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Tight Hint #l: Sailing was fun again. The smaller boat felt like sailing a dingy!
The boat handled every weather condition that was thrown our way. We arrived feeling fairly fresh, no pounding and motion was slower and more tolerable than many we had sailed.
Tight Hint #2: We could sail it by ourselves in any conditions without investing in gobs of sailing gadgets and gilhookies. Best of all she could handle the weight and still sail well on all points of sail.
Tight Hint #3: Like the little duck, we rode up and down everything, no big mass for mother nature to throw her energy against. The only downside was not enough room for a crowd. Blessing or blemish who is to say. Small boats cannot carry an army or sleep a crowd, but we can take a few people day sailing as long as they stay for the night. So here we are with this little boat, ready to go cruising. First, let's move to the sailing capital of the west coast to get ready. Seattle is a wonderful place to call home. For two years prior to departure we worked on the boat, prepared ourselves, and joined organizations which should make it easier for us. We listened to more returning cruisers than even 48° North, and learned everything we could.
Tight Hint #4: We had every convenience you could ask for using smaller, cheaper models. Those who think we went without are very wrong. Many larger boats traveled with less, at much greater expense. Not only did they pay more for the boat initially, but costs for everything increased, including moorage. All these costs were computed on longer length, not comfort, not sailability, but only on the length of the vessel. Yes folks, you can be comfortable, safe, and have fun in a small boat with a minimum of cost.
Tight Hint #5: Expect stress. The emotional stress of bad weather, long hours, cold, hot, worry, and sometimes down right fear takes its toll.
Everyday life is full of frustration from outside sources. When you go cruising, the source all of a sudden becomes you! You're the only one around, and like every human in the world, nothing is ever your fault, it must be someone else's fault. So guess what folks, you're in trouble for the lack of wind. She is in trouble because the meal is cold, the coffee is strong, the clothes are all wet, etc., etc. You need to talk about the stresses in your life together, work them out before they become mountains that cannot be conquered.
Tight Hint #6: Don't yell when there is no need.
All of us so called captain types have raised our voice to the spousal unit. All of the spousal units react to this raised voice activity, and we don't understand why, we were only giving directions (orders). Okay guys, maybe that's a problem, we think we are the boss on the boat. On our boat, we go by the rule, whoever is on watch is the captain.
Tight Hint #7: Nothing buggers up a cruise faster then messing up the finances. We recommend putting your budget behind steel locked doors and never, never breaking the rules. Put your monthly cash in an envelope, hide it in the boat. If you have some left over at the end of the month consider yourself wealthy, and carry it over to the next month. With luck your wealth will continue to grow month by month. You're living within your budget, how sweet it is. The worst thing you can do is to dip into next month's funds. Where in the heck are you going to find the money tree to replenish your dwindling monthly envelope.
Tight Hint #8: Keep the boat organized, clean, and shipshape. How many of you have tried to find the 12 volt electrical pigtail you bought last year to use with your GPS or spotlight but couldn't find it? Now take everything in your dock box, garage, house, car and desk, throw it in the boat and try to find the damn pigtail. Get the picture.
Tight Hint #9: Prepare yourself for happiness without the satisfaction of a job. Some of you are thinking I would love to try to be happy without a job. That's great, I hope you can be, a lot of people need that daily interface with the satisfaction from earning a buck, doing a good job, getting atta boys or girls, or just being able to say "I am the CEO of Microsoft". About all you will be able to say is "Yeah, I'm the skipper of that little boat over there." If you need more than that you'd better rethink your cruising plans. My wife is a wonderful person, has always been a professional and had good positions. This very same lifelong training to succeed, be something, be someone made it tough for her to make the transition. She never did feel comfortable being a boat bum, being a transient without a plan and damn sure sticking to it. Work on it before you leave, it will be a bigger problem than you think.
Tight Hint #10: Before you go, try living for one month as you will on the boat. When was the last time you turned off your refrigerator, lived out of your canned and dried goods, used a pressure cooker, baked bread and used the solar shower every day? We did not use any type of refrigeration or cooling for the entire trip. We learned to survive the old fashioned way and didn't suffer a bit.
Tight Hint #11: To quote the famous Pardeys, with a twist: "Go now, go as big as you can afford without cramping your finances, which means go small." The cruising grounds are changing fast, don't wait too long! Prices have increased since we departed and returned, and the anchorages are getting crowded. Thirty years ago, when a small cruising boat arrived at a destination, they were greeted with open arms. Today, it may be different. Many of the big boats ahead of you have flavored the opinions of the locals, another case for the smaller vessel. But when you arrive in a truly small boat like ours, you still get some positive reaction from the locals.
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Finally the big day came, off we went, leaving our slip at Shilshole with our favorite song playing as loud as the stereo goes. We were free, and low in the water Ð really low in the water. Our first few weeks weren't very pleasant as the boat was tight with bikes and stuff to last us years in our new life as vagabonds.
We traveled Canada then headed down the coast, with stops at Grays Harbor, then Newport, Oregon to off load some of the stuff we'd brought along. Finally we could see the bottom paint again, but things were still tight. We continued off-loading stuff all the way down the coast. We even sent stuff home from Mexico.