Cruising World – August 2019

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72

HANDS-ON SAILOR

with rice, makes easily stowed

emergency provisions too.

Look at cookbooks and the

People & Food column in this

magazine and vary the menu,

concentrating on stick-to-your-

ribs meals up north and lighter,

quickly cooked or uncooked

fare once you reach the tropics.

UNDER SAIL

All the care you put into pro-

visioning will come to naught

if your crewmembers aren’t

hungry. Seasickness is the bo-

geyman for every sailor new to

offshore passagemaking, and

more than a few experienced

sailors too. Experience has

shown me that getting your

favorite medicine into your

system three days before your

planned departure will go a

long way toward preventing

“Gulf Stream gastritis.” It

doesn’t seem to matter which

medicine you take (I use

Bonine, which doesn’t make

me as drowsy as some other

meds), just get it into your

system. During my offshore

sailing program one year, I

followed this plan when I left

Newport for Bermuda with 54

people (aboard 10 boats) who’d

never been to sea before. Only

one mighty-man-of-the-sea

who “never gets seasick” was

sick. My wife follows this

prescription and has gone

from getting seasick on a dewy

lawn to running the boat all

night on the 200-mile passage

across the Gulf of Maine from

Cape Cod to Mount Desert

Island alone on deck. A last

important note: Don’t try a

new seasick medicine for the

fi rst time right before your

passage. A couple hundred

miles at sea is not the place

to discover you have a

nasty or dangerous reaction to

whatever you took.

When we left on the

passage that caused the crew

of the 50-footer to abandon

ship, our forecast had called

for the southeasterlies to

blow at a manageable 25

knots, not the 35 to 40 we got.

If that unfortunate crew had

known to hoist a staysail and

perhaps a reefed mizzen, and

then either jogged long as we

did or hove to, they might

still be living their dream on

their boat.

Heaving to is one of the

most important of an offshore

skipper’s tools. To heave to, you

back your jib or staysail—that

is, you sheet it hard on the

wrong side of the direction the

wind is blowing—and sheet

in your reefed main enough

to keep the wind about 60

degrees off the bow with your

helm lashed hard over as if

you’re trying to get the boat

to tack (see cruisingworld

.com/1909heaveto). Done

correctly, the boat will sit

quietly through pretty intense

conditions. This is a technique

worth discussing and practicing

before departure.

Though it happens, with

modern forecasting and

patience, you will rarely

encounter storm conditions

on the short legs from New

England to Bermuda, and from

Bermuda south to the islands,

but it is best to understand

and be prepared should it hit

the fan. Fatty Goodlander’s

excellent book Storm Proofi ng

is recommended reading

before you set sail.

Yes, reading articles like this

one is enough to scare anyone

into taking up RV’ing, but

don’t let it. There is little that

is more satisfying than sailing

your boat at sea toward a dis-

tant horizon. There’s a reason

so much has been written

about the romance of the

ocean. It’s worth the trouble

to just get out there. And as

Joshua Slocum once wrote, “To

any young man contemplating

a voyage, I would say go!”

One fi nal word: Cruising

sailor Douglas Bernon told me

that before he and his wife,

former CW editor Bernadette

Bernon, left on their multiyear

cruise, I had given him the

most important of any advice

he’d received before they left.

“No matter what,” I’d told

him, “each day, be sure to stop

whatever you’re doing, relax,

and watch the sunset.” And so I

pass that along now: Don’t get

so caught up in the preparation

and operation of the boat that

you forget to have fun!

As a delivery skipper, Andrew

Burton has logged more

than 350,000 nautical miles

under sail. Aboard his Baltic 47,

Masquerade, he also helps those

new to passagemaking understand

what it takes to cruise offshore

successfully under the auspices of

his company, Adventure Sailing.

Upcoming voyages include

passages from Rhode Island to

Bermuda and the Caribbean,

cruising through the islands, and a

celestial-navigation passage from

the British Virgin Islands to Key

West. For more information, visit

his website (burtonsailing.com).

RALLY HO

Hank Schmitt, the found-

er of the crew- networking

service Offshore Passage

Opportunities, this year

will be running the 20th

edition of his North

American Rally to the

Caribbean (NARC).

Starting October 26 from

two locations—Newport,

Rhode Island, and Little

Creek, Virginia—the

NARC will call in

Bermuda on the opening

leg before the second

stanza carries on to St.

Maarten. The rally is free

and includes discount

docking space, parties,

professional weather rout-

ing, and much more. For

more information, visit

the event website (sail

opo.com).

On a passage north from the Virgin Islands, the chart plot-

ter displays AIS targets in the Gulf Stream (top). During

a rainy crossing of the Gulf of Maine on the C&C 40, Pe r e -

grine, my wife, Tami, keeps a weather eye on a dark cloud.

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