Join me?
The plan is to sail around the world. Right now I'm in Mexico. I'll probably head west next, to the galapagos, and to the marqueses islands. I'll probably island hop through the south pacific, up through papa new guinea and the philipines, to china. From there I'll probably sail down the coast, along thailand, down to singapore, up the malaca strait, over to india, ....etc.
--- update -- I'm in american somoa now.
Interested in joining me for some leg of the trip? Crossing some ocean? I might be up for having some company. You'd have to be into helping me work on the boat some, and standing watches, and sharing some of the expenses of such a trip, and being misserable and sea-sick and cold and wet... etc. I don't have a shower onboard. I use a bucket for a toilet. there's no refrigeration. get the picture? it can be pretty cool though too. there's the opportunity to travel to some really cool places. uninhabited islands. scuba diving in tropical reefs. snorkling and fishing. just hanging out with other sailors and having a good time.
I'm currently spending thousands of dollars per month on the boat. I don't expect anyone to split that with me, but being able to help out a little is good. I definately can't afford to support anyone, and coming for a sail with me is certainly much cheaper than going on some chartered cruise, or taking an offshore sailing class, or most any other vacation. I've been saving for years with the intention of doing this, but I'm still on a fairly tight budget, and want to make it around the world without going deeply into debt.
I was going to go cruising with my friend obi on his chinook 34. I would have paid him $200/month as "rent" to go towards boat maintenence and longer-term expenses, and I would have split food, fuel, mooring fees, etc with him half and half. I was planning on sailing with him for a few years though... we even almost bought a boat together. Maybe you could pitch in some equipment that I can't get wherever I am, like David picked up some supplies for me from west marine etc before he joined me, and even talked about splitting a life-raft with me if he stayed on longer. Or maybe you could just give me some fixed amount of money and I'll cover everything outside of your personal gear and plane ticket? It's all kind of flexible... I'm not trying to run a charter business or anything here, The main point is just that you have to have some money... just the plane ticket to come out is probably pretty pricey, and there are lots of expenses that can come up along the way. I want to have fun. To be able to take a scuba class or go out once in a while. I met one captain/crew who were at odds with each other because the captain wanted to buy good food and the crew wanted to buy cheap food because the crew was on a tighter budget... stuff like that could be frustrating. If I met the right person though maybe we work something out.
And if you just want to hang out with me in some port for a week somewhere or something, that would also be cool. Anyone want to come hang out on the boat with me on some tropical island for a week somewhere? it'd be a nice vacation right?
So far we've done watches in 4 hour shifts, with a 2 hour shift in the morning so that they rotate... This has worked out ok. If you don't know how to sail you'll have to learn quick, so you're not waking me up every 10 minutes, although waking up every 10 minutes is what I do when I sail solo. When the wind is good, and consistent, the boat can sail itself for days at a time. Watches are mostly to look for ships, or anything else we might run into, and to make sure we are still on course. looking for ships doesn't require any special skill. When the wind is flaky though, hand steering for hours is sometimes required. none of it is all that difficult or complicated, and I'm completely capable of sailing the boat on my own, so I don't really care if you have sailing experience or not. I'm more interested in finding good company or a partner of some sort than having someone to help me with the sailing and whatever.
If you're serious about coming cruising with me, you might want to read some books like "how to sail around the world" by hal roth.
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