Some Tips for Successful Cruising

Earlier this summer, the Salty Dawg Sailing Association invited me to speak to their members about getting the most out of your cruising. It’s not a “buy this and be happy” list (and if you read “The Ultimate Answer”, you’ll know my feeling on any cut-and-dried answer anyway) but more a compendium of some practical advice. This post is taken from that presentation.

Slow Down. There’s a reason this is the theme song for The Boat Galley Podcast. Slowing down, in every sense of the word, is our best tip for successful cruising. Slow down your expectations. Other people’s expectations. Slow down your schedule. Your plans. When things get tough (and they will), taking time to breathe and slow down will help you get your perspective back.

Attitude matters. Possibly better stated as “manage expectations”, this goes hand in hand with tip #1. Cruising is not all beaches and umbrella drinks; if you think that’s all it is, the first time a squall rolls through in the middle of the night when you’ve forgotten to close hatches and the anchor drags, you may think you’ve screwed up massively and want to throw in the towel. That said, if you think it will only be all horrible and terrible, you’ll find ways to see that aspect all the time. Be realistic, be flexible.

Communication is KEY! Talk about everything. EVERY SINGLE THING. With your partner/others on the boat, not with your friends on social media. Mind reading is not possible. More to the point, listen openly, not defensively. Life on a boat means you’re relying on each other for everything; if you can’t talk about what’s bothering you (or hear what’s bothering the other person/people), tensions will build fast.

Overprepping is better than underprepping. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Plan ahead, have backup plans for your backup plans. Redundancy is good. Sure, you need to balance it all with space and time and not go so far into the overprepping mindset that you never leave, but taking some extra time to consider the possibilities will go far.

FOMO NOMO. You can’t see it all. There’s just no way to see it all. Getting too fixated on missing out on everyone else’s “best of” might just have you missing out on your very own “best”. Back to tip #1 again - Slow Down. Chill out. Choose to focus on the places you are able to visit instead of lamenting the ones you missed.

Fun is important. It’s really easy to get yourself into a rut, especially (cough) when you’re in a boatyard and trying to get it all done as fast as you can. Boat life is challenging - try to take the time to have some fun every day. This might be as simple as observing the spider wrapping a fly in the web stretched out across the entrance to the yard restroom instead of charging through, or as involved as taking an inland jaunt somewhere new.

Sure, there’s lots more to successful cruising than these broad strokes. There’s nothing in here about any specifics. No anchoring advice or weather musings, no caveats on storage or provisioning. Heck, there should be a whole post on what constitutes successful cruising (hint - there will be a lot of “it depends” kinds of comments). The tips here might be a reasonable place to start, with hopefully some fodder for good conversation.

See you out there.