Are you a planner or roll with it cruiser?

Stargazer3 · Aug 3, 2015

When we cruise - we are with a group from our sailing club. The week's itinerary is planned pretty closely - and only departs from plan when weather dictates. Some years we follow plan exactly - and other years we are forced to make changes - even with scheduled "lay-over" days. Capt Bill on STARGAZER

FB111A · Aug 3, 2015

I am often "bound for" someplace but end up somewhere else. Like Maine said" too many masts in an anchorage" just keep going or turn back.

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Aug 3, 2015

This is a really interesting one for us. We are generally planner type cruisers but that's usually because we are on a work schedule that isn't very flexible. Also, many of the places we want to go require reservations far in advance. For instance we went to Provincetown for the 4th of July. We made those reservations in January, right when they started excepting reservations. By February they were booked up. Yes, we could have rolled with it and anchored instead of having a mooring but this was a trip with 3 other boats who all wanted to be near each other and close to town. Also, I don't like anchorages on holiday weekends around here. Too many drunk people who don't know how to anchor dragging. We heard that up to 15 boats dragged during that weekend and some caused damage to properly anchored boats.

The part I have hated most about our last 10 years of cruising New England is that it has always been on a schedule. We got fogged in at York Harbor a couple of years ago and couldn't move for 3 days. As a result, that's as far north as we got on that trip since we were then halfway through our vacation. Last year we were supposed to go to Provincetown for the 4th of July and then continue south for a vacation on the Martha's Vineyard. Hurricane Arthur decided that wasn't in the plans, so we lost 2 days of our vacation waiting out the storm and had to skip Provincetown. The marina still kept our $50 a night for the mooring because they have a 48 hour cancellation notice policy.

Now the reason this is really interesting to us is that we are exactly one month away from becoming full-time cruisers (well 1 month and 1 day if you area really counting). We've done some planning for that but really that was only to see if we can make it to Annapolis for the boat show without rushing. Our plan for cruising will be to get up and make coffee, look at the weather, and talk about where we might want to go. That will all be based on the wind and weather. If the wind is not in our favor, we will pick a different destination or just stay put another day. Right now we have two goals, the Annapolis Boat Show and to be wearing shorts for New Year's. We leave to head out cruising sometime around September 8th. That gives us 30 days to complete 14-15 days of travel. Plenty of time to take it slow and see what the wind brings.

Nice topic MS!

Fair winds,

Jesse

mauruuru · Aug 3, 2015

Going offshore I file a float plan---need it anyway for customs/immigration people--and then stick to it unless we have a problem. If just coastal cruising, I have no plan...go where I want as things unfold.

John_Rog · Aug 3, 2015

Studying the charts and planning are part of the fun! We normally make a plan, but hold it very loosely. It's always subject to improvement along the way.

zeehag · Aug 3, 2015

the only float plan i send out is to momma--i tellher this is where i hope to get. i will call ye with my real location when i ge tto where the boat stops. she has my spot tracking info.
she needs to know where to send the cat food for bubba...

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Aug 3, 2015

Maine Sail said:
Really September is the best month for cruising Maine..... As I see it you have at least a few weeks to spend in Casco & Pen Bay.....

Funny, this is on my mind. We are going to Cape Ann for Labor Day. It's a trip we do every year with about 20 boats from our dock. I am thinking we should go north for a week or two when everyone else heads back to work since we don't have to.

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Aug 3, 2015

mauruuru said:
Going offshore I file a float plan---need it anyway for customs/immigration people--and then stick to it unless we have a problem. If just coastal cruising, I have no plan...go where I want as things unfold.

Can you elaborate on this? I have never heard of any custom or immigration people requiring a float plan.

Wally199526X · Aug 3, 2015

Sailing vs Rigid Plans

I find myself in general agreement with the comments, that, when it comes to sailing, from buying a boat to using it, compromise is the operative word. Granting that safety is prime, then everything else means that if you are going to stick to a schedule, you subtract from the scales some sailing hours and motor; if you are going to go where the wind encourages you the most, then you might not taste the root beer floats at some quaint little town. However, if some friends wanted to meet up and using my definition of friendship, I'd let go of the whimsy a bit and agree to be "there" on Monday or whatever.

Jackdaw · Aug 3, 2015

Our 'plan' is to:

Have fun.
Be safe.
Get home.

Occasionally we set a 'goal' that we'd like to meet but is is not required. Like 'I'd like to sail into Santorini'. Everything else is a detail. Over-planning causes stress and can be dangerous if you feel the need to push.

Bob J. · Aug 3, 2015

Planning/keeping to schedule, this is where many that sail fail miserably & get themselves into trouble. What a nice story & I enjoyed reading it. It reminds of the sign on RT 95 northbound when you enter the state. "Maine, the way life should be"

kloudie1 · Aug 3, 2015

Back in the day when we had jobs with strict vacation terms, we planned very carefully and conservatively.. Now there is a goal and a few alternates in case the winds don't cooperate.

worldfest · Aug 3, 2015

Howdy from Galveston Bay! We take off two weeks almost every June for an extended "Sea Cruise" down toward Port Aransas, Offshore out, and back in the ICW. Since I am one of the "Field Editors" of the Waterway Guide, this cruise has a dedicated purpose, so we do have a plan, but it is fairly flexible - due to weather, engine problems and other issues. We try to run Offshore from Galveston overnight to Port Aransas, about a 26 hour run. If the weather turns nasty, and it does sometimes, we sail into the closest port. That can be an issue, as after the Matagorda or Port O'Connor cuts, there is nothing for a long time. On the return leg, we stop at almost every single marina on The Ditch, as it is our job to report on their condition and other important details, like the restaurants and bars nearby! Facilities, power, water, ease of access, nearby supplies and more. We try to cover all details of the ICW transit, to boaters can rely on the Guide. So we do our best to make a marina a night, get in before dark (It is not fun running the ICW at night with the heavy barge loads heading your way), tie up, plug in and find the nearest restaurant. Of course, we cannot always sail on the ICW, and the winds frequently refuse to cooperate, so we seem to have to motor-sail a great deal of the time on the "Eastbound" return to Galveston and our home marina in Galveston Bay. We do allow for delays, both weather and mechanical, and the trip usually finishes on-time, 14-15 days in all. We take lots of notes and take lots of pictures, and it all ends up in the WWG! So we do have a plan and a daily schedule (If it's Tuesday, it should be Rockport, but sometimes Rockport comes on Wednesday). We do a shorter "Autumn Sea Cruise" that is far more casual, and we do stay longer in some ports and bypass others, depending on the weather and our mood. Our dear Valkyrie is a big, safe boat that we have enjoyed since 1985, so she is part of the family, and our daughter grew up sailing on her.

AtLast375 · Aug 4, 2015

We just started full-time cruising in April. We left Pensacola, FL with a big goal - get to Shelter Island, NY by end of July (I grew up there, still have family there, & wanted to sail my boat into the marina where I worked as a teen). That took some planning, much more than we realized before we set out, although not all of our plans worked out & we always had alternatives. We have a dog also so each trip was planned to get to an anchorage or marina before dark to get her to shore for a walk. When going offshore, we either picked a harbor we could get to before sunset or sailed overnight to arrive in the morning - because this was all new & every harbor was unfamiliar, we did not want to enter in the dark. Also some harbors require planning to arrive on a flood tide to avoid opposing tide & winds. When in the ICW, we were just motoring but still had to plan to arrive at tricky spots at high tide or to time bridge openings. All that said, we were flexible - we stayed a few days in towns we liked or if we just needed a break or to wait out weather or to get boat work done. We originally planned to anchor out most of the time but the heat wave in SC & GA was brutal so we stayed at marinas for the AC. Currently we are in Shelter Island - we realized our goal but also realized that we want to continue cruising without so much planning. When we leave here next week, we'll go where the wind takes us until mid-September when we have to head back south again. After pushing pretty hard to get here, we just want to relax into this cruising life.

AtLast375 · Aug 4, 2015

Also the Garmin Bluechart Mobile app for iPad is invaluable if you are a planner. Load up the charts you need, log in to Active Captain & get all that info overlaid on charts plus tide & currents & you're good to go!

WayneH · Aug 4, 2015

I tell the kids that we are leaving Freeport about mid-May and intend to be in Pensacola the second week of June and back home by August. So that's the plan. There's a schedule around here somewhere, I think.

Another sailing friend of mine says, "Write your schedule in jello and then go ahead and eat it."

sailnoproblem · Aug 5, 2015

WayneH said:
I tell the kids that we are leaving Freeport about mid-May and intend to be in Pensacola the second week of June and back home by August. So that's the plan. There's a schedule around here somewhere, I think.

Another sailing friend of mine says, "Write your schedule in jello and then go ahead and eat it."

I love the quote. It couldn't be truer.

oldlaxer1 · Aug 5, 2015

I plan my options and then take what the winds will give me. My only real schedule is to return in time to go back to work. On a few occasions however the winds were blowing a stink right from home port so my options were to get beat up or to take an extra day off and work my way home more comfortably. I've chosen both. (I much prefer the latter)

capta · Aug 5, 2015

We hardly know what day of the week it is. We always 'plan' to be anchored by sunset, and it most often works out that way, even on the longer 60 to 70 mile runs. But then Neptune steps in and dishes out a 6 knot north bound current, on a lovely day when we wish to sail south. 20 knots of wind on the beam and the GPS is reading 1.1 knots, 0.8 knots, 1.6 knots while the boat is flying along putting out a 3 foot wake. Shucks, that old GPS is acting up again, but of course it wasn't.
So the best laid plans fall victim to the circumstances and if one doesn't want to be a nervous wreck (or live on Rolaids), the best plan is to leave all the planning at home, on the kitchen table.
However, it sure would be nice to plan on a boat drink or two at happy hour, somewhere.