat that will do everything but cross oceans, ship it, then if at some point crossing oceans is essential to your pleasure, upgrade, but by then perhaps you have a better knowledge of what is required and more skill and experience yourselves.

We've done a tremendous amount of cruising the last 6 1/2 years, over 100,000 nm and my wife and I both are 500 Ton Captains and we do intend to cross oceans. However, we wouldn't dare head across the Atlantic by ourselves in any boat today. We don't have the mechanical experience ourselves and I'm not talking just normal maintenance, but how to handle emergency needs in the middle of an ocean, so we'd want an engineer or that type and the first time would like someone who has crossed with us. Plus, and this is personal, but we'd want more than two persons capable of operating the boat aboard. At the least we'd want three so at least we'd only have to do eight hours a day each. To actually enjoy the crossing probably more. If you're fighting elements, fighting fatigue, fighting lack of sleep, then what fun is it anyway? Mark Pierce will tell you to go on a cruise ship. I don't agree with that, but then I don't agree with the idea of just trying to prove what you can do without help.

When I see someone talking about crossing oceans so early in the process it scares me a bit. I think of those on the sailing site who say just go do it because they can tell you all those who did so and survived with no experience. They don't tell you those who failed or those who died trying. Just in North America, without even including the Bahamas but you would have to go through Central America to get from one area to another, you can cover 20,000 nm before you ever go to a place the second time.

We've done 100,000 nm and only been in North America and the Caribbean, and Central America as we used the Panama Canal to get from one side to the other and we've only touched the surface. If you're in an 8 knot boat, just think how long that would take you. While seeing other parts of the world sounds wonderful, there's years worth to see here.

One other concept is to get the boat to cruise this area and then go to Europe one year and rent a canal boat or charter for a while or go to Australia and charter.

I guess what I'm trying to say is there are year's of fresh, exciting, new boating to do before you ever exhaust what's near and even need to think of crossing an ocean.

 

[Simi 60]

Another thing to consider if going remote is you almost need to be able to carry the makings for a spare boat and know how to assemble it.
Spares, service and help are pretty much non existent.
Much of the Pacific Isles you cant even get fish hooks let alone engine parts

I guess you could place an order with John Frum Cargo Services though I hear he is a bit slow.
I hear the wait so far has been at least 60 years (-;

 

[Aquabelle]

The world is such a very big place
So much to see but not enough hours in a lifetime to do it.
We've only ever gone 1000 miles out to New Caledonia and Vanuatu on our boats, so no more than a week away sometimes less on passage and that, we can get a pretty reliable weather window for or at least we have done in every run to date.

Thankfully, to our north is New Guinea, Solomons, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Philippines and onwards.
Several lifetimes worth of adventure land cruising only 3 days away from jump off and mostly, bugger all wind.

Simi....have you found a good cruising guide(s) to those areas north of us ?

 

[Imp]

That's the interesting point....it's not just the daysaiors....it's many cruisers who should know better...especially on the AICW.

And it is the power boaters, who should also know better, who consistently knocked us catawampus with their wakes while passing. However, that is only one of the reasons I hated traveling the ICW, & chose the outside wherever possible. My sweetspot has always been at least 200 miles offshore. (Note that I was only a sailor mid-boating career, am not one now, & have never understood the hostility between the two groups just based on methods of locomotion.)

 

[psneeld]

And it is the power boaters, who should also know better, who consistently knocked us catawampus with their wakes while passing. However, that is only one of the reasons I hated traveling the ICW, & chose the outside wherever possible. My sweetspot has always been at least 200 miles offshore. (Note that I was only a sailor midboating career, am not one now, & have never understood the hostility between the two groups just based on methods of locomotion.)

I don't understand it either other than civilization has lost sight of what that really means.


There are plenty of coneheads on both sides.


An equal number of sailors are clueless to passing and whiners about the slightest of wakes. I complain too...but I fully understand the dynamics and accept what are my limitations. Oh, not mentioning that both sides seem to think because they draft more than 4 feet they are entitled to the middle of the ICW and everyone else can skirt the edge.



People say there are more DS's on the powerboaters side...but my poll says that by percentages...I am starting to think sailors are the real problem as they "claim" to be better boaters...but they sure aren't proving it to me anymore.


PS..my last boat trip was a 3 day offshore trip a few months back. I was on a Catalina 42 and the 2 "sailors" I was with, both good friends and lifelong sailors.... expect me to keep them out of trouble....and to know the regs


Plus this is a topic for a million other threads as it will haunt us all for well past our boating lives.

 

[Simi 60]

Simi....have you found a good cruising guide(s) to those areas north of us ?

So much that I have information overload .

Most derived from hours of trawling through the internet and boat blogs of cruisers in the area.

Much of the information relies on using opencpn and cm93 for charting as ALL charting systems, paper, navionics, C-map, everything are notoriously unreliable so getting conversant with kap overlays is essential

These three links have the majority of the good stuff
I have pulled about 100gb of satellite kap files, cruising guides , routes, anchorages, cruising notes and more from these

Cruising Info

Yacht Valhalla SEA collection


http://svsoggypaws.com/files/index.htm#se-asia

Another list of blogs to trawl through

Sail Indonesia

There is this book, I haven't bought it as yet and may not as I believe I have gleaned far more info from the above links

https://www.southeastasiapilot.com/

 

[cabinetman1955]

check out Smoke and Roses on the internet.Dan and Agnes just finished an around the world trip on their catamaran.
They are in Punta Gorda FL I'm sure they would be happy to give you lots of info and insights about making the trip!

 

[MOJO]

check out www.mvmojo.com. Robert Beebe designed, Canadian built in a commercial/military yard. Lots of redundancy. Long range trawler with paravane stabilization.

 

[AlanT]

I cruised for several years on a sturdy fast-sailing Bruce Bingham designed double-ended 35 ft. cutter-rigged sailboat. I recognize you have your heart set on a trawler, but please, for the sake of your wallet, consider exploring the possibility of joining the vast majority of circumnavigators who combine sail & power in their journeys. There is much to be said for for quiet passages & anchorages, as well as the comrades encountered on the way. Yes, there are buddy boats for passage makings, & that is how I've made most passages, & it is the safest method underway, though an actual flotilla is not usual. However, it is not unusual to meet up with the same boats in various ports. My skipper & I once met a guy while hitch-hiking in the back of a pickup on the way to a pizza joint in Costa Rica; the following year we ran into him & his wife in Cartagena. A couple of years later they visited us in North Carolina. Later we managed to meet up in Washington, DC, New York, & even London. The final time the four of us got together was at his burial at Arlington. My skipper now also rests in a military cemetery, but I still visit his widow at least once a year in California. It turned out that for over a decade we had lived just around the corner from each other there, but had never met until that night in the back of the pickup truck. I would think it much easier to connect with buddies if you were in a sailboat. Most bluewater cruisers are sailors, & in my experience most powerboaters & sailors who cruise just don't mix all that much socially. Sad, but true. Don't believe that sailboats can't be comfortable. Even though my boat wasn't all that large, it had an aft cabin & a workshop. I'm boat shopping for a trawler-type boat right now, up to 49 ft. & haven't come across one yet with a workshop. Just keep an open mind, & enjoy your journey!

I completely agree with the sage advice offered here. We lived aboard for 4 years on a 49'sailboat with a good auxiliary engine and crossed the atlantic twice and although we did not go all the way round the world, we went halfway round and came back the same way so covered a similar distance. Dollar for Dollar a sailboat of quality construction is inherently more capable of offshore or ocean passages, fuel costs are significantly less as in our case we sailed approx 50% of the time only using fuel for the genset. sail boaters overwhelming outnumber motorboaters on these adventures for a number of very good reasons. The one thing I would disagree with is that the motor boaters we did meet were equally friendly and gregarious, social as the yachties! check out our blog for tips on places, anchorages etc. Alan & Joan's adventures sailing Moonstruck from America to the Mediterranean. Joan Teed's Art.

 

[thataway]

Before we began to cross oceans, I felt we needed certain qualifications; I choose pilot house motor sailors. Boats which could do 8 knots under power and sail--not too many of this type--and have a range under power of over 2500 miles.

I am an MD, My wife an RN. We had built several boats. I had already sailed across oceans on others boats. I had a general class Ham license and had built several radios from scratch. I had built my own refrigeration and freezing systems. I had designed and built my own electrical systems. I had enough knowledge to make most parts necessary--carried some power tools, including a welder, and drill press. I started with all new components, and had backups for every system aboard. For example, we had two complete auto pilots, with spares. We had copper tubing, flare fittings, "rubber" and "Plastic" hoses, with fittings which would replace all of the fittings. Basically we knew how to build a boat, and the systems which went into it.

A large Diesel engine, with back up of sails was what we chose. But the boat sailed across the Atlantic both ways--the engine was there, and available if necessary.

We had built a 38 foot "world cruising boat"--and after a 5 months shakedown cruise my very wise wife, told me that if we got a larger pilot house boat, and tried to stay in warm weather she would go with me anywhere.

Our boats were 46 and 62 LOA. We often sailed with just the two of us as crew. But on ocean passages, we preferred to have another sailing couple with us. Both of us were versed in celestial navigation and I had navigated to Hawaii and a lot of costal trips.

In the past, there were fewer voyagers, because it was more difficult. Today, you can buy a boat "ready to go"--included are charts of the world, and a GPS which shows where you are with in feet anyplace on Earth. You have an EPRIB which will summon aid from anywhere in the world (as to how long it will take--often an AMVER Merchant vessel--is a different story.)

You can see "how to do it" by watching U tube videos....often they are "silly" and in-appropriate. These folks have not got into any real difficulty, because they stayed away from areas with storms, etc.

The Fantisy vs the Reality is a whole gap. However, the PO is a person who has considerable experience. Many have mentioned his wife--and I would ask the same questions--what is her experience offshore? What capabilities does she bring to the table ?

The Nordhavn 46 is a capable motor sailor type. As is the Cal 46 (modified).

As for cruising Europe--there are several ways. We crossed the Atlantic Florida to Bermuda, Azores and Rota Sp. Then spent time going around the periphery of the MED. Next a thrash up the West Coast of Europe--and it can be a rough trip--watch the weather. A relaxing time in the Baltic.

The other way is with a boat capable of doing the Canals. There are some which are seaworthy enough to also do the med, and then using canals move to the Baltic.

Even though I have owned trawlers, I feel that a motor sailor is the most comfortable, and perhaps the safest way to go around the world--or cross major oceans. I think that mid 40's is the easiest for a couple and some times crew.

Good luck with your planing--and trip.

 

[Simi 60]

Thataway, what you said above reminded me somewhat of this vessel
I saw her getting done from the ground up as I was there doing an extension on my vessel of that time.
Had many adult beverage's inside after knockoff on a Friday evening.


https://yachthub.com/list/yachts-fo...ulls/spray-45-liveaboard-ocean-cruiser/228736


Add: wow, looking at the video I am amazed that a boat that seemed so spacious compared to the performance cats I was used to at the time now, looks so bloody cramped.
No way in the world could I consider that as a live aboard, especially in the tropics.

 

[nemier]

Hey guys,
My wife and I have started our discussions about our dream to cruise around the world. I am 55 and retired and my wife is also 55 and will retire next year. We plan on departing within the next five years.
Now I am no stranger to boating. I fished as an offshore Charter Captain for a decade in The Keys. I also owned Florida Keys Marine Services so I am well suited for performing maintenance myself.
My first goal is to gather as much info on my upcoming trip. You know....guides and books from authors who have lots of experience. how much time will it take? Best routes and what time of year to make them? And probably 100 more....I will take any and all recommends.
Also...I am taking a few years to gather info on what type of trawler and what size I will need. I will have a limited amount of money so I will go with a used trawler. Stuff like should I look at under 40ft or over 40 ft? Price range under $250K or over? Things like this.....
Anyway....looking for info and I figured this would be a great place to start.
Thank you.

Hi,
My wife and I have been (more-or-less) full time cruising on our Nordhavn 62 for the last 7 years, crossed the Pacific Ocean, and have completed well over 20,000 nautical miles in this boat to date.
I see that there has been four pages of good advice so far, but if you have any further questions I would be happy to help. We can discuss right here, as I'm sure there are others in your same situation. ?

 

[Juliet 15]

I'm 54 and planning to the same when I retire in 2.5 yrs. This is our 4th boat, and we crossed the Atlantic once. Learned a lot from that. There's lots more to learn.

We spent the last 3 years looking for the "best" trawler for our $ and range. My subjective experience criss-crossing the US looking at all kinds of boats indicated that anything with the range I wanted (2,000nm and up) would need to be above 50' and was going to cost $350k or more. I wanted 2 engines, stabilizers, comfort, and capability.

We settled on the Hat 58 LRC. They have 2390 gal of fuel, small engines (DD 4-71's), and 500 gal of water. She weighs a lot due to her thick, heavy fiberglass. Most have stabilizers. Ours has a large water maker, 3 gensets, and is really pretty well equipped for long cruises. It went to Europe, the Caribbean, then thru the canal to Seattle and BC, Canada, where I bought it. The good 58 LRCs cost $350 and up. There aren't a lot of them. They have 3 SRs, so I'll turn one into a workshop. The engine room is a maintainer's dream. The one we bought was in unusually good condition and was close by. I've spent close to $50K already with more to go to get her equipped, but I have over 2 years to do it.

Our plan is to avoid crossing an entire ocean, but hop as much as practical (S along the W coast of the Americas to Patagonia, across to Galapagos, Fiji/Fr Polynesia, Marquesas, etc).

I'll let you know when I get close to going. We'd love to have someone go with us. Or 3 boats, or more...

 

[FoxtrotCharlie]

Wow, I'm honored to be on a forum with these world travelers. Are any of you familiar with the Enniagram? Personality profile that goes back over a thousand years - think Myers Briggs, but more in depth. Nine basic types - check out #7, 'The Adventurer' - me thinks many of us on this forum fall into this category. Our glass is always half full

 

[sbu22]

Working my way through this thread. Very good reading. Re Post 62 (the ex USCG cutter for sale) - the specs say Fairbanks Morse engines. Ski or somebody who knows engines - would these be the venerable FM 38 1-8 opposed piston engines? Are there parts available?

 

[Ski in NC]

Shown as four six cyl FM engines at 675hp each. Probably are 38 1/8. Parts for the engines are available, there still are lots of these in service.

The diesel electric drive system also will have lots of parts, and those may be hard to get.

This thing is a small ship, almost 80yrs old. Probably would take a crew of 10-30 (minimum) to just make it go. Fun to dream about, not practical at all.

191,000 gallon fuel tank capacity.

 

[Mako]

Put into the sales contract that the seller has to hand it over with full tanks.


Then dismember it and sell everything off. You'll making a killing!