Category Archives: Dogs Aboard

Newly Salted: 11 months in

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So, there’s this really, really cool couple of blogs managed by Liva of S/V Estrellita. The blogs, Interview with a Cruiser Project and Newly Salted, both feature interviews of those who have been cruising for some time and those of us who just started out. I found them to be tremendously helpful when we were still sitting at our desks dreaming and scheming of a way to become  . . . Cruisers.

Because these interviews were so helpful to me, and because we’re no longer sitting at our desks – (drumroll, please) we’ve become we’re everday becoming Cruisers, I thought we’d add our thoughts to the project.

Liva asks participants to self-publish our interviews and then re-formats and links back – how easy, peasy! I’m looking forward to seeing our interview up here when she has a break in her South Pacific sailing.

Until then, here goes something:

  • About Us

S/V Mother Jones hails from Austin, Texas and is Captained by Damon and Laurie Jones, with minimal support by our Chief Security Officer Kemah (our dog). We moved aboard in December of 2011 in Punta Gorda, Florida and sailed to Panama stopping in The Bahamas, Jamaica and Providencia. We have blogged about our travels overland and aboard at www.SoManyBeaches.com. We love hearing from other cruisers; so don’t be shy, drop us a line!

  • What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising –

D: I wish we had told ourselves to take a couple of navigation/sailing courses. Although I know now that, no matter what anyone teaches you, you (well, I) don’t really learn how to sail until you actually do it on YOUR boat. BUT, a “basics” of anv knowledge and sail trim physics would’ve been helpful…

L: We did a TON of research before we left, scouring blogs of other cruisers and basically soliciting any advice from anyone willing to share it. So, I’m not sure there were too many surprises. But, one piece of advice we got over and over and I’ll restate here was: GO NOW! We heard from a lot of old salts who said they or someone they were close to waited and waited to go and then they couldn’t due to health, financial or other reasons. They told us to go now and we’ll figure it out (financially) and so far that’s been true.

  • As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

L: In terms of being a cruising couple, learning how to sail together was challenging at first: we learned we deal with stress differently (he springs into action trying to figure out what can be done and I prefer to quietly think on it before acting and his action makes me more stressed), and we had different ideas of what makes a good sail, anchorage and social life. Navigating those new waters together takes time but we found slowing down, asking “why do you think that?”, “where do you want to anchor?” or “how do you want the day to go?” and then really listening to the answer has made a big difference towards being in sync.

L: Personally, I had a hard time transitioning with the distance from friends, family and making new friends – when everyone is a proverbial ship passing in the night. I love being a part of a community and D prefers his solitude. So, that means he’ll begrudgingly join me in meeting new cruisers, attending pot-lucks, etc and/or I’ll just go by myself while he hangs back. And, it means that as we look at going back out for the Season (and leaving our community in Bocas del Toro), I’ll be facing this challenge again.

D: Sleeping. On land, it’s easy to sleep through the night; you don’t wake up every few hours wondering if your house has wandered down the street or if someone else’s house is going to knock into ours if the wind changes. On the boat, I find myself waking up every couple of hours to close the hatch if it starts to rain, check our position and otherwise mind the boat.

  • What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

Ha! We’ve made a few for sure! We’ve run aground a couple of times (luckily, we’ve been able to just get out and push our shallow-draft boat off a shoal). We sailed wing-on-wing in 10 foot seas (and then ripped our head sail). We’ve drug anchor because we anchored on a slope and then the winds changed. We were too optimistic about sailing and almost ran out of gas a couple of times. Yep, we’ve made a few.

  • What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

We love having the opportunity to spend so much time together. We love the challenge of learning new things (“what’s leech line, a weep hole, a Obida?”). We love being self-sufficient and spending so much time outdoors. We also love being part of an international community with so many different backgrounds and perspectives represented. And, of course, there’s all the exploring: from travelling a well-worn cruising path like Boo-Boo Hill in the Bahamas to finding the secret fish market or just a boat part, it’s always like a treasure hunt! Finally, there’s the striking physical landscapes of all the new places. My good friend who’s spent 16 years cruising says it best: “I love standing in my galley with my same old pots and pans and looking out on a whole new country!”.

  • What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

I’m amazed at how some can be so narrow-minded when commenting on other cultures and living amongst other cultures as expats. I understand how things can wear on you, but if you wanted it “they way it is in X”, stay there or go back!

  • What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

While I had read a lot about other people’s budgets for cruising, I mistakenly thought we could out-cheap other cruisers.  I thought we could stay under or around $1,000 per month, because, you know, wind is FREE! But, of course, the wind isn’t always with you, parts are expensive and depending on where you go, provisioning and Zarpes can also add up.

  • What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

We have definitely found it to be true that there are always boat projects; it’s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge: once you’re down to the bottom of the list, start again at the top!  I’ve also found the cruising community to be amazing. Regardless of who you are, how much money you make, your politics, race or religion, if you are in a jam, another cruiser WILL help you out.  A couple of quick things, too: The Bahamas is expensive, everybody has an opinion and don’t worry about food so much – they’ll have it there.

  • Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

We wish we had an SSB for sure. We had an incident hundreds of miles from shore and only had a SPOT and VHF. Luckily, we were able to get someone on the VHF three hours into our ordeal that could relay to the Coast Guard. But, we’d love to have the added safety of the SSB for emergencies and for weather forecasting.

Also, given that Damon is a working electronic musician and I a writer, we’ve found our battery bank to be limiting to powering our equipment. We run the genny from time to time, wait for sunny days or go ashore to use computers.

Another cruising couple also told us they heard from others cruising the Tropics that they couldn’t have enough fans. We’ve added a couple here and there over the last year and would definitely second this recommendation.

Finally, a wish list item that hasn’t proved a deal-breaker yet is a windlass. We *are* the windlass on S/V Mother Jones. Luckily, because of the grounds we’re cruising and because we have a shallow draft boat, we rarely have a problem pulling up anchor. But, at 4lbs a foot (280lbs) anchoring in more than 20 feet can get difficult to pull up, especially if there is any wind.

  • What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

Clothes, books and leather; we brought too much of all of it and in the Tropics, everything leather has molded.

  • What are your plans now?

If they do not include cruising, tell us why. This Season we’re headed to the San Blas, then up the Western Caribbean Coast (Providencia, the Bay Islands of Honduras, the Rio Dulce, Belize and Mexico). And, we’re excited!

  • What question do you wish I would have asked you besides the ones I’ve asked you and how would you answer it?

Having a dog aboard presents both pluses and minuses: we never worry about security, but have limited independence from the boat and in places we can cruise. Several folks have wondered about the strange looking PVC lined mat we have at the bottom of our swim step: it’s Kemah’s swim step allowing him to easily enter and exit the boat without our assistance. More info about our homemade, $40, swim step can be found here.

**Update: Mother Jones has officially become “Newly Salted”! You can read this and other Newly Salted interviews here.**

77 days

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D left on Tuesday morning to go back to the States to work. He’ll be gone for 77 days. And, yes, I’m counting.

 

The past few days have been hard. In addition to the general malaise of missing someone I’m 100% in-like with, I’m sore. I’ve lifted the anchor three times, single-handed for the first time and generally been doing four-hands worth of work with two – it’s tough! It seems everything on the boat weighs (at least) 40 pounds and when I’m done with one project, the next one is just waiting for me.

I have a renewed appreciation for my wonderful partner and all he’s done (and is now doing) to keep us afloat.

And, I have a renewed appreciation of myself.

The last time I was on my own I was in my early 20’s. While I have always had an independent spirit, at that time I was recovering from some trauma which left me distrustful of the world in general and most people in particular. I was hell-bent on doing everything on my own. It was also when I delved headfirst into political work – like “do my best swan dive into shark-infested waters” delving.

It was at that time I was interning for political women’s organization and my boss bestowed upon me the nickname “lauradical”.

lauradical and the woman who named her

While I’m not sure she always meant it this way, I considered it the highest compliment – more than a badge of honor, an identity.

lauradical, with her rad hair, behind the wheel of Gussa, a ’73 IH Scout

It wasn’t that lauradical wasn’t afraid to do things on her own; she was and she just did them anyway.

When lauradical didn’t know how to do things and she figured them out.

fixing the carburetor on my ’59 Ford Custom, custom painted of course

Now, lauradical is visiting me yet again. It seems she showed up just in time to her to help me remember that I can totally do this!

Afterall, we’ve done some pretty rad things together. Maybe things some would even consider radical.

Like, maybe this:

Little lauradical thinks like this

 

or this:

lauradical speaking on the steps of the Texas State Capitol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

or perhaps something as radical as even this:

lauradical gets hitched!

So, for all those who worry about me being out here alone on the boat. Don’t you worry. I’m not alone. I’ve got friends I check in with daily. I’ve got a handsome blond keeping me company.

Chief Security Officer Kemah Jones

And, I’ve got lauradical.

South of the Tropic of Cancer

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This week in Georgetown has been busy!

We’ve been doing the usual re-provisioning: fuel, water, food, laundry.

We’ve been excited to let everyone know about Amble Resorts and the possibility that I could be their 2012 Island Intern back in Panama (go vote!).

And, most importantly, we’ve been studying up for our big next legs south to Panama.  After tons of consideration and over a year’s worth of hemming and hawing, here’s what we have decided (and are open to feedback on):

How’d we get here?  In short, we wanted to take the 1) safest, and then, 2) most comfortable route.  Without going into too much detail (we’re happy to, just email us) it’s a big combination of studying the weather, charts, pet-entry req’s, clearing in fees and then, prioritizing what we want to see along the way.  Being willing to go “north to get south” (go out of your way to get a better sail) and waiting on the weather will serve you well on making big passages like this, or so we’ve been told.  And, that’s what we intend to do.

First thing’s first, as you can see we’re headed West, with the Trade Winds instead of beating East across the north coast of the Dominican Republic and then beating again across the north coast of Puerto Rico.  If we were to go that way, once we got to the USVI, we’d be set to follow little coastal jumps all the way down the chain.  But, each of the 20-odd countries “down the chain” between “here” (The Bahamas) and “there” (Panama) has different pet entry regulations and entry fees for the boat.  Turks and Caicos alone is $200 to enter (for a couple of days, no thanks) and some of the islands I really wanted to see (Dominica) don’t allow pets on shore.  So, we’d skip these anyway therefore the advantage of short day sails between islands was kind of muted.   Of all the things I’ll miss out on (this time) by not taking the Eastern route, I think I’ll miss the opportunity to see Saba the most: when told roads and an airport couldn’t be built, they did it themselves – my kind of folks!

Also, yes, Cuba (the forbidden zone) is on the way and the anchorage to check in at is just past Guantanamo Bay.  If we stop we’ll likely just anchor off the coast to rest but the coast is so steep that we’ll be really close to land.  So . . . we’ll keep you posted.

And, finally, yes, it’s a lot of open water after Jamaica, but we prefer the open water with the Trades over beating against the wind.  And, we discovered there are a ton of little atolls along the way, which could break up the 3-day trip to San Andres (off the coast of Nicaragua), which is supposed to be great!

From there, it’s a “short” jump from San Andres to Bocas – from 36 hours to 72 depending on the weather.

We estimate the total sailing time on these legs to be about 1.5 weeks, which will be broken up with time ashore and time patiently waiting on the weather.  So, just like that, we’re well on track to be in Panama by June, just as planned.  Famous.last.words. 😉

I’m not sure what internet options will be available between here and Jamaica so stayed tuned on Spot and we’ll catch up on the flip side.

xoxox,

Laurie

ps.  If you haven’t yet taken a second to vote for me for the Amble Resorts 2012 Island Intern contest, what in the world are you waiting for??? 😉  Click here.