Cruisers Forum
 


Reply
  This discussion is proudly sponsored by:
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on Cruisers Forums. Advertise Here
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 16-07-2016, 18:45   #1
Registered User
 
OldFrog75's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Santa Monica, CA
Boat: Club Sailor; various
Posts: 922
First blue water sail?

For those of you who ultimately cut loose as skipper of your own boat:

1. How far and long (more than 48 hours at sea) was your first voyage?
2. What boat?
3. How much prior sailing experience did you have?
OldFrog75 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-07-2016, 20:50   #2
Moderator
 
Jim Cate's Avatar

Join Date: May 2008
Location: cruising SW Pacific
Boat: Jon Sayer 1-off 46 ft fract rig sloop strip plank in W Red Cedar
Posts: 21,151
Re: First blue water sail?

1. ~2200 nmi, SFto Oahu, 16 days.
2. Yankee 30
3. ~12 years, coastal and SF bay.

Jim
__________________
Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II, lying Port Cygnet Tasmania once again.
Jim Cate is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 16-07-2016, 22:41   #3
Moderator Emeritus
 
Paul Elliott's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 4,663
Images: 4
Re: First blue water sail?

1. ~2100 NM, San Francisco to Maui, 14 days.
2. Pacific Seacraft 44
3. Off and on since I was six years old. Coastal and bay, not a lot of total hours.

For the first Hawaii trip we prepared with a couple of overnight offshore shakedowns, and two of my three other crewmembers were friends with more experience (including the Hawaii passage) than I had at the time.
__________________
Paul Elliott, S/V VALIS - Pacific Seacraft 44 #16 - Friday Harbor, WA
www.sailvalis.com
Paul Elliott is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 00:46   #4
Registered User

Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Tasmania
Boat: VandeStadt IOR 40' - Insatiable
Posts: 2,317
Images: 91
Re: First blue water sail?

1. Approx 1500 nautical miles
2. Vandestadt IOR 1-ton racing boat
3. Approx 10 years crewing on Other People's Boats
Weyalan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 05:45   #5
Registered User

Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: W Carib
Boat: Wildcat 35, Hobie 33
Posts: 13,480
Re: First blue water sail?

1. ~1,400nm Tortola - Anapolis.
2. Pearson 44
3. ~5 years inland and near coastal
belizesailor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 08:26   #6
Registered User
 
redhead's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: PNW 48.59'45N 122.45'50W
Boat: Ian Ross design ketch 63'
Posts: 1,472
Images: 9
Re: First blue water sail?

1. 72 hours. No destination. We sailed 1.5 days out into the Atlantic and turned around and came back to Long Is. Purely to get me some experience.
2. Pearson 365
3. +/- 3 years.

On edit - I was not skipper so I guess it doesn't count.
redhead is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 08:43   #7
Registered User

Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: between the devil and the deep blue sea
Boat: a sailing boat
Posts: 20,420
Re: First blue water sail?

1. The North Sea from Norway to Scotland, about 3 days.
2. This boat.
3. Zero offshore sailing experience. 30 years sailing experience (dinghies, mostly).

Cheers,
b.
barnakiel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 08:44   #8
Registered User

Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Maryland
Boat: Outbound 46
Posts: 323
Re: First blue water sail?

1400 nm Virginia to Tortola, 9 days. We had ~6 seasons sailing Great Lakes and Chesapeake. We hired a skipper with extensive offshore experience for this voyage. Glad we did, since he helped us enormously coping with sail damage and an autopilot that crapped out on the second day.
DMCantor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 08:49   #9
Registered User

Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Puerto Rico
Boat: Cape Dory 28
Posts: 144
Re: First blue water sail?

1) 850 miles, 6 days, Key West to Corpus Christi direct
2) Amel Super Maramu ketch
3) 3 weeks earning 5 ASA stickers
Ed
edmundsteele is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 08:59   #10
Registered User
 
seasick's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Bend, OR
Boat: Brewer designed Pacific 43 in fiberglass. Center cockpit set up for long-distance single handing.
Posts: 472
Re: First blue water sail?

Neah Bay to San Francisco 630 mi - 5 days age 19, 1973
42' wooden ketch
many hundreds of miles around Puget Sound and the San Juan Is. Around Vancouver Is. shake down.
seasick is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 09:06   #11
Registered User
 
CREX's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: T or C NM
Boat: Catalina C-27-Venture of Newport 23'
Posts: 85
Re: First blue water sail?

Vero beach FL to Miami. What a trip it was too. 1st time is memorable for sure. Loved cooking on the grill while watching the dolphins play. Night coastal cruising was really eye opening. God I miss that! Many great trips from there...
CREX is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 09:19   #12
Registered User

Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: NH
Boat: Watkins29
Posts: 13
Re: First blue water sail?

5 days Bermuda to Branford, Connecticut. A trip that usually takes 4 days. 5 of us on an Endeavour 33'. A rough trip.I was not the skipper but having owned a restaurant in my past life the cooking duties fell to me. I gained a lot of respect by cooking for 5 guys on a gimbaled stove for 5 days plus standing my watches. I had one rule, if they wanted to eat they needed to level the boat while I was cooking and not be trying to bury a rail. Crossing the Gulf Stream was a great experience.
bermudabob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 09:24   #13
Registered User

Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Anacortes
Boat: previous - Whitby 42 new - Goldenwave 44
Posts: 1,835
Re: First blue water sail?

Quote:
Originally Posted by seasick View Post
Neah Bay to San Francisco 630 mi - 5 days age 19, 1973
42' wooden ketch
many hundreds of miles around Puget Sound and the San Juan Is. Around Vancouver Is. shake down.
This is almost identical to our first, except that our boat was classic plastic - 42' ketch. We double handed and had no prior offshore of any kind. Going around Vancouver Is was our shake down but really all it was was a way to make sure we could manage boat systems away from marinas for a month - water, battery, etc. It did not include any overnights or watch schedules.

Going out that first time was a pucker-inducing experience especially in fog so thick the bow of the boat was only imaginary. And fishing boats going as fast as they could in your path all along the way. We went out a hundred miles which really cut us loose from the land that shore-hugging or port-hopping would not do.

Our other pucker-inducing experiences was pushing off 18 months later from Mexico to the Marquesas. 27 days, no land. No nearly as scary as the first time from the Straits of Juan de Fuca though.

I have seen people turn around and go back in and never attempt it again but those were pretty rare cases. Mind your weather and be prepared with a good boat and good nav skills and you will be fine.
exMaggieDrum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 09:29   #14
Registered User
 
OldFrog75's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Santa Monica, CA
Boat: Club Sailor; various
Posts: 922
Re: First blue water sail?

Quote:
Originally Posted by exMaggieDrum View Post
This is almost identical to our first, except that our boat was classic plastic - 42' ketch. We double handed and had no prior offshore of any kind. Going around Vancouver Is was our shake down but really all it was was a way to make sure we could manage boat systems away from marinas for a month - water, battery, etc. It did not include any overnights or watch schedules.

Going out that first time was a pucker-inducing experience especially in fog so thick the bow of the boat was only imaginary. And fishing boats going as fast as they could in your path all along the way. We went out a hundred miles which really cut us loose from the land that shore-hugging or port-hopping would not do.

Our other pucker-inducing experiences was pushing off 18 months later from Mexico to the Marquesas. 27 days, no land. No nearly as scary as the first time from the Straits of Juan de Fuca though.

I have seen people turn around and go back in and never attempt it again but those were pretty rare cases. Mind your weather and be prepared with a good boat and good nav skills and you will be fine.
How much prior sailing experience did you have before you did this?
OldFrog75 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-07-2016, 09:31   #15
Registered User
 
OldFrog75's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Santa Monica, CA
Boat: Club Sailor; various
Posts: 922
Re: First blue water sail?

Quote:
Originally Posted by CREX View Post
Vero beach FL to Miami. What a trip it was too. 1st time is memorable for sure. Loved cooking on the grill while watching the dolphins play. Night coastal cruising was really eye opening. God I miss that! Many great trips from there...
Prior sailing experience?
OldFrog75 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
sail, water

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
First blue water julialiberation General Sailing Forum 2 28-10-2014 12:03
First boat, first post, first adventure. northoceanbeach Pacific & South China Sea 5 28-05-2013 18:05
Blue water jib sail size Wainui Monohull Sailboats 33 20-03-2013 17:45
Surprises in first year of blue water cruising? micoverde Forum Tech Support & Site Help 0 27-03-2007 19:56

Advertise Here


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 13:13.


Google+
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Social Knowledge Networks
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.

ShowCase vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.