Cruising Fitness – Progress Review

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)

Sea Library – Autumn Additions

Just ordered some more great books for the sea library! 

We’re officially into Autumn now and with the sailing season slowing down, I’m stocking up on books for the First Mate’s new study regime. 

I’ve found some excellent sailing ‘travel-writing’ books and some more written by solo round-the-world sailors – just the sort of inspiration the Can Opener needs! 

Lookin’ forward to some good snoozing ahead…


Travel Writing

• The Reluctant Mariner, by Joanna Hackett
• The Cruising Woman’s Advisor: How to Prepare for the Voyaging Life, by Diana Jessie
• Cruising in Seraffyn, by Lin Pardey

Solo Circumnavigation 

• Taking on the World, by Ellen MacArthur
• Against the Flow, by Dee Caffari  
• Around Alone, Emma Richards
• Come Hell or High Water, by Clare Francis 

Book reviews coming soon!

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Coming soon: 

Book review of The Reluctant Mariner
Book review of The Cruising Woman’s Advisor: How to Prepare for the Voyaging Life
Book review of Cruising in Seraffyn  
Book review of Taking on the World
Book review of Against the Flow
Book review of Around Alone
Book review of Come Hell or High Water

The Can Opener Hits The Books

Shhhh… the Can Opener’s studying. 

Books, maps, divider, plotter, pencils and erasers to chase and to play with. I love it when he studies. 

I stretch out, right in the middle of the biggest map – making sure it’s the one he’s trying to work on, of course. That way the focus is where it should be – on me.

Today we’re working on tidal atlases, piloting and passage making. It’s gonna be grrreat!

I’m leaving the Can Opener to it for a moment – I hear a restorative smoked oyster calling my name. I do find this studying gig to be very hard going.

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Dream Boat Criteria Revised

The First Mate and I have recently revised our criteria for the design of the yacht of our dreams. What could possibly have wrought such a seismic shift?

We revised our beam requirements (see below) after reading two noteworthy books by John Vigor: Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere and The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat.  

Till we actually buy it, our criteria list is always subject to change. We’ll probably change it and add to it several more times as we continue to research and learn about offshore yacht design.

John argues that a narrow beam is a critical component of seaworthiness: boats right themselves more easily after a knockdown if they are relatively long and narrow.

Good enough for us. 

Soooo, our revised criteria are as follows…

 

Key Criteria

Our yacht should be:

1. 30 feet LOA (or somewhere between 27 ~ 32 feet) for
• lower acquisition costs, lower running costs and good for solo handling
2. specifically designed for blue water travel 
• with a track record of durability and storm safety
• narrow beam* – for seaworthiness (boats right themselves more easily after a knockdown if they are relatively long and narrow)
• full keel
• heavy displacement
• good tankage included in the original design and build
3. a design that remains popular over time that
• has a large active fleet
• holds its value – to maximize costs recouped upon resale

  

What other critical design criteria for a blue water yacht should we add to the list?  

Send an email with recommendations to The Cruising Kitty !

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener) 

Cruising in Oceania

Waterfalls at Vanuatu

The last Spring lecture at Limehouse last night… Sigh. 

Henry and Kiki Capleton presented some highlights from their travels through Oceania: notes on the Palmerston Atoll, the Hobart ‘Round Tasmania’ Rally and some islands around Vanuatu.

A inspiring presentation with spectacular photography. We left knowing even more powerfully why sailing to distant locations is so unique. 

It’s not just about loving sailing and being on the water. It’s that there are some places you just can’t get to without your own boat.

And that makes the experiences once you are there that much more incredible. Few people get to see such untouched beauty. Their experiences and photos really drove that home.

How they got sailing

• had only done 1300nm on passages
• had passed RYA Coastal and Day Skipper courses
• bought a Contest 44, their first boat
• did a few shakedowns cruises from New England to Bermuda with experienced friends on their boat
• and off they went…

How they got to the Pacific

• via the Panama Canal
• used one of the cheaper agents, cost $900 ($600 to the agent and $300 to the authorities)
• had to wait 9 days to get a place to get through
• each boat needs 4 ‘line handlers’
• usual custom is to practice by helping someone else go through
• then you return to your boat when your ‘place’ comes up and take on two newbies who in turn are practicing to take their own boat through later…

Palmerston Atoll 

• only true atoll in the Cook’s group
• population: about 90 – all descended from an English ship’s carpenter who settled there in Victorian times with his 3 Polynesian wives
• they collect rainwater, and fish and grow copra both of which they trade
• when you arrive:
• you send ahead a VHF message
• then you are met by one of the family in a boat who will show you your mooring spot
• they invite you for dinner and maybe some entertainment (singing, dancing) the next night

• in return, visitors exchange whatever skills they have (carpentry, engineering, medical etc) or give supplies

Tasmania

• they joined the Hobart Rally
• spectacular highlights:
• MacQuarie Harbour
• Strahan
• Port Davey
• Bathurst Harbour
• D’Entrecasteaux Channel
• Wineglass Bay!

Islands around Vanuatu

• waterfall bays
• exchanged t-shirts for fresh fruit and vegetables
• t-shirts are also appreciated as thank you gifts
• met many chiefs
• were invited to attend church
• attended much dancing which involved a ‘thumping’ style in grass skirts with rattles tied around the ankles
• saw water music where women stood waist high in water and slapped it to make different tones and so create the music – wow!

I would use the word ‘moving’ to describe this presentation. We certainly left totally psyched to notch it up and throw ourselves back into the cruising studies, prep and downsizing with renewed vigor. 

Today I attack the biggest pile (huge) of the Can Opener’s papers to organise and file. Haiiiiiiiii-yaah!

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Destination Dreamin’ 
Next: Menorca – Destination Dreamin’
Previously: Mallorca – Destination Dreamin’


Cruising Lectures
Next: Ocean Passage Making
Previously: Piracy – The Chandlers’ Somalia Excursion

New Year’s Resolutions 2012

New Year’s Resolutions for the Can Opener

1. work out 4x/wk 
2. build some serious sea miles
3. pass RYA Coastal Skipper Practical 
4. finish researching yacht designs on the short list
5. start actively viewing/self-surveying potential yachts on the final contenders list and keep notes
6. study French 15 min/d, 5d/wk
7. study Spanish 15 min/d, 5d/wk 
8. proactively maintain smoked salmon stockpile at all times
9. … and publish the Cruising Kitty blog 5x/wk  

New Year’s Resolutions for Captain Cat?

Hard to come up with too many as I am a nearly perfect cat. But no harm in trying… 

Here we go:

1. be nicer to the Can Opener – regularly recognise his efforts with judicious application of the oyster tin (with contents). We know positive encouragement beats all other routes to success hands down every time
2. share my mouse more often (Why? See #1 above.)
3. …and I suppose I could join the Can Opener for a few weekly turns on the treadmill. To keep up his spirits of course… there is no truth to the rumour that my belly currently provides more durable buoyancy than my own life jacket.

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

So Have We Accomplished Anything Yet?

2011 in Review

What Have We Accomplished So far?

This year in August, the Can Opener and I officially (officially to us at any rate) launched our Get Cruising Now Plan. We honed, we polished, we set goals, a timeline (2014 or bust) and a plan to get there. 

It’s been 5 months now, so what progress have we made? 

Well, a lot of ‘we’ve made a start’ type of ‘to-do’s’ have been ticked. The kind of ‘to-do’s’ that are meant to set us up for the real work we will need to do in 2012. 

So, the 2011 highlights (since August) are:

1. joined yacht club
2. started team racing 
3. read 9 cruising reference texts, attended 4 cruising lectures
4. made contact with 3 boats that we hope to crew on for next year
5. researched foul weather gear upgrades (still have to buy them though…)
6. began yacht designs research 
7. the Can Opener worked out 4x/wk… usually
8. the Can Opener began studying Spanish and picked up his old French studies and…
9. … in order to share what we learned, and keep ourselves organised and focused – we launched this blog!

Are we happy? 
Well, you can always wish you had done a lot more. But writing it down feels good. And maybe it’s not too bad… It’s a start. Something to build on in 2012.  

… Off to carve out some New Year’s Resolutions for 2012!

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

More Additions to the Sea Library

  
Just ordered some more great books for the sea library! Lookin’ forward to some more good snoozing ahead…

• The Voyager’s Handbook: The Essential Guide to Bluewater Cruising, by Beth A. Leonard 
• La longue route, by Bernard Moitessier 
• Maiden Voyage, by T. Aebi 
• The Rules in Practice 2009-2012, by Bryan Willis

Book reviews coming soon! 

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Coming soon:

Book review of The Voyager’s Handbook
Book review of La longue route   

Book review of Maiden Voyage

Book review of The Rules in Practice 2009-2012 

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Spain – Destination Dreamin’

 

You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.

–Yogi Berra

We may have a line on a catamaran delivery from Spain to Greece… It’s with a guy we met at the Cruising Dinner. Will it pan out? Who knows?! At least we feel like the ball is rolling… and that feels great!

Now we’ve got somewhere to aim for. We’re pretty good at dreaming of Greece. And now’s as good a time as any to start dreamin’ of Spain…

 

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Captain Cat: Incidentally, Can Opener. How goes the Spanish studying?

Can Opener: I’m plugging the podcasts into my head as we speak… ¿Qué tal?!

Destination Dreamin’

Previously: Croatia, the Med – Destination Dreamin’
 

10 Reasons To Sail Off Into The Sunset

The Cruising Kitty’s 10 Reasons To Sail Off Into The Sunset

1. new places
2. new faces
3. new food groups!
4. freedom from onerous societal expectations
5. independence – no boss! *
6. self-reliance, self-sufficiency, time to yourself
7. the beauty of wind and the waves and the feel of it on your fur
8. fish – for eating: mahimahi, dorado, tuna, flying fish, every kind of fish…
9. fish – for watching: whales and dolphins

       and most importantly (this one is the Can Opener’s)… 

   10. sailing naked! **

So, what’s on your list? 

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener) 

* Well, the Can Opener has a boss, of course. Me. But this is mostly my list. 
** This is yet another quirk of the Can Opener’s that makes me despair. What’s the big deal? I sail naked… always.