Bristol 29
cruise.
I've never before replied to this forum, but this cost report caught my eye. In 1979 (I realize this seems like ancient
history, since most readers weren't yet born) my new wife and I set off from
California in a Bristol 29 (best
used boat we could afford at the time) with only 10G to our names. My ultimate goal was to sail into the S Pacific, having read Eric Hiscock and
classic small boat tales. Our
boat was basic and had no
electrical system or
VHF, except for a mast-head light and one small
interior light - we did have a small portable
radio receiver for AM/short wave stations, and added a tillermaster autosteering device after tiring of long days/nights of
steering. Having endured serious storms along the
Baja coast we stopped and recovered in Cabo San Lucas for a month on
anchor, and agreed not to proceed into the S Pacific in such a
small boat. We cruised the
Sea of Cortez and northern
Mexico coast, returning to
California after a full year.
We were always swinging at
anchor overnight (rarely sailing through the night) and ended the year having spent only a total of 5G. Granted $5000 went further then, but I was prompted to write because we had a fabulous second-year of marriage, never bored, reading
books (we took 100 great
books with us), visiting with each other and other cruisers,
fishing,
cooking, swimming/diving. We agreed to no more than one meal-a-day on shore to save
money.
Our marriage grew and we are now approaching our 44th anniversary. It was sometimes rather hot and sometimes cold, but we made fabulous memories of cruising in our simple
boat. A simple boat will likely have few problems. Now we
charter bare-boat and are blown away by the luxuries like refrigerators,
air conditioning,
GPS,
autopilot,
radar, televisions,
roller furling, etc, that so many cruisers seem to consider as necessities. Oh for the simple, less costly, good old times.
.
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions