Mattina

The Start Of My Sailing Life

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

“Bond, James Bond,” my husband, Matt, said. It was our first ever cockpit happy hour and we’d anchored  our charter boat amongst several mushroom-shaped islands. The day started in Phuket, Thailand and ended . . . with a dream.

James Bond Island

I raised my eyebrow at him, thinking he was trying to be as cool as his drink. “What are you talking about?”

“Right there.” He pointed with his glass. “James Bond Island, from the movie ‘The Man With the Golden Gun.’”

I turned and looked. Near the closest of the limestone islands, I saw something more interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of Bond, but a sailboat with San Francisco written across her stern caught my eye. She was anchoring right next to us.

“How did that boat get to Thailand?” I asked.

“They’re cruisers.”

“What do you mean, cruisers?” The answer changed my life.

“They live on board their boat and are sailing around the world.”

“People really do that?” I looked him in the eye with genuine curiosity. I had never read a sailing magazine, had no idea the cruising lifestyle existed, and more importantly did not realize it was my dream. “Honey, why can’t we go cruising?”

That was the moment I first heard the ‘Call of the Sea’. It occurred aboard Sweet Robin, a Jeanneau 39 chartered by friends out of Phuket. We were the ‘crew’, invited along to help do a bit of sailing and a lot of living. It was day one of our fourteen day charter, and our attitudes were already changing. After a delicious cockpit dinner of jumbo Thai prawns washed down with a Singa Gold beer, I repeated my question, “why can’t we go cruising?”

Over the next thirteen days we accidentally anchored in a ferry channel, swam to a rustic hut on an expansive white beach for the best ever sweet and sour fish, tried to barbeque while waves splashed into the cockpit, sailed out of sight of land without a GPS, and spent a very bouncy night on a lee shore. We had a moment of panic when the six-year-old on board yelled from below, “is there supposed to be this much water in here?” Relief followed as we tracked down the leak in the head. Through it all, the dream took hold.

We returned to living as expatriates in Tokyo and would be there another couple of years. I avidly read about other people’s sailing adventures and the world of cruising. Halfway through our next assignment in Germany we committed to each other that we would make the dream happen.

We took a ‘Learn to Bareboat” course in the Florida Keys and chartered in the BVIs and in Turkey. In 1999 we bought Allura, a Niagara 42 sloop, built in St. Catherine’s, Ontario.

Allura
Allura

We spent the summer on Lake Ontario learning to sail Allura and headed south in September with all other Canadian boats. We made it to Georgetown, Bahamas, just in time to celebrate the millennium with all our new cruising friends. After two seasons exploring the Bahamas, we sailed to Bonaire and ended up in Aruba for a year of windsurfing. In 2003 we cruised back to the Chesapeake, sold Allura and returned, for a while, to land life.

Now we are on Mattina, and love her just as much as Allura.

I kept the photo of the boat from San Francisco to remind us that dreams do come true, and I often wonder what that family is doing now.

Canadian spelling?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

If you’re a Canadian writer and spell the Canadian, I’d love to know what you do about a forty-two inch flat screen television.

Canadian’s use the metric system, so should it be a 106.68 centimetres? Or maybe 1.0668 metres?

Both seem rather silly to me.

I think using inches is okay in this case.

Any opinions?

Thanks for reading . . .

 

Farley’s Friday: How a Dog Beats The Heat

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

Farley here.

Cold fronts, warm fronts, what’s a dog to do?

Some days it’s just to hot to bear, and other days, I love the cool weather. The cold front passed through and we’re back to high temperatures.

The first thing that happens is my owner cuts my hairs. She’s always worried about me overheating, I just wish she’d taken classes on how to groom a Wheaten Terrier. I need to look my best when I head to the beach to meet the girls.

bahamas 2010 112

I don’t like to swim in water over my head, but there’s nothing like a cool walk in the water. So I have a little sand on my face. What’s the big deal? This shot was taken before Kristina ‘groomed’ me. I’m too embarrassed to post the after shot.

Woof woof.

Afraid of Heights: Try Repairs on a Sailboat Mast

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Every sailboat needs repairs or maintenance sometime. A small event like sail tape coming loose on a spreader means a trip up the mast.

Mast

When sailing the in Bahamas, there are enough calm days to ascend the mast in safety. This weather came right before a cold front.

Safety being the key. The work has to be done, but it doesn’t have to be dangerous. A good harness and bosuns chair, two halyards, two people manning the halyards, tools tied to the belt, and up you go.

Thanks for reading . . .

 

 

It Was Only A Glass Of Water . . .

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

I’ve had a bit of a setback this week.

Water, water everywhere . . .  and not where I want it to be. An innocent little glass of water and presto – no more Macbook.

If you’re reading my blog, you know I’m living on a sailboat and nowhere near a store or something as luxurious as a Mac store, so when I spilled a glass of water on my Mac it brought tears to my eyes.

I shut down, ripped out the battery and hoped for the best. Days later, I’m not having any luck.

After the terror subsided, I remembered I made a back up the day before (phew), and that my husband loves me. The second is a very important point. When I asked if I could have his computer for the rest of the season, he happily said yes. He would use the tablet. Again phew.

We have backup equipment on the boat for almost every part, and I’m very happy that this extended to a backup device for my Mac and an extra computer.

Now I just have to get used to the keyboard!

My message: don’t forget to backup your work.

Thanks for reading . . .

Farley’s Friday: My Doggie Eyes Communicate

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Farley here.

So this week my human is reading The Genius Of Dogs: How Dogs are smarter than you think.

Well I could have told her that. Kristina keeps reading me tidbits that I already know.

This is my best "fedd me" stare. How hungry to I look?
This is my best “feed me” stare. How hungry do I look?

Here’s what I do when I need to tell her something:

  • Tap on floor with my nails during the night if I need out. That seems to wake her up, but not my male human though. He sleeps through everything. If she won’t wake up I breathe in her face. First time I did that she seemed a bit startled. Humans don’t like to be woken up with someone breathing in their face I guess.
  • Whack my water boil against sliding glass door when I need water. Seems to really get her going at 3am.
  • Stare at cupboard, then at Kristina, then at cupboard where my treats are kept. She knows this means she should open the door and hand me a treat.
  • Give her my most intense stare when I’m hungry. I can even do this in a run by stare and she knows it’s my “feed me stare.”
  • Press the top of my head on the sliding glass door when I need outside quickly (if there’s an emergency – I don’t like to throw up inside.). Kristina wants me to bark in this case, but that’s too undignified for me. I’m not a barky kinda guy.
This is my "I'm not getting off the trampoline and you can't make me" roll.
This is my “I’m not getting off the trampoline and you can’t make me” roll.

I can even ask Kristina questions with just a look.

When we’re hiking, if I come to a place on the trail where I have to make a choice on direction, I look back at Kristina and she points, telling me where to go. I’m a big eye contact guy, but I do know words too.

If we come across strangers, I glance at Kristina. If she waves away from the people, I don’t approach them. If she says “okay” I run and greet them.

Kristina says her last dog was more word oriented, and that I do better with hand signals. Whatever . . . I’m still a genius.

How do you communicate with your humans?

Woof Woof.

Farley’s Friday: Dog on Guard

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

Hello, Farley here.

Sometimes I wonder why my humans don’t listen to me. I know things they don’t know but have a little trouble getting my message across. They just don’t get what all my barks mean.

A case in point. You see me below. Clearly I look concerned.

Farley On Guard

We’ve been deep sea fishing all day. I’m the first one to let everyone know when a fish is on the line.

Zing goes the rod.

I’m up like a shot. “Fish on,” I bark. That get’s everyone’s attention. Human’s get so excited about catching a fish. They’re weird that way. This bark is me telling them the fish is there.

After a long day of fishing, the humans drop the hook and all go for a swim.

“What are you doing?” I bark at them. This bark means don’t go swimming.

“There could be sharks here,” I bark again. This bark means I really don’t want you to go swimming. There are sharks around.

No one listens. They all go swimming. Then one of them notices there is blood on the stern of the boat and decides to wash it off.

“Stop,” I bark. This bark means you are going to attract the big guy. But, hey do they listen to me? Nope. At least all humans are back on board at this point.

Now guess what happens. The man in the grey suit visits us. I swear is wasn’t more than a few drops of blood, but within minutes the shark was at the stern of the boat.

“Step back,” I bark, and this time they listen. Now it wasn’t the same shark that bumped my kayak. I know this because it was too small. No big deal really for a shark experienced do like me.

Somehow, I have to get my humans to stop swimming and to learn my barks.

Woof Woof.

Farley.

Writing Targets

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 7 Comments

I’ve read some authors write to achieve a specific word count per writing session.  This doesn’t work for me. During the time I allocate for writing, I might write, edit, proof read, research, or read. Setting a word count adds to much stress to the joy of writing. I can write to a deadline, I can write for the fun of it, I can write for creativity, but if I set a word count for a session, I obsess about the number of words and not about the quality of the writing.

While I’m doing other things with my writing time, all related to writing, an idea will often pop into my head. When that happens, I make a note of it. I’ve learned that if I don’t capture an idea, I won’t remember it later. I get right back to whatever activity I’ve been doing.

For me the writing life doesn’t mean writing all the time, but it does mean I shouldn’t get distracted from the task at hand. I believe all these things (editing, proof reading, researching, reading) make me a better writer.

Any thought?

Thanks for reading . . .

Keeping Fit While Cruising: Windsurfing and Kiting

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

Sometimes it’s just too windy to do anything but give in and take up a wind sport. Running or yoga on the beach is not fun when sand is blasting in your face.

Two good choices for a cruiser are windsurfing or kiting. Both are portable sports, in need of wind and a place to launch.

My husband and I windsurf. Many of our friends kiteboard. Both sports provide enough exercise to add to the overall fitness program and are exciting.

WS and Kite

We often windsurf and kite at the same beach, making the atmosphere festive.

We all have dinghies and each are used for chase/rescue boats. Although I shouldn’t say rescue, it’s really a courtesy pickup if you can’t sail back to the beach.

Once in while, one of us has to do the walk of shame, and walk the board back to the launch spot. We’ve all done it, and it’s better than needing the courtesy pickup.

Any other ideas for keeping fit? Let me know.

Thanks for reading . . .

Cruising and Keeping Fit: Beach Running

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

Last week I wrote about beach yoga. This week it’s beach running. Without a regular routine, or access to a gym, keeping fit on a sailboat can be a challenge.

Today, I was motivated by an amazing beach run.  I ran with three other people and covered 5 kilometers. We followed the run with sit-up, push-up and squats. There’s always a cheerleader around to push us to do more.

The photo below is of the sound side beach on Stocking Island. It’s the best beach in the Exumas to run on. I time my runs for low tide, or as near to low tide as I can get.

You can see how the crowds make it hard to find some clean sand 🙂

Kristina, a friend and Farley running for happiness.
Kristina, a friend and Farley running for happiness.

If you’re traveling down the Exuma island chain, here is the running scoop.

Highbourne Cay:

Has a long beach but it can be steep. Running at high tide is a slog, so I try to avoid it.

Norman’s Cay:

Road running here. No traffic or wildlife to worry about. You can fit in a 15 kilometer run if you want. The road is shaded if you go early enough.

Compass Cay:

Beach running here, but you need to run several times in order to get enough distance in.

Hawksbill Cay (North Anchorage):

Beach running here. You need to cross the island on a trail that required shoes. The rocks are sharp. After fifteen minutes, you’ll reach one beach. The next beach north is a long flat beach. You have to walk in water from south beach to north beach, so you might not want to go at high tide. The beach is worth the effort to get there.

Staniel Cay:

Road running here. You need to be careful of local dogs. I don’t bring my dog with me when I run here. The local pups seem to have an issue with unknown dogs but not with people.

Stocking Island:

Nuff said about the beach here. You see the photo above. There is also trail running on this island if the tide is too high, but then you have to wear shoes.

I’ve found lots of other cruisers to run with, so if you want a running partner you just have to look around the anchorage.

I’d love to hear what you do to keep fit while traveling.

Thanks for reading . . .