Defining "Cruising"
Maybe you’ve thought about “living on a boat” or “sailing around the world”, or maybe you’ve never really realized that people actually DO live on their boats and go cruising. The kind of cruising I’m talking about on this blog has nothing to do with mega cruise ships or bar hopping, and everything to do with being on your own boat.
Cruising, pretty simply, is traveling around on your own boat. That’s it.
Pitons, ahoy! (from the deck of Calypso)
There’s no magic size of boat required or kind of boat required. There are people cruising on powerboats and sailboats, kayaks and rowboats and houseboats and catamarans. There are people who trailer their boats from body of water to body of water, then launch them and cruise happily.
You could cruise in this. If you really wanted to.
There is no mythical time caveat to cruising. You’re just as much a cruiser if you spend a night or a weekend away from the dock, exploring the coves nearby, as you are if you’re voyaging around the world. Absolutely, your needs and experiences and expectations will be pretty different in those 2 camps - but to say one is a cruiser while the other is not is putting unnecessary shame into the whole equation.
There’s no list of required equipment (other than that boat) or list of required places or list of required ANYTHING. My favorite response when asked about just about every aspect of cruising? “It depends.”
While I think that chartering is a great way to vacation, if it fits the budget, my definition of cruising is “on your OWN boat.” It’s not that you don’t have some shared experiences (sunsets and dinghy docks and small spaces for sure!), but more that when you’re taking your own boat, the sense of responsibility of it all is huge. There’s no backup mechanic to call if the fridge goes out or the engine malfunctions, nobody to compensate you for lost vacation time. Still, if you tell me you’re cruising for a week on a chartered boat, I’ll happily listen to you talk about it!
I’ll be really clear here and say that this is my definition, that this is what is in my head as I write and share and prepare for our own upcoming cruise. It’s possible I’m a little defensive on the size issue, as we sail a small sailboat we’ve owned and cruised in spurts on since 1992. I’ve had interactions with more than one person who tells me point blank that my boat is not big enough to cruise on. It’s also possible I’m a bit defensive on the other too; when people hear that for the past 10 years our cruising has been on weekends only, some of them dismiss that out of hand.
There are a lot of blogs and YouTube channels (in particular) that seem to be focused on “Sailing Around the World” (we have a sailboat, so I gravitate towards the sailing perspective; there are people cruising on all manner of powerboats too). They’ll introduce themselves with “So and So’s voyage around the world” or “Follow us as we circle the globe” when they’ve never sailed further than the next bay around the corner and have never spent the night on a boat at all. Is this because this gets viewers and readers? Is it a lofty goal they are trying to reach? Do they think that their experience is somehow not valid if they’re not heading that way? Do they not yet understand that cruising can be so much else?
But I digress.
In any event, it sounds pretty amazing. Hop on a boat and go around on that pretty blue water, wearing bathing suits and diving in any time you want. See ports of legend and lore, all while being propelled (if you’re a sailboat) by the wind, which, hey, happens to be free! That’s what we see on Instagram and on YouTube!
When we first decided to live on our boat and sail to the Caribbean, it was a time before the internet existed. There was not the flood of pretty pictures on Instagram or awe-inspiring video channels to follow. We researched by reading books and magazines, and between Jeremy’s experience cruising the Med with his family when he was younger and our shared time teaching sailing in the Caribbean at Sail Caribbean, we felt like we had a pretty good personal handle on some of the hardships involved with this living on a boat thing. These days, it’s easy to find the highlights and not so easy to find the less pretty realities that are facts of ANY lifestyle. When is the last time you saw parents posting about their cute babies in the middle of a massive diaper blowout, or day 3 of teething and no sleep for anyone, or the impossibility of getting a newborn to latch effectively for breastfeeding? When is the last time you saw a realtor post about cleaning gutters by hand, on a tall ladder using a bucket that needs to be carried down said ladder while filled with heavy shingle debris and wet leaves?
So what are the realities of living on your boat and traveling around - what are the realities of that cruising lifestyle?
Heading back in after a weekend cruise.
I sign off most of my podcasts with “Can’t wait to see you out there.” This is a true sentiment, but really I can’t wait to see an enthusiastic, informed you out there. I hate hearing stories about people who sold it all, bought a boat, and set off cruising only to stop at the next port and put the boat up for sale, thoroughly disillusioned by this lifestyle. I’d way rather you know what you’re getting into from the beginning, the nautical equivalent of teething babies and overflowing gutters and all.
Step aboard. This blog will take you along on our journey, from getting ready to set sail in 2020 to adventures on the water. And if you want to answer the “is cruising right for me” question, or at least start thinking about it? Check out my course on the subject. You might just find the answers within you you never knew you had.