Features
Then there was the question of the boat. My own little 25-ft
Yamaha boat is great for cruising around Port Shelter in Hong
Kong, but gets frightened anywhere further than the Ninepins. I
had blue-water cruising in mind.
I also needed to find somebody with whom to cruise, having
neither the confidence, ambition nor skills to go solo. Whilst
fortunate to have friends with whom I’ve enjoyed doing short
passages in the past, there seemed no opportunity with friends
for a long passage.
I turned to the internet. ‘Find a Crew’ (www.findacrew.net) is one
of several websites aimed at networking boat owners and crew
from around the world. I started searching.
Chasing a cruising dream —
Heading west from Trinidad to Panama
Words ‘Zulfie’
Ever since my first passage, on a yacht as a crew member on a
delivery of a Farr 40 from Port Moresby PNG to Cairns, I’ve always
romanticised about discovering far-flung tropical places; giving up
the world of work and cruising off into blue water.
Fifteen years later, and nearing a rather significant double-digit
birthday, I decided it was time for an adventure and a taster of
long-term cruising—before the sands of time took over.
I managed to negotiate a 10-week sabbatical from my world of
work—in return for promising to execute a few rather ambitious
targets—and turned my mind to the next stage of my cruising plan.
Thinking about where to cruise, I considered sun-drenched
islands, champagne sailing winds and places I’d not previously
visited. As my agreed sabbatical was from mid-October to early
January, this clearly put some parts of the world out of the innings.
Maybe I would go to Australia, maybe the warmer parts of the
Mediterranean, the South Pacific or the Caribbean?
42 Hebe jebes • Jan/Feb 2014
For me, certain factors were important. I
wanted to find somebody with a nice keel
sailing boat above 36 feet which was safe
and well maintained—I’ve nothing against
catamarans but, in my experience of club
racing, I’m used to keel boats.
Ideally, this someone would be a boat
captain who was a good seaman or sea
woman, sensible, and with whom I could
be comfortable living in a possibly small,
confined space for two months! I was
looking for somebody who needed crew
as a partner to help them sail their boat,
and from whom I could learn—rather than
being part of a party crowd or a romantic
relationship!
Whilst willing to pay my living costs, I
wasn’t looking for a commercial cruise or
to subsidise boat maintenance costs.
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