What does cruising mean to you?

This from another thread made me think it would be interesting to here what others styles and likes about cruising are.

"Thanks for modifying the picture, Walt. To me the second picture represents what cruising is all about to us. Gunk holing through the aqua green, clear waters of the Bahamas with the helm deck opened up on 4 sides. The nice breeze blowing through, and an occasional fish on the line. Stop about mid afternoon for a swim, and grill some fish for dinner. Then the boat swinging on the anchor with the breeze coming through the hatches all night. Others have their ideas of cruising, but this to us is about the best we are going to get.

One of the joys is taking a shower under the stars on the swim platform."

Many have restrictions on how they cruise because of business, health, or other circumstances. So, what is your happy place or style? The answer "all the above" is not acceptable here.

Note: added the photo described above.

We do two very different styles of cruising. Each style is dictated in large part by the type of boat we're using. Here in the PNW we have an extremely slow (8 knot) boat. So we have no choice but to approach cruising here as being all about the journey because we spend so much time doing that.

Which is okay since the area we cruise is fascinating to us because of what's around us and the creatures that are in the water and air everywhere we go.

The history of the BC coast is extremely intriguing to me and I have spent a lot of time learning as much about it as I can, and I continue to do so. So to me, cruising BC is cruising through a history book. One of the things we want do do when I've retired is retrace a lot of the Union Steamship Co. routes along the BC raincoast.

We are not social boaters, particularly me. I have no interest in cruising with other people (with a tiny handful of exceptions) nor do I have any interest whatsoever in meeting or socializing with other recreational cruisers. I love exploring places on my own or with my wife. I love the solitude of the northwest coast and mountains, and the fact that there is an element of danger and risk in going there.

I love being around the animals that inhabit this area, the bears, whales, eagles, ravens, porpoises and dolfins.

For our PNW cruising, the kind of boat we have is pretty irrelevant. We have what we have because it's well built, the equipment on it is of excellent quality, and it suits our purpose pretty well. It's not my favorite make and model of boat by any means, but it's a make of boat that can be bought used for song but gives one a very reliable, well made boat.

What's important to us is getting out into this environment and experiencing it.

I saw this quote from Chief Dan George chalked on a wall while up north fishing last month. I'd never seen it before, and to me it captures how we feel when we are up in that country. There is no other place on the planet--- and I've been to a fair number of them--- that I would rather be.

"If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them, and what you do not know you will fear. What one fears one destroys."

I love to motor along and see nature. It doesn't matter if it's along the coast or in open water, but I really like the motoring along part of cruising. Not to say I don't enjoy kayaking in remote coves and hiking, but my biggest turn on is motoring along with my stereo on just loud enough to hear with binoculars in hand.

When I am not going anywhere in particular I motor at about 4.5 knots, @ 1450 rpm's so the engine is very quiet and I'm not making any wake to speak of. If I have a destination in mind I motor at 5.5 knots @ 1850 rpm's, with the stereo turned up just little bit louder. When I have to cruise to get to my next anchorage with no other options on where to spend the night or on a schedule it's 7 knots @ 2650 and I have to turn the stereo up.

I probably motor an average of 6-9 hours a day most days, some of the time trolling at 800 rpm's and about 2 knots. I couldn't do this with my last boat due to fuel consumption, with the Willard fuel is never even a consideration. When I pull into the fuel dock, they always say "here comes the water guy". Sometimes I buy fuel out of guilt at only getting water every time I pull in

I am retired so I have no schedule, no job to get back to, no reason to be anywhere else doing anything else. I love to motor!

I would like to say, that my boat, when ready, will provide a platform to travel in an environment, that I have never been in before. After the many years in the Army Special Forces, I worked primerally in jungle environments. After that I bought a ranch & worked cattle & broke rank horses. That is in the past. I'm in love with the solitude & the entire boating thing. I am chomping at the bit to be able to leave frm Portland with the boat & get back to Mexico. I love being in the water, and at the drop of a hat, take off to another island. I would say also, I truly like the independence of action.

My vision of cruising is a destination with an approximate time table. I go and stop along the way. Something interests me, I will stop and explore or take a side trip. When I've had enough, it's back on course toward the destination. Planning on leaving the first of October from Maryland and getting to Fort Myers, Fl by Thanksgiving. Have very little planned along the way. I'm easily distracted by mother nature.

My style is based on traveling solo. Fun to have 1 friend or maybe a couple for part of the trip. But as one of my best buddies puts it, "Friends and fish both begin to stink after 4 or 5 days". I'm not a leader or a follower, so I may see you at the end of the day, or may get distracted along the way. Always fun to meet new people and socialize for a day or two. I'll likely be moving on by day three. Will likely spend most of my nights anchored out to enjoy nature. Prefer to replenish in small towns that have a local flavor. Enjoy trying the local mom and pop restaurants. But then it's time to get back to solitude and mother nature.

Ted

My vision or "dream" of what cruising is has changed over time.

I found TF several years ago because I had a dream of cruising the world. I was subscribed to Passagemaker Magazine (and still am), and had read Voyaging Under Power. I was hooked!

Then reality set in. I had more than a few frank discussions with my life partner and realized that she did not share my dream of cruising the world.

So the dream changed into something we could both do, and enjoy. We agreed that coastal cruising was a common ground where we could both meet. That modified dream is why we purchased our current boat. It is why we named it "Lisas Way". We say that jokingly now, but at the time it was very serious.

Then the dream was and to a great extent is, locally cruising our boat until my retirement and then use the boat as a floating base camp to explore the Pacific Coast, and see where that takes us. I'm not sure where that dream is going to go, we'll have to see. Time will tell. I say that because there is some reluctance to that level of commitment from my lovely wife. We are seeing most of our neighbors purchase snowbird homes in places like Havasu city Arizona, and are actively considering a snowbird home somewhere warm as well.

Cruising right now to us is exploring Prince William Sound Alaska and the northern edge of the Gulf of Alaska. As we have gotten used to this size boat, and used to running our business via satellite communications our excursions have increased in length, averaging five nights per trip this season.

During a typical trip we will be anchor'd out the entire time. There are no facilities where we go. We almost never anchor in the same spot more than one night in a row but we do have our favorites.

During the day we go fishing and shrimping. Where ever we are we try a new spot for shrimp. Sometimes we strike out, but most of the time we at least get enough shrimp for dinner. As far as the fishing part, we mostly bottom fish for Halibut, Rock Fish and Ling Cod. We also love the lowely plain cod. We don't even care if we catch much fish anymore, it's just something fun to do.

We bring our three dogs, and make frequent potty stops to shore. Sometimes we go on hikes but that is fairly limited in distance due to the very difficult to walk in terrain and the bears.

A typical trip for us is somewhere around 200NM in length, mostly at displacement speeds.

We also do another type of cruising. Our home is on a very nice lake in Alaska. We have a pontoon boat, watercraft, kyaks, and those stand up surfboards at our dock in the front yard. Pretty much every evening we make a circle around the lake, watching the birds, and the water creatures. This is a pretty popular past time with lake residents around "happy hour" and we are rarely the only pontoon boat out on the water. At normal pontoon boat speeds this is about a two hour cruise, and is a great way to signify the end of daytime activities and the start of night time.

To me cruising is just being out on the boat. I seldom have a destination in mind when I go out. I just go where conditions let me. Four to five hours is about my limit for being underway in a day. Fortunately here on the Maine coast there are lots of destinations available within that time window. I really like sitting at anchor in a pretty harbor, particularly if I have it to myself.

Great answers, and I notice that they are so far all from great cruising areas. The PNW provides nature and scenery in spades as does Maine. We cruise from the Chesapeake south. The Chesapeake is all about the area the history, the villages, and the anchorages. Down South it's all about the wonderful water whether fishing, swimming, or just cruising.

Life can throw a clinker into long range cruising plans. It did for me, but I'm not complaining. We have it pretty good down here.

Let's here some more, and cough up some pictures, please.

Wanna know what it's like to swim on deserted beaches in paradise? Hey, should septuagenarians really be doing this?

I'm really new to this, but I love aggressively rolling along during the day for about 12-18 hours through direct beam seas, occasionally stealing a glance over at my living wife who is giving me "wtf are we doing out here?" look. I then go back to fiddling with knobs and dials in an effort to look like I know what I'm doing. "Radio check. Radio check!"

Then we enjoy pulling into a crowded anchorage inhabited by a bunch of sail boaters who look like they have lived there since Mussolini invaded Abyssinia. After multiple hand signals and curses, we gently splash the 800lb Rocna perfectly, so we drift either over a shallow mud bank, or right next to the guy with a wind generator. But no worries, because we then fire up our "Mas noise" generator so we can get the cabin down to about 60 degrees and fog the windows.

We usually enjoy a few bottles of wine in the elegant "forward cockpit" with our friends the no seeums watching the sun slide behind the last condo, then turn in for a gentle rocking night's sleep (since I usually anchor so the offshore waves or. Oat wakes can enter the anchorage directly on my beam.

That's living!!

?

Forgot the pics!!

Hahahaha... That's rich.

cardude01 said:

I'm really new to this, but I love aggressively rolling along during the day for about 12-18 hours through direct beam seas, occasionally stealing a glance over at my living wife who is giving me "wtf are we doing out here?" look. I then go back to fiddling with knobs and dials in an effort to look like I know what I'm doing. "Radio check. Radio check!"

Then we enjoy pulling into a crowded anchorage inhabited by a bunch of sail boaters who look like they have lived there since Mussolini invaded Abyssinia. After multiple hand signals and curses, we gently splash the 800lb Rocna perfectly, so we drift either over a shallow mud bank, or right next to the guy with a wind generator. But no worries, because we then fire up our "Mas noise" generator so we can get the cabin down to about 60 degrees and fog the windows.

We usually enjoy a few bottles of wine in the elegant "forward cockpit" with our friends the no seeums watching the sun slide behind the last condo, then turn in for a gentle rocking night's sleep (since I usually anchor so the offshore waves or. Oat wakes can enter the anchorage directly on my beam.

That's living!!

?

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Bill, that is so eloquent that you should be writing ad copy for boat manufacturers.

Ha! I need to back away from the wine bottle.

And that pic was actually of Oliver's boat the day his auto-gyro super-active stabilizers failed. ?

(But I which I had his stabilizers. And his boat)

It's mostly the voyage. Nevertheless, here we're anchored on top of sunken Mildred Island for a couple of nights (socializing with several TFers' families):

My cruising aspirations are probably paralleled by many on here. I like coastal cruising and inland waterways for my (hopefully) retirement cruising.
Been to sea (and still there) and still have to do at sea ship rescue as ordered.
a Couple of more years and we'll see what happens. My other career keeps me busier than I would like to be. Make hay while the sun shines.

Wish I could say more about cruising but so far we have only done 30 to 40 miles at a time and then return . Always have to come back because of work . I like checking out new marinas and the boats that are there . We have only had our boat for three years and it has mostly been about working on it rather than cruising . The boat needed a lot of work but we are getting it there . This weekend we are planning a cruise to one of our favorite marinas in the area about 30 miles upriver . We look forward to retirement and more time to cruise but for now it's just some short trips .

Cardude has it right. thats cruising.

This!

Those too!
And the people you meet!

Then back to reality

cardude01 said:

Ha! I need to back away from the wine bottle.

And that pic was actually of Oliver's boat the day his auto-gyro super-active stabilizers failed. ?

(But I which I had his stabilizers. And his boat)

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I have fins, no spinning balls in this boat!

N4712 said:

I have fins, no spinning balls in this boat!

Click to expand...

Are you're fins controlled by a gyro?

Richard

Britannia said:

Are you're fins controlled by a gyro?



Richard

Click to expand...

I believe a accelerometer feeds it the roll data.

N4712 said:

I believe a accelerometer feeds it the roll data.

Click to expand...

Ah, ok, mine have a gyro sensor.

Richard

Come on guys. I was making all that auto gyro crap up. Y'all realize I don't what I'm talking about, right?

cardude01 said:

Come on guys. I was making all that auto gyro crap up. Y'all realize I don't what I'm talking about, right?

Click to expand...

yep. I did a little yanking back tho.

Cruising for me has meant mostly local day trips. I would love to cruise full time, but work keeps me away for most of the boating season, unfortunately. I do a lot of zooming around Oneida lake, anchoring off the local beaches on the weekends when I feel like being near a crowd. On my more introverted days, I'll zoom out to the middle of the lake, kill the engines and just drift for a while.

I try to get a longer trip in at least once a summer. Last year was a week and a half in the Thousand Islands, which was excellent. This year I'm not sure yet. I'm thinking either the Finger Lakes trip I had to postpone, or maybe the western Erie Canal. Maybe both.

For my money, an afternoon on the boat in the sun, some swimming, a little reading, maybe some tinkering, followed by a slow sunset cruise back home with some great music on the stereo... It's just the bee's knees. It's just so relaxing. By the time I get home, I'm so mellowed out that I'm in bed by 1030, and I sleep like a fat, happy baby. Life is good.

Now that I'm comprehensively retired, ideal cruising means wandering the Australian East Coast aboard a comfortable boat without any fixed schedule, looking for modest adventure in the company of similarly unencumbered comrades who understand the rule of weather.

I am a bit like John. I try to maintain the no fixed schedule but my small amount of work can still get in the way.
I love more tropical climes than southern colder places but the adventure still drags one to it occasionally.
I like my cruising mixed with free diving (spear fishing) and fishing of all types, beach walking and exploring.
My partner is more an isolationist than myself so we tend to mix solo time and social time during the cruise.
Benn

Cruising is not being at a dock.

Underway or anchored out ,its cruising.

Lesson learned: cruising is NOT having a schedule.