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(48°N) The first question has to be about the girls (age 14). How have they adapted to the cruising life?
(Jim) They’ve adjusted amazingly well. I can’t remember a single complaint. They’ve always been curious and I think they know the name of every fish or animal we’ve ever seen. They’ve built palm frond houses on uninhabited islands, swum with whales and met a facinating and stimulating varieties of people. How’d they handle the long passages? No problems. We all got a little bored at times but there’s no “Are we there yet?” because where and when is right there on the charts (or rather the computer screen) for them to see. How’s their homeschooling going? Really well. They do a good job of challenging their teacher – Mom. They took an assessement test and tested post high school. They’re even learning music. Jessie is learning guitar and Molly is learning piano. Piano? Yes, some of the other boats have keyboards on them and I’m looking for a roll-up keyboard to take back to the boat. How about you and Jeanna? Yes, (laughs) we’ve learned quite a bit too. Those spelling tests are hard. It’s great sharing this experience with the girls and seeing things through their eyes. But then I’ve never really grown up myself. Any homesickness for the girls? No. We’re talking about cruising for another season – the girls are really pushing for another year. They’ve been around boats all their lives. Yes. They were doing deliveries with us when they were one year old. They’ve got great attitudes. It all goes back to when they were little. I remember Molly taking her first steps and falling down. Of course we were watching to see she was all right, but we didn’t run right over and pick her. She just looked around, stood up, dusted herself off and off she went. And they’ve done that their whole lives. They take the bumps with the experience and move on. The thing about kids is that they really wait to see what your reaction is and if you don’t act like it’s a big deal, neither do they. You sailed quite a ways out of your way to the South Pacific to go to the Galapagos Islands. Yes, 3,000 miles out of our way, but we’ve always wanted to see them. We spent four weeks there. San Cristobol was amazing. You have yachts, cruise ships, and all the commerce. Everything is off-loaded by hand. You can get anything you want there. The dynamics are interesting, it’s like an old wild west boom town. When we got to Isabella, that was more of what we’d pictured the islands to be. That was where we really got the true Galapagos experience: blue footed boobies, sea lions, flamingos. We had a blast. There were four sailboats anchored there, some with permits, some without. Then on to the Marquesas. That’s probably the prettiest place we’ve been. It was a 17-day crossing from the Galapagos. It did get a little boring at times but, with two to three hours of “school” everyday, and running the boat, it was fine. We spent a month there mostly hiking, diving, exploring and lots of snorkeling. The nice thing was that tourism hasn’t really set in at the Marguesas. There’s few resorts. You really have to want to get there. Are the girls good divers? Yes, they’re PADI certified divers. I tell you, with all four of us diving it keeps me hopping. I’ve lost 20 pounds so far and will probably loose more. You went back to Tonga. (Jim and Jeanna were on a 48° North trip to Tonga in 1993). Yes, we even went to the same little church we’d gone to before. We had a fine time. I’ve got pictures of the girls swimming with the whales. But compared to when we were there 15 years ago, I can best describe it as – everything that was little is big. But it is still a favorite. How has the reality of cruising met with the expectations? That’s a tough question. I think the reality is exceeding our expectations. The weather has been very kind to us. Like I said, the girls want another year. Are cruising people a different breed? No, wouldn’t say they’re a different breed. They’re just brave enough to let go of their security blanket. I’m surprised at how many people are out there. It’s funny – you’ve sailed across this big ocean and just when you think you’re this tough sailor, in sails a little boat with three little toe-headed kids, a man and his pregnant wife. We also met a couple guys from Sweden sailing a 20-footer. It’s amazing. How has it been eating the local foods? We’ve had no trouble getting food, but it’s sometimes hard to get food you’re used to. Lots of fruit. Sometimes it’s “do want that with or without bugs?” Mostly we take “without.” You have to be a bit of an experimental eater. Jeanna’s getting better at that. But it is a treat when you get something recognizable in some places. How has it worked out with all the electronics on board? You can pretty much be in constant contanct back home through the internet. Yes, but there is still that sense of being far from home. If someone is sick or needs something you can’t just run over. You can communicate but are still physically far away. How about the navigating? (Laughs) We haven’t done any navigating. Usually navigating means keeping a running log, plotting positions, but we’ve never had a chart on the table. We’ve got two navigation systems: Ray Marine E120 with Navonics and Nobeltec on the PC. A laptop? No, it’s a small, built in unit on the boat, with Nobletec Chart Plotter and coupled with Icom 802 single sideband. It’s our final backup. Basically we’ve got the Nera Fleet 33, then the Irridium, then the single sideband. All of those will connect us to the outside world. But it’s really not about communication but weather. Having up-to-date weather reports and forecasts is really the number one priority for safety. We go online to Ocens.com. There you can draw a box on what part of the world you’re interested in and it will give you information like surface temperatures, wave action, barometric pressures and stuff. You can go to their website and take a tour. It’s pretty impressive. What have you got for battery power? We’ve got three house banks of four batteries each which work well, and a separate battery for the starter. We’ve got all the details on the “For Sailors Only” section of our website. We go into a lot of the technical stuff we’re using and talk about what works and what doesn’t. Speaking of stuff that works and what doesn’t, I know you like to “improve” things. Any good gizmos? There’s always stuff to do on a boat, so it’s hard to point to anything in particular. One cool thing we made was a passive water catching system that’s up all the time. You see people running around with tarps and things when it starts raining to catch water. Ours is always up and still out of the way. That actually became a good math problem for the girls, figuring how much water we were catching per hour at such and such a rate. Anything you wished you’d done before you left? Not really. We had a lot of input from friends and, coupled with our experience, we prepared pretty well. We could have taken five years to get ready instead of the short time we did, but then we would have missed this opportunity. You can read more about the Rards ongoing adventures on their website: www.rubyslippers49.com It’s a terrific read for sailors young and old, plus the pictures are extraordinary. You can also read the first article Here. ...back to 48° North title page.
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