Cruising Can Be Boring

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by DnA9413

I'm calling BS on all of this talk of cruising being boring!

Relax DnA....one of those GOB's could be your father.

Live Laugh Love! [emoji173]

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by DnA9413

I'm calling BS on all of this talk of cruising being boring!

It's not that it's boring so much as limiting.

There is less variety........

[DnA9413]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Relax DnA....one of those GOB's could be your father.

Live Laugh Love! [emoji173]

He is a GOB, just that he doesn't know how to use this "inter nets" thing. So his Grump range is pretty short.

[knockabout]

even becalmed at sea there is always an albatross to have a conversation with / if no albatross has landed nearby drop a very strong line with large hook lure over the side / good luck managing beautiful spare time

[sailstoo]

It's never boring. You're always sweating your (expletive deleted) off working on the (expletive deleted) boat!

[Dennis.G]

As you can't just get off the boat and do something else when you want to, the potential for boredom is there. A few weeks ago we had a near 24 hour motor across flat seas with nothing is sight. Yes, very boring. You can disagree, but my wife and I were both bored. Yes we read, played music, played some games, but still really mind numbing. Of course, all done with soon enough in that case and on to new anchorage and landfall. Makes me wonder if I could ever make a 30 day crossing without losing my mind however.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Dennis.G

As you can't just get off the boat and do something else when you want to, the potential for boredom is there. A few weeks ago we had a near 24 hour motor across flat seas with nothing is sight. Yes, very boring. You can disagree, but my wife and I were both bored. Yes we read, played music, played some games, but still really mind numbing. Of course, all done with soon enough in that case and on to new anchorage and landfall. Makes me wonder if I could ever make a 30 day crossing without losing my mind however.

+1!

There is some good news though. It is unlikely that your 30 days' (or, why not, longer) crossing will be all flat water, engine.

Actually, unless your boat is quite big and your crew multiple, it will all be about a sleep / eat / keep watch routine in a lively ship under broadly variable vistas of sea and sky.

In calms, if you are lucky to encounter any, the sealife comes up to the surface and you can get quite a lesson in plankton, pleuston and trashton. There will be tropicbirds and sheerwaters and maybe even albatrosses (if you venture far off enough).

We had manta rays visiting us and dancing their blue ballet right under our boat off Galapagos and sharks and seasnakes off Australia. And a booby birds riding the lifelines. All of it in flat calms, which were blessings, if rare.

So, yes, boredom is an option. But there is a light in this tunnel. Offshore.

Cheers,
b.

[Mike OReilly]

Agreed. Like I said, it’s just life. Sometimes life is boring. So be it…

How susceptible one is to being bored is as individualistic as the tendency towards sea sickness or loving bitter IPA beer. Each of us is different. Know thyself, and deal with it the best you can.

[sailorboy1]

It's not hard to stay entertained while living on a boat. But it is hard to stay entertained and within budget at the same time. Just like all other things boat related, boredom can be fixed with the proper application of cash!

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

It's not hard to stay entertained while living on a boat. But it is hard to stay entertained and within budget at the same time. Just like all other things boat related, boredom can be fixed with the proper application of cash!

This statement is a great platform for thought about how to manage joy and satisfaction with a life of cruising. I'm in full agreement with Sailorboy's observation, but when you accept that spending money can be fun; it's important to realize that a cruiser will spend many days away from a community where money can be spent.

How can you be thrilled with your life while anchored in the wilderness? What excitements are available when drifting along offshore? I think that the answer can come with observation, questioning and wonder.

When you see the rise and fall of the windward rail with changes with wind and swell and wonder about the sail trim or rudder angle......
When you poke the top of an ant hill with a pine needle and wonder about the efforts of the colony to rebuild and defend.....
When you view cloud layers at different altitudes and interpret the relative movements of winds above.....

What do you look at and what do you see when you dinghy to shore?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

...How can you be thrilled with your life while anchored in the wilderness? What excitements are available when drifting along offshore? I think that the answer can come with observation, questioning and wonder.

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

This statement is a great platform for thought about how to manage joy and satisfaction with a life of cruising. I'm in full agreement with Sailorboy's observation, but when you accept that spending money can be fun; it's important to realize that a cruiser will spend many days away from a community where money can be spent.

How can you be thrilled with your life while anchored in the wilderness? What excitements are available when drifting along offshore? I think that the answer can come with observation, questioning and wonder.

When you see the rise and fall of the windward rail with changes with wind and swell and wonder about the sail trim or rudder angle......
When you poke the top of an ant hill with a pine needle and wonder about the efforts of the colony to rebuild and defend.....
When you view cloud layers at different altitudes and interpret the relative movements of winds above.....

What do you look at and what do you see when you dinghy to shore?

and then 10 minutes later?

Does a person comb the beach as a result of being bored, or would they still do this if they had an active and exciting life. Just because they fill the hours with something, doesn't mean it wasn't dull.

On passage, I can stare at the water and think about a million things for hours. Reflecting on this time later, unless I was working out a problem, I call it boredom and don't try to gussy it up by calling it something else.

To me, having an active mind does not mean you're free from boredom.


Matt

[thomm225]

For once, I really didn't get too bored on my sailing vacation.

It seemed every day brought something different either with the weather or what was breaking.

On the way back, I had to steer about 4-5 hours on and off due to a few cloudy/rainy afternoons and a battery that went bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gcZKr25UUM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku8iWRjqWQs

[barnakiel]

Bored anchored???

C'mon. No whay!

I remember watching bosun birds fighting frigates while we anchored in Mangereva. I fished sharks (no hooks, just meat wrapped in the fishing line) in the Keelings. I got fabulously drunk with delicious shrub creole in Martinique St Anne's. All of these were so much better than living the 9-17 office life!

And in Antigua, North Sound, we were anchored maybe 200 yards from a private jetty. Suddenly I hear my mate's loud Aaaaarrrrhhhhhh in the cockpit and notice her reaching for the binnocs. It turned out that a completely nude and outrageously masculine sample has just jumped from the jetty into the crystal blue water of the sound. Nay, I did not lock the binnocks off. Life is full of wonder. Anchored too.

Just watch it. Like our grandmothers did. ;-)

Cheers,
b.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

and then 10 minutes later?

Does a person comb the beach as a result of being bored, or would they still do this if they had an active and exciting life. Just because they fill the hours with something, doesn't mean it wasn't dull.

On passage, I can stare at the water and think about a million things for hours. Reflecting on this time later, unless I was working out a problem, I call it boredom and don't try to gussy it up by calling it something else.

To me, having an active mind does not mean you're free from boredom.


Matt

I have nothing for this question. We spent the last fifteen years just poking around on our boat and never thought of myself as in a search due to boredom or bored by the search. We were just having fun and doing what we enjoyed.

Maybe there's something innate about the capability to be bored and there is little in shared experiences that can be understood by others. Maybe I don't understand boredom. I can remember whining to my mother on summers afternoon as a child, "What can I do?", but that's a long faded memory.