Are all Sailors this Friendly?

[Liunatic]

Hello all --

So as I posted in the Meet and Greet thread, my husband and I bought an old Catalina 27 to put our book-learned knowledge to use. We took possesion of the "new" boat this past week and Sunday was our first available day to get on the boat (she is on a mooring). So we rowed out and did a lot of cleaning, collected trash to take off (flares that expired in 1996!) started the Atomic 4 engine, but didn't sail. We plan on sailing her (our maiden voyage!) next weekend.

The guy who sold us the boat told us we would have no shortage of people who would want to sail with us once we get out there, and it seems he was right.

So we row back to shore, and the parking area is at the end of a rather active bike path, which borders the mooring field where the boat is. As we land the dingy there is a gentleman there (maybe 60ish) on a bike and asks us if we bought the boat, as he knew it was for sale. We say yes. He used to own and sail a Catalina 25 and he briefly considered buying this one. After we tell him we're total newbs, and plan on taking our first sail next weekend he says, If you want someone to come along, my wife and I would love to join you and give you a hand.

This whole conversation took about 5 minutes. He rode away, and then shortly after rode back with his wife and introduced her. They seem nice enough, and we'd love to have somebody with experience with us the first time we take the boat out (we really don't know anybody else who sails). My husband and he exchanged phone numbers and we told him depending on the weather, we'll most likely be around Sunday morning.

So, how crazy are we to take total strangers onto the boat to help abate our own fear of going alone on our first sail?

[Tellie]

It's like meeting any new friends, you go with your gut feeling. It's only a day sail, easy to grin and bear it if it doesn't work out or it could lead to new friends and a lot of experience to lean on.

[deckofficer]

I would say that was a normal amount of friendly among sailors. You bought a boat they were considering, then was up front about being new to sailing. They, having owned a smaller model of the boat you bought were in position to make the maiden sail a fun learning experience instead of a comedy of errors.

Really friendly in a big way is when you anchor out and dinghy to a beach with RV campers in the Sea of Cortez and are greeted by an expat RVer who says he used to sail and knows the hardship of getting ground transportation for provisioning and offers to drive you to town.

[Liunatic]

Thanks for the replies. My husband is a good judge of character, so we'll probably give it a go.

If you never hear from me again after Sunday, you'll know it was a bad decision

[s/v Moondancer]

Perfectly normal behavior for sailors. I pulled into a sailing club in Nova Scotia and withing an hour was eating dinner at a strangers house and chosen to be the bridge partner of a lady Eskimo.

Fellow cruisers often say that they know hardly anyone in their condo building but know everyone in the anchorage.

Have a good sail.

[deckofficer]

I'm always looking for bridge players when cruising. Seems if your under 65 you never learned to play bridge.

[Jim Cate]

G'Day Liunatic,

Welcome to CF and sailing!

I think that you will find such interactions fairly common. Sailors, and especially cruisers, and really especially long term cruisers are indeed friendly. When one is permanently a transient you learn to establish contact and friendship quickly, and on the basis of just such short term acquaintanceship. Add to this a sense of community responsibility and the knowledge that we all need help at times... well, it just seems to happen a lot!

I think that you will find it a good life.

Cheers,

Jim

[Tellie]

PS,
Maybe you shouldn't let them know your screen name. Maybe then they would be the ones more cautious about going out with you.

[o_q]

Originally Posted by Tellie

PS,
Maybe you shouldn't let them know your screen name. Maybe then they would be the ones more cautious about going out with you.

It's not lunatic, it's liunatic

[Mike OReilly]

It's just like being in any other pack. Motorcyclists, canoeists, sailors, cruisers, etc. We can recognize and relate to our crowd. Fellow sailors know they have something in common with each other, so friendship, or at least being friendly, comes easy and natural. Enjoy it, and reciprocate as you can. Most people are good -- except for the ones that are not...

[Liunatic]

Jim Cate - makes perfect sense, now that I think about it, that if you're transient (which we hope to be someday) that you would need to make fast friends.

O_q - good catch on the spelling there.

Mike O'Reilly - "except for the ones that are not..." lol, thanks for that!

I guess after being born and raised in New England, I am suspicious when people are what I consider to be overly nice just for the sake of being overly nice. All these cold winters have a way of turning us sour (i.e. miserable, but it seems that most of the people up here would rather stay and complain about the cold weather than realize they have options to leave. Like herded sheep, they are. drives my crazy.)

[Navegante1105]

Hi: This is the nice thing on sailing..it is like a big family. Of course, You can have a bad experience one day but in general, it should work like it is working now.
Good luck and welcome..
regards, Agustin.

[BozSail]

Originally Posted by Liunatic

Hello all --

So as I posted in the Meet and Greet thread, my husband and I bought an old Catalina 27 to put our book-learned knowledge to use. We took possesion of the "new" boat this past week and Sunday was our first available day to get on the boat (she is on a mooring). So we rowed out and did a lot of cleaning, collected trash to take off (flares that expired in 1996!) started the Atomic 4 engine, but didn't sail. We plan on sailing her (our maiden voyage!) next weekend.

The guy who sold us the boat told us we would have no shortage of people who would want to sail with us once we get out there, and it seems he was right.

So we row back to shore, and the parking area is at the end of a rather active bike path, which borders the mooring field where the boat is. As we land the dingy there is a gentleman there (maybe 60ish) on a bike and asks us if we bought the boat, as he knew it was for sale. We say yes. He used to own and sail a Catalina 25 and he briefly considered buying this one. After we tell him we're total newbs, and plan on taking our first sail next weekend he says, If you want someone to come along, my wife and I would love to join you and give you a hand.

This whole conversation took about 5 minutes. He rode away, and then shortly after rode back with his wife and introduced her. They seem nice enough, and we'd love to have somebody with experience with us the first time we take the boat out (we really don't know anybody else who sails). My husband and he exchanged phone numbers and we told him depending on the weather, we'll most likely be around Sunday morning.

So, how crazy are we to take total strangers onto the boat to help abate our own fear of going alone on our first sail?

Liunatic - where in New England are you? My wife and I sail out of Stamford, CT. We are both retired and sail mostly during the week.

[Liunatic]

Hi BozSail - We are in Rhode Island. Moving out of Foster to an apartment in Providence September first. The boat is moored in Bristol Harbor. My husband will be retiring September 13 , so until then we are weekenders.....I will still be working for another year or so, and then we hope to head south

[s/v Beth]

Recently, while soloing, I was starting a particularly longish passage from Anacortes to Tacoma- late (noon) I knew somebody would be up all night at the wheel. So I stood up in the middle of the sailors memorial park/dingy dock and said out loud- free passage to Seattle- leaving now! Nobody took me up on it, but if someone would have come up and talked to me and convinced me they knew what they were doing, I would have taken them.
Later, when tacking out of Rosario Strait, a big plastic pulled up along side, motor going full, so they could take pictures of my cutter with all the sails out! A dozen people waving, and I would have like just one more! But that's the price you pay for being a nomad.