Regards, Bligh

[acesatsea]

Ciao -- My wife and I, would-be expatriats, are trying to live aboard full time on our West Indies 36. I've come to this venue in hopes of learning how to connect with other cruisers as buddies for longer passages. You can see more about our boat and mis-adventures on our nascent blog, at Aces at Sea. Due to a past racing personality, I sometimes signoff on notes to friends: Regards, Bligh

[knottybuoyz]

Welcome aboard folks. Nice to have you here. Great blog site too!

Cheers.

[TaoJones]

Every cruiser has his or her preferred style, but for the most part IMHO most cruisers disdain the pack approach to making passages. There really is no added benefit to flocking together like a bunch of Japanese tourists.

Rather than saving time, it can actually make passages longer, if you are held up tending to stragglers. And I don't believe it adds to safety, either - if one isn't self-reliant enough to save oneself, to me it seems selfish to endanger others in an attempted rescue.

If the idea is that it is reassuring to have companions nearby - can't you all just get together in some agreed port somewhere down the road? In my experience, even the best-laid plans usually devolve to this.

Still, to each his own, Bligh. (I suppose your mate is Queeg.)

TaoJones

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Bligh,
Welcome aboard!! Good to have you here.
I hate packing together and moving as a group. Backpacking the last time I was almost ready to leave the wife behind to get to the next destination without all the breaks and waiting for people to catch up. Good thing they loaded me down with more of someone else's superfluous gear otherwise they would have never been able to keep up. Never again more that 2 boats in a convoy and the other boat better keep up.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[Sunspot Baby]

Definition of buddy boating: same ocean, same day :-)

There is some comort in knowing that there is another boat within radio range that would repsond if the defiction hit the revolving blades.

I, however, prefer to keep my own pace and be neither floggin the boat to keep up, or loaing along to stay in range.

George

[acesatsea]

Hello Rick, and Tao Jones:
Rick, thanks for the feedback. As you may have noted, nobody leaves comments.
Tao, I tend to agree with your sentiments, but felt I might have something to learn from other skips prior to the passage.
Speaking of skips, I went to Florida to buy a boat in Oct.'05, and had a great experience working with Skip Cook in Palmetto at I think Carson Yacht Sales. I wound up buying in N.C. regretfully, 'cause I couldn't deal with Skip. His e-mail follows. If you talk with him, tell him Neill sends his best regards.
As for my mate, she loves strawberries and Bogart well enough, but she doesn't have the little balls of steel.
Regards, Bligh
Skip1cyb@aol.com

[Entlie]

Welcome! Nice web blog. We sympathize with your dinghy loss, as we are dinghy-less for the time being, ours being stolen from a nearby storage yard while we winter at home in NC. Thankfully some insurance coverage helps with replacement.

As my other half, Sunspot Baby, says, we aren't into pack cruising, either. However, we have made several trips where (even though out of sight of other boats), we maintained casual contact every few hours to report conditions, fish catch, and so on. Bruce Van Sant in Gentleman's Guide to Passage's South (8th ed.), has some interesting comments on buddy boating, most of them negative.

Hope you enjoy the Cruisers' Forum and the friendly folks here.

Entlie
Sailing Catamaran Sunspot Baby

[acesatsea]

And Hello John and George;
This is one active board. Your comments came in while I was composing response to first two.
George, we stayed in New Bern several nights - the boat we bought was at Bock's near Beaufort.
I'm seeing a pattern in these responses. Sailors wouldn't tend to be independent types, by chance.
Regards, Bligh

[swagman]

Welcome Bligh.
Trust you enjoy the board and agree whilst its not easy to sail in convoy, it has its upsides also. There's actually a few experienced sailors (eg Columbus / Drake / your namesake) who found it very uesful at times..........
We too enjoy meeting up with other cruisers, and a radio net covering same route can only be valuable to crsuiers sailing in loose company. I find my lady gets a lot of comfort knowing should anything really hit the fan, there is another vessel less than a day way!
Good luck
JOHN