Views of the Solent…
Sooooooo good to be home…
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
Home Cruising Grounds
Cruising
A Year In Pictures 2012
Best boats of the year!!
All the boats we sailed on in 2012:
Baltic 35
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| Cap’n André’s boat! |
Hallberg-Rassy 29
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| Cap’n Davie‘s! |
Sigma 38
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| Sigma racing! |
Reflex 38
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| Junior Offshore Group racing! |
J80
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| Red Tabby team racing! |
J122
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| Racing at Cowes Week! – Image Source |
Arcona 37
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| More Junior Offshore Group racing! |
Fountaine Pajot 40
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| The Spain-Greece 2012 delivery |
Eleonora
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| Eleanora, a 90 ft schooner and an exact replica of Westward that was launched in 1910. |
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
Cruising Fitness – Progress Review
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| This is NOT the Can Opener. But if Captain Cat were human, he would look JUST like this. |
How’s the First Mate shaping up these days?
It’s good to know where you’ve been. Looking back at my scrupulously kept records, I was surprised to see just how far the First Mate has come in one short year.
While we will always press on, we are pleased with his progress thus far. Three stars and a catnip free-for-all for the Can Opener!
(Hey, Furrball – it’s supposed to be about rewards that I would like! Mmph? Who would not like catnip?? The First Mate doth speak in riddles…)
Current Training Plan 2012
- Strength Training: 4x/week, 30 minutes per session, 25% increase in weights carried over last year
- Cardio: 4x/week at the gym, 45 minutes per session, includes 25% intensity increase 2x/week (ie interval training begun). Treadmill, bikes, x-trainer
- Crunches: 3x/week, 150-200/day
- Flexibility: stretching before and after, 5 minutes x2
Last Year’s Training Plan
Here’s the point that he started from in 2011…
- Strength Training: 3x/week, 30 minutes per session
- Cardio: 4x/week at the gym, 30 minutes per session. Treadmill, bikes, x-trainer.
- Crunches: 100/day, 3x/week
- Flexibility: stretching before and after, 5 minutes x2
Could I push the Can Opener harder? Of course, I could! But I know this guy. Slow and steady wins the race.
Could he cruise without this fitness training? Of course, he could. Many – even most – cruisers probably do. Seems like a good idea to get him in shape though. I may need some tuna crates hefted out of the bilge-bottom depths of a boat locker someday. He needs to be prepared.
Cost so far
- I have moved the Can Opener to a gym that only costs £216/year ($344/year) or just £18/month ($29/month)! It doesn’t have a pool though…
- (Last year’s gym was a little dearer: £360/year ($593/year) ie. £30/month for gym membership on special offer. It didn‘t have a pool either. This was a pretty average cost in our town.)
- £50 ($82) – last year’s training shoes, on sale
What sports/exercise best translate to a live-aboard life?
What else should I add to the Can Opener’s fitness programme? Yoga? T’ai Chi? Any suggestions gratefully received.
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
Reflections On A Delivery
Reflections on the delivery from Spain to Greece
What we learned…
Well, 1553 nautical miles later – we were thrilled that we made it and learned so much! We’ve taken a little time to reflect and map out the topics that were most important to us on the Spain~Greece delivery.
Of course, with cruising there’s always tons more to learn. That’s the great thing about it – lifelong learning. Always something new to master or finetune.
A few areas in particular, however, really stood out for us. Here they are:
Cruising Skills
1. Dealing with customs and borders when entering a new country on a boat
3. Weather watching and getting info in new countries and foreign languages
4. Planning the route – pace, waypoints, planning refuges
5. Some engine skills
6. Provisioning and on the water cooking skills – cooking for varied tastes and crew preferences
7. Choosing a good team
8. Teamwork – clear roles
Why we still really want our own boat
This delivery was a fantastic experience and it was a great team to be on. So many people in a small space for 3 weeks and everyone got along for the whole trip. Surreal-y well actually.
But to keep good crew harmony requires compromises – compromises that were duly made and with good cheer.
But long term, we realised there are some key reasons we still want our own boat rather than just continuing to sign to crew on other peoples’ yachts. Our long term cruising plan remains unchanged…
So here’s why we still want our own boat:
1. Choosing food – when, where, what
2. Choosing safety equipment and maintenance
3. Choosing where, when, how we go
If you’re reading The Cruising Kitty, you probably are thinking about cruising at sometime in the future – if you are not there already.
What are the key reasons for you for getting/having your own boat?
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
Solent to Seaview
On a recent sunny training weekend, after a day of grueling tacking drills up the Solent (Uh, Furrball, it was a leisurely reach – we tacked once. My point precisely, dear Can Opener…), we pulled at our destination and moored just outside the charming Seaview Yacht Club.
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| ‘Mermaid’ local design racing yachts at moorings across the way from us. |
Beer and fish all round followed at the best pub in the world, The Fort. (A brilliant venue to celebrate our first-cruise-together team-building exercise…)
I led the locals in a rousing rendition of showstoppers from my favourite musical, ‘Cats’.
Everyone had a marvelous time.
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| The view from…Seaview |
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
Home At Last
Home At Last…
‘Course the first thing I did was check the answering machine. And Pussy Galore did not leave a single message.
She must be having technical difficulties.
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
Hovercat To Athens…
… and Athens to home…
We can’t be believe we made it! Or that the delivery has finally come to an end.
Poros to Piraeus by ferry, Piraeus to Athens Airport by bus, and Athens to the UK by bird. We’ll be home soon. Being back on land seems a little surreal.
So much to do, eat and unpack – the Can Opener should be busy for a week. And I need a pedicure.
We’ve been invited to crew on a new cruising boat back home and – after a short rest and recoup – we’ll be out on the water with the brand new team!
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
The Route Actually Taken
Where did we go in the end?
Here’s the route we actually followed during our three week delivery of the catamaran from Malaga, Spain to Poros, Greece…
Delivery Route:
- From Malaga, Spain through the Alboran Sea
- Alboran Sea to the Balearic Sea
- Balearic Sea to Algerian Basin
- Algerian Basin up to Trapani, Sardinia
- North up and over the top of Sicily via Palermo and Milazzo to the Straits of Messina
- From Messina through the Ionian and Mediterranean Seas to Patras, Greece
- East through the Gulf of Corinth and the Corinth Canal
- And finally to Poros, Greece in the Aegean Sea!
It was pretty ambitious – in the end we travelled 1553 nautical miles in just 3 short weeks.
We saw winds ranging from 12 knots to 40 knots+, gusts up to 50 knots and swells up to 15 or so feet.
We’ve come a loooong way. And we’ve learned a lot. Time to head home to rest, recover and reflect.
Well…I’ll be doing the reflecting while the Can Opener busies himself, cleaning and ironing my cape, restocking the pantry, and preparing those 17-step appetizers I’ve been fantasizing about for a good two and half weeks now.
Outstanding appetizers, as we all know, assist greatly with reflection…
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
Two Glorious Days In Poros
In Poros
We’d been 3 weeks almost constantly on the move, often throughout day and night.
And now we had two whole glorious days to explore, wander, sniff, soak up the Greek sun,…
…smell the flowers,…
..admire the endless spectacular views,…
… and curl up in comfy armchairs in quayside restaurants to watch the sun go down.
Tomorrow we’ll hovercraft it up to Athens and then catch our big bird plane home. But for now, a souvlaki, tzatziki and some warm Greek bread. But no ouzo for me.
The Can Opener stole mine.
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
Poros, The Perfect Greek Island
Here’s where we leave our catamaran at a quayside berth in Poros, finally in its new home in Greece.
The owner will fly down here for holidays with his family so they can sail and cruise these beautiful isles for many years to come...
They’re planning to explore the Greek, Turkish and Croatian islands, using Poros as a central base.
We were glad to be a part of this delivery, successfully repositioning the boat from Malaga, Spain to Poros, Greece.
The Can Opener and I think this guy’s got his priorities straight.
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
The Cruising Kitty 