Sailing...for Fun

Recent discussions with some of my cruising friends have centered around the topic of sailing. That’s right – sailing. As in for fun. Now, you might think that since we are all out here cruising around in Mexico…on sailboats…that it would be a foregone conclusion that sailing is done. You might, in point of fact, be slightly misled on that.

Let’s go back in time a bit. First of all, pretty much 99.999% of the people who are living and cruising on a sailboat dreamed about doing just that for a long, long time before they finally took that deep breath and cast off the dock lines. Those of us who actually left the safety of our home port in the quest for adventure and exotic places are in the minority. A good friend of ours, who has visited several times, never misses an opportunity to remind us that we are “in the 1% who are actually ‘living the dream’”. The funny thing about “dreams” is that they are just that and the real thing often turns out quite differently.

From the very beginning I was hooked on sailing and began dreaming about “sailing off into the sunset”. I dreamed of beam reaches in warm breezes, wine at sunset in secluded, palm fringed coves and being gently rocked to sleep at anchor under a blanket of stars. Ahhhh. It sounds so relaxing and wonderful, doesn’t it? Well, it has happened but is certainly not the norm. But this blog is about sailing so we will leave those other fantasies for a different day.

Everyone I know in the cruising community loves to sail. Well…almost everyone. People who are prone to seasickness are a bit less taken with the concept. The problem is that other things are higher on the priority list. For instance: We like things to stay where they were stowed. We like the equipment to be in one piece when we finish a passage. We really like arriving at our destination before dark. None of these likes is particularly conducive to “sailing” a great deal. In addition, sailing involves wind and when it comes to wind conditions, there are two constants: 1) There will either be way too much or none at all, and 2) The wind will always be on the nose…no matter which direction you are going. Neither of those constants is really helpful as far as getting from point “a” to point “b” in the least amount of time with maximum comfort.

In addition to the wind, there are other things that get in the way of sailing. One biggie is schedules. For those who don’t know (and probably won’t understand anyway), the cruiser’s first commandment is “thou shalt have no schedule”! If you must be in a particular place on a particular day it is an open invitation to Aeolus and Poseidon to join forces and humble you with a giant reminder of who, exactly, is really in charge (and it isn’t you). After experiencing some especially nasty passages in order to be in a particular place on a particular date to pick up a guest we now tell everyone that they may choose the date or the place but they may NOT choose both. Even then, things happen and rather than risk life, limb, guests and boat, if the weather goes south (figuratively) we will likely be staying in one spot.

The majority of the time cruisers (in Mexico) are motor-sailing. This would mean that you have one or both sails up AND the engine running. Most of us have a point at which the engine comes on (for us it is when we fall below 4 knots of boat speed). Since most of the time when we actually go somewhere on the boat, we really are actually going somewhere, the trip is planned around the expected weather conditions and expected time it will take to get to the destination. Arriving too early (as we did in December when we made a 3 day passage from San Carlos to Mazatlan) will often mean having to sit out in the ocean for a few hours while you wait for daylight so you can safely enter the harbor or anchorage. Arriving too late can mean the same thing…or…trying to anchor at night. Soooo…most of us plan on an average boat speed (for us it is 5 knots) based on wind (or lack of it) and currents and it usually means motoring is involved.

Racing is another interesting phenomenon for cruisers. Many of us were racers long before we were cruisers and enjoyed that part of sailing a lot. I, personally, raced on the Columbia River for 10 years on my boats as well as other people’s boats. It was great fun. We could go out and compete, no matter what the weather, for a couple hours, return to the dock, put the boat away and have couple beers before going home to a hot shower and a warm bed. There are races here (anywhere you find two sailboats in the same place you will find races) but a large number of us ex-racers no longer participate. It is tough to race your house. First of all, the boat isn’t fast with 10,000 lbs of cruising equipment, food, clothing, books and other stuff on board. Secondly, they are expensive enough to maintain without adding the breakage that occurs during races. One man I know of with an 80’ boat participated in this year’s Banderas Bay Regatta and blew out his headsail. That will cost him several thousand dollars for a replacement (it was not repairable) and not having that sail significantly curtails his travels for the rest of the season. Thirdly, at the end of the day, if you are not in a marina, you will be cleaning up in a shower the size of a closet and, if you are lucky, the bedding won’t be wet.

What I am trying to say is that even though we got into this life because we love sailing, it is rare that we actually just “go sailing”. You know…for fun. Still, we ARE sailors and when all the planets line up exactly right we sometimes really do get to do what we dreamed of all those years. Last year, at the end of a very bad season weather-wise, we left Las Animas Island on the baja side of the Sea of Cortez and sailed all the way across to the mainland with a 15 knot beam reach and 2-3 ft long period swells. It was absolute Heaven.