{"id":381,"date":"2013-03-01T18:42:02","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T22:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/?p=381"},"modified":"2013-03-01T18:42:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-01T22:42:02","slug":"from-the-past-my-first-cruising-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/2013\/03\/01\/from-the-past-my-first-cruising-boat\/","title":{"rendered":"From the past- My First Cruising Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Merry<\/a>
Merry Way at her home dock in Branford, CT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I bought my first cruising sailboat 2001. \u00a0I had owned a couple of smaller boats, having bought my first boat when I was 14 (a Newport 21), but ever since I could remember I had wanted a cruising sailboat that I could actually live on. \u00a0I lived in an apartment, and then a house after graduating college, but soon grew restless. \u00a0Living more than a 30-minute drive from the water wasn’t where I wanted to be. \u00a0I had always lived close to the water, but I really wanted to be on it.<\/p>\n

Searching for a boat suitable to turn into a floating home became almost an obsession. \u00a0I would comb classified listings in print and online. \u00a0I immediately flipped to the back sections of magazines to look at boats listed for sale. \u00a0I started driving to marinas up to 10 hours away on my weekends to look at boats that I had seen advertised and to walk the back rows looking for others that might be for sale.<\/p>\n

From years of reading sailing books I already had a good idea of what I wanted. \u00a0I focused on “classic plastic” sailboats between 28 and 35 feet long of the type that was popular in the 60’s and 70’s–mainly “CCA” type boats with moderate beam, cutaway keels with attached rudders, and long overhangs. \u00a0These boats were solidly built and I felt that they offered a good value and go-anywhere strength.<\/p>\n

\"Merry<\/a>On one long day trip to Florida, I found a Pearson Vanguard 32 with a “For Sale” sign on it. \u00a0 Her owners were serious cruisers, and had outfitted her with solar panels, radar, mast steps, a tillerpilot, and a cockpit enclosure. \u00a0She was in pretty good overall condition and was priced reasonably. \u00a0A deal was soon struck and I was suddenly the new owner of a proper cruising sailboat! \u00a0She was my key to adventure; a floating realization of a long-held dream.<\/p>\n

My brother and I brought that Vanguard up the coast from Florida to Connecticut in February and March. \u00a0It was cold and rough and I only had two weeks off from work, so that meant a lot of long days of powering into biting north winds. \u00a0It seemed that I didn’t need a chart or compass–I could just point the bow directly into the wind, and that was where we needed to go! \u00a0The full cockpit enclosure was praised again and again.\"MWay<\/a><\/p>\n

An offshore passage from Norfolk, VA to Sandy Hook, NJ seemed like a small challenge for my sturdy new boat. \u00a0We headed offshore in pretty good weather, and motored straight for the entrance of NY harbor. \u00a0That night we were hit by an awful squall. \u00a0We were motorsailing along with most of the genoa out when my brother called me up to take a look at something strange. \u00a0I peered into the gloom and could see what looked like a bright patch on the water, sort of. \u00a0After a couple of minutes, it became apparent that it was actually a white line just above the horizon, and it appeared to be getting closer. \u00a0We quickly secured all sail. \u00a0Just seconds later, the boat was laid over on her beam ends with no sail out. \u00a0I revved the engine and pointed our bow into the wind and spray and\u00a0Merry Way<\/em> came back upright, but the wind was so strong that the boat was being forced down into the surface of the sea. \u00a0Water was gushing up through the cockpit drains! \u00a0(Water never backed up those drains again in the time I owned that boat–even with 5 or 6 guests onboard for daysails.) \u00a0It was all over in a few minutes and we continued on over a confused sea with lots of rolling and banging around.<\/p>\n

The next day, I found a huge crack in one of the Sta-lok backstay insulators. \u00a0It was hanging on by a thread and ready to go at any minute. \u00a0I quickly rigged a support for the backstay by tying lines from above the insulator to the aft mooring cleats. \u00a0I also cranked down on the topping lift and main halyard aft. \u00a0We made it in to Sandy hook without further problem and anchored to catch up on sleep.<\/p>\n

The 12-hp Yanmar had its biggest test on the last stretch of the trip. \u00a0First, there was the East River. \u00a0At one point, people in wheelchairs in a riverfront park were moving faster than we were. \u00a0Then, once we made it to Long Island Sound, there was an ENE wind to contend with. \u00a0Well, actually, it was a gale of wind. \u00a0I had to be back to work, so we pushed into the teeth of it, motorsailing back and forth across the sound trying to make headway into the steep seas and bone-chilling wind. \u00a0If you ever want to test out a boat, I can recommend taking it to the west end of Long Island sound during a NE gale and waiting for the tide to change against the wind. \u00a0That stretch of water gets rough. \u00a0It took us two and a half days to make it to Branford, CT from NY city, which is double what it usually takes for even a relaxed trip in settled weather.<\/p>\n

All that was just on the trip home. \u00a0I lived on that boat through two winters in Connecticut, and had plenty of other sailing adventures before finally selling her and moving back ashore for a short while because the marinas in the area where I was living stopped allowing people to live aboard their boats.<\/p>\n

\"Merry<\/a>
Merry Way at Jeckyll Island, GA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I bought my first cruising sailboat 2001. \u00a0I had owned a couple of smaller boats, having bought my first boat when I was 14 (a Newport 21), but ever since I could remember I had wanted a cruising sailboat that I could actually live on. \u00a0I lived in an apartment, and then a house after… Continue reading From the past- My First Cruising Boat<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ztFW-69","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}