9 September: Behind the Scene - The Truth
The appeal came from my sister Jenny, who called us on our cell-phone while we peacefully strolled along the beautiful sea front. It was late at night, still the entire town seemed to be out eating, cheering or just enjoying the warm night. The facades were lit up beautifully like so often found in southern Europe. It was a delightful Portuguese night, just as warm as the previous nights had been and the following ones would be. I haven't worn socks since Ireland and I love my shorts and T-shirt.
What could she mean, my dear sister?
“I have been following you on your web-site. OK, it’s fun, but, Leon, tell me, I know it isn't always as picturesque and romantic as you write! I've read the entries in your guest book. They must all get the wrong picture! Leon, you must be more truthful when you write! You can't just leave a glamorous picture about cruising. You must add all the negative parts as well. Otherwise it's fine, your text, you know.”
It’s good to have a truthful sister, who says what she thinks. A critical copyreader is essential. But “the Truth”?! I really love our new life-stile and would currently have difficulties in getting back to an office chair. I don’t want to exchange it for any price.
Having said that, cruising is not a bed of roses, just as any life-style isn’t. I will try to fulfill my sister’s request and write about all the hard parts of cruising so far. But don’t accuse me for complaining! And if you, after having read this, don’t think these things are worth mentioning, well, then you can possibly follow why we all like our current lives so much!
Well, then, here it comes: the truth and nothing but the truth. The true story on how it is to sail with two children on a 40 foot boat.
First of all, I need to mention that I am very happily married. If I were not, sailing could definitely be less pleasant, possibly turning a cruise into a divorce. A bad marriage is unfortunately not getting better while cruising just like a drinking problem is not solved by fleeing from home. Every little problem from home is growing at sea. If you hate cooking, you will hate it even more onboard without the dishwasher and with the restricted counter space and limited amount of water. If you grumble about your neighbors or the tax authority at home, you will find ample food for aggression with fellow boaters not handling their vessels correctly or bureaucracy taken to its peak.
(So here my advice: Be nice to your spouse, especially if you dream about cruising, since getting along well is the best way to ensure a positive attitude onboard!)
Living on a boat is, of course, very different from home. The limited space onboard can be experienced every day. And this doesn’t change with an even bigger yacht, since they all are more or less cramped. Not only is it difficult to withdraw to a private spot when needed. Stowing space is a never-ending challenge. Items taken onboard must be judged and questioned if they really are needed and hence deserve a place onboard. If they pass this test, the next question becomes where to stow them. All stowage space onboard has a status of being either easily or not quite as easily reached. Some are almost impossible to reach, so stowing your boat in a clever way is essential. We often change the places where things are put, having not yet found the ultimate stowing system. Having them moving around gives an extra spice to the game to find them again, despite all computerized stowing plans (thank you Excel for endless lists!). “Prime Positions” are reserved to objects with V.I.P. status.
Each time you need to reach anything not placed in such a “prime position”, other items have to be moved first, before you (hopefully) find what you are looking for. And then, it all has to be put back in place again, not always as straightforward as it might sound.
And how about adding a new item into the boat-system? You know that you’d like to put it into a specific box that is designated for this type of stuff, fitting perfectly together with your other parts you already carry onboard. What do you do, when you find out that this last piece is blasting the poor plastic container?
It is not difficult to understand that plastic containers in all forms and shapes are one of our favorites. We have a good collection of boxes in most available sizes and forms by now. Fitting them in the most efficient way onboard is the big jigsaw puzzle in boating.
But even a good system is constantly being improved! Like today: I found a new type of Rubbermaid box in a size we did not have before. I got happy as a kid when I discovered that it fitted precisely onto a previously unused part of the shelf under the galley sink! What a success! What we will put into the Rubbermaid box? Not a clue! Air is in it, currently. But next time we buy something suitable, we have a good box for it!
This specific corner of the shelf under the sink I am referring to is just somewhat difficult to reach, unfortunately; you need to bend over the trash bin with you head down and your arms up to get to the new Rubbermaid box. Sniffing garbage trying to reach the box upside down in a rolling sea, could maybe have some influence on sea sickness, which I haven’t thought of, before, actually. Now I know what to put into the box! Seasickness pills!
Shopping is great fun when you reach a new harbour. Not only containers are being hunted. First of all, the shops have to be found. It takes a while until you find your way to the supermarket (that sometimes is not as “super” as the name might reveal). In the beginning we easily lose our way in a new town, but that’s fun, too! Cafés are found more easily when being lost. The locals sitting in the shade drinking beer, eating charcoal grilled sardines really look inviting. Why shouldn’t we join them?
“Ferreterias” are my favorite shops, by the way. These “iron-shops” have everything you can think of, except food. It’s a pity, we don’t need all the stuff they sell; tools, cooking pots, drills, chemicals, hoses, electrical plugs,… I never hesitate to visit a Ferreteria. They could have something I haven’t been missing, yet!
One day I found a whole liter of 40% specially distilled spirit for just a couple of Euros. I think it was vodka with anise taste. No, no – not for me! For the fish, of course! To avoid blood on deck, you know! Real blue-water sailors pour rum into the fishes’ gills, killing them immediately without any blood spill; hopefully dying happily. So far, alcohol has been quite expensive and industrial spirit with all its additives did not sound too inviting to marinade your fish with. Vodka with anise taste should do to kill the caught fish. I mean: The day we catch one.
When shopping groceries, we always try to find clean big air-conditioned super-markets with seem to have a high turn-over on items. Especially Karolina has a feeling for this.
Is the message coming across that shopping has become a project taking a whole day?!
Some items are so difficult to find here, that we have given up. The language barrier turns buying acetum in Portugal into an adventure. How can you explain that you need 24% apple vinegar to go into the head for removing the salts resulting from urine in the pump housing and the valves for the toilet? Try this in Portuguese! It is so much easier to write it down on a “Get-From-Home-List”. This list is presented to anybody announcing that they plan to visit us. The list has become long, so beware telling you want to come and visit us!
We need to fly home for a couple of days to visit family. Flying home needs a lot of planning ahead! Internet is, of course, invaluable when it comes to getting information and GPRS has made surfing the Internet from the boat possible, yet expensive (anybody heard of Wireless LAN in ports? Not here, at least!). A suitable airport has then to be paired with a good secure port for the boat, where we can leave Regina unattended for some time. Then, the sailing has to be matched to arrive at the harbour with the nearby airport in time, but not too early, taking into account weather and routing.
Another issue is cost. We have become quite price sensitive while cruising, actually. Lacking a steady income, we have to look at our costs all the time. A surprisingly high cost so far has been harbour fees, which range between some 15 EUR to 45 EUR per night depending on the port, but not necessarily on the service offered. I don’t quite understand that tying up in a harbour can cost as much as a hotel room! As already indicated, our cell-phone is also a major cost for us, but helpful especially for data and e-mails. The occasional luxury of eating out is also adding up to your budget, but varies heavily from country to country. Ireland was expensive, while eating out in Portugal is both pleasant and inexpensive. However, a good bottle of wine is still finding its way under the floor boards, which we call our “wine cellar”. But why is it always the best bottle that breaks in a heavy roll, allowing the fine wine to slowly run down into the bilge?
The boat has its own “budget”, where EUR 1000 for our new batteries is not to be discussed. They are just needed. Houch!
Food is not much more expensive than at home, while we, of course, lack all the big costs from home like the car and the house. While you can live inexpensively, planning a cruise should not be made on a too optimistic budget.
Oh, we don’t miss a car, by the way. We don’t even think of it. It has become so natural to walk around. I saw other shoppers today in front of the super market. They were driving round and round in circles to find a parking space. How unpractical! And then at the checkout counter I noticed the woman behind us who had bought loads and loads of bottles of whine. How could she possible carry all these home, I thought for myself, before I came on the idea that possibly this lady had a car waiting outside in the car park?
If you think shopping is taking up a lot of time for us, this is nothing against boat handling. Preventive work is being done constantly and from time to time repairs have to be made. It all becomes to a routine, like changing and rinsing the pre-filters each time water is being produced by the watermaker, checking the engine, rinsing and washing the boat, polishing the stainless steel, cleaning the impeller for the log, exchanging the zink-anodes or checking the batteries or the rig. You learn new things all the time, asking your friends in other boats how they do. Always food for discussion! Understanding how your boat system works (and sometimes does not work) is a rewarding hobby.
I had planned to do some writing on our web-page that night. Instead, I got food for a new story!
Computer work struggling along with COM-ports for inputs and outputs should just not be mentioned here, since it risks a heart attack.
Another adventure worth mentioning is how to get your gas-bottles filled outside your home country. It works, but takes its time and many promenades.
I could go on and on boring you with daily jobs on the boat, but these latest examples maybe give an impression on our new jobs as electricians, carpenters, plumbers, riggers, mechanics, not to forget our new role as teachers for our home schooling.
Home schooling for Jessica and Jonathan is great fun, by they way, but is taking up quite some time for Karolina and me. Three hours a day, one of us is the teacher for them both.
Does anyone wonder, why my guitar is not being played on more often?
I must add that it has been difficult to write this, since I really had to think long and hard about all time-consuming and frustrating work we do. I have certainly forgotten half of them, since time is actually what we have plenty of these days. The positive aspects of cruising are far outranging the frustrating parts.
Our cruising life-style is great, no doubt about that. We all enjoy it and would like to recommend it to anyone with similar thoughts to try it, if you have not been discouraged by this.
If it is for you? Well, that is the big question, isn’t it? And you can’t tell until you try, right?!
We tried. And we hardly want to return to the lives we left.
At least not now.
Maybe later.
