Why do you cruise?

[MountainStone]

Every thread on this board discusses either the endless maintenance, ubiquitous hardships, inevitable tradeoffs, unavoidable sacrifices, high costs, injuries or sometimes deaths associated with cruising.

Despite all that, you are out there doing it anyway.

Why? What is worth all that? What is a lubber like me missing?

If I buy a bigger boat and cruise to an island anchorage, will I also not want to come back?

What's out there?

[Mike OReilly]

Freedom.

[StuM]

Why? Because I can!
And to add to Mike's comment:


Peace and tranquility.
New experiences.

[Richard Harper]

Against my better judgment, my better half convinced me to sail to Charleston and return to Fort Lauderdale via the ditch. We had a great sail up and a somewhat boaring motor back along with meeting old and new friends along the way, new anchorages and marinas, visiting historic locations and great restaurants, engine breakdown, dodging Hurricane Dorian, new engines and a final great sail from West Palm Beach to home.
I always wanted the romance of cruising and this is what cruising is for me in reality.

[grahamb]

....long beaches without footprints......but sometimes there were crocodile prints....and once...the crocodile that left them.....

[Flagman101]

Just do it.
What I get out of sailing may not be what you will get out of sailing.

All I know is that once I'm sailing I no longer care about the same things then when I am a normal person....

And has for the complaining about hard work and hardships...that is stuff you put online when you are not sailing.
Got to vent somewhere...

[Hudson Force]

Independence, self-reliance, solitude...

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by MountainStone

Despite all that, you are out there doing it anyway.to go to different places

Why? What is worth all that? What is a lubber like me missing?they aren't "missinganything, they just aren't doing it

If I buy a bigger boat and cruise to an island anchorage, will I also not want to come back? depends, sometomes it just makes you want to come back

What's out there?trying to find out

You either like the cruising idea or you don't. The key is that it probably isn't what you really thought it would be and hopefully you will still be OK with what it is.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Freedom.

Yep, and adventure. And, testing yourself. And, learning new things. And, seeing new places. And, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures. And, having fun.

I got the bug in my twenties, on a two week sail around the Bahamas (Bimini to the Berries, to Nassau, to Andros, to Cat Cay, and back home) with some buddies in a boat we chartered in Fort Lauderdale and sailed over. It gave me a look at a style of life I had only read about in some magazines like Lattitudes and Attitudes. I didn't want to come back.

It's a lifestyle, and you either love it, or you don't.

[dwedeking2]

Knowing that I only have to untie one knot to be on my way to the next place.



I've always had a fear of being "trapped", whether its in a job, a rut, or whatever. Just knowing I can bail at any time takes a lot of stress away for me.

[sailorboy1]

Oh I remembered the real question to why I cruise:

It's better than working!

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MountainStone

Every thread on this board discusses either the endless maintenance, ubiquitous hardships, inevitable tradeoffs, unavoidable sacrifices, high costs, injuries or sometimes deaths associated with cruising.

Despite all that, you are out there doing it anyway.

Why? What is worth all that? What is a lubber like me missing?

If I buy a bigger boat and cruise to an island anchorage, will I also not want to come back?

What's out there?

Well if you sail to an island and anchor, there will be beach/sand and water.

Also you don't really need a very large boat to sail to an island or the islands 25' - 27' should do it

After you've been at anchor for a while with not a lot to do, you notice your solar output is off by .2 volts so you begin to think this over then before you know it you have a major problem on your hands that must be fixed at all costs! So you start working on it.

Then you might notice a bit of corrosion on a thru-hull, section of rigging, or on your anchor chain so you start pm'ing all that stuff

And it goes from there

At the end of the day since you have spent a lot of time in the sun fixing/pm'ing all this stuff, you feel great from the sun high you got and think I love cruising!

Then you meet a neighboring boat and find out he has many of the same "problems" that you do! So you start discussing all those "problems"

Then you might decide to sail someplace else and see what's happening there

When it rains, is cold, or the anchorage turns rough, that's a different story

[rslifkin]

Even when there's work to be done, just being on the boat (whether it's for a day, a weekend or a month) is just relaxing. Even doing long travel days with plenty to do, many hours hand steering at the helm, etc. is a totally different feeling from getting up and going to work every day. And going back to that at the end of the trip for us non-retired folks is sometimes pretty tough.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Group9

Yep, and adventure. And, testing yourself. And, learning new things. And, seeing new places. And, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures. And, having fun.

You read my mind. In fact, when my spouse and I decided to take the cruising leap we did so quite consciously to purse these five broad objectives: Creativity, Learning, Adventure, Freedom & Cessation.

Cruising in a smallish sailboat is not the only way to achieve these things, but it certainly works for us right now.

Originally Posted by Group9

It's a lifestyle, and you either love it, or you don't.

Exactly .

[Shrew]

There are many people who've fallen in love with the idea, only to be woken up by reality. The most popular cruising destinations are full of Dreams Turned into Nightmares for sale. I have plenty of friends who go crazy doing so much 'nothing' or being 'cooped up' in small spaces.

It's not for everyone. There is a lot of work and expense involved. Tipping the work/expense scale only shifts load from one side to the other (more work = Less Expense.......less work = more expense).

We estimate that, on average, at least half of the time is dedicated to the boat (water, food, cleaning, repairs, energy/power).