New-Cruiser Tips, vol.1
So far, most subscribers to this blog are friends and family. But there may come a day when other cruisers may stumble across this site, probably just setting out like we are/were, so it’s time I start speaking to them as well. Friends-and-Family (FnF), feel free to skip this post if you wish!
Bit-o-Advice #1: When you toss your lines, really toss them. Go far; fully commit to cruising and early-on go someplace where you get a healthy gulp of the lifestyle. Don’t think that you can “kinda leave”, that you can keep one foot in your “old”/”normal” life and one foot in your cruiser life, that you can shuffle cars along as you go so you can get back and forth between said lives. There’s one cruising adage that says “if you waited to be 100% ready to go you’d never leave, so just go!” but I have an addendum: make sure the weather window of your primary destination isn’t too far away forcing you to “kill time” till you can get to where you’re going.
If I could roll back the clock, we’d be leaving the bay area right about now. We’d still have stopped in Santa Cruz, Monterey, Morro Bay, etc. but only for a few days at a time and be aimed for the summer in the Channel Islands & SoCal/San Diego, then Mexico by October. While the extra time with friends and side trips (Alaska and others) has been awesome, the downs outweigh the ups.
Bit-o-Advice #2: Make sure you over-respect new-to-you harbors’ tides & currents. Obviously, read the cruising guide about the new harbor, but also ask the harbormaster or other boats for newbie advice. If you’re just setting out like us, you have probably been in one harbor for a long time and gotten comfortable going in-and-out as you pleased. A new harbor may not be as forgiving.
Our big whoops occurred a couple of weeks ago. Harry wanted to go fishing early in the morning (630a ish). He readied the boat and at the last minute I crawled out of bed to pull out of the slip. I saw the tide really going and we briefly discussed it. Backing out, the current quickly grabbed the aft end and got us sideways to the slips with Harry unable to keep us straight. Our amidships bashed into the neighboring fishing boat’s gunwale. Thankfully, they only end up with a few scuffs in their paint. We however, broke a stanchion, a section of lifelines, and gouged our paint down to bare metal on a 6-inch corner of deck.
Here’s what we learned: 1. Most boats in Morro won’t leave or enter their slip unless it’s slack tide, especially if they have a keel. We could’ve waited till 9a for slack to leave and return ~4p for the next slack. 2. I shouldn’t have been driving in my half-asleep state. 3. If we absolutely had to leave on a non-slack, we should’ve added some mechanical advantage to keep the boat straighter while pulling out (run some lines back to the dock perhaps). 4. If you have the choice, opt for stanchions with separate bases so that if you break one you only need to replace the tubing which is a lot more universal than the bases.
We are in the process of repairing the damage. The upside of overhauling your boat yourself is you can fix her when you hurt her. The hit to the ego may take a little longer to heal. 😐
