Everyone Can Be a Cruiser

Cruising is a state of mind that has very little to do with the length of time that one is actually on the water, and almost nothing to do with whether you are in a sailboat or a motor boat. A cruise can be to the harbor entrance and back, or around the world. My daughter and family cruise very successfully in a 15 foot run-about.

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Having said that, there are certainly different categories of cruising and cruisers. In what follows "sail" is used in place of the clumsier "motors or sails" and within this last "motors" makes no distinction between outboard and inboard motors.

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Cruiser 1 - Home marina based and not living aboard. Sails out and back in the same day, with perhaps occasional days and nights away at another marina. Never out of sight of land.
Cruiser 2 - Lives aboard for short periods. Some limited blue water passages, but mostly never more than hours away from an anchorage or marina, and associated service facilities, airports, stores and markets.
Cruiser 3 - Full time live aboard, traveling the same areas as Cruiser 2.
Cruiser 4 - Full time live aboard, long ocean passages, significant periods of time away from services, stores, etc.

Whether your boat sits in the back yard on a trailer, or in a marina, there are certain tests you can self-administer to determine whether you are a cruiser, and what you are doing is cruising. These tests do not distinguish between the types listed above, but simply determine whether you fit one of them, or just a boat owner. We have developed these over countless margaritas, in hundreds of anchorages around the world, sitting in our cockpit with cruisers of every shape, sex, color and nationality, and watching the magnificent sunsets.

Question 1 - Regardless of whether your voyage is less than a mile to a good fishing spot, or across an ocean, did you spend at least an hour the night before departure studying a chart and getting weather information? Did you draw lines on the chart and measure off distances with protractors? Did it feel good?

Question 2 - Did you ensure that your voyage included a sunset? If at anchor, were there enough margaritas for the whole sunset experience? There is nothing quite as wonderful as watching the sun set from your vessel.

Question 3 - Do you wear a cap with "captain" embroidered on it? If you do, then even if you answer all of the other questions correctly, you are not a cruiser. Cruisers are too laid back to need labels. In any case, as every cruiser knows, the captain's main job is to keep the boat's toilets working properly.

Question 4 - As a last chance, if you answered "yes" to Question 3, do you wear boat shoes on board? Sorry, the correct footwear for cruisers is bare feet. Racing sailors may wear boat shoes to protect their feet and toes from contact, but cruisers move more deliberately, and give great thought to what they are about to do, so the accidental coming together of a toe with a projection is unlikely.

Question 5 - If you don't own a boat, but answered the above questions correctly, on the basis that you would act that way if you actually had one, then congratulations, you are a qualified, dedicated armchair cruiser, an honorary Category 5.

Everyone Can Be a Cruiser

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