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Jordy · 30-04-2011, 04:15

Hi Guys,

Been lurking on this forum for a while now and about to put some plans into place to start some blue water cruising towards the end of this year.

A bit about me- 29 years old, fit, sea smart, eg I can sail a boat fine and have good knowledge of the sea and weather etc. Am confident on the water.

Im going to buy a cruising yacht, probably a 31-35 footer that I will be single handidly sailing most of the time and plan on taking a 12 month leave from work to go and sail up around Thailand, Bali, Malaysia Singapore etc etc. Basically most of the Asian area. I have my eye of a few Sparkmen and Stephens 34 amongst other ones. If anyone has any thoughts on what I should be looking at I'd love to read your suggestions. Have about a 60k budget to get me on the water in hopefully a bit of comfort!

My issue is this, while my sailing skills are pretty good, my navigation skills are pretty much non existent, especially when it comes to using charts and the likes. I know you can get computer generated charts and trip planning etc, but I don't know if I'm overly comfortable in relying on that alone and would like to be able to read charts etc and find my way without the need for a computer and GPS. How can I learn and what is the best way to do it? Being computer literate I am fine with this type of technology but would also like to know the 'old' way of navigating.

I'm also pretty ignorant when it comes to things like flags and turning up to ports etc, where can I find this type of info?

One thought I had, being that I learn well via hands on rather than out of a book, is too buy the boat, stock it up ready to go and have it all ship shape then advertise on here and on other places for an experience yachtsman to accompany me on say a two or three week trip to say Thailand which on the way he or she can teach me all about charting and navigation.

I would also ready the yacht in preparation with this person so I had everything right. Nave the right charts and right computer maps etc. On getting to Thailand I would either pay for the person to fly back to their place of residence or if I didn't feel comfortable in sailing back by myself then ask them to accompany me back to Australia again. By doing this I would have plenty of chances to pick the persons brain on what we were doing and their knowledge of sailing. I would preferably get someone who has a good knowledge of the south east Asia region as well as this is where I will be spending my time for twelve months.

I'm thinking that this person would be older and probably be retired so they had some flexibility with their travel plans. I plan on mooring the boat at Darwin so if I buy the yacht in Queensland or western Australia then there may be another opportunity to sail with this person as well to get even more knowledge of the ocean and blue water cruising as I would need to get the yacht there to start with.

What do people think I should do to ready myself for this type of travel? Am I on the right track, have I missed something or do you have any recommendations on what I should do. I don't have a family with a sailing back so have no one to really ask advice on this type of stuff.

I want to learn and I want to do this right. I want to be even more confident on the water than I am now and know that when I set off I'm going to be as prepared as possible for whatever situation presents itself on my travels.

I thank people for their replies in advance and if you need anymore info to help with your replies then fire away!