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Old 16-08-2011, 02:37   #16
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Thanks a lot. So many opportunities... With school about to start back up I'm not so sure I'd be able to make that one. But next summer, if I'm still available to become a crew member, then I'll look into it again
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Old 16-08-2011, 05:28   #17
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

The problem with being 17 is that some day you might grow up and tell a 17 year old on a forum that their dreams are silly. Your dreams are not silly. Go for it.
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Old 16-08-2011, 05:48   #18
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

I say put off going to school for a few years and go sail the world!

When I was 17 I left home to hitchhike around the USA. I ended up riding freight trains all over the country, worked on an oil rig in Wyoming, a farm in Iowa, picked oranges in Florida, Lived in a cave in Arizona, and hoed beets in California. Aside from some good adventure, I believe that experience gave me valuable perspective that I couldn't have gotten elsewhere. Once you commit to school and career, you'll become bogged down with relationships, material stuff, and emotional attachments. You may find yourself delaying your dreams until the day you find that your 50 or 60 years old and little time left. You can go back to school anytime you choose, but you'll never again be as free as you are now so find a boat to crew on and don't look back!
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Old 16-08-2011, 05:50   #19
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

Dream on.
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Old 16-08-2011, 06:00   #20
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

Lots of older folks cruising who would appreciate having a nimble and strong body aboard. I think there would be opprtunities for crewing that way.
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Old 16-08-2011, 11:31   #21
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

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I've grown up with a heart filled with love for the sea. I've finally decided it's about time I head to sea. I've read books and seen all the diagrams in the world, and I know when I spend 5 minutes behind the helm, I'll be able to make a sailboat do what I want, when I want. My proposition- sail by day along the coastlines of major continents, sleep by night. I'm not out to set a record or anything. ...

a-
If you want to go sailing or live life on the sea, do it. But get clear that that has nothing to do with the rest of what you've said. You can be a dock rat, sign up for crew, bum around the world on OPBs (other people's boats) and if you have or obtain the skills to be competent crew that's possible.
But in terms of being sponsored? No one will sponsor you without a serious business plan that lays out what their expenses will be and what you have to give them in return. Not setting any records? Not a photogenic "10" with the ability to charm the cameras? No longer the youngest or whatever? Then you've got a harder case to find something to offer them.
And, you'll need that business plan. To staart with, you can't sail the coastlines during the day and sleep at night. There are coastlines a thousand miles long with no safe place to anchor, much less sleep. Doing things solo also means doing them in contradiction to international safety rules, simply because you can't keep an adequate watch.

This is not to discourage you, but to say "Do your homework!" there's a lot more here than loving the sea. A hitch in the USN or USCG could also get you on the water, and get you paid benefits, although that's hardly a casual cruising life.<G>

I'd also suggest reading up what other folks have written of their similar adventures. Like Tanya Abei's comments that she had no idea how to use a sextant, and but for the grace of god, she would have totally missed her first landfall (Bermuda) and died lost at sea. Starting out without a good bundle of skills isn't always fatal--if you're sure that you're lucky.

Read up, bum some rides, try to figure out what you have to trade and who might be interested in it. It will be work, hard work, both in doing the planning and doing the sailing, because once the ocean demands something--there are no excuses, no manana, it takes what it wants when it wants it.
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Old 02-09-2011, 14:23   #22
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

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I say put off going to school for a few years and go sail the world!

When I was 17 I left home to hitchhike around the USA. I ended up riding freight trains all over the country, worked on an oil rig in Wyoming, a farm in Iowa, picked oranges in Florida, Lived in a cave in Arizona, and hoed beets in California. Aside from some good adventure, I believe that experience gave me valuable perspective that I couldn't have gotten elsewhere. Once you commit to school and career, you'll become bogged down with relationships, material stuff, and emotional attachments. You may find yourself delaying your dreams until the day you find that your 50 or 60 years old and little time left. You can go back to school anytime you choose, but you'll never again be as free as you are now so find a boat to crew on and don't look back!
This sounds a lot like Jack Karuwack(?) On the Road, what a great story..post WWII beatniks and groovey people..I can dig cat!Its cool and out of this world and my bird digs it too...ok I know ..enough said.. DVC
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Old 02-09-2011, 15:04   #23
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

According to Jack Kerouac, “On the Road” was really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And they found him.

“I found him in the sky, in Market Street San Francisco (those 2 visions), and Dean (Neal) had God sweating out of his forehead all the way.”

According to GordMay, “On the Road” was just an excuse to hit the road, which I did.
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Old 02-09-2011, 15:24   #24
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

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According to Jack Kerouac, “On the Road” was really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And they found him.

“I found him in the sky, in Market Street San Francisco (those 2 visions), and Dean (Neal) had God sweating out of his forehead all the way.”

According to GordMay, “On the Road” was just an excuse to hit the road, which I did.
I can really dig it man..You seem to be really down with too, you way out crazy cat...now if I could only find my Tom Wait albums..by the way what are Benny tubes you know the things Bulls wife was eating like candy?Never could figure that one out..DVC
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Old 02-09-2011, 15:33   #25
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

Get your education, join the Coast Guard and learn form the best while serving your country. Save your pay and buy a boat.
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Old 03-09-2011, 05:06   #26
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

“Benny Tubes” are Benzedrine Inhalers (decongestant).
Haven't read Kerouac since the early sixties (when I was "into it").
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Old 03-09-2011, 09:55   #27
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

Why sponsor? Why not make some money, buy the boat, go?

My comment is that by planning to follow the coasts you are setting yourself a very difficult task. Why not sail the easy way first: cut across the oceans in warm climes, far away from the land and its navigational and financial dangers?

Then again, my other comment is: if coasting, then why a sponsor? You can simply work a little, then sail a little, and so go round the world, no?

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Old 03-09-2011, 17:06   #28
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

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“Benny Tubes” are Benzedrine Inhalers (decongestant).
Haven't read Kerouac since the early sixties (when I was "into it").
Speed?I understand now... thats why she was so thin and always moving.It would be nice to find a book written in that style about sailing .."On the Sea again"..sounds good ,nice ring to it.. Thanks...DVC
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Old 05-09-2011, 21:24   #29
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

There's plenty written about using typical weather patterns and currents to make ocean passages easier, faster, and safer, including the classic "World Cruising Routes" and lots of discussion about voyage planning. Picking up on route planning is one of the skills you'll want to learn. Also, Noonsite is a good starting place to get an idea of what it is like to visit different countries; which ones are welcoming to cruisers, which ones have lots of paperwork or expense, etc.
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Old 06-09-2011, 12:24   #30
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Re: I'm 17 Years-Old and Need Some Advice with Regards to Circumnavigation

Really, based on your posts you're nowhere near to being ready for an around the world trip. You don't even have the very most basic understanding of what a trip like that would entail.

You really need to read a lot more on it and I'd recommend crewing if you just want to see the world. If you want to go it on your own, then a much more realistic short term dream would be to save up 5k, pick up a 27-28ft boat and sail it off to the Bahamas.
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