Cruising World - June 2018

june/july 2018

cruisingworld.com

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the asymmetric spinnaker day and night,
doing two-person watches around the
clock just to keep the boat moving. We
all got pretty good at sail trim. When the
wind dropped, we doused the sail and,
mid-Atlantic, had a swim 1,000 miles
away from the closest land. We fished.
We cooked. We ate. We slept. We cele-
brated Thanksgiving. Alexandra baked
cakes. We read. We danced. There was

lots of room. We chased birds off the deck,
which must have mistook us for an island.
We shouted with delight when dolphins
came to play. Craig flew his drone. We saw
amazing sunsets and shooting stars. We
played cards, which included a three-week
Wi zard tournament. We watched TV.
Had pizza-and-a-movie nights. We left our
cameras and computers lying around. Were
we on a boat? It was way too comfortable.
One thing I noticed about

passagemaking on a multihull is that I

had much more energy than when I go

to sea on a monohull. Not being on a

heel all the time means it doesn’t take

as much physical effort to do simple

tasks. Overall, everyone in the crew felt

the same. We also dealt with tasks more

readily since it didn’t take much effort to

get up and deal with things.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, this

applied to cooking. We were constantly

preparing meals and feasting. No one

lost weight as we usually do on a mono-

hull passage, where you sometimes eat

minimally since food prep and eating just

feel like too much effort at times.

On December 3, 21 days and 3,000

nautical miles after setting sail from Las

Palmas, Gran Canaria, we made landfall

in St. Lucia. The boat felt enormous

as we came into Rodney Bay Marina,

but with the twin Yanmar 80 hp diesel

engines, we could turn on a dime. Twin

screws make even large multihulls easy to

maneuver. We were greeted by the happy

owners, John and Caroline.

So, have we become multihull converts?

Well, we can definitely see the advantages

now and understand why for some sailors

they are a good choice for cruising. It all

comes down to what works for each of us.

After all, it’s love for being on the water

that all cruising sailors share — be it on

one hull or two.

Sheryl and Paul Shard have been living the

cruising dream for nearly 3 0 years. Together

they have traveled more than 100 , 000 miles

under sail, including eight Atlantic crossings.

Learn more about the Shards’ adventures and

their TV series, Distant Shores, on their

website (distantshores.ca).