Cruising Plan

Serendipity.

Going (literally) where the wind blows.

Sating our wanderlust and seeing what's around the next point.

These are some of the values guiding development of our 2009 cruising plan.

Our decision to purchase a new Hallberg-Rassy led to the starting point for this year's cruising plan. Sure, we could have had the boat delivered to the U.S., which would have meant our cruising would start in North America. But the allure of seeing Europe from a sailboat proved too seductive, so we chose to take delivery at the Hallberg-Rassy boatyard in Ellos, Sweden.

I remember the exact moment this idea was planted. Three years ago, I began to seriously contemplate acting on the seemingly unreachable vision of buying a boat and going cruising. In September 2007, Jocelyn and I devoted a week's vacation to chartering a Catalina 34 in Washington's San Juan Islands as a starting point for determining whether we really liked cruising. We lucked out with absolutely gorgeous dry weather and fair breezes the entire week. Everything was perfect.

Shortly after our return, we were at a neighbor's "after party" following the annual neighborhood block party. I was still gushing about our charter experience, telling everyone who would listen, and probably being rather boorish in the process.

One person warmed to the subject right away. That evening, I learned that Mark Williams, my neighbor and good friend, and I shared a lust for the cruising life. He told me of his long held plan to buy a yacht and circumnavigate the world beginning in July 2011. He was researching yachts through a number of means, including going to boat shows. He planned to travel to the Annapolis Boat Show later that month and wanted to know if I would accompany him.

Well, I suppose this was a sort of "fish or cut bait" crossroads in the evolution of my commitment to cruising. Was I only going to talk about the idea? Or was I going to take solid steps toward a bigger commitment? As an answer to myself, I accepted his invitation and went with him to Annapolis.

We surfed the exhibits and docks for three days, learning a lot about different yachts and components. At the time, I was fixated on the Seaward 32 retractable keel yachts because these were the biggest trailerable boats I could find. Being a "trailer sailor" seemed to make sense to someone who lived on the High Plains. Jocelyn and I had visited Nick Hake at his Stuart, Florida, boatyard some months earlier to investigate. Nick was at Annapolis and gave me a lot more of his time looking over his boat.

But then I happened across the Swedish boats.

Malo, Najad, and Hallberg-Rassy all had boats at that show. I had a long conversation with the Najad broker. As we finished up, she mentioned that some North American Najad owners order their boats new and choose to pick them up at the Najad yard in Henan, Sweden. Then, they have the opportunity to cruise Scandinavia and Europe before bringing the boat across.

And thus the seed was planted.

Over the next few months, my research repeatedly revealed the HRs as the best boats made. Many lines of investigation yielded this conclusion. How that process evolved is the subject of another blog entry. For now, let me return to today's subject: the 2009 cruising plan.

As I explained, our starting point is the HR yard in Ellos, Sweden. The plan for the following 100 days looks like this:

June 17th to 22nd -- Take delivery of Windleblo at the Hallberg-Rassy boatyard. Shake down day sailing and provisioning.

June 23rd to July 2nd -- Explore west coast of Sweden and east coast of Norway between Ellos and Tonsberg, Norway.

July 3rd -- Clear Norwegian Customs.

July 3rd to July 14th -- Explore east and south coast of Norway from Tonsberg to Stavanger.

July 14th -- Meet son John in Stavanger.

July 16th to 18th -- Sail from Stavanger to Bergen.

July 19th -- Meet daughter Emily in Bergen.

July 20th to August 18th -- Explore west coast of Sweden between Bergen and Trondheim, including Songefjord.

August 19th -- Emily and John depart Bergen.

August 20th to Sept 20th -- Sail from Bergen back to Ellos, exploring Norwegian and Swedish coast along the way, including Oslofjord.

Sept 21st to 29th -- Prepare boat for winter storage. Deliver boat to Båtvårdsvarvet Svineviken marina on Orust Island for storage.

September 30th -- Return flight to Denver from Goteborg.

Consistent with its underlying values, the plan leaves loads of room for redirections and deviations. Knowing that we don't know what we don't know about where the coolest places are on the Scandinavian coast, we're sure to need this flexibility to make the most of our time there.

When improvising on the plan, though, we've decided to adopt one of the rules I learned from John and Amanda Neal while aboard Mahina Tiare III last season. John and Amanda always research the next step in their cruising plan as thoroughly as possible before taking it. Only when both are in agreement about proceeding do they start out. Either one of them can veto the next step if s/he is not ready or is uncomfortable in any way. This seems to me like good policy, and one that helps sustain crew solidarity.

And so it will be aboard Windleblo.

We began some time ago with an unconfirmed notion that we might want to adopt cruising as the next source of adventure and fulfillment in our lives. We tested this idea with some chartering and passage making.

Having passed the test, the sentiment has evolved to a commitment to seasonal cruising. This summer marks our first cruising season, and the beginning of our experiment with the cruising life.

Some "experts" advise living aboard a boat for at least a year before setting out. This advice may be right for some, but is probably very wrong for others. We prefer to take on our cruising 100 days at a time. Then, we'll reassess and put together another cruising plan for next year.