My first offshore experience on a sailboat occurred when a friend of mine invited me to crew with him as he traveled north during the spring. He is a cruiser who travels north towards Maine in the summer and then sails south to Mexico for the winters. I hopped on his yacht in Key West, FL as we made our way up the East Coast of the United States. We made landfall again in Charleston, SC where we tied up to a city pier and I took a cab to the airport to make my way home to Baltimore.
For most of the voyage, the winds were light and consistent, moving us along at a steady pace through the water. When we got near Charleston, the weather changed as a gale approached us with massive seas. We furled up the sails and turned into a powerboat as we motored head on into the large waves. Once we were able to turn and were no longer beating dead into the wind, we let out a bit of headsail which helped to steady our motion as we motorsailed the last bit into the harbor and up to the city pier.
A cheaper way to go cruising is to skip buying a yacht and be crew on other peoples boats. This lets you see the world with no upfront costs!
Aside from having a powerful diesel engine, the most notable difference between this modern design yacht and Wisdom is the amount of beam that exists in the cockpit! Wisdom is 11 feet wide at the widest point, but the cockpit is very narrow as the stern tapers down to a tiny width. This modern yacht, with its sugar scoop stern was 14 feet wide, and the width was maintained for pretty much the entire length of the yacht. Th
This translates directly into the massively open and wide cockpit which gives you plenty of space to move around and relax. All the lines are led back to the cockpit, so this extra space helps you keep everything organized and separate.
