This Cruising Life

This Cruising Life is our collection of posts that represent milestones in our cruising evolution; navigational firsts, successes, failures, lifestyle changes, and musings on all of the above.

A Farewell to blogging

Cruising Season 2018 Wrap-up

We drag at anchor and call for a tow - in Italian !

Cruising Plans 2018 Postponed.

Wrap-up of Year 2 in the Med.

Diesel tank trouble.

The wrap-up of our first year of sailing in the Med.

The End of the 2016 Sailing Season.

Our passage through the Straits of Gibraltar !

Who can sail around Spain and Portugal without a fishing pot incident?  Clearly not us...

We successfully cross Biscay !

Sailing season 2016 gets underway.

A wrap-up of our first season with Mareda

First beaching with Mareda

First days with Mareda

Spray is sold.

Mareda is delivered !!

Our sailing future comes into focus after deciding that the Caribbean is not worth the Trans-Atlantic sail for us. 

Skippering doesn't end when the boat comes out of the water.

We bought a new boat !!!

A few statistics on our cruising style.

The Leibster Award: a review of our first years of cruising.

An enjoyable and calm crossing of Biscay !

New inspiration to continue the cruising life.

A fishing net wrapped around the propeller and repair diving at sea.

The second big storm of our sailing career in the Bay of Biscay.

Our first multi-night crossing of the Bay of Biscay.

Our first night navigation.

Facing our first multi-day offshore fears.

Winter land cruising teaches us to appreciate sea cruising.

The cruising life demands a new attention to fitness

So what do we DO for a living?  Thoughts on the purpose of a sailing life.

To hibernate or migrate?  That is the question...

Too much down time may be dangerous.

Time for some first year reflections.

Remembering the niceties of home after 80 days of boat living.

Time for an upgrade.  Spray is for sale !

Spray gets a new home port.

40 days of summer sailing that saved our project.  (Probably.)

Weathering our first gale.

Our first long cruise outside the protective confines of our Bay.  Is the cruising life really for us ?

Future cruising zone decisions: the North vs. the South.

Never-ending repairs and new cruiser goofs.

Anxiety is just part of it.  Summer sailing plans and the art of vulnerability.

We discover winter sailing.

Spray breaks away from her mooring and is the subject of a heroic New Year’s Day rescue.

Our first emergency:  the motor dies leaving port near rocky shores in a 25 knot headwind.

Summary of our first 3 months of sailing; knowledge gaps and future goals.

No rest for the weary: shakedown cruising continues.

Our FirstDuet !  After 8 years of sailing together as crew, we head out alone together.

The first shakedown cruise and the renaming ceremony.

The learning curve blues:  the frustrations of reconditioning and refitting a 21 year old boat.

What IS all this stuff ??  The initial inventory of Spray’s cockpits.

Spray of Vannes is officially recognized by the French authorities.

We bought a boat !

Musings on modern ship-board entertainment systems.

Preparing our toolbox for the cruising life ahead.

Renaming a boat:  Choosing a name;  Phase 1; Vigor's De-naming Guidelines; Phase 2; the French method.

How we chose our boat.

Quitting / retiring from our jobs and moving to Brittany to start our cruising life:  From Parisian Professionals to Breton Sail Bums and  The Transition.

Beginnings: how it all started.