The Importance of Games

I'm sure you know that while cruising, the promise of internet is, well, nonexistent.  The electronic devices that once provided endless entertainment and stimulation suddenly don't exist.  Reading is a wonderful alternative, but it's quite a solitary activity.  Our brain needs probing on occasion.  It needs to be challenged and a rush of endorphins every now and then will keep it happy if you don't mind the pun.  This brings me to the importance of bringing multiple games on a cruising journey.  Games make us interact with each other, laugh, and problem solve.  It prevents us all from becoming sad marshmallows watching the waves roll by the boat or the words roll over a page.  Reading is most definitely a pass time that makes us think and brings joy, but it's a different type of thinking and a different type of joy.  I am of the firm belief that brains need exercise just as our muscles do.  We need to continue working things out and the competition of a game does wonders for our emotions.

Before we left on our trip, I went to one of my favorite childhood toy stores and joyfully found that they had expanded to include a section entirely dedicated to games, and not just for children!  I walked out with the five most compact, yet mentally stimulating games I could find that also looked like tons of fun.  The compact part is important because we live on a boat after all and there isn't much space for much of anything let alone board games with peaces that can roll around and get lost.  I think that I have compiled the perfect collection of games for a cruise and I'll leave a list below.  They are all fabulously fun and offer a wide range of difficulty depending on the moods of the players.  I highly recommend each and every one for anyone in a house or a boat in the middle of the ocean.  I have starred our current favorites.

Timeline (Events and Inventions) *

Set

Iota *

Fluxx

Cards Against Humanity (you also need some for cruiser party nights)

Snorta

Manchala

Joking Hazard *

Anaxi

Exploding Kittens

Tapple 10

Slamwich

Awkward Turtle

Suspend *

Memory

Quiddler

And of course, regular playing cards

The Water Problem

Water is an invaluable commodity when cruising, and though it is easy to come by in each port, you are never guaranteed drinkable water.  We anticipated this problem across the ocean and in the various small islands that we plan to visit, but the problem surfaced before we even left Maryland.

We had allowed ourselves to completely run out of water with the knowledge that we would be able to fill up in the marina where we were docked, but as luck would have it, the entire water system there had coughed out its last spurts that morning and the owner had no plans of fixing it as the price was far too high for him.  It was a minor inconvenience for us since luckily there was another marina within a short distance.  As we were filling up there, however, the owner came out and informed us that though we were welcome to fill up with this water, he did not deem it drinkable due to its high levels of Nitrates.  It did indeed taste rather terrible, but we didn't have much choice.  We needed water for much more than just drinking since we had dirty dishes piling in the sink and we ourselves weren't exactly specimens of cleanliness.

So, this isn't an unusual thing.  One can never depend upon clean drinking water where he is headed, so we prepare for these sorts of circumstances.  Rain water is a big way of dealing with the problem, but what if it doesn't rain when you need it to?  We needed a backup for our backup, so we went to Costco and bought 180 liters worth of bottled water.

You read that correctly.  It may have been slight overkill, but if we are forced to go for a few months without finding drinkable water, we will be glad that we added this ridiculous amount of ballast to the boat.  We were able to fit all of the bottles into compartments underneath each birth quite neatly.  They're stacked in such a way to minimize friction.  We didn't forget about the fact that too much friction could cause the bottles to release their contents and waist everything.  To be honest, it's worth it simply to know that if we did get stuck at sea due to weeks of doldrums, at least we wouldn't go thirsty. 

Together Time

Cruising has many advantages that dirt dwellers often fantasize about: the lack of a schedule, the relaxed attitude about each day, and the carefree living that goes with cruising.

These are all true, but there is yet another major benefit of cruising: Together Time.

When I worked on land, I would get up early in the morning, say goodbye to my wife, dog, and bird, then head to work. I would return home very late in the evening, in time for a late dinner and then bed. It seemed that the weekends were the only time I had available to actually be with them.

Now that we are cruising, everyday is spent together, all day long! When we are anchored, we all go to shore together and explore the new land we have arrived at. When we are sailing, we all hang out in the cockpit as we make our way to the new anchorage!

While Maddie and I have really come to enjoy being together all the time, I think that the pets are the ones that enjoy it the most. They used to see us in the early morning when we woke up. We would take them on a walk and then say goodbye as we headed to work. I went to work at 5:30am, Maddie a bit later at 6:00am. Then we would be away all day until we got home, Maddie at 4pm, and me at 9pm. Our pets spent the entire day sleeping in the boat as they awaited our return. Each day as boring as the last.

Now that we are cruising, we are all together all the time! We never need to say goodbye or leave them alone, as they come with us everywhere we go! When we go to shore, they get to come along on the journey. When we are sailing, they get to snuggle up with us as we make our way through the waves.

In the end, we never look back on the time we spent at work and wished we had done that more. No, people always wish they spent more time traveling, or with their families. We have decided to take that route in life and live it to the fullest, together!

Blackout Curtains

Sleep hygiene is very important for good overall health. To accomplish this, you will need to get around 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep at a regular time each night. You should also be in near or in total darkness during your sleep. Here lies the problem while cruising.

Cruising means that you will have to sail from one place to the next. If the winds are unfavorable, or they die down, you will take on her to get to your next anchorage. This could mean that you will miss your regular bed time, and instead, need to stay awake for many hours longer than usual as you sail into your destination.

We were sailing from Solomons Island into the St. Mary's river one day. This is a simple 18 mile sail, so it should theoretically only take us a few hours to make the trip!We left at 10am, and were moving along at around 6 knots, meaning that the whole journey should only take a bit over 3 hours. Then the winds shifted and our track was no longer going to bring us directly into the next river south. Instead, we needed to tack back and forth as the winds kept shifting and loosing intensity.

We finally arrived at our anchorage at 2am, a full 16 hours after we had left.

At this late hour, I had to drop the sails and the anchor and get ready for bed. This might not seem like that big of an ordeal, since I can simply sleep in the next day to get my full 8 hours of sleep. The problem is the sun is rising at around 6:30am, meaning I would get about 4 hours of sleep before the sun would peer in the hatch over our bed and wake me up in the morning.

Here is an unsung benefit of hank-on, tanbark headsails. They can double as black out curtains!

I draped the dark sails over the hatch and went below to sleep. When I awoke, well rested, at 11am,, the V-Berth was still a black cave, devoid of light!

Another benefit of draping a sail over the hatch is you can open the hatch under it to get some airflow through it without getting any nightly rain through the hatch as well.

Using this nifty little trick, you can get a good night sleep even after a long and tiring sail!

Weather Forecasts

Everyone always talks about the weather. It is a safe topic where you seem immune from hurting someone's feelings or offending their beliefs. But the funny part about weather is you will hear forecast reports from many people about the same day and they will all differ drastically! 

One person will say they heard it was supposed to rain, another will say it's supposed to be clear skies! If land based weather forecasts are so wrong, what makes you think that weather forecasts over water will be any better?  

I heavily trust a website called Passage Weather (http://www.passageweather.com) for my weather information. They tend to be spot on with wind force and direction, but not always the best with when said wind will arrive. 

We were sailing along as the sun was setting when we were becalmed. We drifted for a few more hours until we started to get tired. I looked up the wind information from passage weather for the area and it said that we were to have no wind for the next 9 hours. After that, the winds were to pick up to 20 knots from the North.  

We were in an exposed area, offering us no protection from wind or waves, but we figured we could get 8 hours of sleep, and then raise anchor to keep going before the winds returned. We set the anchor and got ready to sleep when the winds hit with full fury.  

The winds that were supposed to be 9 hours away slammed into us and we were stuck! We were both tired and raising the anchor in that much wind would take some considerable effort. We decided that we would simply ride out the night and keep moving in the morning as the anchor showed no signs of dragging.  

We spent that night heaving around in 4 foot seas, not sleeping, as we were constantly awakened by the constant trashing of the waves against the hull and the howling of the rigging in the wind. The next morning, our anchor and all of its chain needed to be collected before we could continue our way. It took me nearly 2 hours to crank in the 180 feet of chain I had let out with our manual windlass, pulling in 1 link per stroke on low speed.  

The sleepless night concluded with us raising anchor in a blow and sailing away in sloppy weather, all because the forecast said it would be a calm night. Forecasts might be fun to talk about on land, but the weather can always change and this can have serious consequences for you when cruising.