An old sailor told me to wash everything down with vinegar, everything on the inside of the beloved sailboat that I’m the proud owner and skipper of. He assured me that when I did that there would be no mold when I came back to the boat but at that point I was really tired of listen to old sailors, their stories, what to do and what not to do, what to buy and how many marine batteries I had. If I sat in the bar talking to other sailors we would talk about sailboats because we all have the same problems with the refrigerator, the engine, autopilots, getting power for all this, where to go if you need a part for the engine. It is great to share your problems with others no doubt about that but when they start to correct you every single time you say something about you boat, it gets really irritating to listen to. You also get the sailors who have everything on their boat, water maker, hot water, shower, electric this and electric that, spare this and spare that and don’t understand how I can live on such a small boat without all these things.
The bar where sailors hang out. Chris to the left and Karl to the right wearing a stupid hat.
One guy I bumped into in the bar asked the FAQ (frequently asked question)
“What boat are you on?”
I answered: “Solitude. I’m anchored right out here in Spanish Water….”
The guy asked again: “How big is the boat?”
I answered: “44 feet”.
The words had barely left my lips, when he busted out in an arrogant and look-at-me-I-have-a-bigger-boat attitude:
“I’m on a 65 foot cat!”
I looked at my friend Karl, we didn’t have to say anything, we both knew that this guy deserved a Polar beer bottle across his head. The guy took his newly ordered beers and went to a table on the other side of the bar with no further questions, remarks or anything else. 65 foot catamaran, who gives a shit?!?! Karl and I laughed at him… those guys you also meet a lot. Check me out, I’m better than you when I have a big boat.
Solitude chilling out.
I have been sailing for around two years (January 2009) or I have had Solitude for two years sailing around 3.600 nautical miles the same as 6.500 kilometers in two seasons. I learned a lot during those miles that’s for sure. I started from knowing a boat should float and the saying: “Land bad, water good!” which is the most important rule when you sail, to installing solar panels, autopilot with a hydraulic drive and sailing across a sea for days and still saying: “Land bad, water good!”. The sailors in the bar are all older people who are retired and been sailing for years and years. At happy hour I would be the youngest skipper of them all. They know everything and the way they do it, is the right way. They are getting a bit angry or maybe frustrated when I say I got the boat without knowing how to sail. It could be, that they are jealous and should have done the same when they were my age. “How can you buy a boat without knowing anything….?” My answered would always be: “If YOU can sail a boat, don’t you think an average moron like me could do it to?”
I talked to a guy about what autopilot I should get for my boat. He started with one brand that I couldn’t sail without, another guy came up with a different one and my question never got answered. I looked it up myself and found the right one for my boat and my bank account and stopped asking other sailors about things for my boat. Everyone has their own mind about things.
Now all this sounds like I complain a lot and don’t like other sailors but there are good people in the world of sailing, people who don’t tell you how to do things but how they did things on their boat, that I like. There are people too who gives you a piece of advice that works perfect. Like one couple I meet in the boatyard who told me that I should write what’s in the food cans ‘cause if the paper comes off, you would have no idea what’s in them. The outcome of that would be some really interesting meals. Or the sailor who told me to wash everything in vinegar, I didn’t do it and the boat was almost alive on the inside due to a lot rain this summer on Curacao. Next time I’ll wash in vinegar, maybe!
My friend Karl just bought a sailboat the same size as Solitude and knowing as much about sailing as I did when I got my boat. Whenever we get together over a few beers we talk about boats but I don’t think other sailors would be proud of our lack of words for various items onboard. And for a laugh we always call it a kitchen and not the galley, the toilet and not the head, maps not charts but we don’t care, we are not sailors, we just happen to have a boat we live on and sail around every once in a while. We are adventurers and we love every minute of it.
karl...
Once I found a wire in the bottom of the boat that fitted from the deck and half way up the mast, then I looked through some magazine to find out what that was for. The article in the magazine told me it was the wire for a small sail you can put up when there’s a lot of wind. Previous owner and builder of Solitude, Bob wouldn’t have the wire without the sail. I went through some stuff on the boat and found a bag with a tack on it, STAYSAIL. That was it, I had just learned in the magazine. Me and my friend Rolf who was sailing with me at that time scratched our heads, turned the sail up and down but couldn’t figure it out. Another boat anchored next to us sailing under the English flag and after a few beers and more scratching of heads I notice that the boat with the English flag had the same wire going from the deck and half way up the mast. Next day I sailed over to them in my dinghy and asked how you worked the staysail. The couple laughed out loud when they got the story about me and Solitude. He explained it to me and said, “There is nothing to it, just try it out. If it doesn’t work one way, try another way, that’s how you sail.” That was on the island of Nevis and a couple of days after we sailed under a reduced mainsail or a reefed mainsail in sailor language and the newly found staysail, it worked out perfect. Very proud we put the anchor down in the water of the still active volcanic island of Montserrat. One morning, a bit hung over, there was a knock on the boat, I woke up and found the English couple in their dinghy right next to Solitude. Proud I told them how it went with the staysail, that night we had beers and food on their sailboat.
That’s another positive thing when you sail around, everyone is so helpful and often I had people over on Solitude for food or beverages and often I have been over to other boats. I guess it is like any other place in the world, there are the good people and the idiots.
In Dominica Rolf and I meet another Danish sailboat and as you do, we sailed over to them in the dinghy and said hi. We had food on that boat a couple of times and they came over to Solitude. They had been sailing for years around the world in various sailboats and knew a lot about sailing, more than I would ever know. Being in the world of sailing for many years they knew all the right sailing words for everything. Lots of times, like every minute I had to ask: “What the hell are you talking about?!?!” I did not understand half of the words they were saying even though our native tongue being exactly the same, Danish. They laughed and used other words. That couple showed me how to reef the mainsail in two minutes, bake bread, conserve food in a better way and a bunch of other stuff. Really helpful folks and I’m still in contact with them when I have questions and problems regarding Solitude.
When people ask if I know how to sail, I can answer with pride:
“Yes I can. A guy showed me a little bit and I figured the rest out myself.”
Or like my friend Karl puts it:
“There is not much to it, now is there? Just point the boat in the direction you want to go and put the sails up. If the sails flap do something else.”
The sailing part is not difficult, but you need to be a carpenter, mechanic, painter, plumber and electrician and be able to fix all other problems on top of that. There are always something to do when you have a boat, I am never bored and love it to bits.
Karl enjoying the sunset over Puerto Rico on Solitude after crossing over from Curacao.
