1980's

[Wingfoot]

Funny, I remember reading a story (in one of those free sailing mags they had at marinas) in the 80's about a couple of guys who left LA or San Diego and followed the com trails of jets to Hawaii. kind of buggered if that jet was going somewhere else!

[FamilyVan]

It's not the offshore stuff you're talking about, but my family of 5 (i was a kid) cruised the great lakes extensively, for a couple of months at a time in my Dad's 1974 Grampian 23!

She had a VHF.

I remember some scarey weather, but generally, I just remember good family time.

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[Glenn C]

just about ready to go again ! 1986 left Melbourne Australia for North Queensland, and warm weather! I then spent a few years in PNG and Solomon islands, 4 coral sea crossings. So cruising for about 3.5 years before needing to get back to full time work......probably the wrong decision

safety wise: I had marine HF which was used for telephony, weather reports, communicating with other cruisers, etc, which was brilliant. VHF also useful for communicating with ships and when sailing in company, EPIRB, liferaft, Coursemaster electronic autopilot which was brilliant.

I had Tamaya sextant, which I didn't use much more than the occasional noon site, relied on DR, and full set of charts, good hand compass, Admiralty pilot books were useful some anchorages. Alan Lucas cruising guide for PNG and Solomon Islands was useful. I did put on a Navstar system...the old one with 6 satellites and maybe 2 accurate fixes a day, and that was a great back up to the chart work. On all four Coral Sea crossings virtually took no sun sights due to continual cloud cover.

I did install a solar panel which was great, solar bag hot water, small 12 v fridge, that was really only effective whilst motoring. 200l fresh water in 2 tanks, and a couple of canvas rain catchers. Fresh water never seemed to be an issue......maybe a correlation with no hot water system there?

Money wise signed up with Citibank, as at the time they were one of the few banks in Australia that did the international credit/ debit card. used Poste Restante services a fair bit. Through the Solomon's and PNG actually traded with the villagers for most fresh food, so cash wasn't an issue.

Never had any issues with security.

The boat was a 36ft ketch, with no furlers, but, the sails were quite manageable, and a very easily balanced boat.

Both the cruising folks I met, and the host country locals were all great, and the experience was more around that than the sailing per se.

Today, I reckon the electronic safety equipment and nav. aids are just superb. still when you head off-shore I believe you have to be prepared for self sufficiency and self rescue if it comes to that.

GC

[FamilyVan]

I think Dr is pretty amazing once you convince yourself it works. I plot my GPS position on my chart around once an hour, sometimes more, often much less. But nearly 100% of the time I exclaim to my crew or my Bassett Hound, Brewster- "we are where we think we are". And keep on sailing.

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