Sailing to Slow Down

The day of departure is fast approaching and the question on many people's minds is "What made you love sailing?"  Since I didn't grow up around boats or have a previous passion for sailing, my love for sailing may be different from most.  I'm a high-strung, fast-paced kind of person.  I always arrive on time (which has been stressful with Herby because he has no concept of time whatsoever, having grown up as a Puerto Rican), and I am constantly thinking about what's coming next.  In short, I'm a city girl.  I plan my whole day out before I get up in the morning.  Sailing the way we do without a motor offers me a chance to slow down.  When we're sailing, my mindset changes completely from schedules and time constraints to "I guess I'll read a book for the next couple hours."

In that way, the electric motor has been a gift.  Why stress about when we are going to get to the next destination when we have no control over it whatsoever?  We are completely at the mercy of the winds, and as soon as I accepted that, sailing became the most peaceful and relaxing way of life I had oever experienced.  This is part of the reason that I am so excited for our trip.  People are constantly asking us where we're going and when we'll be there and I thoroughly enjoy watching their faces as I say "we have no idea!"  It is the ultimate feeling of freedom to know that we can go wherever we feel like going and get there whenever the wind decides.  In the mean time, we will simply talk, laugh, read, eat, and sleep!

Being Crew

My first offshore experience on a sailboat occurred when a friend of mine invited me to crew with him as he traveled north during the spring. He is a cruiser who travels north towards Maine in the summer and then sails south to Mexico for the winters. I hopped on his yacht in Key West, FL as we made our way up the East Coast of the United States. We made landfall again in Charleston, SC where we tied up to a city pier and I took a cab to the airport to make my way home to Baltimore.

For most of the voyage, the winds were light and consistent, moving us along at a steady pace through the water. When we got near Charleston, the weather changed as a gale approached us with massive seas. We furled up the sails and turned into a powerboat as we motored head on into the large waves. Once we were able to turn and were no longer beating dead into the wind, we let out a bit of headsail which helped to steady our motion as we motorsailed the last bit into the harbor and up to the city pier.

A cheaper way to go cruising is to skip buying a yacht and be crew on other peoples boats. This lets you see the world with no upfront costs!

Aside from having a powerful diesel engine, the most notable difference between this modern design yacht and Wisdom is the amount of beam that exists in the cockpit! Wisdom is 11 feet wide at the widest point, but the cockpit is very narrow as the stern tapers down to a tiny width. This modern yacht, with its sugar scoop stern was 14 feet wide, and the width was maintained for pretty much the entire length of the yacht. Th

This translates directly into the massively open and wide cockpit which gives you plenty of space to move around and relax. All the lines are led back to the cockpit, so this extra space helps you keep everything organized and separate.

Morty Has Sea Legs

Morty has it pretty good! He gets to relax on deck as we take him to new lands to explore.

Morty, our sailing corgi, has his sea legs (even though his sea legs are really short). He certainly does enjoy getting his pets and relaxing on the deck as we sail to new and exciting places.

Sailing on the Calm Days

Cruising isn't always storms and moving along at hull speed. Honestly, most days are composed of light winds that ghost you along slowly. These are the days when we set our drifter "Dill" and let it catch all the wind it can as we slowly move through the water.

Making a Bed in the Cockpit

Wisdom was designed in the 1960's and built in 1968. The thought at that time was "slim is fast" as this shape would slice through the waves quickly and sail faster.  This whole "long and thin" concept is apparent all over the boat. One such places is the cockpit.

The cockpit on Wisdom is long and thin, flanked with two long and thin benches. These are great for sailing, but leave much to be desired when at anchor. Maddie suggested that I make the aft section of the cockpit a big bed.

Having a bed in the cockpit will allow us to sleep outside on hot nights, making these nights much more comfortable. The space under the bed could be used for storage, and the space will be very useful for relaxing when sailing on a long tack.

In the interest of time, I am making this insert out of plywood and fiberglass. Plywood is my least favorite type of wood because the wood is so adulterated. There is no grain to follow and each ply is set in a different direction. The thing that is nice about plywood is it is flat and fast!

Cleats were through bolted to the sides of the cockpit with the heads of the bolts countersunk to avoid any unnecessary scrapes and cuts on our legs. The plywood was then laid over the seats while I crawled under the plywood to trace the shape of the insert.

With the outline traced, I buzzed off the excess with a skillsaw. This let the plywood slip into the space between the seats. I trimmed stringers that would sit on the cleats and support the plywood flush with the rest of the seats.

The stringers were set inboard enough to allow the lazarettes to be opened with the insert in place. Then the plywood was screwed to the stringers, locking the assembly in place.

I trimmed the edge a bit proud of the stringer with a bandsaw, followed by a grinder to bring everything together and flush. I rounded the edges and corners of the plywood a bit to make it fit smoothly in the cockpit.

With the plywood in place and screwed to the stringers, it is time to cut the end flush with the lazarette lids and coat everything in fiberglass and resin. Once that is finished, we will be able to paint it have the cockpit cushion made to fill in the space and make the cockpit into a big bed behind the helm!