You see other boats when crossing the ocean. It depends on where you are crossing. If you are anywhere near a shipping lane, you are going to see tankers, freighters, cargo ships, etc. If you are anywhere near any military exercise areas, you'll see military ships. If you are near the common sailing routes, you'll see other sailing vessels. It's not a big deal. I think the longest I've gone without seeing another ship is probably 4 days. Once we went 3 days with seeing nothing, and I mean literally nothing. Not a ship, not a fish, not a bird, not a piece of seaweed, NOTHING. Just water. That felt a little weird. Then someone spotted a yellow 2.5 gallon Prestone anti-freeze jug floating along and everyone came up on deck to look at it, and we all started laughing at ourselves shortly after we realized what we were doing.

When you see another ship, you just keep track of where it is and where it's going until it goes away. Depending on your relative speeds and courses, and the visibility, that can be anywhere from an hour or so to all day.

The open ocean isn't what is scary, the coastal areas are. Out in the open ocean, there is almost nothing you can hit, so the only thing you are really concerned about is unexpected bad weather. Sure, there are sleeping whales out there that you can run into, as well as subsurface containers that fell off container ships, but they are like needles in a haystack and you can take preventative measures. Sleeping whales show up on radar all the time. It's funny, because you'll be looking at the radar and there's nothing there, then you look again and there's a big blob a few miles away. It stays there for an hour or two, then disappears. Hello, whale!

Coastal is much more dangerous because there are significantly more things for you to collide with, including many more vessels, and the land itself. Bad weather can drive you right into a reef or some rocks and sink the vessel if you aren't careful.

If I had to pick an answer for the open ocean I'd go with unexpected severe weather with nowhere to run, so hurricanes/typhoons. While it's probably much worse to run into a floating container, that is so rare compared to bad weather popping up that the weather is the thing that would be more concerning to me.

OK, the internet connection is marginally better so here come some photos. I'm sitting on the boat offshore in the French Riviera near Cannes, so wifi is not the greatest, but let's try and catch up a bit from Bermuda.

After we left Bermuda, we headed to the Azores. That took about two weeks, as expected. Here's what it looks like from inside the helm area, which is almost completely shielded by either fibreglass or plexiglass:





That's the genoa out front, and the jib is wrapped up around a stay and not in use. The mainsail is out behind us, but we're looking forward so we can't see it in this photo.

My watches were 2-6, both AM and PM. Not so bad for PM, but waking up at 0130 for an 0200 shift sucks. The alarm goes off, I grab my headlamp (a small flashlight you wear around your head, kind of like what coal miners wear), and turn it on to the red light setting. You use red light instead of white in order to preserve night vision. Here's what it looks like 30 seconds after waking up:





The light is reflecting from a mylar sheet on the wall (a mirror that doesn't crack/break), and I've woken up but not gotten out of bed yet.


We didn't catch any real fish until we were in the Med, but we did have plenty of little flying fish go on suicide runs against us and end up on the boat. They all got used as fish bait. Here's what they look like:





Note the really long fins on the side, those are their "wings" that allow them to go flying over the water to escape predators. They launch themselves out of the water, then they actually flap these fins as they fly through the air and they can make pretty long distances before falling back into the water. You can eat them, but we didn't. Saw zillions of them jump/flying out of the water to avoid the boat as we crossed the Gulf Stream and all the way to the Azores.

Trying to keep the photos per post down to keep the page load times reasonable.

We continued to have great luck with dolphins showing up and hanging out with us on the way to the Azores. I took this photo from the port bow:





You can see the dolphins swimming right up next to the starboard bow. They like to get up on the wave that the vessel creates and surf on it. They goof around and have fun for a while, it's fantastic. Really tough to describe how awesome it is when they show up, they always put you in a good mood no matter what's been going on. This is one of my absolute favorite things about sailing.

In these photos, I walked over to the starboard bow and shot straight down, so they are literally right there underfoot:







How awesome is that?!?!


Sunsets out on the ocean continued to be spectacular:





That little wheel looking thing on the table is a handline. You use those to fish when you don't have or feel like dealing with a rod & reel. It's a long length of fishing line wrapped around a flared circle of plastic. You put some bait on the hook, let it run out over the side or back of the boat for some distance, then tie the line off to part of the boat. You can jury rig some kind of alarm but it's best to just keep an eye on the line. If a fish hits, you reel it in by turning the wheel in your hands.

Eventually we arrived at the Azores. They are very young islands of volcanic origin, so lots of cool jagged rock formations and volcanoes. Here is a pool on the coast of Faial that was built right inside a bunch of rocks:





The rocks break almost all of the waves, though you can see that they still come flying over the top. People hang out in the little man-made pool areas and chill out there with drinks and little snacks. That net sitting on the rocks is for scooping jellyfish out of the water. There were a bunch there so I didn't bother getting in. I did end up getting soaked to the core by a rogue wave that came completely up over the rocks when I was standing next to the trash can in the center of the photo.

There is an inactive volcano on the northwest corner of Faial that you can go hike up and in. Here's a view of it from the coastline just south:





As you can see, the sides have basically collapsed into it. It's surrounded by the ocean on all but the south and southeast edges. I headed on over and climbed up the side. Well, I walked. It was steep, but not that steep. The top was pretty mundane on the inside:





but now I can cross "climbing a volcano" off my life to-do list.


A bunch of things on the boat broke on the way over to the Azores. One of the most important was that we lost our VHF antenna, which is our primary method of short distance (<6 miles) communication. Think of it as a CB radio like truckers use, except for boats, it's effectively the same thing. The antenna goes on the very top of the 80 foot high mast.

Guess who ended up climbing the mast to replace it:





Good thing I don't have a fear of heights, right? I was using a boson's chair, which is a little fabric chair that is tied to rope that can be raised up to the top of the mast, so it wasn't just a free climb exercise. Probably should have used an actual climbing harness, though. That's a long way to fall.

More later if the OK internet continues.

Needles in a haystack?? One almost won Robert Redford an Oscar!

We used to see them in Mexico in the Gulf of California, like maybe a dozen of them, pacing our fishing boat. I guess they're just curious.

Just put the photos in spoilers. Load time problems solved.

Also, great thread. I'm mad jelly.

I thought photos still loaded even when hidden with spoilers.

I'm about to get off the boat as the owners are going to dry dock it for repairs. Not sure what is next but I spent some time researching the Trans-Siberian express last night. It's a train that goes through most of Russia with different variants. I'm looking at the one that goes from London to Beijing via Moscow and thru Mongolia. I think I can take it all the way down to Singapore, too.

Not sure if that is one of those ideas that only sounds awesome but I've always wanted to see Lake Baikul.

Just west of Marseille right now, boat is going dry in a day or two so I'll be choosing something to do very soon.

Where are you meeting these people you crew for?

Are you responsible for some % of the costs while on the boat?

This would be literally the only time I would ever consider jumping in the open sea. Them dolphins would protect me.

From this(NSFW):

Your passport is still American, right? Maybe not the best time to travel through Russia?

There are crewing sites on the internet where you make a profile as either a captain or a crew, and message each other. Places like crewfinder, findacrew, crewseekers, 7knots, etc.

I've not paid any costs to be on the boat, and the owners paid for pretty much all the food we've eaten on the boat. Except the tuna I caught! It just depends on what agreement you come to with the captain/owner. Sometimes you share costs, sometimes you don't.


Jumping into the open sea and having nothing but ocean below you for two miles or more is a weird feeling. I recommend it.


It's fine. The Trans-Siberian doesn't go anywhere near Ukraine. Here's the latest State Department safety bulletin from last week.


I need to figure out why I'm burning through my SIM credit. I have the SIM listed near the bottom of this page on the right. The one for 30 euros that gives unlimited calls/text and 2GB of internet. They charge you 1 euro a day for the unlimited calls/text which I don't really care about, but somehow I burned through my remaining 16 euros of credit yesterday and I don't know why. I'm guessing there is some kind of tethering surcharge as I had my iPhone hotspot shared out to my laptop. I don't think I'm roaming as I'm very close to Marseille. Trying to read this stuff via Google Translate but haven't figured it out yet. The post office in France sells SIMs, which is pretty sweet.

Continuing on since I have some internet at the moment..

While in the Azores, I also managed to make it to a volcano that wasn't completely barren inside. This one was completely green inside:




Also went to a place named Furnas which has a lot of geothermal activity. They have this stew they make that they bury underground for some hours to cook. Here's what that looks like:





I had the stew, it wasn't that great.

You can walk around the area where the pots are buried and look at the boiling mud if you want to:





another nice aspect of the geothermal activity is that there are hot springs all over the place. Here's one next to a creek:




Everything gets very brown due to that sediment, including you and anything white you let get in the water. It's worth it. Relaxing and some of the water bubbles up out of the ground fast enough that it acts like jets in a hot tub, so you can get a good water massage.

Before we left Sao Miguel, I saw this German guy arrive back from a charter fishing trip:





Now those are some tuna! That yellowfin they are holding up is about six feet long. Everyone was very happy.


The trip over from the Azores to Lagos was uneventful. I'll spare your more dolphin photos. When we arrived at our marina, there was a drawbridge we had to get past. Here's the boat ahead of us going through:





It was a tight fit, as the catamaran is about 30 feet wide. I'd say we had about 5 feet on either side as we passed through.

Lagos was a massive tourist trap. Lots and lots of English people there. I did find this kiwi ice cream, which was probably the best ice cream I've ever had:





It even had little kiwi seeds in it. So good!

I also made sure to find one of those "little frenchie" sandwiches that are a popular dish in Portugal. Someone in the Portugal travel thread told me I had to have one, so I went and found a place that served them. Here is your heart attack on a plate:





Something like 5-6 different kinds of meat in there, covered with cheese. I didn't eat for two days after that.

The World Cup was going on during this time, and since this was Europe instead of USA#1, everyone was watching it. Lots and lots of cafes set up screens like this:

omg, as I looked at the pics you quoted, I was thinking "man, normally I'd be totally terrified of how deep and scary the water below me would be, but as blue as the water is, and the fact that the dolphins would probably chase away anything scary, I'd totally jump in" then saw your response.

see, that sounds all well and good, but it seems like a situation where once the panic hits you, you're scrambling as fast as you can to get onto the boat...

I've snorkeled a lot, and once you realize it's a lot deeper than you think, and you're farther away from safety than you think, it can be an interesting feeling in your head until you feel safer again.

I think I figured out how I'll be crossing the Pacific to get to the US sans plane. Not many sailboats go west to east, so that is unlikely. Especially from Japan, which would be my preferred departure point.

However.

Cargo freighters do go west to east, and regularly. They also sometimes take passengers, usually no more than 11. I may need to leave from South Korea, but that's fine, I have always wanted to go there and I have read good things about internet access there.

We arrived at La Ciotat, France a few hours ago, and didn't get turned away or told that they don't work on catamarans, so the boat will be getting surveyed and hauled out in the next day or two. This means I'll be moving on in the next day or two, and right now the future looks something like this:

1. Get on a train to Italy in a day or two, go hang out in northern Italy for a few days.
2. Get on a train to Switzerland, go check out the life size chess boards in the parks in Geneva. Eat some cheese fondue.
3. Get on a train to the UK, hang out there while getting visas squared away for Russia/Mongolia/China/etc. Schengen timer is frozen during UK time.
4. Take the Trans-Siberian Railway from London to somewhere in Asia that I can catch a freighter to the US.
5. Catch a freighter to the US.
6. Get on a train somewhere in the US and head east to Annapolis to complete the planeless circumnavigation.

The above assumes:

1. I can still buy a ticket for the T-SR and get the appropriate visas in a timely manner. They sell out of tickets early, and while I'm flexible on time, there's only so long I can stay in the Schengen area (about 40 days left now) or stomach English "food" in the UK. Can only eat so much Indian there.

2. I can get on a freighter. From what I'm reading they do sell out many months in advance, so we'll see how realistic that is. I have no problem hanging out in Japan or somewhere else for a month or so to be flexible, and unlike the UK, Japan has awesome food that I don't need to surround with quotation marks.

What an amazing thread that I didn't know existed till an hour ago. Great stuff dude. Makes me want to start a National Park thread (have gotten the bug since a trip to Glacier in Montana last year)

Anyway thanks for the great afternoon read, Just did a northernish italy road trip last year (milan lake como --- grezzana) I'm assuming you're going more into the dolemites, but I'll be on the lookout if you have any questions about the area.

chopstick,

If you have time, you might review the BBC's Around the World in 80 Days. In the early 90s (?) Michael Palin did a series of different travel adventures, the first of which was trying to replicate Phineas Fogg's adventure (using only travel available at that time).

Pretty good, and as I recall, he got across the Pacific on a freighter. Nothing there to help you how to book, but it might give you a glimpse into what it's like.

<sidenote>If anyone's interested, Palin also did Pole to Pole and Sahara, both of which were quite good travel documentaries. Might've been one more. Of course, it's probably easier to travel with the BBC behind you.</sidenote>

Is another option working across the Pacific? Maybe instead of riding a cargo ship, you could crew.

Thanks again for posting your adventures, always interesting reading.

MattSuspect - Thanks, glad you like it.

golddog - They don't allow you to crew on cargo ships anymore. Too many liability issues. I could make it work, but too much of a hassle.

I'm still in La Ciotat. Planning on heading out on Monday. It will be strange not to sleep on a boat. I've been on the boat for over 3 months now and I'm certainly fully acclimated at this point.

One thing that may throw a monkey wrench into my plans is that I hold a US passport, and am trying to get both Russian and Chinese visas for the Trans-Siberian Railway thing. That means that unless I fly back to the US, I need to apply at non-US Russian & Chinese consulates. That doesn't appear to be an issue for the Chinese visa, but from what I've read, the Russian consulates only issue tourist visas to people who are residents or resident foreign nationals of the country the consulate is in.

My original plan was to head over to London and hand over my passport to a company based there (RealRussia) which specializes in visas & tickets for the TS-R trip and let them deal with it, as visa service is one of the services they offer. I'd need to chill in the UK while the visas are processed, but that's fine, I can eat Indian food there.

Hopefully there's a way around that problem. From what I've read, you either need to be a resident of the country that the consulate is in, or have been a foreign national residing there for at least 90 days.

If there's no way around it, back to the drawing board.

I'm still definitely headed to Italy this week, and Switzerland afterward. Need to see those life sized chess boards in Geneva!

only kind of related, but somewhat funny.click ~1:00

chop, some more questions...(sorry, this is extremely interesting to me. when I daydream of winning the powerball, it isn't to buy a house and cars. it's to buy tiger woods' yacht and never have a hard address again lol)

-I know you must have said this already, but you do get paid to crew yeah?

-how much money would someone need to do what you do (assuming you could download all of your sailing knowledge into that person's brain) for 3 months? I know that will vary wildly based on what port you're in, but generally...6 months? a year?

-if a good sized boat appeared before me with my name on it (lol), say maybe 8-10' larger than the one you last posted pics from, could I figure out a way to live on it forever?

what I mean is, between fishing for food and/or taking tourists places and whatever, would I need to have a job to pay bills?

-what bills what I need to pay beyond wifi and random/various issues related to the boat?

-how much does it cost at different marinas/docks/ports to let your boat float there for a while?

-what is the easiest route on a boat the size of the last one you were on? the hardest? put another way, what is a weeklong journey where the wind/currents are easy/hard?

-I think you said you were with a husband/wife the last trip...is that as awkward as I think it could get? maybe not constantly, but there has to be times where you wish you weren't on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic with a couple that you only met a month ago...

hell, not even just a couple, just people you don't know well in particular. most people that know me would say I'm a "people person", but deep down I hate people. and being on a small boat on the open ocean with people I don't have a ton of history with seems like it could get really, really awkward.

in that respect:

-best people you've sailed with?

-worst people you've sailed with?

-most awkward moment on a boat with people you didn't know very well?

-best tips you could give to a single sailor/crew member to have a smooth trip?

anyway yeah, no rush or need to answer all those any time soon, or at all really.

as you've probably gathered, what you're doing (sailing from here to there with no hard plans or dates, seeing the world on your schedule) is amazing to me and incredibly interesting.

not that there will ever be something that I can help you with (I tend to sleep in houses hundreds of miles inland lol), but if there is, don't hesitate to ask. I'm a fairly resourceful person, and you're interesting enough that I'd put a bit of effort into helping you out if I could.

I kinda lurked/harassed de captain's thread too.

something about the freedom of what y'all do is daydream worthy.

I know absolutely nothing about sailing, and have only been on a handful of boats, once to watch whales off boston, back and forth to an island on lake erie, skiing/tubing on a small lake nearby, jetskiing...that's about it. but I've always been intrigued by the ocean. loved sitting on the beach outside savannah watching the shipping container boats go out all night and wonder where they're going.

also, the thought of miles' deep water is terrifying. but terrifying in a way that would excite me and make me hyper and/or happy.

just seems like taking a yacht with a handful of friends around the world is basically the one thing I'd like to do in life, but the odds of it happening are so long that I'm just fine with imagining and daydreaming...

You can get paid to crew, but it's easier to find spots if you are willing to volunteer or contribute toward costs. I am not being paid, though they covered all onboard food expenses. The original deal was that I would contribute a small amount each day for operating expenses, but they waived that requirement as soon as I agreed. It was more a litmus test than anything else.


Anywhere from zero to infinite. I've spent <$1k each month for the last three months. What I have spent has been almost entirely on nice onshore meals (Had a $130 9-course seafood meal in Roses, Spain) and things like car rentals and specialty foods. If I had wanted to, I could have spent $0 the last three months, but what fun would that be?

If you can find a crewing spot where food is covered and you don't share boat operating expenses, you can basically do it for free. You won't be making any money, but you also won't be spending any. Not much, anyway.


You could easily live on a much smaller boat, especially if it's just you. I'm on a 60 foot / 18 meter catamaran. That's an enormous vessel with tons of room. A single person could live on a 25 foot monohull, which is much, much smaller. Also much, much cheaper to buy. Probably more comfortable to live on a 31-36 foot monohull.

You'd need some source of income, but not much if you are willing to anchor instead of dock, take good care of your vessel, don't use much fuel, and have solar panels/wind generator for your electric. Most places have strict rules about chartering, especially if you are not a resident of that country.


Depends on how industrious you are and what you are willing to do. Not many, but boat expenses can add up over time if you don't take good care of the boat. Salt water is a very rough environment on most materials.

No rent because you own the boat.
No electric if you have solar/wind generators.
No water if you catch/make your own.
No sewage if you sail offshore to empty your holding tanks.
No mooring/docking fees if you anchor somewhere.
No fuel if you just sail everywhere.

It's mostly boat maintenance, health/boat insurance, and food. If you get good at fishing you can probably sell your extra fish or trade them for stuff.


Completely depends on the area. Anywhere from free to infinite. Anchoring is usually free. Docking at a marina can run you anywhere from $20 to hundreds of dollars per night.

The easiest routes are open ocean in good weather, because there is nothing to run into. The Caribbean is also considered an easy area because of the mild, consistent, predictable weather. The hardest is probably somewhere like Cape Horn, Tierra del Fuego, the Bering sea, or anywhere else with rough seas and rough weather.

Personally, I'd rather be in an area offshore or near offshore with few to no other boats, because it's safer. I think most people would prefer to be coastal because they believe that's safer as they are nearer to land. I happen to think it's more dangerous to be near land because that's one more thing you can run into.


It wasn't bad. I brought it up proactively before we ever got on the boat, because three people where two are a couple is definitely the most awkward number of people and situation, no question. Lots of people recommend never to crew as the third wheel like I just did.

We didn't have any major issues. I am very friendly, empathic, and can get along with anyone. I also have training in conflict resolution and mediation, so I wasn't too concerned about resolving conflicts. It was definitely a good idea to bring it up in advance and talk about it. It's good that you are thinking about it now, well before you ever get in that situation.



I don't really classify people as best or worst. It's more situational than anything else. What one person might do in one situation is completely different than what another person might do. Doesn't make either of them good or bad people.

I'd say some of the best qualities to have are patience, empathy, thoroughness, calmness in stressful situations, resourcefulness, and maintaining a positive attitude.

Some of the worst qualities are impatience, selfishness, panicking in stressful situations, insecurity, pettiness.

No really awkward moments yet. I did decide to get off one boat because the owner kept changing his mind on a daily basis what our passage plan would be without consulting me. That still would have been fine if I hadn't been trying to purchase a plane ticket and needed to know at least the country we'd end up in.

Best tip I can give would be to be ready to roll with whatever happens. Nothing ever goes 100% as expected, so the best thing to do is embrace that and try to enjoy the variance. Also, things get easily magnified when you're in a tiny space with people and nowhere to escape them. Patience, acceptance, and empathy go a long way to making that more liveable.


The longer you go on just daydreaming, the less time you have to make it happen. Make a plan to save up some money, learn the basics of sailing while you're saving up what you need, then get out there and make it happen!

It was mostly de captain's thread that got me started on this path. I kicked things off by doing a one week liveaboard on a sailboat down in the Caribbean for $2k. I spent a week living on a sailboat with 3 other students, learning the basics and enjoying the beauty of the Virgin Islands. That was enough to convince me to start planning for real and eventually here I am.

If $2k is too much, you can always take local sailing lessons assuming you are near any decent sized body of water with wind. I'd recommend saving up for the liveaboard lesson, though. Actually living on the boat, even if just for a week, makes all the difference in the world.


Feel free to ask any questions you want. I'm just paying it forward from de captain and his phenomenal thread.

that's weird, if I quote your whole post it shows up...hmmph