Which Do You Prefer - Sailing In Company or Solo

[hoppy]

I can't imagine myself sailing in company unless the words "I'll race you there" are uttered

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

If you have the fastest boat, more boats is fun. If you have a slow boat, solo is more enjoyable.

Exactly


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[seasick]

I have three siblings. We're all circumnavigators and we always love running into each other in distant places but even as close as we are, we wouldn't want to actually sail together.
I find the ARC and HaHa mentality disturbing on many levels. I avoid the possibility of being where they may land to wipe out the goods of a little island store etc.
Perhaps if I ever wanted to cruise Somalia....

[Thenaz007]

OK, I will weigh in for those of us getting ready to take the plunge into live aboard cruising. The only affordable way to gain experience is through a reasonable amount of reasonable advice at anchorages and underway. Would I be glad to have a boat or two within sight? Do I pose a light burden and miniscule threat to those boats? Absolutely. Would I expect them to evaluate my knowledge, experience and behavior over cocktails before agreeing to stay within sight? Absolutely.

[jreiter190]

Solo. Meet up later. Give your vhf a rest.

[Cheechako]

I like sailing with other boats, but with a gentleman's agreement that we are really solo. No monitoring others speed, or worrying about the decisions they might make or not make. Just both, or all, headed to the same general destination. Relaying any info occasionally like current set or wind changes. No chatty Kathy on the VHF. One boat may arrive hours before another etc.


Leaving the southern/E Bahamas for the DR we had a smaller boat tagging along. In the middle of the night they had fuel issues, probably for lack of cleaning their tank/ fuel prior to leaving the US. By that point we were probably at least 4 hours ahead of them. I helped them out on the vhf as best I could, walking them thru what to do, but was not going back 4 hours to babysit. Same thing happened in Mexico in the mid 80's with a boat on the VHF whom we didn't know that were panicking about the loss of power.
Generally you are on your own out there, be prepared. A true Mayday is different though.

[hamburking]

Agree on destination, then sail solo. Nothing worse than waiting for another boat to get ready, or having someone waiting for you to get ready. Go when you want, and meet up at the other end. Most likely you'll see each other under way.

I'm an early riser who likes to sail off anchorages and use the light early morning winds to sail through tricky passages. My boat is ready to go before I go to sleep the night before. So I don't like waiting for someone else to sleep-in, eat breakfast, shower, have a second cup of coffee and THEN start getting their boat ready. I know too many of these guys. I'm happy to meet up with them, but don't want to wait around all day to go sailing.

[exMaggieDrum]

We have done every scenario posted above. For long (hundreds of miles) passages we like leaving with a "group" but we have never tried to stay with someone. We did the HaHa in 2004 and enjoyed the group and the camaraderie. But we sailed solo in that group and only met up at the anchorages along the way. We do like SSB scheduled nets. VHF nets never work on long passages as you always get out of range fairly quickly. But locally we will "buddy boat" - to a point. Some of the worst times we have had were when we were trying to keep on schedules with other boats, i.e. meet up at a specific date, or only leave when the other boat is ready. We do NOT like doing that too much. But the HaHa was fun and we'd do it again. Or we might not as you do miss stopping at points along the way.

[Dsanduril]

Sail to my own schedule and destinations. Sometimes that means being so far off the track that it is solo in very sense of the word, sometimes that means going in the same direction, along the same basic path, and about the same time as a bunch of other boats. If the latter then will happily participate in radio nets, information exchanges, etc., but never let the herd determine schedule, route, or destination (or dissuade me from changing same if something comes up).

All-in-all I do view it as a community, and I would like to be a contributing member of that community when and where I can be, without putting restrictions on my self determination.

[belizesailor]

I detest "buddy boating". If we happen to meet up in the same anchorage for sundowners, thats fine, but dont care to be constrained by someone else schedule, objectives, issues...

[scuba0_1]

Love being in port with a group but we sail there alone. We will agree on when we we'll arrive but all leave at different times. First one in has drinks ready

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[TheThunderbird]

Any boat around is of a concern, an annoyance, a potential danger.

Having another boat 10 miles ahead on the same route could prove serviceable...

[cabo_sailor]

So far I think the consensus is NO to buddy boating but YES to agreeing on a rendezvous for socializing.




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[Sailorbob8599]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

" It can be really hard on boat and crew to have to go back upwind against reinforced trades to get to someone's aid."

Ann

And how would it feel if you were the one needing aid???

[nhschneider]

For us, it depends. A few months ago we sailed from Chagos to Madagascar in the company of another boat with whom we're very close friends and it was delightful. We were never more than 6 miles apart although neither of us did anything special to stay that close.

There were several boats the following month who stayed very close to a boat that had severe rudder damage on the passage from Chagos to the Seychelles.

On the other hand, there wasn't another boat within 200 miles of us on our passage from Thailand to Sri Lanka.

I'm just reluctant to speak in absolutes: "I never buddy-boat" or "I always travel in the company of others." There's just too many variables and I know that as soon as I say something is going to be a certain way, it will almost always change just to prove me wrong. Regardless, we are fully aware that we will render assistance if needed and if we can but we're fully prepared to be completely independent.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[northoceanbeach]

Solo unless it's a race. Even those I'm getting tired of. Sure there are things about singlehanding I don't like. Mostly having to do with rising and lowering sails and having to do all the work to put the boat back together at the end. But it's all worth it. I don't want to be anyone's boss, telling them what to do, but I also don't much like being told what to do.

Solo I can go where I want when I want. I can stop and do just whatever..

What I do like, are lovely docks with lots of cruisers coming and going and meeting people for a day, a week, or a few and talking and sharing stories, but to go our separate ways.