Marc, Author at SanDiegoSailing.com

Coping With Seasickness

August 22, 2010 by Marc

Coping With Seasickness
By Trish Lambert

I don’t get seasick in the way we usually think of that particular malady. I have never tossed my cookies over the lee rail of a moving boat. Still, I do get queasy in certain conditions. I remember feeling pretty green once when I was trying to work at the nav table while we were motoring downwind; the diesel fumes coming over the stern combined with the movement of the hull made it hard for my brain to make sense of the chart, and I didn’t stay below for long.

I always feel “punky” for the first three days of an offshore trip. Not necessarily nauseous-but definitely below par. This is pretty common; pretty much every sailor I of my acquaintance knows that it takes three days to get into the groove of ocean motion. Even folks who suffer from full-on seasickness get over it once their bodies have acclimated, which takes-you guessed it-about three days.

I find it interesting that many sailors of my acquaintance get seasick, and that the malady has not stopped them. The call of the sea is strong enough for them to medicate themselves, go through whatever discomforts they experience, and plan passages to allow their subpar performance for the first few days. Frankly, if I suffered the full green-ness of motion sickness, I don’t know if the siren song of the sea would be even remotely irresistible. So my sunhat is off to my cruising friends who sail in spite of the ailment.

Even if, like me, you don’t get seasick, you have most likely entertained guests on board who did. Therefore, it’s a good idea for any of us who like to be aboard boats to know the best strategies for fending off or at least minimizing the discomfort for our guests if not for ourselves.

Here, then, are some tips for dealing with boat-related tummy rumblings. These are by no means scientific-more like rules of thumb.

Prepare meals in advance for whatever length of time is appropriate. Have sandwiches, drinks, and finger foods readily available so that you don’t spend much time in the galley.
As a preventive measure, think ginger. The stuff really does help with seasickness. Pick your favorite: ginger ale or beer, ginger snaps, crystallized ginger, pickled ginger or (for the strong of heart) a slice of fresh ginger under the tongue. Start eating it the night before you set sail.
Stay on deck. It may seem like a good idea to go below and curl up on a bunk, but this is the worst thing to do. Stay outside, and, if possible, sit or stand where you can get the wind in your face and where you can focus on the horizon.
Better yet, take the helm. Not only will you get the wind in your face, and have to focus on the horizon, you will have something to do to keep your mind off your stomach.
Make an effort to delay the initial “tossing of cookies” as long as possible. Once begun, the body has a tendency to continue.
Keep yourself hydrated. Though the idea of ingesting anything might be extremely unattractive, you need to avoid adding dehydration to your problems. Drink small amounts of water regularly to offset loss of fluids.

Of course, drugs figure prominently in the seasickness equation, whether for prevention or treatment. While there are any number of over-the-counter as well as prescription treatments, this is a subject best discussed with a pharmacist or physician.

Trish Lambert ( http://www.successinsweatpants.net ) has been a cruising sailor for over twenty-five years and a first mate three times, with three different skippers and three very different cruising styles. She knows first hand what makes cruising successful, and what she has to share may surprise you! Whether you are a skipper or first mate, a singlehander or part of a cruising couple, sail boater or power boater, Trish has insights that will help make your cruising dream a reality.

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Sailing Offshore Cruising Yachts

August 22, 2010 by Marc

Sailing Offshore Cruising Yachts – A Light Hearted Look at Offshore Passages
By Gord Kerr

So, do you dream of sailing azure seas, lot’s of sun, the wind in your hair, crossing oceans, venturing into remote areas, sensing what true adventure is really like?

All of these experiences can be realized sailing on your very own yacht, and yes for the most part, if you value all of these things while experiencing different cultures the undertaking of world cruising on your yacht could be a life changing experience. I know it was for me!

I can speak of these endeavors on a first hand basis as yes, I am, “living the dream” so to speak.

My intention here is to give you a taste of the real experience of life on a cruising boat and how day to day living really plays out, not just a slick glossy pictorial like you see in Sailing magazines of bikini clad beauties holding martinis while standing on the bow, windblown hair, looking through a pair of Gucci sunglasses at the boys playing in the sparkling white sand between the swaying palms on the beach.

As real cruisers, we get interrogated from land dwellers with the same myriad of questions everywhere we go. They repetitively ALWAYS ask the same questions!

It’s actually pretty incredible that as we circumnavigate the globe, we can meet people of different race, culture, background, and geographical location. And, they always ask us the same questions! Sometimes they are even in the same order it’ is amazing, but it is true!

In fact a couple of times I even thought it would be fun to tell them that I’m actually clairvoyant. And “yes, I can read their mind”, Then proceed to sit with my head in my hands with an expression on my face (like I’m getting a really good whiff of some rank mouldy cheese). Close my eyes and moan a little. And then tell them what their question is! I have not actually done this as of yet, but I keep thinking it would be a lot of fun!

The first and number 1 question is “Have you ever been in a really bad storm”? This usually accompanies, “How high are the waves out there”? “What’s the biggest waves you have ever seen”? “Have you ever been really scared for your life”?

Question number 2, “What is it like crossing the ocean?, what do you do all day out there”? “Do you stop for the night to sleep?”

And the 3th question in sequence is “What is your favorite place is so far”?

So, from the top of the list, “Have we ever been in a really bad storm?”, the answer is… YES!

I call sustained 70 Knots of wind while being more than 60 miles from shore a really bad storm! In fact this was on our first week of inexperienced offshore cruising! Did it scare us? Hell Yes! Did we think we might die? Hell Yes! What did you think I was going to say, we were clapping high fives and passing Mai Tai’s around the cockpit? We spent a lot of time trying to hang on and we were very focused on the laws of sailing, something about keeping the larger amount of water on the outside of the boat!

How big were the waves? they were monstrous! (They are difficult to measure when you’re trying not to drown). They looked like blue and white alpine mountains! At least that’s how our only crew member described it, I’m not sure what he was taking besides sea sickness med’s at the time; it just seemed like an outstanding light and frilly description of some absolutely terrifying seas.

How big were they really? I took the opportunity to add the “really?” part here, as the documented height of the waves came from a third and legitimate source and not yours truly.

According to the Coast Guard, who was busy flying over us in helicopters picking people off yachts in the area, they said the wave heights were averaging around 45 feet! Our boat is 37 feet long.

So as you can imagine it was a bit intense. OK now…quick flash back here to bikini clad girl on bow, looking at the…well, you get the picture.

That experience was years ago, and we have gotten much better at reading weather charts and interpreting all those squiggly lines and arrows now! Nothing like the fear of impending death to create a little good old 8th grade cramming on the weather charts now before a passage. And the reality is we have never seen anything like that again in our seven years circumnavigating. Access to weather information and its precision has exponentially improved even in recent years.

It has become very easy to get a good read on forecasting for sailors now. In fact professional routers will tell you what course to sail depending on the conditions and capabilities of your yacht. They do charge for this service, which I’m at a loss to understand, as I have people I don’t even know trying to tell me where to go all the time!

OK so with that put to bed, The next big one. “What’s it like out there”?

Well let’s see, if you have a really good weather window and you decided to leave on, let’s say, a Pacific crossing. You get out there and the sailing’s good, the wind is brisk, the boat is speeding along, and you are at one with the universe. Wow, isn’t it grand. We relish these moments because we know that in our hearts this is where we are meant to be.

And I say that because if we weren’t there, I have no idea who would fix all the crap that’s about to break, fail and otherwise explode in pieces all over the deck! “What do we do on these passages”? We try and keep the boat and all the systems working and concentrate on pointing in the direction we actually want to go, while obsessing over those little squiggly lines and arrows on the weather charts, at the same time dealing with sleep deprivation, heat exhaustion and hours of boredom (after you’ve read every book on board) looking for the ship, submarine, whale, fishing boat, floating debris, half sunken container or____ (this section left blank to insert anything you would like to not collide with) while surfing in 12 tons of plastic yacht down a wave at 10 knots!

Oh yeah and then there’s cooking. My wife pre cooks (or prepares) most of our meals before we do passages. This way we can control the amount of food that needs to be scraped off the headliner, bulkheads, and cabin soles, clothing and ourselves. Ok, so scratch the clothing part out, after all it is hot!

We keep a “ship’s log,” and no, it’s not a piece of wood. In the ship’s log we enter all the events of the day, the weather, (that would be, yeah you guessed it, the squiggly lines and little arrows again), the sea state, (which is almost always best described as uncomfortable), and position. Position is where the boat is geographically, not what you and your partner were focused on a couple of hours ago when you should have been on watch.

We plot our course, which refers to the boat’s true or magnetic heading, and the date. I’m always particularly fascinated with the date thing, because yesterday was like today, and today kind of ends up like tomorrow, and I have come to the conclusion that we keep a ship’s log for two reasons. One is to keep us occupied while on watch so we don’t have mental avalanche thinking about all the things we could run into. And secondly, if we didn’t write the date….well, after about four days at sea you totally lose track of what day it is anyway, and furthermore you don’t really care! Your scenery looks like what you saw yesterday and you by now have figured out that it’s going to look pretty much the same tomorrow and for the next couple of weeks. It all turns into a great big watery ground hog day!

So let’s recap here. We spend a lot of time reading books and sitting in the cockpit sipping Martinis while the crew attend to the yacht!

Our “most favorite place”. This one is very difficult! Personally my most favorite place is in the bunk, after completing say, a 20-something day ocean passage and about half a dozen beers! But I don’t think that is really what the question is about.

Truth is we don’t have a favorite place, we have favorite places. We love almost everywhere we have been, for various reasons. Sometimes it’s the people, sometimes it’s the food. Could be snorkeling, diving, activities, scenery, sea life, seclusion. It’s really great to have your own private island for days on end. And sometimes, our favorite place is at sea surrounded by nothing but water. The truth is the reason is different for everywhere, because everywhere is different.

I guess the long and the short of it is we love it all. It’s a big world with lots of adventure and although it can be a challenging lifestyle, I maintain a light hearted approach to the trials and tribulations that we run into on a day to day basis. Stayed tuned for more because we are still happier being sea gypsies out here than being land dwellers back there. To us it’s worth it!

Gord Kerr hails from homeport of Victoria, B.C. Canada and has been cruising and racing boats since the early 1990’s. After years of cruising with his wife Ginny in the Gulf Islands and San Juans in the Pacific Northwest, they left Canada in 2003, sailing Ascension, their 1985 Beneteau First 375 sloop.

For the past 7 years Gord has been cruising on a circumnavigation from Canada, to Mexico, across the Pacific Ocean to the South Seas, then onto New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Australia. Passage through Indonesia and Malaysia brought him to Thailand, then across the Indian Ocean and through the Red Sea to Turkey. Following that he sailed the Mediterranean, crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 2009. Gord is currently in the Caribbean closing the gap on his round the world adventure.

To read more of the adventures of their circumnavigation, go to http://www.ascensionatsea.com

Contact: Email: ascension01@gmail.com

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Buying a Blue Water Boat

August 22, 2010 by Marc

Buying a “Blue Water” Boat
By Brittany Stephen

If you have dreams to cast off and sail around the world or cruise extensively in a particular area, you probably already know you need a “blue water boat”. There are a multitude of sites and blogs devoted to this exact subject. Our dream was to sail around the world in a safe, stout and seaworthy vessel. Here is what we did to turn our dream into a reality.

THE BOAT

Arguably, the most important – or rather – the most crucial element of this dream (besides the dream itself, of course) is a boat, and a sailboat to be specific. Seems pretty simple, right? Find a boat you like – buy it, provision it…and shove off! Yeah. Not so much. Looking for a boat is overwhelming, daunting and, at times, discouraging. But it is wonderful learning process.

You see, no two sailboats are alike – and there are thousands of different boats for thousands of different purposes. There are racers, cruisers, racer-cruisers, sloops, ketches, cutters and more. They are made of all different types of fiberglass, wood, steel, aluminum, and even ferro-cement. They have full keels, canting keels, fixed keels, fin and bulb keels and this is only the beginning! Quickly, I realized I needed to put together a list of “ideal criteria” for our boat to help narrow down the search.

Because we plan to cross oceans we knew we wanted a “blue water boat”. The definition of such varies depending on who you are talking to and where you are looking – but the simplest definition is “a boat that is specifically designed to go far offshore”. Just Google a “blue water boat” and you will find a litany of arguments, discussions, and posts on what everyone thinks this entails – but based on my research – I found it to be the following:

1) Seaworthy boat (meaning stronger built and/or purpose built blue water cruiser)

2) Full keel preferably with skeg hung rudder

3) 5′ (or less) draft

4) Fiberglass construction

5) 36-40 feet

6) Lots of tankage/stowage (for fuel and water)

7) Windlass (manual or electric)

8) Center cockpit – for safety and space – with LOTS of drains/drainage

9) Heavy displacement

10) Cutter rig

Keep in mind – there are a thousand other elements that go into a “blue water boat” but these were our (initial) “top 10”. And these helped narrow our search. And if you come up with your “top 10” it will narrow yours as well. The attributes above sacrifice speed which may or may not be important to you. The boat described above will not point and won’t beat to windward very fast but it will be very safe at sea. We chose to sacrifice speed for peace of mind when we do (inevitably) hit that weather that makes us wonder what the hell we think we are doing out there on the big ocean.

I spent countless hours on Yachtworld searching for Cruising sailboats between 35-40 feet, between 30K-60K and in the Great Lakes region. I would look at a boat, read the “full specs” and then do two things: 1) forward the boat to our boat broker and 2) research the boat a bit (Sailnet Forum is a great place for info by the way, as is Mahia Expedition’s List of Blue Water Boats). I learned a lot about boats doing this – I also learned that there is ALWAYS going to be more to learn. Fun!

Typically, our broker would email back immediately with his opinion, something like “this boat represents everything that is wrong with Chinese built boats” or “piece of junk”. This short and to-the-point information was all I needed to cross boats off the list. After week after week of this, I started learning more and more about “blue water boats” and the different makes of boats that seemed to pop up every time you searched for them. One such builder, Hallberg-Rassy was on every list and so, naturally, I hit Yachtworld and looked for them (and some others who also made frequent appearances). This is step two in finding your boat: find a few models/designers you like and search for them specifically.

It was discouraging at first, because all the most reputable builders and designers are also the most expensive – and pretty much all the HR’s I saw were well into the 6 figures – even for a 36 foot boat!! So I kept looking at other boats more in our price range until one day, while sitting in the confines of my office cube, the stars aligned…

I found a 1975 Hallberg-Rassy Rasmus 35 listed on Yachtworld in our price range. I jumped on it and immediately sent it to Scott and Allen. Allen replied simply “Hallberg-Rassy’s are world class boats if there’s enough space in it for you” and that was enough for me! We were given a green light! I’m pretty sure I found everything on the Internet there is to find about that particular boat – and I knew we had a gem on our hands!

Now, the first rule of thumb when buying a boat is to NEVER, EVER fall in love with a boat. This is because “falling in love” can lead you to make stupid, rash decisions with your heart rather than your head (and we all know that, don’t we?). So I don’t think we fell in love per-say, but we were REALLY attracted to her! Her lines were beautiful, she was impeccably maintained, and just a beautiful boat overall. We knew. While she might not be the one – she certainly could be.

We ended up buying her after a yacht survey, and we depart September 2010 for our around the world journey.

For more information or to follow our travels, stop by http://www.windtraveler.blogspot.com! We’d love to hear from you!

Brittany and her husband are sailing around the world in their Hallberg-Rassy Rasmus. They blog about their adventures at http://www.windtraveler.blogspot.com.

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Boat Slips – How to Find the Ideal Boat Slip

August 22, 2010 by Marc

By Jennifer Huff

Looking for a temporary or permanent boat slip to dock your boat? Finding the ideal location with boat slips meeting your boat’s unique needs can be challenging, but it does not have to be if you keep the following tips in mind as you search for your next slip:

Know your boat’s dimensions – the first step in finding a boat slip is to know all of your boat’s measurements, including its width, height and draft. If you are unsure of your boat’s measurements, you might end up renting a slip that will not accommodate your boat or is in water too shallow for your sailboat’s draft.
Accessibility to the boat slip – another important piece of information, particularly for sailors, is whether the slip provides sufficient access to the water in which you intend to travel. You must know whether there are any fixed bridges or other obstacles that would impede your access to and from the slip. If there are any bridges, research the clearance both at high tide and low tide to make sure your boat’s height will allow unrestricted access to your slip. Also, if there are any draw bridges in the area, you need to determine when and how those bridges are opened so that you can navigate to and from your slip.
Marina Slips – if you are searching for a marina slip, there are several factors you will want to consider. For example:

Does the marina slip have a fresh water supply on the dock?
Are there electrical hookups for each slip?
Are liveaboards or transients allowed?
Is there a fuel dock near the boat slip and does it offer the type of fuel required by your boat?
What other amenities are offered at the marina (laundry, internet access, supplies, etc.)?
Does the marina provide 24 hour access to your boat slip? What type of security is provided by the marina?
What are the marina’s procedures to protect your boat in the event of foul weather? Does the marina offer any type of insurance for both natural disasters and its own negligence?

Dry Docking – if wet slips are difficult to find or too expensive, you may want to consider a dry dock or stacked boat dock storage. Larger marina docks often have dry or stacked boat dock storage. One disadvantage to dry dock storage is that the marina will need to be notified in advance of when you intend to use your boat so that it can be removed from the dry or stacked storage. This is not the ideal situation for those boaters who want to get their boats to sea at a moments notice. However, the cost savings may outweigh the inconvenience associated with dry storage.

Following the above suggestions will take the hassle and stress out of finding the perfect boat slip.

My Port of Call makes it easy to search for boat slips meeting your exact specifications. Use these tips now to search for available boat slips.

Please visit http://www.MyPortOfCall.com for more informative articles and to search our listings of available boat slips for sale or rent.

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Coping With Seasickness

Sailing Offshore Cruising Yachts

Buying a Blue Water Boat

Boat Slips – How to Find the Ideal Boat Slip

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