Expereince

I follow a lot of discussions on internet forums. It's been a fruitful place to listen for ideas. What are people interested in? What are they curious about? What would they like to see tested? A common thread is that people comment based on their own experience. Of course. But they do this as though that were the only experience. That place. That boat. That sailing style. In fact, there are as many combinations of place, boat, and style as there are sailors.

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So what experience do you have?

Miles.  Sail around the world or just cross an ocean and you pile them up fast. But what about the coastal cruisers and day sailors that sail shorter distances, but often?

• Cruises. If I add up DELMARV and coastwise cruises of more than overnight, I get 14,000 miles. Overnights and weekends add another 1500 miles. 
• Day sailing. Typically 10-30 miles, typically 20 times per year for 40 years. 

 That's another 16,000 miles. That's 31,500 miles, enough to circle the world.

 Anchoring. World cruisers talk about many nights at anchor. Of course, you don't anchor during passages, unlike coastal cruisers that anchor every night.

• Cruises. About 400 stops. Dragged twice, neither was serious.
• Day Sailing. About 30% of the time I stop somewhere, either to kayak or visit a beach. That's about 250 times. No dragging.
• Anchor Testing. For me, that would add several thousand cycles. Let's not include that. However, it did include pulling many anchors to failure in every bottoms type, with many combinations of scope and yawing.

About 650 anchoring episodes, many overnight and through storms, some not. I've anchored a lot. The variety may be more or less; IME, island sailing is mostly sand, with a little coral and exposed locations mix it up. Some coastal areas are all mud, but more likely, there is sand and rock as well. Seems about the same variability, to me.

Tricky Entrances. The day sailor on the ocean side knows his home port, but he has to do the entrance every day. The long distance cruiser will see more that it unfamiliar,  but not as often. The coastal cruiser is often rock-dodging, skipping in and out of small, sometimes dangerous, entrances that the sensible world cruiser would avoid. I think this totally depends on the person. My home harbor is dead simple (although a few miss hit the jetties every year), but I've surfed in some pretty hairy ones.

Hoisting and Lowering Sails, Including Reefing.  That probably correlates to miles. A day Sailor hoists and lowers every time, but reefs underway less often (or he reefed when hoisting). Sometimes the wind dies while on passage and you motor a bit. I think it averages out.

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So when I hear the ocean sailor brag about his expereince, I'm not so sure. He's more likely to weather a storm, if he plans poorly. He's also more likely to die of boredom, from what I've experienced. I really don't love an 8-hour turn at watch in mild weather; it's just as much fun as an 8-hour plane ride. None.

 When I go sailing these days, I can only call it "uneventful." There are lots of mistakes to be made (I've made many) and much variety (been there, done that), but mostly now, it's just routine. But nice. I still learn a few things.