You know what? He’s probably the happiest dude we’ve met on the whole trip. We also met a single hander that has since completed his circumnavigation via all 3 stormy capes in a 26 foot monohull with no fridge using an old rope he found on the beach for an anchor rode. We helped deliver a 100 foot luxury yacht to New Caledonia and had boat envy when a 150 foot yacht that was even luxery’er pulled up in front of us. There’s a whiter one, a bluer one, a shinier one, and plenty that are in worse condition than yours. There’s a cheaper one, a more expensive one, one that’s better equipped, one that’s worse equipped. No matter what boat you are in there’s a bigger one in the next anchorage. There’s really no end to this list, but we have learned that it’s all irrelevant anyway. Sadly a dishwasher and helicopter were not standard features either. We can’t just do 30 knots when we’re sick of a passage. Tell me your least favorite thing about your boat If we had listened to all of the unsolicited advice we received at the beginning we would still be in Vancouver participating in a debate with others in an online chatroom about which boat hook is most suitable to take offshore, no doubt. There will be plenty of opportunities to do your fine tuning along the way. Do your homework, trust your judgment and get going. Nobody will research harder on your behalf, nobody will really know what you are capable of, or what you value or don’t value better than you will. The thing is nobody cares about you and your trip more than you do. Don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting that we knew better, far from it, in fact we knew nothing at all. We even made the mistake of paying for information from a so called expert in hopes of finding objective grounded information which turned out to be a complete waste of money. A lot of time was wasted second guessing our plans based on this kind of thing. We had more than enough advice, and the more we got the more biased information and personal slants we had to sort though. What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?īesides next weeks winning lotto numbers, nothing. You can find out more about them, their trip and contact details on their website.
Over those years they have cruised the Altlantic Ocean, Caribbean, Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. With zero sailing experience prior to departure, Seth and Jaime have been cruising since 2007 aboard Slapdash, a Gemini 105mc 34ft (10.5m) hailing from Vancouver BC Canada.