Anyone here gone sailing for a serious length of time?

I am seriously considering an idea I have been toying with for many years, more or less as a mental escape valve. I used to be a sailing maniac, in my youth I've skippered just about every type of traditional Dutch ship (or 'brown vessels' as the genre is called here) and sailed regattas in wood and tupperware like the 420, 470, Laser and Finn. I have just come back from a yachting trip with some friends and twenty bottles of a heady traditional booze called Beerenburg, and it was one great party because we all felt a sense of freedom we had been missing for years. Lately I've been looking up (or mailing with) some old fellow-instructors and sailing camp staffers, some of whom run their own charter ships in The Netherlands, Denmark or the Mediterranean these days. I don't envy them their lazy, incompetent, ever-yelling and permanently boozed-out teenage crews. It's the in-between periods that I envy them for: their lazy trips across the Med, sailing from harbour to harbour, or their long stints around the North Sea or down the French or British coast, the Norwegian fjords...

This got me thinking along similar lines. I could sell my home, buy myself a sturdy sailing ketch and make off with the missus and kids for a couple of years, trying to earn some money as a roving correspondent in between. In fact, I wouldn't have to work for several years if I took it easy, though I would have a hell of a hard time fitting in again afterwards. It's the sense of freedom that lures me, not a sense of belonging, a particular notion of destiny or the need to 'get away from it all'. I haven't worked it all out yet. But I will.

Soo, has anyone on this board ever done this, either by themselves or with their parents or friends? Any tips? Any suggestions? Heave to and I'll pour you a Beerenburg in gratitude.

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Originally Posted by Adrian II

I am seriously considering an idea I have been toying with for many years, more or less as a mental escape valve. I used to be a sailing maniac, in my youth I've skippered just about every type of traditional Dutch ship (or 'brown vessels' as the genre is called here) and sailed regattas in wood and tupperware like the 420, 470, Laser and Finn. I have just come back from a yachting trip with some friends and twenty bottles of a heady traditional booze called Beerenburg, and it was one great party because we all felt a sense of freedom we had been missing for years. Lately I've been looking up (or mailing with) some old fellow-instructors and sailing camp staffers, some of whom run their own charter ships in The Netherlands, Denmark or the Mediterranean these days. I don't envy them their lazy, incompetent, ever-yelling and permanently boozed-out teenage crews. It's the in-between periods that I envy them for: their lazy trips across the Med, sailing from harbour to harbour, or their long stints around the North Sea or down the French or British coast, the Norwegian fjords...

This got me thinking along similar lines. I could sell my home, buy myself a sturdy sailing ketch and make off with the missus and kids for a couple of years, trying to earn some money as a roving correspondent in between. In fact, I wouldn't have to work for several years if I took it easy, though I would have a hell of a hard time fitting in again afterwards. It's the sense of freedom that lures me, not a sense of belonging, a particular notion of destiny or the need to 'get away from it all'. I haven't worked it all out yet. But I will.

Soo, has anyone on this board ever done this, either by themselves or with their parents or friends? Any tips? Any suggestions? Heave to and I'll pour you a Beerenburg in gratitude.

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I have not done it... yet.
It is a dream for me as well.

I would suggest that rather than selling all your possessions, etc. etc., you put your money in govt. bonds and stocks, try to ride the economic market and take out some every month for use....

I am not a professional, just heard it from a friend.

I recognise the feeling. My parents are waiting for my sister to leave house, things to get sorted out a bit, before my dad sells the company and buys a motorhome in the states and they stay there. I'd say sailing sounds extremely appealing too, though.

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Originally Posted by Marshal Murat

I would suggest that rather than selling all your possessions, etc. etc., you put your money in govt. bonds and stocks, try to ride the economic market and take out some every month for use...

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Sure, if I have money to spare after I buy the insanely expensive 45 foot steel ketch I saw advertized yesterday. Which I won't, of course. I have two kids aged nine and twelve, they are my main investment and will be for as long as it takes to see them grow up and live happily ever after. Geoffrey's parents have a similar idea, only their kids are almost grown up and they are waiting for them to leave the house. I would never leave mine behind on shore in someone else's care, even if Admiral Michiel de Ruyter (God bless his brilliant memory) ordered me in person to do so. Besides kids at this age love the idea of going on a long sailing trip. I would have to find a way to continue their schooling on board. I know others have done it, often succesfully. The upside of the social loss and relative isolation of kids on a ship is their increased self-confidence. I have been visiting an old pal with whom I sailed some close races in the early 1980's and who runs his own charter clipper on the North Sea now. He used to have horrible issues with drugs, having been abused as a child, feeling a total loser on shore. Once he was seaborne he would be a totally different fellow, and he still is. He has two critters of his own and they were healthy, smart, polite and pleasant to be with, and their competence on board gave them a sense of self-confidence and inner ease which you rarely see these days in, say, the streets of Amsterdam... I watched in amazement when his 8 year old son steered that 50 ft monster into its marina box like it was a toy car, all the while standing on tip-toes on a poopdeck bench because that was the only way for him to look across the cabin roof. :laugh4:

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Soo, has anyone on this board ever done this, either by themselves or with their parents or friends? Any tips? Any suggestions? Heave to and I'll pour you a Beerenburg in gratitude.

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Something tells me a week spent sailing to poole won't count....

If you do it, you know you will never be "normal" again, don't you? I say, if that bothers you, don't do it. If you think, "but that's the POINT, doofus", do it at once...

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Originally Posted by Adrian II

I could sell my home, buy myself a sturdy sailing ketch and make off with the missus and kids for a couple of years, trying to earn some money as a roving correspondent in between.

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Arrrr! What ye want is a 40 gun frigate, a grog-soaked crew, and the freedom o' the waves. Leave the missus and wee ones behind, you can get a wench in any port! :pirate2:


Apologies, International Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up, I need the practice!

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Originally Posted by drone

Arrrr! What ye want is a 40 gun frigate, a grog-soaked crew, and the freedom o' the waves. Leave the missus and wee ones behind, you can get a wench in any port! :pirate2:


Apologies, International Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up, I need the practice!

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Lol, where i can learn that?

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Originally Posted by drone

Arrrr! What ye want is a 40 gun frigate, a grog-soaked crew, and the freedom o' the waves. Leave the missus and wee ones behind, you can get a wench in any port! :pirate2:


Apologies, International Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up, I need the practice!

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Ha, I knew this was coming.

Avast, me heartie! How right ye are! A mere wench shan't scuttle me dreams of a proper ship o me own, t'roger in top an 'er bilge filled to the brim with pieces of eight!

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Originally Posted by English assassin

If you do it, you know you will never be "normal" again, don't you?

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You know very well whom you are talking to. In my case normalcy, socialism and even literacy are thin veneers. Scratch me and I'll be sailing up the Medway with guns blazing before you can say Pepys.

Seriously, you make it sound as if I have a choice between slowly going mad on shore or suddenly turning into Mr Hyde during a gale somewhere off Brest. I would opt for the latter, if pushed, but I think the change will be gradual and I will not lose my present mind-set or many of the interests I have right now, like reading and writing, or music. Or even games and 't Internet.

Interesting. Let us know of your decision when you come upon it.

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Originally Posted by CrossLOPER

Interesting. Let us know of your decision when you come upon it.

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Of course I will, my firend. But it won't be for tomorrow or the day after. And when I do, I promise I won't pester you guys with a thousand pictures of spectacular sunrises, Adrian II in bathing gear or supposed monster waves off the Cape of Good Hope. It's gonna be one picture of the ship, a well-meant goodbye and a whole lot of nothing for a long while. :laugh4:

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You know very well whom you are talking to. In my case normalcy, socialism and even literacy are thin veneers. Scratch me and I'll be sailing up the Medway with guns blazing before you can say Pepys.

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There's nothing left to nick, its all a museum. I was going to say "I suppose that's progress" in a sarcastic sort of way, but I suppose the fact that we don't all sail around over the north sea blowing each other up actually IS progress. So I won't.

Wildly OT, but I was in Chatham on Sunday, and discovered they are trying to make the dockyard and surrounding fortifications a world heritage site. Ah, ze famous Eenglish sense of 'umour...

What the hell, on the basis that I (sort of) wish I had the guts to, I say do it.

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Originally Posted by English assassin

What the hell, on the basis that I (sort of) wish I had the guts to, I say do it.

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The weird thing is, once you talk to people who have actually done this, they tell you it's all about preparation and use your common sense and stuff. The real 'advernturers' have not a single drop of pirate blood left in them, they keep an eye on their shares on the on-board computer and they phone home when they feel lonely. So much for romance. I would probably go about it like a bookkeeper as well, calculating my profits and losses like some dull eighteenth century Dutch supercargo. But then I am not seeking some sort of release, rebirth or fulfillment of my inner thingamebob. I just love waves and wind, currents and well-trimmed gear, I can 'smell' an incoming gale and I feel I can still handle a ship singlehandedly at my age. And maybe I want something more to look back on, come Zimmerframe time.

And speaking of progress I'll take Chatham over Flushing any time. They want to turn that into a heritage site as well, only they have nothing left to show for. Not even a decent home brew.

I've not done any real sailing, but done a few trips as a radio op on big, noisy engine-driven craft, and I know exactly why you miss the waves and the open sea, sigh..... It pains me that my monsterboekjie is now gathering dust :no:

My partner's cousins did pretty much what you propose, took about two years to do the circumnavigation, and took their kids. I can certainly confirm what everyone else says about the kids - they come back very confident, capable, sociable, and well-educated in a way you can't get from school. Likewise, I'd say "Do it!" (and if you need someone to handle the GMDSS and maybe have a few MP battles in the doldrums ..... :beam: )

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Originally Posted by macsen rufus

I can certainly confirm what everyone else says about the kids - they come back very confident, capable, sociable, and well-educated in a way you can't get from school. Likewise, I'd say "Do it!" (and if you need someone to handle the GMDSS and maybe have a few MP battles in the doldrums ..... :beam: )

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Ahoy, maatje! Zeevaartschool gedaan? :beam:
I can handle my own Inmarsat, thank you very much, but it is always usefl to gather other peoples' first-hand experiences. And I'll take you up on the MP battles because I will not leave harbour without a good comp or two, and the Doldrums are here to stay methinks.

I've not done any serious sailing but my dad has. He got irritated with the US and just started sailing in 1972, found my mom on the way in '79 and settled down in Austria(my mom is from Austria, boat stayed in Venice) by the mid '80s. When we moved from Austria to Hawaii he sailed the boat from Venice to Hawaii while we flew there.

The boat he used was a 49 foot Italian Yawl built by Sangermani. The hull is all wood with three large planks on each side glued and fitted together. In total he sailed around the world 2.75 times. As for work, he'd do various jobs at various times, for example he spent several months in the S. African bush working on ranch of some sort. In the middle east he did a lot of photography and sold it to who ever would buy his photos and 8mm reels. Later on in the 80s he was collecting and selling antiques and doing some sort of antiquarian work.

If you've got some questions I can try to answer them on my dad's behalf.

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Originally Posted by spmetla

The boat he used was a 49 foot Italian Yawl built by Sangermani. The hull is all wood with three large planks on each side glued and fitted together.

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I went to the Sangermani website and looked at the pictures of some of their older models. They are so beautiful they hurt my eyes. But since your Dad 'lived the life' in a different age and my own plans are still in an early stage, I wouldn't have any questions for him right now.

I have some questions for you though, since you were the kid in the equation.
How did you come out of all this? Did your Dad leave the rest of you on shore
for long periods? Did you join him on trips, and if so, did you like it?

I once went on a boat trip with friends!

It was great fun. We felt very liberated, and soon discarded with even the slightest trace of 21st century civilization. We danced and we sang. We fished for fish with our bare hands. We took of all our clothes and threw them in the water, as we drifted off into the sunset while vowing to never go back...

Then later that evening disaster struck: we ran out of beer. We had also burned the oars of our barge earlier because we needed a fire to stay warm. So we couldn't get back. Our misery was complete. And there we were: at the mercy of the waves, completely helpless, our lives in the hands of God.

Both sides of the river were at least twenty meters away so there was no way we could possibly reach them swimming. We were finally saved from our ordeal twenty minutes later when we had drifted back to the quay, where we celebrated our eventful afternoon by storming the nearest bar naked.

:book:

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Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat

I once went on a boat trip with friends!

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Louis, I am sure your day on the river was spectacular, particularly after your namesake De Funès took the helm.

My day in the sun was when I was a crew member on one of these for a day, about a zillion years ago.

https://img211.imageshack.us/img211/...alheer7jv7.jpg

They are old cargo-ships called skûtsjes. About thirty of them constitute a guild that organizes regattas throughout the summer season. Each individual ship belongs to a particular Frisian town or neighbourhood that pays for her upkeep. Long, tall, over-rigged and underbalanced, they are commanded by devoutly Christian skippers who shout their way from one bouy to the next using the most colourful non-profane language I have ever heard. For lovers of traditional Dutch ships, it doesn't get much better.

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Originally Posted by Adrian II

I went to the Sangermani website and looked at the pictures of some of their older models. They are so beautiful they hurt my eyes. But since your Dad 'lived the life' in a different age and my own plans are still in an early stage, I wouldn't have any questions for him right now.

I have some questions for you though, since you were the kid in the equation.
How did you come out of all this? Did your Dad leave the rest of you on shore
for long periods? Did you join him on trips, and if so, did you like it?

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I came out when my Dad had begun to settle down already. He had bought a house in Austria and my mom lived there with my sister, myself, and later my brother. My dad would work in the Med doing sailing all throug the spring and summer and then spend the fall and winter with us. We occasionally joined him on trips, I remember when I was 5ish when we sailed down the Adriatic and then over to Malliorca (sp) in Spain to visit my grandparents that were living there at the time.
My sister however was born when my Dad was still sailing full time with my mom, she was born in Australia and after a few months they sailed to S. Africa, then up to the US and then to Europe and then they got the house in Austria. My sister seems to have taken it all well, my mom says that she would dress up whenever they made a port call. My mom also says that having an infant on a sailboat made keeping an eye on her all the more important, netting was put along the whole lifeline to prevent any going overboard for her.


My dad really did do his sailing in a different age, he's had to fend off "pirates" in the S. China sea with a rifle, he's been imprisoned in Lebenon by some PLA group for being "an Israeli spy." And he's done his solo safaris in the African bush. It was great for me to be able to grow up and hear bedtime stories where the hero was my dad and not some character in a book. I guess it's had the effect on me of after my military service in a few more years I intend to trek from Lisbon to Shanghai via motorcycle/horse/train just so I can visit countries he hasn't visited. And then when I've reached Shanghai get a flight to Japan then Hawaii and help my dad get sailing around the world again.

We've still got the boat, though it's not in the condition that it used to be in, beautiful lines though. One of the sleekest hulls I've seen on a boat from it's period (built in 1958).

Putting this on my list of things to do...

spetla, really interesting story.

A yaght, no true socialist should be without it. Go for it, once a waterfreak always a waterfreak. But why sailing, nothing beats the fumes of a decent diesel engine.

Fragony, I can assure that no sailing boat for ocean cruising is without its own lovely diesel engine. Those lovely things are needed for recharing batteries, navigating harbors, powering through storms, and of course canals and my father has assured me that there's always the occasional surprise of it not working when it should due to lack of use, though usually they are reliable.

Wow, life stories. Great ones.

*amazed*

That Adrian II can seriously entertain this thought which to many is a mere pipe dream is, to say the least, very impressive.

On one side I want to say: "Go, Adrian, go! Go out to the open seas and live the life! Live it not just for yourself but for all the suburbans at home! For us who suck, whose lives' boring, devoid of hardships and challenges and the flavors of courage. Live! And write us a good tale when you get back to the home port." :laugh4:

...but that's really irresponsible romanticism from the spectator on the home front unfortunately enough.

On the other hand it is entirely his decision. At first my "Think of the Children" meter gets a little tingled when he mentions he has a lady and the kids to either go with him or stay, and wonders if they'll have trouble finding friends. But the experiences here seem to indicate the opposite and that his children will be able to grow up in a way most children will never experience and my worries diminish. After all how many children can visit so many places and see so many things as to have their lives be living fantasies? Only Adrian knows his circumstances in any case and knows if he can afford to integrate himself back to where he is right now or even if he wants to.

If you want to do it, and you believe you can do it. Then god damnit; do it! Because if you don't, you'll spend the rest of your life regretting not making that decision.

After I left the home, I promised myself that I would see the world and all the amazing, spectacular, extraordinary, and even to some degree horrible things out there, so when I came back I could appreciate everything about my life. I'm still not even close to completing that goal, but I'm getting there.

Thanks for your suggestions and encouragement, guys. And thank you for sharing those stories with us, Spmetla. Yeah, I will either be going with the missus and kids, or I will not be going at all. And I'll bet I can buy a gun in Tangiers before I go further south :laugh4:

Right now my wallet says no, my significant others say yes, my colleagues all call me insane, and my father in law (who is a lifelong yachtsman himself) is doggedly perusing webites, contacting wharves and calling old friends in the business to find out what would be the best deal for me shipwise. I've been to a couple adresses with him. Lots of black coffee, lots of talk about issues like comfort versus performance, custom-built versus old (and tested) ships, and what sort of ship can be sold most easily once I decide to call it day.
But God, do those wharves smell good. They smell of diesel, tar, wood, tobacco, coffee, even of rope and canvas.

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Originally Posted by Garcilaso de la Vega el Inca

Lol, where i can learn that?

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Follow the link in my sig. ~;)

Adrian II is alive! I was beginning to think he never really existed. :laugh4:

:medievalcheers:
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Originally Posted by Mouzafphaerre

Adrian II is alive! I was beginning to think he never really existed. :laugh4:

:medievalcheers:
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Well, you almost saw me in the flesh last time round. Next time we will really have to meet or I will begin to doubt your existence. :inquisitive:

:laugh4: :medievalcheers:

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Originally Posted by Adrian II

They are old cargo-ships called skûtsjes. About thirty of them constitute a guild that organizes regattas throughout the summer season. Each individual ship belongs to a particular Frisian town or neighbourhood that pays for her upkeep. Long, tall, over-rigged and underbalanced, they are commanded by devoutly Christian skippers who shout their way from one bouy to the next using the most colourful non-profane language I have ever heard. For lovers of traditional Dutch ships, it doesn't get much better.

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Good look finding an affordable one, these baby's don't come cheap, are build entirelily by hand (and traditionally without a building plan). And I wouldn't hit any ocean with it :inquisitive: