Frequently Asked Questions

These are answers to the questions we get asked most.

Q: What about pirates?

A: Well, yes, there are pirates in the world. There are even some pirates in the Caribbean (though they don't look like Johnny Depp). Pirates in the Caribbean these days are more like what was portrayed in Captain Ron, the movie with Curt Russell. They are very rare and only hang out in certain areas, mostly near the Paria Peninsula in Venezuela. All cruisers with half a brain know to avoid this area. We do and will.

We look at it this way: our chance of being attacked by pirates is smaller than the chance a resident of a big city has of being attacked by a carjacker. Yes, these things happen but most people are not attacked and people with common sense can avoid places where they happen most frequently.

We worry a lot more about the weather than pirates.

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Q: Do you carry a gun onboard?

A: No. One, I wouldn't have one in my house for protection against thieves so I don't have one on the boat (though I do believe there may be other reasons to have a gun, like hunting). I'm not against guns per se, but in a crisis, they tend to make tensions worse, not better. I do believe in the saying that "If you point a gun at an attacker, you had better be ready to pull the trigger." Well, in most cases, I'm not willing to pull the trigger. My life, or the life of the thief for that matter, is not worth the measly hundred dollars (or whatever) they might get.

There have been a couple of documented incidents involving sailors who, when they pulled a gun on an intruder boarding their yacht, were killed or wounded, simply because they pulled the gun (Sir Peter Blake is an example).

A practical reason too, is that, in most countries outside the US, guns are strictly controlled. In the French islands, they verify you have a secure, locked storage locker and all weapons are in it or they confiscate your gun when you check in. You only get it back when you check out again. Most cruisers that do carry weapons, lie to the officials when asked this question. But, in doing so, they risk losing their boat for violating the laws of the host country. Our boats can be searched at any time for any reason (or no reason). We are not protected by any laws that normally protect a person's house, even in US waters.

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Q: What do you do all day?

That depends on whether we are on a passage or at anchor.

If we're on a passage we have the tasks broken down in to 3 basic categories: getting ready/leaving, underway, and arriving. We have checklists we use for the standard "get ready" kind of things - plot a course, enter waypoints in the GPS, secure the cabin so things don't fly around, etc. If we're going overnight or for a multi-day passage we make as much food in advance as possible. While were underway, we sail and keep a lookout for other boats and bad weather - always. One of us is always awake and on watch. We don't do much reading while underway since we enjoy the sights of being on the water and it would take our attention away from keeping a lookout. When we arrive at our destination, job one is anchoring and making sure the anchor is set well. Then we relax.

If we are at anchor, we goof off and drink rum all day. No, wait, that's only some days. Let's see, what do we do?

We're normally up by 7:30am to listen to Chris Parker's weather reports (we do this when underway too). Often we get up at 6:30 to catch Eric, an amateur forecaster in the southern Caribbean. We also download E-mail in the early morning since the radio propagation is good then. We'll have breakfast while listening to weather.

We make many foods from scratch that if we were living on land and had jobs we would buy. Things like bread, pasta sauce, pizza, tortillas, rotis, etc. We also do most of our laundry by hand, or feet actually. We stomp the clothes like grapes.

Shopping in each new island is always a process of discovery - what is cheap or good here? What things that we couldn't find at the last stop do they have here? Can we get items duty free?

Then there's our leisure pursuits - reading, writing, E-mail, walking, swimming, sight-seeing, taking pictures and retouching them, this website.

Oh, and how could I forget - there's boat projects! Maintenance, repairs improvements. There is always a long list of things to do and then there are the pop-up jobs. Things you didn't even know you needed to do but are suddenly at the top of the list - like dealing with that anchor line that almost chafed through.

We go out to eat infrequently, only a couple of times a month. We're cheap and prefer what we cook anyway. When we do go out, it is usually for lunch. We don't like being away from the boat after dark.

Our cocktail hour is 4:00pm everyday. We will sometimes visit other boats for cocktails or dinner. We sometimes have other boaters over to ours. This happens about once a week or so. We are not big socializers. Some cruisers are, and have something going on everyday. They organize parties, dinghy races, volleyball games, etc. We're more solitary than most cruisers in this respect. We prefer the out-of-the-way anchorages whereas some cruisers would not consider an anchorage if there aren't 3 or 4 good restaurants nearby and an (self-appointed) activities director in the anchorage. Some anchorages have morning "nets' on the VHF radio where announcements, weather and news are given. Some folks live for these nets but the only time we have our VHF radio on is when we're underway or during a storm. I guess we're just weird. But we're happy!

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Q: When you're on one of these long trips, do you stop at night?

A: No, we keep on going. There's no place to anchor, it's too deep and the seas are too big. We take turns being on watch, usually 3 hours on and 3 hours off. When we're on our off time, we sleep (if we can). Actually, the longer the passage, the easier it is to get into a rhythm and we can fall asleep on our off time in an instant. We always try to schedule arrivals for daylight but we're not always successful. We have made landfall in the dark several times.

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Q: Don't you get bored?

A: Not yet. Tired, restful, angry, happy, frustrated, blissed out, curious, satisfied, scared, determined, content, isolated, crowded, free - but not bored.

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Q: Does Sam like sailing?

A: Not particularly. When it's smooth he doesn't mind it. When it's rough he can't wait for it to be over. He gets seasick when the boat rolls a lot, although, usually, he just throws up once and that's it (the one exception was on our Offshore Passage). But, as soon as he hears that anchor chain rattle out, he's back to normal and asking for a treat.

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Q: Has Sam ever fallen in the water?

A: Yes, twice so far. The first time he was in the dinghy with us coming back from the vet. He saw the boat and knew it was ours. When we got close he jumped out of Ann's arms and tried to jump to the boat. Just at that moment a small wave hit the boat and he missed. Ann scooped him right up and we all got onboard.

The second happened when he was chasing a bird on deck. He came close to getting the bird but when he jumped, he went over the rail and into the water at the bow. We have a rope ladder for him that hangs in the water at the stern at all times. He swam to the stern and climbed right up the ladder. He needed a little help at the top to actually get onboard but Ann was there to give him a hand.

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