Friday, January 13, 2017

What kind of cruisers are we?

Recently I read a blog post (Zero to Cruising) by a couple that we have been following since we first began dreaming of cruising. Mike Sweeney wrote about 5 reasons why he doesn't want to sail about round the world.

This got me thinking, there are so many different types of cruisers out there, not just those that circumnavigate and those that don't. There are cruisers that go faster and those that go slower. Even designating faster and slower among cruisers is tough. Are you going quickly when you only stay somewhere for a week, or are you going slowly if you stay 7 days in one spot? It is all a matter of preference, and that is what we are trying to figure out, what kind of cruisers are we?



When I first began reading the stories of other's adventures I started forming pictures in my head- "Ah- that is what cruising is like". As I began to meet more people out cruising my perceptions expanded. Then it occurred to me that cruising is what you make of it. You can go fast,  you can go slow, you can circumnavigate, you can remain in one spot.


The important thing for me to realize is that I don't have to form my cruising experience around what others are doing. We can go fast, we can go slow, or a combination of the two, weather definitely playing a determining role.

Do we want to circumnavigate? Maybe. There are certainly places we would love to go to. We have friends in French Polynesia we want to visit. We have fond memories of Fiji and Thailand and would really enjoy returning to those places as well as discovering new places along the way.
Rivers and friend in Thailand 

But for now we will explore the corner of the world that contains the Caribbean Islands. We have learned a lot in our times in the BVI/USVI  and Puerto Rico. We are learning how to adapt our lifestyle to be cruisers. It is a learning process, and I do enjoy learning. 

Soon it will be time to move on to other islands, other countries. Each one will present new opportunities, new challenges and new decisions to be made. The way that we embrace them will be of our choosing, with influences from those that have gone before us. And to them I say "Thank you". Thanks for your information, thanks for your experiences, thanks for sharing. The more we know, the better decisions we can make for ourselves along the way, to make it our own way. 

Our own cruising style.

We love to hear your comments.