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Who are you? Susie Bowman and Lance Batten are a long married couple (30+ years) in our mid fifties. We are both typical U.C.Berkeley Grad students who never quite grew up and permanently left town. Both of us have worked for many years in the software business (mostly database), most recently together in our own software consulting business, Tilden Park Software. In 2002, without a particular plan, we have taken up a new life as cruisers. We sail aimlessly about the islands of the Eastern Caribbean enjoying the snorkeling, the travel, the people and (last but not least) the sailing. We are definitely "fair weather sailors"; we are not in it for the challenge. We are not "old salts" but two salted nuts possessed by the strange idea that sailing should be fun and pleasant. Our motto: "There will be no suffering aboard Eaux Vives." Should you care to contribute to the delinquency of majors or, alternatively, return us to the world of remunerative occupations, my resume is here. We can be reached at either lance or susie @accidentalcruiser.com. Replace the AT with @ in this link , we love to hear from you. What about pirates?
A pirate is one who robs or plunders at sea without a commission from a recognized sovereign nation. Unlike the Disney pirate with cutlass and masted sailing ship, today most pirates get about in speedboats wearing balaclavas instead of bandanas, using AK-47s rather than cutlasses. While boats off of South America (particularly Columbia), in the Red Sea, and in the straits of Malacca and Singapore are are still molested by pirates, the problem is much reduced in the Caribbean Sea since the end of the 19th century. The professional mariners publish a guide on how to avoid pirates who seem mostly interested in commercial freight and not the molding, rusting contents of the average cruiser's boat. However, though the captain and crew of Eaux Vives stand ready to repel such invaders but have yet to encounter any. There are, of course, bad apples everywhere and opportunistic burglaries and even occasional robberies do occur. We have been the victim of a snatch and grab of my wallet when we were going through it in a restaurant in St. Vincent. We also had a computer stolen off the boat while it was in storage in Rodney Bay. In general we have found the Eastern Caribbean safer than the East Bay and take the same kind of precautions there as we do here. For those of you from more idyllic locations, this includes locking the house and all bicycles before we leave, avoiding the sketchy parts of town after dark and not leaving valuables lying about in plain sight. The Caribbean Safety and Security net maintains a database of incidents which is available on line. This site contains information collected by Second Millenium over the last years running the Safety and Security Radio net which meets on Marine SSB at 8104 ath 8:15 AST. It is a considerably less alarming read than the Berkeley crime log. What about sharks?  We have seen sharks (mostly nurse sharks asleep on the bottom) and barracudas but have escaped unharmed so far. Actual attacks by sharks are unheard of in the Caribbean though every once and a while we get a shark attack on a surfer or Abalone diver in Northern California. A local once asked me "why do the tourists always ask about sharks and never about coconuts?" Not having previously recognized the dangers of coconuts, I was informed that the common tourist practice of lounging around under coconut trees in a stiff breeze had lead to more casualties than sharks ever had.
What are the biggest seas you've seen? The biggest seas we've seen are out in the Pacific Ocean where some of the largest waves on the planet are formed. Unless you are trying to cross a river bar, these seas are not particularly uncomfortable. It can be intimidating looking over your shoulder and seeing a wall of water towering over you but generally the period is long enough that the boat just rises up to allow the water to pass harmlessly underneath. The more difficult going is when the period (time between wave peaks) is less than the wave height. Short steep seas can be very nasty. You can break things and shake yourself up in six foot cross seas when you bury the nose into the face of the wave ahead than you will in seas three times that size when their affect is only to raise and lower the boat. Most of the time you are at sea, you will believe the seas are much larger than they are. Measure your eye level above the sea level when seated in your usual position. If the horizon disappears when you are in the trough, that wave is greater than that distance. In addition, sea heights are not reported by the absolute largest wave that came by, but rather the average of the tallest third.of the waves. Correlating the heights of the seas you are comfortable with against reported heights and period is a worthwhile exercise: you might avoid an uncomfortable ride and extremely unpleasant sea sickness. Swapping lies about the monster seas you were in is not particularly useful.
What is your favorite island? This is a tough one. The best answer I have heard is "For what?" Each island is very different with different cultures and even languages. I can't pick a favorite although I will try to offer some highlights:
What is an Accidental Cruiser? Our work collapsed in the dot bomb of 2001 and we decided that, as long as we were going broke, we should at least be having fun. We cruise as a result of this serendipitous event, not as part of a long planned adventure or retirement. The term also captures the way we travel where we avoid having plans and pretty much go where the wind blows to our liking. What we are not is "old salts". You've read about them in the sailing mags. Old Salts were born on a sail bag, and have been racing since they started on dinghies at the age of six and are currently rounding the horn the wrong way. We, on the other hand, took up sailing in the late 90's because we live near the SF Bay. It is beautiful, peaceful and much closer to home than the Sierra Nevada mountains and therefore much nicer for the 2-3 days a month we could get off work. We are still in awe of the old salts.How does an "Old Salt" go cruising? An old salt usually goes through the following steps:
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We had no goal of cruising at the time we started. In retrospect, we took the following steps:
What do you do all day?
This is question number one. Our typical day is different if it is a day at anchor or a day spent on the move.
We usually rise before the sun and spend a good deal of time listening to weather nets.
We make
coffee
We watch the sunrise
We do some stretches
We make, eat and clean up after breakfast
We run our motor to cool the refrigerator and recharge the batteries
We read
We start any projects* or set out for an adventures** (limited to one per day)
We have lunch. This is usually our main meal. It could occur ashore if the step before has taken us there, otherwise, prepare, eat and clean up)
We read. Occasionally, if it is warm or the snorkeling beckons, we swim
We continue our projects/adventures
We check the afternoon weather nets
We celebrate the sundown either on our or another's boat
We run the engine for power and refrigeration
We clean up. Close up the boat, set lights. We turn on the radio and fall asleep
*Our projects are generally boat repairs, fetching provisions, getting water, getting rid of garbage or finding boat parts.
**Our adventures are sometimes a side effect of the projects and sometimes land tours, hikes or visits to customs and immigration.
The day before we leave,:
We hoist dinghy out of the water and stage the boat at a convenient jump off point
We prepare some "leftovers" for eating underway
The day we leave, :
We make coffee
We pack up boat. Everything not secured will be thrown on the cabin sole. Put away anything that rattles there.
We raise anchor
We motor or motor sail for 40 minutes for the refrigeration and electricity
We fish by setting out some hand lines.
We have breakfast
We check the weather
We play music. We chat. We tell bad jokes. We check the charts. We wave at anyone we see.
We have lunch
We sail. We watch for whales, dolphins, birds. We watch the world go by.
We anchor
We pick up everything that was thrown on the cabin sole.
We swim/snorkel
We have our sundowner
We clean up.
We turn on the radio. We go to /sleep
Maintaining and repairing the boat takes up a fair amount of time. Cruising is often referred to as "the art of fixing your boat in exotic places." Provisioning for fresh items and getting rid of garbage in a conscionable manner are nearly daily chores. Irregularly we need to get propane (for cooking) do laundry, get water, get diesel, exchange books and visit the internet cafe to catch up with the outside world.
On the plus side, we spend a lot of time watching the birds, the fish and the sunrise and the sunset. We socialize a great deal playing dominoes, telling bad jokes, exchanging cruiser information or helping each other with boat projects. Often we hike or play tourist visiting the many attractions ashore. It is a rare day we don't spend some time in the water often with snorkel and mask. We try to reserve some time for reading, particularly when in the grip of an extra good book.
How much does it cost ?
This is a hard question to answer. I think it is really a number of questions:
Boats cost according to size (price goes up with the cube of the length), quality (we have what is somewhat disdainfully referred to as a "production boat" of medium coastal cruising quality), condition and equipment. It is possible to spend as much as you want on boats. Ours cost $82,000. It had fairly new sails and a new engine for a boat of 7 years of age. It is kind of an average white boat of 40' length. Specifically, it is an ex-charter Beneteau. It is bone simple with out most of the fancy boat toys that make for higher maintenance and purchase costs. Among the things we don't have are: water maker, solar or wind or gas generators, air conditioning, EPIRB, life raft, television, radar, satellite communications or internet connections. Among the items we don't consider toys are: inflatable dinghy, High Frequency Radio and radio modem for email, portable PC, an adequate stock of books for exchange and a very comfortable bed.
As with the previous question, the answer is: it depends.
How much do you eat out? Restaurants can be ridiculously expensive for very poor food (particularly on the English Islands) We eat out a couple of times a week, usually lunch and usually at a place patronized by the locals. We do not eat out on the more expensive islands unless we are being treated by guests. Most islands catering to tourists will have a $25.00 per meal price for a meal regardless of quality. Locals will spend closer to $6.00.
What do you eat? If you insist on finding your favorite breakfast snack, it ranges from expensive (everything is brought in from outside) to impossible. Outside of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, items from home can cost up to twice what you would expect to pay at Safeway. The grand exception is frozen chicken which is readily available and generally reasonable everywhere. Fruits in season and fish can be very inexpensive. Lobster is probably only worth the money once.
How much do you spend on land trips? We will generally do guided land trips only with others to split costs. Most islands have cheap buses (really kind of vans) that you can ride with the locals everywhere. We have taken to calling them dollar buses as the fare is usually somewhat in that range. This has the added advantage of introducing you to normal people and not just those hanging about the docks.
Which island are you on? St. Bart's can be fantastically expensive as it caters to the European gliterati. Dominica offers its natural wonders nearly for free.
Do you want to hang out at the marina? The social life can be fun but a slip will cost anywhere from $20 to $50/day. Moorings cost from $10 to $25. These are quite reasonable charges for the charterer who may well be splitting the costs with the others on the boat and is, at any rate, only there for a week or so. For us, it is normally prohibitively expensive.
Our largest bill is health insurance and our largest monthly expense is boat maintenance. The latter comes in lumps and could easily be mistaken for breakdowns but one becomes accustomed to the regular wear of stuff in the harsh marine environment. Most boating stuff is either built to last a short time (most boats aren't used much) or has a known life under the Caribbean sun and salt that is much shorter than you expect. Rigging, lines, sails, hatches and electronics all require regular replacement. I figure 10% of the boats value per year is a reasonable estimate of what you will spend.
What do you eat?
Generally, we eat that which is available. In the USVI and in Puerto Rico (but not Culebra or Vieques) there are large, well stocked groceries with items familiar to Americans. The French islands offer excellent wines, cheeses and pates as well as fresh fruits and baked goods. The English speaking islands will tend more to an old fashioned British sense of proper food, which is to say: pretty bad unless you are fond of Weetabix and marmite. The exception is Antigua which has a couple of really great grocery stores. The items not subsidized by the EU or grown or caught locally can be fairly expensive though and it is good to develop a basket of recipes which use local, cheap foodstuffs.
Ours include lots of tropical fruit in season (mango, papaya, avocado, etc) and the ever present bananas and grapefruit. Fish, either frozen or fresh can usually be found and chicken is often cheap (though often frozen and brought in from the US) . We bake bread when we get a yen for good bread as we are not so fond of white balloon bread. Local greens make a ready spinach substitute and we stock up on canned meals (cous cous, tabouli, paella, lentils), wines, cheeses and jams when in the French islands.
I want to visit, what should I bring?
Lay out all the stuff you want to bring on your bed. Return 1/2 of it to your storage at home. Get a small soft backpack and put in it: swim suit, several pairs of shorts, many light cotton shirts and as much underwear as will fit. You will want waterproof sandals (we like chacos). Toiletries with a little extra emphasis on sunscreen and bug repellant. Regarding sunscreen: .you will want a high SPF sunscreen which does not stain. Note: if the bottle says "may stain some fabrics" it will definately make a mess of your T-shirt collars and all my fiberglass. Look for titanium dioxide or zinc oxide to make your dermatoligist happy. Regarding bug repellant: look for the percentage of DEET. Its nasty stuff but it works. We rarely encounter mosquitoes or no-see-ums on board but you will want repellant for morning or evening shoreside excursions. A high SPF hat which provides ear covererage is quite nice - the sun is very intense. A normal white cotton T-shirt has an SPF rating of 5 and you will return from a snorkeling trip or a walk with a sunburn if it is your only protection.
Wear your long sleeve shirt and shoes on the plane, you will not need them again until you return. We generally wear shirt and shorts and sandals all the time. It is typically around 80 degrees with a light to moderate breeze and you really do not need to wear much except as modesty dictates. Bring your passport - you will be entering and leaving many foreign countries and they are not impressed with your state driver's license. You can get money in the many automated bank money machines. There is no place to store your large hard-sided luggage on a boat, leave it at home. You do not need to bring your PFD, the boat has plenty if we sink and they are a little warm to wear around the deck. The water is also in the 80's and very salty so you float easily - if you fall in, you will not drown nor suffer hypothermia. (We do not recommend falling in as it can be quite difficult to find you in bouncy seas). Prescription lens wearers will want to bring a dive mask which fits their prescription, all else is available locally. Boat gifts should be consumable: coffee, the New York Times, good peanut butter (unsalted, unsweetened crunchy is unavailable) and good books are all very appreciated. In contrast to the boat advertisements featuring roses in stem glasses, life on a boat is quite like camping (but without the dust) and fairly close. The most important item to bring is: a good attitude.
Do I need a watermaker in the Caribbean?
In the immortal words of Don of Cygnus, "Its a lifestyle issue!" There is ample water available at the fuel docks all up and down the island chain costing between 10 and 25 cents a gallon. You will not save money running a watermaker.. You will have the issue of supplying it with sufficient power, the requirement that it be run regularly and the inevitable occasional breakdown. You will save the trouble of docking and filling the tanks or having to transport water in your dinghy. You will have as much water as you want (which is kind of fun)
I don't think that the water maker is worth the money if you are in an area where water is available. I have observed quite a few people become slaves to the watermaker where they could easily buy water at a much lower investment in time and money. If you have one, you must run it (and in a clean water area) or it will fail. It is a necessary evil if you are going to be at sea for long periods or are spending time in areas where potable water is just not available. We carry about 110 gallons of water and find we usually go about 2 weeks without having to fill the tanks. I would like to have a better water capture and rainwater filtration method but am more content jugging water aboard than working on a complex piece of equipment I don't understand. On the other hand, some people feel the same way about having an engine in the boat. It's a lifestyle issue.
Is there cell phone service in the Caribbean ?
Your cellphone may work in the Caribbean. Your roaming service can be extraordinarily expensive to use in the islands and locals will be very reluctant to give you a call. Calls to the US can be quite high. We have purchased a good quad band phone which is "unlocked". This means that you can put other companies SIM cards and switch services. Naturally the phone companies don't like this possibility and as far as I know only T-Mobile will give you the unlock codes. The technically savvy might enjoy the exercise of joining the on-line hacker communities to get their phone unlocked. We then buy a pre-paid SIM card from Digicell which gives us a local number in most of the Anglophone Islands and free incoming calls. The French islands are treated just like France and, if your French is good, you can presumably do the same thing there. One caution: if you want to add more time to the account, you must buy the card in island where you bought the SIM card or you will have to get a new phone number. On Antigua, we just rented a cell phone from British Cable and Wireless for essentially the cost of the minutes on the phone. When we were ready to leave, we returned the unit.
I would like to get your opinion of the 1995 Beneteau 405 I want to buy from the Moorings charter fleet.
We have a 1995 Beneteau 405 and are very pleased with it. It is great fun to sail, quite comfortable inside and very well thought out as a Caribbean boat. There are so many of them on the market that you get a lot of boat for your money and everyone in the Caribbean knows them well because many of the marine industry businesses got their start with Moorings or have worked on their boats. The major thing to look for is that the hull is sound. These boats are made with an inner pan which is shaped to form kind of hollow ribs which are then bonded to the hull to give the boat rigidity. The bonding seems to have been done with old chewed up baguettes as the inner liner can become loose from the hull which is then very flexible. Your surveyor should carefully tap the entire outside of the hull looking for signs of such separation. We have had two areas of our hull sawn open and fiber glassed to restore the structure and it was quite messy and expensive. A boat of over 10 years should have new standing rigging and you must think about replacing the keel bolts. We have also had to reinforce the rudder and replace the rudder bearing which is also common. We have replaced the old engine driven refrigerator and insulated and cut down the box to make for modern, reliable refrigeration systems. These boats were laid out for 3 couples to sail on for 10 days and therefore have entirely too much room for beer and sleeping and not enough storage. Comes with the territory. They are bone simple and a blast to sail. Good ventilation. Great cockpit. Easy access to the water. What's not to like? The cruisers tend to think you are a charterer and may be given to throwing out fenders when you come in to an anchorage. Get a Seven Seas Cruising Association burgee and put a bunch of jerry cans on deck and even that will go away.
Do you purchase ( or are you able to purchase) insurance for your boat during hurricane season?
The insurance industry has defined a "box" for far too many boats which requires that they stay south of latitude 12 (at or below southern Grenada) or north of southern US. during hurricane season. This has had the unfortunate effect of concentrating the risk by crowding too many boats into a few anchorages. When Ivan came, the hit was huge because so many people were concentrated in Grenada. It would be better from an actuarial standpoint to spread the fleet evenly and require good hurricane preparations. We have had United Insurance out of Barbados for the last two years. They do not have a hurricane box restriction but we keep our boat out of the water over the summer. Our current policy requires we stay south of Antigua and north of Venezuela. They will write riders (at a cost) should we wish to travel elsewhere. Contact a marina in the area you are thinking of staying over hurricane season and they will probably be able to direct you to an insurer.
Many of the non-US insurers are restricting boats from US waters because of excessive litiigation and huge losses in hurricanes. We had one year where we "self insured" but I was concerned about liability. If I could by liability insurance only, I would. Unless you sink your boat, you are unlikely to collect anywhere near enough to cover premiums, hassle, delay etc. or even enough to put your boat back together . If you do sink your boat, you might not feel like replacing it. Insurance aside, I feel a boat is much safer in one of the hurricane holes than it is in the anchorage in Trinidad or in Florida. A hurricane hit on any given island is a rare enough event that the statistics are not of much use. Prepare your boat carefully and consider the quality of the preparations of the other boats. See our hurricane preparation tips for the level of risk we tolerate.
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