Cruising and sailing Faq's and information, page 2

1) No, you don't need a captain's license so long as you aren't taking passengers for hire on your boat. Actually, neither the US or the rest of the world really cares about licenses for private yachts (though New Zealand and S. Africa require competency for their own citizens before allowing them to sail off into the wild blue yonder). Some insurance companies will consider giving you a lower rate if you have a captain's license, though we have only heard of this, not experienced it ourselves.

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2) Wherever you go, you will always need proof of ownership of your boat (registration papers); proof of your own
citizenship (passport), and radio license (though we have never been checked by anybody for having this). For a Canadian, I cannot think of any country/island that requires that you obtain a visa in advance, so there you
go, you've got it. I would, however, verify visa requirements if you travel outside of the US and Caribbean, or if you have a non-North American citizen on board when you visit any of these countries. The French islands can be terribly obnoxious at the most unexpected times, occasionally refusing entrance to citizens (Australia, with its insistence on requiring visas in advance for entry to their country, has been reciprocally denied entrance into Martinique, for example).

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3) As a US citizen, you should be able to flag the boat in the US. Go to: http://www.uscg.mil/ or even better, the vessel documentation center: http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/vdoc/nvdc.htm I am no authority on this issue, but I will try to give you some basic information.

With regard to getting your money back from the NZ government, I don't know the answer to that. What are the advantages to flagging the boat in the U.S.? Well, as a U.S. citizen, I assume that the only two options open to you are the US or NZ (though I have seen American citizens who have registered their boats in American Samoa and the Cayman Islands, but I do not know how that was done). For US documentation you must have a US address, no mail will be sent overseas for this. There are no federal taxes on a US-flagged boat, so there is no financial downside. Even though you choose a "home port" in the US, I do not believe that the state will have any record of the boat (we have never been contacted by Massachusetts for any taxes or documentation requirements, for example). That's about the extent of my knowledge or guesses.

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4) I have just been scanning and uploading slides of our travels, and the colors on those slides is sometimes startling. Water color is a function of clarity as well as what is on the bottom, ie, what can be seen on the bottom. Bora Bora Lagoon is an exquisite blue because it is so deep - 50' to 70' just about everywhere, giving a deep, gorgeous blue. Even more gorgeous are the waters surrounding the tiny island of Niue, again because the water is so crystal clear and deep - there are no bays or real beaches on the shore. That same unbelievable deep blue is in the middle of the ocean, no land anywhere. But sitting on the shore in the Caribbean and looking out, you see that same blue, plus the turquoise of the bays where the water is shallower - much shallower.

When we sailed to Beveridge Reef, and coral atoll in the middle of the S. Pacific, which has no land above water whatsoever, the clouds above the lagoon reflected the lovely blue-green of the center of the lagoon, which is
from 10 feet to 30 feet deep. The colors were startling because of the differences between the outside of the reef, a deep sapphire blue, and the inside which was turquoise and lighter. Generally, there are far fewer people inhabiting the Pacific islands as there are on the islands in the Caribbean, so the bays are cleaner as well.

However, in my opinion, the most beautiful water is to be found in the Bahamas. "Gin clear" is what they say, "gin clear" is what they are! But not in Nassau or Freeport. Elsewhere, however, it is a beautiful place to
cruise.

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5) I wouldn't say that there are "a lot" of families doing this, but there are some. Primarily in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Cruising families with children will always try to find anchorages and places where there are
other children for their children to play with, but often there aren't many other kids on boats. However, there are plenty of children on the shore for your kids to play with, so they should not lack for companionship.

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6) Not knowing your level of experience, the draft of your yacht, the gear that is on the yacht, and your ability to use it, my first suggestion would be for you to hire a professional captain if you are unfamiliar with the area you
are planning to cross during hurricane season. My philosophy is to stay away from the hurricane belt entirely. I can't recommend any insurance companies or agencies - I have no experience with motor yachts of that size or value. And recommendations for any safe harbor are dependent upon a knowledge of the boat to go there, i.e., draft, size, etc., and the experience level of the crew.

Generally, insurance companies do not want to insure a boat that is kept in the hurricane belt during hurricane season. In general, the hurricane belt runs from 10 degrees N or S of the equator up. Venezuela was one place where boats used to be able to go to avoid hurricanes, but one or two have ripped through there. Get a few good cruising guides to bring you down and around. Panama, Venzuela, -Costa Rica are generally hurricane-free. You might want to invest in a membership to the Seven Seas Cruising Association (www.ssca.org) and buy their compilation of past Commodore's bulletins which are on CD for about $25. Many references to hidey holes that people have used during the season. Though I can't remember reading about a yacht as large as the one you have
going to those places.

The following link is to my photos of the results of Hurricanes Hugo and Luis in the Caribbean: http://www.fototime.com/inv/2F8BE0989CB9A2F

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7) Probably the best source would be the Red Sea Pilot - see following link: http://www.seabooks.com/search.asp?type=title&var1=Red+Sea+Pilot

Not having done this trip, I can't speak from experience, but Arabs have been doing it for many centuries. Most yachts make the trip up the Red Sea to the Med between February and April, taking their time to wait for favorable winds. I believe that the reciprocal trip is made in the end of the summer season, but I'm not sure. The Red Sea Pilot, the British Admiralty Pilots, The British Admiralty's "Ocean Passages for the World", Jimmy Cornell's "World Cruising Routes" are all valuable reference books.

A new book I just discovered might also be of use to you: INDIAN OCEAN Cruising Guide, Author: HEIKELL, ROD Year: 1999. This is also listed at the Seabooks website. Do a search on "Pilot" and you will find dozens of different cruising guides listed for just about every area of the world. There's an East Africa Pilot as well ( http://www.cruiser.co.za/africa.asp ).

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8) The first time I saw this was on an old British Admiralty chart for an anchorage in Vanuatu. Threw me. I'm surprised that the Australian charts still have them. Though why should I be surprised, people still give their weight in stones!

Anyway, 1 Cable = 720 feet, though it might be easier to remember that it's 120 fathoms.

A useful website I have book-marked is the following one that converts measures - metric, old Russian, nautical, whatever. The web site is: http://www.speckdesign.com/Tools2a.html

If you see a powerboat named Beowulf, sometimes at Lawrie's Marina in Mooloolaba/Budderim, sometimes further up the coast, look up Glenn and Val, expat Americans who are most friendly and helpful. Tell them I said Hi! And if you get to Lawrie's, say hello to everybody for us! We miss them. Enjoy. Nice people.

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9) This is a matter of personal choice. I am opposed to carrying guns, and you can read more about this at Watermelon's web site: www.cruiser.co.za/hostmelon.asp "Bits & Pieces" has my longish comments in "Piracy"( www.cruiser.co.za/hostmelon2.asp ). And I've posted a friend's reported pirate attack (http://www.cruiser.co.za/hostmelon39.asp)

The chances of being attacked at sea are pretty slim. When you are in port, if you have a weapon you've got it illegally, since just about every country we have entered has required that the gun be held by Customs until the boat leaves. That hasn't stopped people from carrying handguns, but what do you tell officials when you've shot somebody? Chances are that you, the foreigner with an illegal gun, are going to jail. And jails outside North America or Western Europe aren't places you can expect to leave alive. Sorry, that's the reality. But it's still up to each person to decide for himself.

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10) No, it isn't that bad! Not by a long shot, or we wouldn't still be so happy cruising after 16 years.

Horrendous diseases: actually, because cruisers are so self-sufficient, they tend to run less risk of contracting some horrendous disease than the tourist who is totally dependent upon shore-side facilities. (A family friend took months to get over a Giardia infection he contracted from the drinking water while on a tour to the Galapagos - it never occurred to him that a $200+ a day trip would not be as sanitary as being at home.) But since long distance cruisers are so far from home, and sometimes so far from shore and ANY kind of medical care, they need to be a bit more cautious and more aware of what the risks are, and how to handle them. If, like us, you go to the truly primitive places, not only are you faced with being 100%
responsible for your own medical care, but you will be asked by the locals for help as well.

Did you read my take on piracy? In Bits and Pieces: www.cruiser.co.za/hostmelon2.asp

Robbers: we're from the USA - I hate to say this, but people lock their cars when they are in a car park. We almost never lock the 'Melon when we're in an anchorage. Some places of the world don't consider taking something that they need to be robbery. You're from the UK - is it any better there? I would say that there is less chance of being robbed while cruising than there is just staying at home in either the US or most of Europe.

And checking into and out of a country isn't that big a deal most places. Mexico has a terrible reputation, but I understand they're working to improve it. The only reason it's more difficult than checking in at an
airport when you fly into a country is because you are riding in a sizeable caravan that could carry lots of smuggled goods or people, and you usually stay a lot longer than the week or two that an airborne tourist stays. I've found that when I take a book or magazine to read to fill the slow times in check-ins makes the time go faster, and sometimes speeds the officials up. Making a deposit into a French bank on the island of St. Martin, or going to their post office, took far, far longer than checking into a country. They used to play video movies for the people in line. You could watch an entire Hollywood movie in the time it took you to make your bank deposit or mail your letters! And the Frenchmen told me it was not a whole lot better on the Continent. So take people's complaints with a grain of salt. Americans just like to complain - if they aren't complaining about the country they're in, they're complaining about their own country, ad nauseum.

Cruising is a wonderful lifestyle, and the people you meet, the cultures you experience, the art and natural wonders that will just awe you, are worth every single minute of inconvenience you might experience.

Fair winds,
Jeanne

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11) We saw a lot of dogs in the Caribbean, where most islands have few restrictions on them. Since dogs require lots of exercise, I can't personally recommend taking a dog cruising - it seems rather cruel to me,
but many people did. How did they cope? The smaller dogs seemed to do okay, but even for them it's a restricted life.

In the Pacific, it's really a problem. Most countries have extremely strict quarantine, or prohibit a dog into the country. Same for cats. Most of the S. Pacific islands do not have rabies, and thus they are unwilling to allow a dog into the country from a country that does have rabies. One fellow had a labrador retriever, and in Fiji it was not allowed off his boat, and he couldn't sail to Australia or New Zealand because of their quarantine restrictions. I felt sorry for the dog, restricted to such a small range.

A friend of ours was given a dog as a gift while they were in the Mediterranean. She had to give it away because the dog couldn't adjust to life on board and was making itself ill. It needed to be on land to relieve
itself, not always possible for several days. Muslim countries consider dogs unclean, and make them very unwelcome.

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12) I have absolutely no regrets, and there is no doubt that I would do it again. We have enjoyed experiencing the different cultures, seeing the wonderful places this world has to offer, and being treated wonderfully by the overwhelming majority of people that we meet. And all this in the comfort of our own home! Although we went from a mid-city apartment of more than 3,000 square feet to a 39-foot boat (we've added 3 feet to her stern, so she's about 42 feet now - but it did not add living space) which required us to consolidate our possessions, and resist acquiring lots of "stuff", I do
not believe we gave up anything. Rather, we gained: experience, knowledge, freedom, friendships. And it is so beautiful out there!

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13) You do not need a visa in advance for Trinidad, and apparently also no longer need one for Venezuela. I would suggest that you confirm this with other cruisers as you get closer to VZ. A good source of country information, including entry requirements, is Jimmy Cornell's site, Noon Site: http://www.noonsite.com/

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14) In my opinion, boric acid is useful for killing cockroaches and as a laundry product. It has also been used as a treatment for minor fungal infections of the skin. NOT as an eyewash. The following is reproduced from U.S. Pharmacist

Self-Treatment for Minor Eye Conditions ( from U.S. Pharmacist )
Products to Avoid

Patients sometimes resort to home remedies such as chamomile tea compresses, but these kinds of homemade interventions should generally be avoided. Some patients may believe that boric acid is safe and effective as an antiseptic eyewash, but it is not. They may attempt to create a solution from boric acid powder, or boil boric acid solution to create their own eye drops. The risk of boron toxicity makes this practice potentially dangerous. Furthermore, any ophthalmic infection mandates immediate medical attention. Some web sites also promote unproven remedies such as colloidal silver, internal Echinacea, marigold flower topical soaks, and honey. All of these remedies lack proof of efficacy. The risks of placing an unproven, non-sterile product in one's eye outweigh any of the possible benefits. Various herbal products can be prepared for ophthalmic instillation, but they may cause serious damage. In one case, a patient using a contaminated eyedrop experienced irreversible corneal scarring. The pharmacist should advise patients to avoid all eye products that are not prepared using aseptic technique.

Jeanne's comments: I believe in self-sufficiency, but I know that many old-fashioned home remedies have gone out of style because they were either ineffective or dangerous, or both. When it comes to the eyes, mistakes are disastrous, so use preparations that are specifically prepared for their treatment. A bottle of sterile eye wash is relatively inexpensive. One other comment. Don't buy this type of product in third-world countries where the risk of counterfeit products of questionable sterility and content is high.

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15) Most South Pacific islands, and Australia and New Zealand in particular, have exceptionally strict restrictions regarding bringing animals into their country. If the dog was acquired in a rabies-free country, and you could prove that the dog never touched land until arriving back in Australia, it might be possible to get the dog in with a minimum of hassle and quarantine. However, if, while you are sailing around, Australia encounters some new problem with diseases brought into the country by a dog, you can be sure that the rules will change and you will be plumb out of luck when you arrive with your dog.

Europe and the US make it relatively easy to bring a dog in, though you will need rabies certificates renewed each year, and clearing into the country might require a visit from an official from another department, and various quarantine requirements. Islamic countries consider dogs unclean and will shy away from them, even throw rocks at them - you are going to make the officials who come to your boat rather unhappy, and you will be very unpopular if you bring the dog ashore (if they allow it at all, which I doubt). Personally, I think that taking a dog cruising is rather unfair to the dog. Not all dogs adjust well to life on a boat - a friend had to give away her shar pei because it couldn't relieve itself on the boat - it needed dirt and grass - a 10-day crossing of the Atlantic would have killed it.

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16) I hesitate to answer this question for several reasons. Firstly, if you are not an experienced sailor, to consider taking paying passengers out on a sailboat is rather risky, for you as well as for your passengers. Secondly, licensing is intended to protect your passengers by assuring our government that you know what you are doing. The Coast Guard makes it difficult for the same reason that it's difficult to get an electrician's license, or plumbing license, or whatever. Having had to suffer from amateur wiring and plumbing in other parts of the world, I welcome our country's requirements.

I don't know what would happen if you bought the boat in another country, and I don't know what their licensing requirements are. Can you afford to own the boat without insurance? Can you afford the liability if something goes wrong and the authorities in the foreign country throw you in jail because
you are a rich American and have done something wrong by their laws? It happens. By the way, if you are looking at a boat being sold in another country and don't have access to a surveyor, BE CAREFUL! We would not consider buying a boat without it being inspected by a qualified surveyor,
nor would we expect anyone to buy our boat without it being surveyed. Read DEAD CALM - horrible book, but some important points about what happens when the people don't know what they're doing.

Please reconsider your plans.

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17) Is this your own boat, or a charter? If your own boat, the header for the crew list would show: Yacht name: , Registration Number: (i.e., US #, or Calif. #, whatever); Country of registry, owner's name.

Crew list column headers: Name; Position (i.e., captain or crew - never passenger); Date of birth; passport Information - country, number, place of issue, expiration date.

Enjoy the Caribbean, beautiful water, glorious sailing.

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18) First, I'm sorry this is so late, but.... the good news is that yesterday I got a lot of pictures of another hard dodger with hard bimini that you might be interested in seeing.

Our hard dodger is about chin height - from the steering wheel I have to stand on my toes to see over it, or duck down slightly to see through the window. I've included links to our photos of Watermelon gear. We can attach our bimini to the dodger, but not directly - we attach a panel to the bimini that then connects to the back edge of the dodger. We like to be able to see the sails. When it is very light air, very sunny, and very hot, we sometimes put the panel up while we're sailing, though usually it's only up
when we're at anchor. Basically, it only covers the companionway and slightly further back - so I can sit in the companionway and be protected. I think that this is a reasonable compromise, giving us visibility and control when we need it, but the option of covering up more when things are calm and hot. Here's the link to photos of Watermelon's gear: http://www.fototime.com/inv/19FAEC458BFF5BC

"Ballerina's" dodger is more ambitious than ours. Ballerina is a LaFitte 44. here's the link to his photos: http://www.fototime.com/inv/2A85926CAD92D03

Also see: http://www.cruisenews.net/tanzer/2002delivery/71.jpg

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19) Cruisers' approaches to this lifestyle are exceedingly varied. A number of them have cruising-related skills that they can use to finance their cruising. Such as: sailmaker; refrigeration mechanic; diesel mechanic; shipwright. Canvas work, such as dodgers, sail covers, sun canopies. There are chefs who stop in places and find work. One fellow was a fine liquor salesman/representative, who sailed into ports and made calls on all the liquor stores/hotels/restaurants in the area (well, it was a bit more complicated than that, I [barely] understand, but I hope you get the drift). Some people have retired and receive a pension and/or Social
Security. There are licensed delivery captains, paid crew on charter boats in the more touristy areas, manufacturer's representatives. I'm sure there are a few "remittance men", though I've not met one yet. Since it's often tough to get work in other countries legally, a lot of work is under the table providing services to other yachties. Some cruisers work as cooks on crewed charters, sell bread to the other yachts in an anchorage, make jewelry to sell to whomever. A few artists who draw or paint scenes they encounter in their travels, and their work is good enough to sell. Some pretty talented and ingenious people out here.

The common thread is that long-term cruisers generally own their boat outright and have no debt, so it's a bit easier to tighten the belt when things get a bit thin. It takes some planning to finance this lifestyle, but that's true of most worthwhile things in life.

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20) Yes, harbor hopping is the most common way of doing it, waiting out the weather for a good window to the next port. Our friends have told us that South African weather reporting is quite good. Some people do indeed sail 'way offshore, out of the Agulhas current, and around, but the only person I know personally who did that got hit by several gales. We haven't done it, but I think it's a bit like going east along the Venezuelan coast to Trinidad, where you short-tack motorsail close to the coast to avoid the nasty current. But the weather along VZ is a bit milder than the S. African weather.

A good resource to get is Tony Herrick's brand-new "Southern African Cruising Notes" - it's an ebook for download, and might be just the thing for you. Go to: http://www.cruiser.co.za/tony10.asp

Also on that page is a free download, "Welcome to Durban - a Sailor's Guide" and "Cape to Caribbean Cruising Notes" - all by Tony Herrick.

Check here and the Cruiser Log (http://www.cruiser.co.za/africa.asp ) for more news as you go and follow the comprehensive S.A. weather links at http://www.cruiser.co.za/tony.asp .

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21) I have never canned fish, and my two references, "Putting Food By" and a mini-publication put out by Ball canning jars (I think it's very old) say not to can fish, but to leave it to the professionals. I never felt that it was
necessary to can fish, since we could always catch them, and good canned fish has been available every country we've visited (I used to overdose on Venezuelan canned tuna, and a friend loaded down his boat with their canned
sardines).

Sorry I can't be more help.

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22) Did you go to the FAQ, "Preserving Food", and "Provisioning"? That has quite a bit.

My cruising has been almost exclusively in the tropic latitudes, and I find that most fruits will ripen very quickly no matter what you do. So I've learned to use most of them in baking sweet breads (papaya bread, banana bread, raisin/cranberry/orange/ whatever bread, etc.). This has an added benefit of providing me with a welcome gift to other yachts, or to villages we visit ashore.

I have not heard of wrapping fruits in foil, it would seem to me that it would accelerate spoilage. I think that one of the reasons that wrapping vegetables in newsprint is popular is that it wicks condensation away from the veg's, and keeps them dry (this is most successful for cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli. Asparagus, if the bottoms are wrapped in a moist paper towel and the entire bunch then wrapped in newsprint will keep for more than a week. Carefully washing them in a chlorine solution and drying thoroughly is probably most important. Apples keep for a long time, provided they are kept cool - you'll also find them just about everywhere worldwide.

I use a lot of capsicum, and I have found that those individually shrink-wrapped in plastic film and then refrigerated will keep for better than a week, sometimes two weeks.

There are special plastic bags for keeping vegs and fruits fresh - they're available in Oz, though I never had a lot of success with them.

Celery - I clean carefully, remove all leaves, dry thoroughly, store in plastic containers with a piece of paper on the bottom to absorb condensation. Every time I use some I check the rest in the container, cutting away all discolored spots, re-cleaning and drying them before replacing. Hard to keep for more than two weeks, but sometimes I am lucky and they keep for more than a month.

During long passages, I use the most fragile vegetables first. I then blanche the vegetables that are getting close to their "use by" date, and store them in a viniagrette dressing, which will keep them for another week or two. Carrots, potatoes, and onions keep for a very long time so long as they are kept from the light, and in the case of carrots, wrapped in paper, whether newsprint or butcher paper, to keep some of the moisture in without letting them sit in wet where rot can set in.

The reason there are so many recipes for all sorts of pickled vegetables is because before refrigeration it was one of the best ways to preserve vegetables for long periods of time.

But there are very few places where we have had difficulty finding fresh vegetables, though sometimes only trading goods enables us to obtain them from the locals (as in Papua New Guinea, some places in the Solomon Islands, and some of the out islands in French Polynesia), and sometimes the selection is pretty sparse, and we have to learn to try new things or go without.

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23) Each country has its own rules regarding admitting animals, the strictest being the countries in Oceania - i.e., South Pacific islands Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Australia, New Zealand. New Zealand and Australia are the strictest of this bunch, and also very expensive if you have an animal. And they don't care if the animal has had shots, certificates, or anything - if it came from a country where there is rabies, it is suspect and will be quarantined in various fashions. The rest of the world isn't so difficult, but I can't say you won't have troubles because I don't know and haven't heard much one way or the other. The Caribbean has practically no rules (except for possibly the French islands), European Union countries have tried to standardize their rules, though I can't say what they are.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but we did not take our animals with us. I tried searching for web sites that could give you that information, but in a quick search I was unsuccessful in getting much that was helpful. I think you need to check each country you plan to visit.

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24) Every country has laws regarding foreigners working. Although many cruisers do work to pay their way, they are usually illegally working in the country in which they have stopped. The ones who have the easiest time are those who cater to the needs of the cruising community - diesel mechanics, sail makers, refrigeration experts, shipwrights. Because they are working under the table, they can't charge as much as they could in their home country; and in the less developed countries of the world, they are competing against the cheap labor of the country, so their skills have to be better than what is locally offered.

One fellow was an expert at seashells, and collected live specimens and sold them to collectors - but that requires a special knowledge and special market as well. A few cruisers in the Caribbean used to sail down to Venezuela, buy large amounts of the very good and cheap coffee there and bring it back up the island chain to sell to other cruisers for twice what they paid, which was less than half what it sold for in the Caribbean islands they visited. (but if they got caught by the VZ authorities, they ran the risk of the coffee being confiscated because they were paying local rates, not export rates). And on, and on.

Friends of ours, who worked their way around the world, were very flexible, working as cooks, waiter/waitress, seamstress, handyman, etc. They also got thrown into jail in Dutch St. Maarten when the government made a sweep of all the business establishments to search for illegal workers. A bit worrisome for them, though it came out all right. It won't always, from stories that I've heard.

We met American cruisers who stopped to get work in American Samoa on their crossing of the S. Pacific. Some got stuck there for years, never quite having enough to continue, always finding an excuse to stay for just another year.

Certain skills are in such demand that you can work legally, though not everywhere. Nurses, radiologists, most other technical medical positions (though not necessarily doctors, except certain specialists).
Master mariners (ship captains) can do short-term contract work supervising the movement of drill rigs.
Computer programmers, etc.
Teachers, particularly in the sciences and technical fields.
English teachers in Japan.

However. Almost all countries require that a person apply for a work visa through that country's embassy outside the country (i.e., you can't go to a country on a tourist visa, find a job, and get a work visa while still there. You have to leave the country to apply, and then return. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I don't know how to accomplish it.)

It can be done, but I suggest that you have a fairly comfortable cruising kitty so that you need not depend upon working in every country you visit.

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25) Regarding choosing a boat, I would say that even if you make a mistake, it's not necessarily an irrevocable mistake if you choose the "wrong" boat. I think that the best way to know what is going to be a comfortable boat for you is to sail on it for a while. If that means chartering the boat for several weeks, then that is what I would recommend your doing. Until you have sailed on a number of boats you aren't going to have a very good idea of what is going to be comfortable and workable for you. There are a fair number of "broken dreams" boats to be found in Oz and NZ - foreign cruisers who reach your shores and for one reason or another want to sell their boat. Thailand and Langkawi, Malaysia are some other places.

If you visit any of the cruising bulleting boards and ask this question you will get a confusing babble of different opinions. So much depends on your personal situation, but the input is still valuable.

Will you be single-handing or do you have a partner? What are you comfortable living in? Do you do a lot of camping? The size of the boat, and its setup, would of necessity be different if you will be single-handing, though I don't believe that simply having one other person aboard justifies a large increase in size of a boat.

Some of the reasons we found Watermelon so comfortable.

Watermelon is a fiberglass (GRP) boat. I've listened to all the arguments about steel/aluminum/GRP/wood.

My personal opinion:

Aluminum is expensive, the problems with electrolysis can be horrific, and in the more out-of-the-way places of the world, welding/repair can be very difficult. I would leave aluminum to the professionals and the racers.

Steel has the advantage of being "stronger" than GRP, but the price you pay for preventing rusting through the hull is unacceptable to me. You need lockers that can drain any water into the bilge, which means any bilge water can get into your lockers. Corrosion can be quiet and hidden until the leak comes. The advantage is that you can repair steel anywhere in the world.

Wood is the most difficult to maintain, particularly in the tropics where you have to worry about worms and rot, etc. 12 months a year. Also, in general, wood boats do not have as much interior space for their size than a comparable boat in GRP, steel, aluminum.

GRP is pretty easy to repair, though obtaining the materials can be difficult in some places (such as the Solomons, PNG, parts of SE Asia), but it is not an insurmountable problem and you can do it yourself with little in the way of special skills or tools.

WATERMELON is a typical French boat, lots of berths, small spaces, lots and lots of storage. See schematic: http://www.fototime.com/E0A7043CFBB0CDA/standard.jpg

What makes Watermelon so nice for ocean passages are the two after cabins. They are supposedly double berths, and for a week's vacation, two people could sleep in each of them, but for living, I think it would be very uncomfortable. However, for passages, each of us having a separate cabin in the after portion of the boat made for comfortable sleeping no matter what the weather. And sleeping right under the cockpit, we could hear any call for help easily.

Friends of our cruised for years on a small boat with no separate sleeping quarters. Their saloon was also their sleeping berth, which had to be made up every evening. We could not have been happy in such a circumstance, but they were.

Watermelon is a moderate displacement boat with a relatively deep (7' 2") fin keel. Most cruisers will tell you that you need a full keel, heavy displacement shoal draft boat. I disagree, but find that this is the one area where differences of opinion seem to be set in stone. So I'll tell you what we found good about that keel.

Fin keels make for better sailing ability. The boat will tack faster, go to weather better, and because it is relatively light, sail faster. We are not talking huge increases in speed, just a consistent one or two knots quicker overall. The disadvantage is that the boat's movement will be livelier. Not knowing anything else (our earlier boat was truly light displacement, VERY lively), it never occurred to me that this was a drawback. I was always able to cook and make coffee while underway, no matter how "bad" it was. Sometimes just traveling between the chart table and the cockpit was a challenge, but never dangerous or uncomfortable for very long. The boat had lots of hand-holds, and I could strap myself into the galley so I had both hands free most of the time.

I still think that a fin keel is an advantage, not a disadvantage. We have gone aground several times, and have always been able to get ourselves off quickly and easily. Partly that is because only the tip of the keel hits, and so getting off the bar or reef is relatively easy since so little keel area is touching the ground. Too often with a full keel boat with a cut away forefoot, by the time you realize you are aground, four or five feet of the keel is stuck in the sand or mud, and all that surface creates lots of friction making it difficult to just slide back off. The depth sounder transducer should be well forward of the keel, so you have some warning of loss of depth. I have noticed a few boats with full keels where the depth sounder transducer is several feet aft of the beginning of the full keel -you would be well aground before you had any idea that you had encountered a shoal.

You want a boat that is in good condition with relatively uncomplicated systems that you can repair yourself. If you cruise outside of your own country, you will find that getting work done can be difficult and expensive.

Winches should be self-tailing. Short-handed, sailing in all conditions, you need both hands for whatever the situation calls for, and to use one to tail sheets is a serious disadvantage.

You should have a system where all lines and sheets lead back to the cockpit.

For the first seven or so years of cruising we had a manual anchor windlass, only finally installing an electric one. Peter admits that the electric windlass has been a big improvement.

All storage compartments should have secure latches so that they cannot accidentally open while underway. Batteries should be in battery boxes and be securely strapped down so they do not move no matter what the weather.

Trying to go over what is good, what isn't so good is tough. I think that you should look at boats, then pose questions about certain features onto one or two cruising bulletin boards, such as the Cruiser Log Forum:
http://www.cruiser.co.za/forum.asp

Join the Seven Seas Cruising Association, go to: www.ssca.org

Talk to cruisers - there are lots in Oz - we spent our time in Brisbane (go down to Manly - lots and lots there) and Mooloolaba (Mooloolaba Yacht Club, Lawrie's Marina) and met many. I'm sure there are as many in Sydney. Get yourself into a crew position for the Sydney-Mooloolaba regatta, or some of the cruising regattas (NZ to Tonga or Fiji, many in Oz, etc.)

I'm sending a copy of this to the webmaster for the Cruiser Log http://www.cruiser.co.za , who may (or may not) be cruising around Oz right now.

Feel free to ask questions. I like to talk about cruising (I recently noticed that when introducing ourselves to other cruisers, I say "we're Watermelon" rather than "we're on Watermelon." In many ways, not only is cruising our way of life, it's a part of our identity.)

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26) I admire your enthusiasm. Ten days offshore is a bit more than a short blue-water cruise. Most people start with a few one- or two-day offshore crossings to get themselves ready, and often never make a passage as long as ten days. On the other hand, for some people, ten years of in-shore and coastal cruising is not enough - for others, less than a year and they're ready and able to go. That said, here are some questions you should ask yourself:

how are your navigation skills? Can you navigate to a location that you have never seen before? Do the charts make sense to you - in other words, can you visualize the features that are shown two-dimensionally on the chart? How aware are you of your own limitations? - the most common criticism we make of certain people is that they don't know what they don't know.

how good is your gear? Have you tested it, and can you trust it in any conditions? Do you have proper radio and emergency gear and know how to use it?

have you cooked meals while underway? I've heard of people making two-week passages who have eaten nothing more than crackers and cheese the entire trip, but.... In my opinion good nutrition on a passage makes the trip go faster and easier, and keeps a person fit no matter what circumstances throw at you.

will you be comfortable sailing for over a week outside the sight of land and with only one other person to talk to? Can you two get along and maintain a sense of humor when you're both cold and wet and uncomfortable?

If you feel comfortable with your own skills, the condition of your boat, and the soundness of your gear, I'd say go for it, though probably to a shorter destination than Manila for your first offshore passage. I believe in successes - they give you the confidence to reach a bit further, so a couple successful overnight passages are a pretty good way to get yourself ready, test yourself and a friend before heading out into the wild blue yonder.

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27) It depends on whether you are considering flying to another state or another country. There are places that I call "broken dreams" ports, where a boat winds up and its owner won't/can't sail it back home, so it's for sale. Some of these boats are incredible bargains. But some are sitting there for more than a year for a good reason. The broker is working for the seller, so you cannot really expect the best advice from them. Not all surveyors are equally competent - we've seen the best and worst in places. The best is so busy that the worst gets business by default, and woe to you if you're the one who gets the bad one because you don't have the time to wait for the better fellow.

Peter and I are traveling the East Coast of the U.S. right now, looking for a new boat. We still haven't found what we want, but one thing we are sure of. When we find a boat we think we'd like, we expect to charter the boat for between one and two weeks. We plan to make this a condition of sale before a survey is done (another very important requirement for buying a boat). Living on a boat, using it as we would normally do, will give us a reasonably good idea of any big problems and/or features we can or cannot live with. This would not, and should not, replace a survey by a qualified marine surveyor, but it is, for us, a most important step in buying the boat.

We have lived aboard for such a long time that we are quite sure of what we can live with, and what problems/discomforts are minor. Regardless of how wonderful a boat may be, living aboard a cruising yacht requires many compromises, both large and small, and some changes in the way one lives. Not to say these changes and compromises are bad, just that they require an "attitude adjustment".

I guess my answer is that what you propose to do can work out very well, but I would be very, very careful before taking this step. There are so many problems that aren't immediately obvious that sometimes what is needed is "local knowledge" - I don't know if you can acquire that so quickly.

Another example: a friend of ours is selling his boat. the boat is a disaster in so many ways I couldn't possibly list them all here. However, a reasonable clue - he has lots of receipts of repairs and/or "upgrades", implying that the boat has been improved. It hasn't. All the repairs were necessary because the boat had many inherent problems when our friend bought it used, and our friend has not cared for the boat properly, and has had some nasty run-ins with groundings and immovable objects he's hit. Although I think that for the right price and the right person this boat could be a worthwhile choice, I would hope that it went to a knowledgeable person at a price well below the asking price (a steep 25-30% discount, in my opinion, would not be unreasonable). For somebody with the time to talk to people, look around and come back several times, and take the boat out, the purchase would be an educated purchase. If you are desperate to buy a boat and think you've found a bargain, please beware. In my experience, there aren't many bargains.

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28) Various ways to avoid - very popular has been Avon's "Skin So Soft", though it didn't seem to work for me. But many cruisers swear by it.

I find any insect repellant with DEET seems to work, my favorite is a Belgian product called "Mosquito Milk", in a roll-on bottle.

As far as handling the itching once they've bitten, "After Bite" works, as does (?) Benadryl (?) spray. I personally wash the skin with vinegar first (to disinfect the skin), then usually just used a baking soda and water solution, which worked for me. Sandflea bites tended to go septic in French Polynesia, perhaps because of all the pigs, so it is important to keep your skin very clean - vinegar and rubbing alcohol are very effective, killing bacteria as well as mold/fungus infections. The antihistamines in "After Bite" and other such sprays serve to stop the itching. I'm sure there are other remedies (perhaps Calamine Lotion, though we've never carried it), and often local remedies work best.

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29) Any book you are comfortable with is okay. We used spiral bound notebooks for a while, then switched to small school exam books when our passages were fewer and our stops longer - i.e., these little books couldn't cover a year's worth of logs earlier in our cruising, but in later years, as we spent most of our time in Malaysia with only short infrequent passages, the smaller books were adequate.

I kept a separate diary, so we never felt the need to use the log book as a diary as well.

The log book should record information that the off watch person can use after you have gone off watch. Date. Time (recorded in UTC or Zulu time because we often crossed time zones). Position. Distance covered. VMG. Notes about the weather, wind direction. Barometer reading at least once a day, or periodically if it is rising or falling. (This last we didn't bother with during our years in the Caribbean, where things don't change for months on end. It was easy to get lulled into a false sense of security).

We considered our log as our starting point for Direct Reckoning when (not if) our GPS' went down. At least twice in our cruising history the U.S. military degraded/turned off the GPS signals for several days. We heard a number of boats calling in mild panic because they had no idea where they were, and where they had to go. We have also been hit by lightning once, wiping out most of our electronics.

It is important to always assume that something will go wrong and prepare yourself, mentally and physically, for such an eventuality.

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