Some couples have learned to communicate during boat-handling maneuvers by using hand signals. This is especially helpful when you are anchoring, which is one of the most stressful tasks cruising couples do on a routine basis. . . . Patricia, age 64, witnessed a fascinating dialogue between an elderly couple who were having difficulties anchoring in New York Harbor late one afternoon. Here is what she saw.

They were trying to anchor in New York Harbor amidst commercial vessels of every sort. At any moment I was certain they were going to be run over. She was at the helm, and he was on the bow tending to the anchor. All of a sudden I heard her say in a calm, even voice, “Darling, the painter has become tangled in the prop.” Now I know what my partner would’ve said to me — and it was nothing like what that fellow said to his wife. In a voice as calm as hers he responded with not a hint of anger or frustration, “No need to fret my love, I’ll dive on it.”

A few days later [my partner] and I were setting our anchor and he looked back at me from the bow and said in one of the calmest tones I’d ever heard, “Darling, give it a little reverse, will you?” to which I replied, “Anything you say, my love.” We were bent with laughter as we did this, but you know, we both yell a lot less now. And when we do yell, it’s often with endearments, just as this couple did. It makes all the difference in the world to know it’s the situation that has him riled, not you.

Ham and SSB radio continues to be the telecommunication system of choice for most cruisers, in part because the equipment is more available than any other and therefore has led to the establishment of “cruising nets” that most cruises have come to depend on. Cruising nets are essentially party lines to which cruisers tune their radios at predesignated times to chat. These modes of communication have also, until recently, been far less expensive than other options.

Joan and Jack, both teachers in their early 50s, had just sent their third and youngest child off to university when they decided to take an unpaid, one-year sailing sabbatical. They had originally planned to retire on to a boat in their early 60s, but the sudden death of a close friend at age 49 prompted them to rethink their plans and take advantage of their excellent health and stable resources.

They financed their home to purchase a modest vessel and borrowed enough money to sustain themselves for 12 to 18 months. By renting their home, they were able to meet their loan payments and other land expenses while cruising. They planned to sell the boat when they returned to pay off the outstanding loan.

When they were 9 months into their sabbatical they found they were enjoying their cruising dream so much that they requested an additional one-year leave. They cruised for 23 months before returning to land and resuming their teaching positions.

A few of their friends and colleagues were aghast at Joan and Jack’s decision to forego income during their peak earning years. Jack countered these criticisms by rationalizing that he would rather spend an extra year or two in the classroom at age 60 than forego a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity while in the best of health at age 52.

Wow, what an inspirational book. Ellen MacArthur became obsessed with sailing as a young kid, going out for once-a-year trips on her aunt’s sailboat, and proceeded to save her lunch money for eight years to buy her first boat at the age of 15. She has eaten, drunk, and slept (when she can) nothing but boats ever since, and in 2000, at the age of 24 and standing only 5′ 2″, she competed in the Vendee Globe, a single-handed sailing race down the Atlantic to the wild Southern Ocean, around the world dodging monster waves and Antarctic icebergs, then back up the Atlantic again to France, more than three months at sea alone without stopping — and she came in second place, only about 200 miles behind the first-place winner. Her determination and drive, and her utterly unshakable, fierce passion for being out on the water permeates this book (which was not ghost-written, incidentally), making it a riveting read. At times she does still sound a bit like an excited kid; at others, she can be a bit too reserved in her descriptions of key emotional confrontations — but it’s clearly her personality coming through. And the demands and challenges and sheer EXHAUSTION of steering a 60-foot yacht across the wildest ocean in the world, catnapping when she can before making a sail change or checking the weather reports or needing to climb the over-90-foot mast YET AGAIN to fix something, are simply astounding. I don’t know how she does it — and this has been a fantastic book to read as a new boat owner myself, looking forward to learning to sail solo myself some day! When I do, Ellen will definitely be in the back on my mind.

from http://www.california.com/~lawatt/other/reading.html

September 19 – Pacific Ocean

Delivery skipper Don George of the San Francisco YC-based Swan 61 Hasty Heart came across an unusual sight halfway from Hawaii to San Francisco yesterday – a sailboat drifting around with tattered sails and a drooping radar. As George and the rest of the crew approached, they could see the name Southbound II with a hailing port of Santa Cruz. The boat was floating fine, but there was nobody aboard. Getting no response to their hails, some of the Hasty Heart crew went aboard. Although all the boat’s gear seemed to still be there, as well as personal effects such as the owner’s wallet, there was no sign of him or any possible crew.

The Hasty Heart crew called the Coast Guard, which told them they’d been on the boat in July, and had found a suicide note left by owner Stephen James Brown. It seems odd to us, but the Coast Guard apparently decided to let the boat, which seems like a hazard to navigation, just drift. They also left everything onboard except for the ship’s log.

The name Stephen Brown sounded familiar to us, so we looked through our records. Sure enough, he’d made several contributions to Changes in Latitudes, mostly while doing a singlehanded circumnavigation from ’85 to ’89 aboard Southbound, a Bingham 32. We heard from him again several years ago when we were compiling our list of West Coast circumnavigators. At the time, he gave a Scott’s Valley address and phone number. The phone is disconnected. There are indications that he was most recently sailing out of either Honolulu or Lihue, Kauai.

The Hasty Heart crew said Southbound II had the insignia ‘NW 38′ on the house. We’re wondering if they misread it, and she’s really a Nor’West 33. In any event, Stephen Brown, bless his soul, apparently committed suicide at sea at age 54.