Cruising Tips

Back in the day I owned a salty gaff-rigged ketch named Autant. Traditional to a fault, she had no electricity, plumbing, winches, roller-furling or any other modern conveniences. Nor did she have an engine, though there were plenty of times when I wished it were otherwise. Like it or not, those years I spent cruising without an engine were emphatically educational.

Eventually everyone wraps a line around a prop. I was told this on my first-ever job as a captain—leading teenagers on liveaboard dive-training trips in the Leeward Islands—and bragged about being the only skipper not to have done so.

My 42-foot Pearson ketch, Silverheels, was originally built with a shallow anchor well on the foredeck that could not accommodate the long anchor rodes needed for serious cruising. While converting the shallow well to a deeper chain locker, I decided I wanted a fore-and-aft partition so I could carry two separate rodes.

Have you ever spotted a lone sailboat anchored in what looks like a dream location—someplace not on the charts—and wondered how the heck they got there?

I’m a barbecue traditionalist; I love to grill on a charcoal fire. The problem on a boat is the mess attendant to keeping bags of charcoal onboard.

When you inspect your inflatable lifejackets, hope you don’t find any surprises. They say you should never take anything for granted in life, and I reckon that applies to lifejackets too. While exhuming my inflatable lifejackets— one manually actuated, one auto-inflating—from their basement crypt last spring, it struck me that I had never once inspected them or serviced them since they were new—and that, I realized guiltily, was many years ago.

Picture this: you’ve got the opportunity of a lifetime to crew aboard a great cruising sailboat. All that’s left is to pack your duffel. In addition to the essential layers of clothing, here are a few items that will keep you comfortable and happy at sea.

Cats make great cruising companions, but life on a boat can be challenging for them.