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In my younger years I did a lot of blue-water sailing, spending the summer months (teachers get long summer vacations) sailing in a 34 ft. sloop in Europe: Scotland to England to France, to Spain to Portugal, to Gibraltar, to the Balearics, across the Mediterranean, to Corsica, to Sardinia, to Sicily, to Malta. Then the yacht and I got divorced. I haven’t sailed much since then. I retire this year.
Would I do that kind of sailing again in retirement? Well never say never, but I would imagine only doing day sailing now. I like sleeping in a bed that doesn’t move. Passage making with the wind on the nose means tacking and sleeping in a bunk with a sling to hold you in place. Every time the boat tacks, you are thrown to the other side of the bunk. Add juddering crashes as the boat climbs a wave and falls off the top. I have wonderful memories of sailing in sunny waters and watching dolphins surf the bow-wave, but I also have memories of standing behind the wheel in near hurricane-force winds with water pouring from the heavens straight down my neck, watching my ex on the foredeck trying to lower the mainsail, because we didn’t have self-furling sails, wondering if I might be widowed any time soon; or being talked across the English Channel by a French coastguard, in pea-soup fog, and then trying to sail into the harbour in Guernsey at night, in the fog, and without an engine, because it had broken down again.
I have sailed all in all weathers, day and night, and had some wonderful experiences. But long passage making now, I don’t think I could hack it. Maybe in seas where fair weather is the norm, but is there anywhere like that? By fair weather I don’t mean calm waters with no wind, but not hurricanes, not white Mistrals on the nose that leave the interior of the boat so wet that when you reach your destination, where your brother and his family have been waiting for hours to come aboard and start their holiday, you have to tell them to go for a walk or two while you try to dry the bunks so they can sleep that night! Now, the idea of day sails appeal, but in my current locality, there is nothing to see, other than not very blue water and a flat coastline.
Long haul sailing again? It would have to be an offer I couldn’t refuse. But long trips, flying to and taking trains or driving in Europe, India, New Zealand, Australia, anywhere I know someone I can visit, are definitely in my plans if I can afford it.
I get bored on a cruise ship after two or three days. Once invited on a 30ft+ day of sailing and it was more or less raise the sails; the boat leans and then you ride around bored with skipper passing out wine saying this is the life. But not for me.
I'll pass! Saw this a year or so ago and while it's an interesting concept, I think 'island fever' would set in after awhile. Besides, it's too formal, ostentatious and stuffy for my tastes and too rich for my blood. But I know there are those who would enjoy it. I'm just not one of them.
I'll pass! Saw this a year or so ago and while it's an interesting concept, I think 'island fever' would set in after awhile. Besides, it's too formal, ostentatious and stuffy for my tastes and too rich for my blood. But I know there are those who would enjoy it. I'm just not one of them.
I could go for that if I were rich--for a while. I like to travel, like to learn, like the sea. After a while I'd miss ol' terra firma though and I'd want my garden. I guess I'd just do it in the winter when it's all snow around here. (If I were very very rich and the people didn't act pretentious.)
One crusty guy I knew retired after selling his commercial farm in his 20's and had a 100 foot sailboat custom built in the Orient as his only residence. He toured the globe for 40 years taking on a dozen crew at a time and charging them each $10,000 as a learning adventure. He had no radio and said to me, "who was I going to call in the middle of the ocean?". He married a woman he met along the way and brought up his children onboard. Sometimes his 90 yr old mother would travel with him. Once he was arrested by the Chinese as a spy and threatened with execution. Finally after a month they took him to the town square and made him apologize and then let him go. That was his scariest moment.
The other is a girl I grew up with. Her husband committed suicide and left her a widow in her early 20's with two infants. She worked a well paying job with a pension while at the same time buying and rehabbing rental properties all herself. When she retired she sold everything and remains homeless traveling the world, a month in this country, and six months in that one, always on the go and meeting new people. She wouldn't have it any other way.
I get bored on a cruise ship after two or three days.
It sounds like you may have once been on a Caribbean cruise, which I'll admit, can be pretty much the same from day-to-day. However, all cruises are not like that. I've already discussed a couple of cruises I'm taking next January in Australia and New Zealand. Well, the same couple with whom we're traveling on those cruises just invited us to join them on a South American cruise in 2016. Here's the itinerary:
Jan. 31, 2016--Buenos Aires, Argentina Board ship
Feb. 1, 2016--Buenos Aires, Argentina ship departs at 5:00PM
Feb. 2 -- at sea
Feb. 3 -- at sea
Feb. 4 -- Sao Paulo,(Santos) Brazil 9:00AM to 8:00PM
Feb. 5 -- Ilhabula, Brazil 8:00AM to 5:00PM
Feb. 6 -- Buzios, Brazil 7:00AM to 10:00PM
Feb. 7 -- Rio de Jeneiro, Brazil 7:00 AM to
Feb. 8 -- Rio de Jeneiro, Brazil docked
Feb. 9 -- Rio de Jeneiro, Brazil departs 6:00PM
Feb. 10 -- at sea
Feb. 11 -- at sea
Feb. 12 -- Punta del Este, Uruguay 8:00AM to 10:00PM
Feb. 13 -- Montevideo, Uruguay 7:00AM to 5:00PM
Feb. 14 -- Buenos Aires, Argentina 5:00AM
Exactly where would one get board here? I should also note that the 3-days in Rio also corresponds to Carnaval and the ship will serve as our hotel for those days/nights. We'll also spend additional time in Argentina and plan to visit Iguazu Falls either before or after the cruise. We took a 30-day cruise from Los Angeles to Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, and then around Cape Horn to Argentina, Uruguay and ending in Brazil a few years ago, but didn't have a chance to take the trip to Iguazu Falls on that trip.
On a somewhat related matter, criticism of cruises in general has been expressed in the past, with the main complaint being that cruises just allow one day in a locale. This cruise is a good example to refute that notion. It starts with two days in Buenos Aires and includes three days in Rio. I would also note that Montevideo and Punta del Este are only about 100 miles apart and are basically the same stop, so if one wanted to overnight in a hotel, or just visit the same area two days in a row, that could easily be done. (In fact, on our last trip to Uruguay, we visited Punta del Este while the ship was docked in Motevideo.) The same holds true for Santos and Ilhabula, which are both ports for a trip to Sao Paulo.
Cruising is not for everybody, but one shouldn't dismiss the idea based on a 7-day or shorter cruise to Caribbean islands (or something similar).
We are RVers, but met a couple from Germany who had their RV shipped over to Argentina. They have been on the road for three years and visited most countries in South America, 48 states in North America, including Alaska. What amazing stories they had to tell, unbelievable.
Cousin of mine has a 40+ sailboat, docked by their condo in FL. The community they live in all have boats and they go on trips to the Caribbean in groups. They have taken several trips to Europe, where they rented a boat to travel, like the Greek Isles.
As long as your physically able you should do it. Those groans you wake up from are not from a wild escapade the night before!
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