Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

The problem is sailboats and schedules don't mix well

Nice picture Tom.

If you're going to be destination-focused you're going to hit or miss some weather and do some extended motoring. If you get lucky with the weather you can sail.

If you're not so lucky with the weather and want the best sailing experience, you need to take the attitude "the vacation is where we are". That means you lay over when it's bad, change your destination (distance or direction) to avoid motoring, and slow down. Those "diversions" from the rumb-line are (for me) an enjoyable part of sailing. It's fun to explore new ports.

You wrote something in another post within the last day or two about how you enjoy your home waters. I feel the same way -- the view from my home mooring is as pretty as anywhere we've been. So for us it's about exploring someplace new, exercising our navigation skills, and for most of us (due to lifestyle choices) that means limiting the trip to an allotted time. In the end you weigh your choices and do what you feel like.

When Jerry Levy suggested last week that I should make the trip to Maine I contemplated the logistics of taking a few 4-day weekends to move the boat north and leave it on transient moorings between each segment. That's an option given the availability of one-way Enterprise Rent-a-Cars and Amtrak service along the NY-Boston corridor. It could also work heading south, but would be a bit more difficult logistically as the distance gets further away.

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