The Critical Mass

[Cheechako]

I had sailed a lot. Knew what to do as far as sail trim, racing, Changing spinnakers, reefing etc, but was unprepared for the blue water crossings and fatigue etc it causes. If your leaving the pacific coast it could be more challenging than crossing to the bahamas for instance. Get to know your boat, anchoring, reefing and go. Dont worry too much about long term planning, but do worry about short term planning. (seasons, weather planning) I see you are in SD. If your boat is east coast stationed, then just go. By the time you get very far you'll know what you are doing. That is the great thing about the carribean, the longest trip from FL to South America is an overnighter!

[Tempest245]

Youth is great! Inexperience can easily be overcome. The " Can't really afford it" part needs to be examined and thought though then.... imo.

[captain58sailin]

Hey Tardog,
Back in the day, 1976, our family started out on what was to be a circumnavigation of the planet. We had a really good vessel, Skookum 47' and not much experience. We had been commercial fishers before that, my folks spent a couple of weeks in Hawai'i sailing around with some nice boat bums and we had a week of instruction with a good instructor in Seward. Like you we had a lot of books and read them all, Survive the Savage Seas etc..., we also had an EMT teaching us beyond first aid, and any one of us could have changed out an appendix if need be. What we didn't have was a lot of sailing experience. We gunkholed down the inside passage to Seattle, where we caught the worst weather of the whole trip in the Strait of Georgia. And we partnered up with some friends on an O/I 43' Morgan. When we left Seward, none of us knew how to use a sextant, by the time we reached Seattle all of us knew how. And we proceeded down the west coast and off to Polynesia. We had a wonderful trip, and managed to find our way around all over the south pacific with nothing more than a sextant, ham radio, and a 60', 60 fathom flasher, did not complete the circumnavigation, but that was due to ship board personality differences. Just two years ago, I finally started to fulfill my own dream of returning there, and once I get fully underway again, nothing or no one will stop me from embracing that true freedom.
What no one can teach you is good judgement, and most every boat can take far more abuse than the people riding on it. If you can use your head and you take good care of your equipment, the rest is problematical. In the words of a great marketer "Just Do It."

[Celestialsailor]

[quote=tardog;267477].....and a growing frustration with the prospects in America.
It seems like if there ever was a time to become mostly self-reliant, that time is now. quote]

It's like we need time off for good behavior...