Story # 1 : From Bob and Nancy Schmidt, Bennevolence, Beneteau 49

We are proud owners of B49 Hull # 1 "Bennevolence".... We have been escaping since purchasing our boat from Cape Yachts in Sept 2006 with our boat....We even got married on her... We have a house in Vermont and comute to our home( boat) on the water in Rhode Island. I guess It's an escape since this process lets us see all of the beauty of New England.  We've been to Most of the nice harbors Within a 2 day sail of our port.We rarely stay home. Our ultimate goal is to retire to the boat and explore year round warmer climates.With the capabilities of this boat our possibilties are unlimited. We're sure  these dreams can be made to happen.

Story # 2 : From Robert Leblow, Calypso, Beneteau 36 CC

I live in Southern California in the middle of a huge metropolitan area.  With all that is going on today in the world and in our area in particular my Beneteau makes a great retreat.  Going anywhere else would require at least a  couple of hours of dealing with traffic, driving, and using gas.  With my Beneteau I can pop down to the boat and in just a few minutes I am on the ocean away from the crowds and traffic.  Sometimes I  go out a little way and stop and just drift while I look back at the land.  Last November my whole family and I had to escape from the wildfires and the only place we had to go to was our Beneteau.  Our house burned to the ground but we still have our Beneteau and we are on it every weekend.

 

Story # 3 : From Mark Lenci, Sunflower, Beneteau 523

Summer 2008 – Cruising on Sunflower

Friends, family, sailing, adventures, new people and places, learning, adapting, and no calendar. A fantastic 2 ½ months covering over 2,000 NM.
We left the third week in June to explore Long Island a bit and catch the wooden boat show in Mystic, CT. We spent a week “shaking down” the boat and crew, meeting friends, and learning to live without a calendar.
Mark Cavallo joined us in Mystic for our trip north to Halifax. We enjoyed our traditional evening with the Dring family in Onsett Harbor, and then went through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown. Amelia left us there to go back to work. We jumped off the next day for our 2 ½ day trip up to Halifax. After exploring the Halifax area a bit, Mark Cavallo returned to the working world. We spent 3 weeks exploring Nova Scotia and loved it. There is too much to cover here. We had experiences that ranged from the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Halifax to complete solitude in Cub Basin (picture above with Sunflower at anchor). Suffice it to say we plan to spend an entire summer in the Canadian Maritimes when work permits. Sailing was not for the timid in Nova Scotia. The 48 degree water temperature off shore guaranteed fog. Interestingly there was always 20 to 25 knot wind with that dense, cold fog. Needless to say we did not use the diesel very much at all! Two stops merit special mention. Luneburg, with its amazing maritime museum, definitely warranted a longer stay, so we did! Brier Island, at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, had 16 foot tides – but the 3 square miles of island had more “characters” per square mile than anywhere we’ve been except maybe Alaska.
We crossed over to Maine and spent the second half of the summer exploring Maine. We had some great adventures this summer. The adventures included visiting the Wooden Boat magazine (Nicholas’s passion), discovering many new harbors and towns, and meeting George Bush senior while at anchor in Porpoise Cove, Maine. Even with a month, we only began to get to know Maine. We’ll be back.
As we headed south and to home in the last half of August, we stopped in Boston Harbor for a couple days. We found a real treasure in our own back yard. The national park on the harbor islands was full of great surprises, and we’ll spend more time there next summer.
We stopped in Plymouth on the way home. Besides exploring Plymouth, this gave us the opportunity to sail with the Drings back through the Cape Cod Canal for another great evening in Onsett.
We returned to Narragansett Bay at the end of August, completely relaxed. This was a truly great family adventure.

Points of interest for sailors and the curious:
Things we did right:
* Roller furling staysail – primary sail in Nova Scotia and used with a reefed main
* Village Marine water maker – we never loaded water from shore during the entire summer. Worked flawlessly.
* Combination washer/dryer with external vent – did a small load every other day (average 4 people onboard). And we could dry things out during wet weather!
* Rocna 30 KG anchor – this cruising anchor and all chain rode was fantastic. We anchored 50 times and never dragged.
* Food load out – we individually wrapped the meats to be frozen, froze them at home, and then loaded them on the boat. We could comfortably load about a month of food for 4 people. We shopped ashore once a week for fresh things.
* AIS – this system receives information from large vessels and plots them on your electronic navigation systems. It helps keep the big picture in the fog.
* Salt water and fresh water wash down system - a good wash down of the anchor chain every time it came up kept the anchor locker clean. It was nice to be able to wash the salt off the boat now and then.
* Tools and spares – we had all the tools and spares we needed to handle everything that came up. Our small workshop in the bow compartment was very useful.
* Spurs line cutter for the propeller and shaft – we only fouled one line, but it was a 3/4” artificial line close to a lee shore. The line cutter chopped it up and we kept going. It paid for itself.
* Charts, sailing guides, etc. – we had the information we needed to pick anchorages and plan our voyage. The Canadian hydrographic office electronic charts are excellent.
* “Shore Support Detachment” – our good friend and sailing buddy John Cary in San Diego – he knows Sunflower and could always get the information or item we needed.
Unique experience we gained:
* We were good at anchoring, and we got better. Learned to use the bottom sonar to determine the bottom type, avoid rock, and to place the anchor optimally.
* We were good at radar, and we got better
* Weather – Continued to learn how to use all the resources available to get Canadian and US marine weather including downloading regularly to the navigation system.
* Downwind sailing – we started using a jibe preventer regularly for the boom, learned how to trim the asymmetric spinnaker for sailing directly downwind, how to use and trim the other sails, and more.
* Learned to use the advanced features of the electronic systems, and tweaked the calibration to really tune them up.
Things we didn’t anticipate:
* Condensation – the human body gives off a pint of water at night. In the cold water that all condensed under the mattresses (except the owner stateroom that had spring slats that allowed air to circulate). We ordered the Froli spring systems for the staterooms and that solved the problem – plus made the beds more comfortable!
* Hatch screens – we added Ocean Air combination shade/screens on the main hatches so we could have air flow at night and no bugs.
Things we want to improve
* #1 priority is a bigger dinghy and motor, plus the arch with davits to hoist and stow the dinghy with engine. We used the dinghy every day at anchor. We want a bigger (dryer), faster dinghy with an easy to use (i.e., Bev & I can do it conveniently) means of storage.
* Cockpit side curtains – we need them for use at anchorage in the rain (we had some rain about every other day).
* Canvas for forward deck – to provide a sun and rain shield at anchor so the hatches can be open for air flow but no rain comes in.
* Windlass – the original anchor windlass wore out. We are upgrading to a dual gypsy windlass (for the primary and back up anchors) and reinforcing the deck under the windlass to handle the extensive anchoring that we do.
* Galley range – we baked more than we thought we would, and cooked onboard almost all the time. So we upgraded the galley range to a Force 10 range that has an additional burner, an oven door that opens and slides out of the way, has a larger thermostat controlled oven, etc.
* Storage – we learned where we want a couple of additional cabinets for storage. That will be a winter project.
* Satellite TV and possibly satellite data/voice – The new arch is equipped for two satellite dishes. We’ll see how business goes this year. TV would be very nice, and data/voice would enable Mark to have a truly “mobile office”!

 

Story # 4 : From Lynn and Debbie Greentree, Dolphin Tales, Beneteau 361

Well how do we escape on our 2003 Beneteau 361 Dolphin Tales
Well the first thing is to leave Victoria British Columbia  head West out the Strait of Juan de Fuca make a left at the Pacific Ocean and head to Mexico.
We left Victoria in Sept 2008 and arrived in Mazatlan Mexico December 2008. On our trip south we visited many ports along the way including Newport Oregon, San Franciso, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Ventura , Oxnard, Santa Barbara, Catalina Island, Oceanside, Marina Del Ray,and San Diego before heading into Mexico. At each of these ports we had a great time meeting people and being a tourist.
Once in Mexico we stopped at Ensenda, San Quintin, Cedros Island, Turtle Bay, Mag Bay, Cabo, Mortes before heading across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan.
Not once did our Beneteau let us down during the 3000nm voyage but met all the challenges that the Pacific Ocean threw at her and the crew, in fact the boat was much better behaved then the crew. Surfing the waves, excedding the design hull speed and handling 35 knots of wind in large seas was something the boat delt with easily.
We left Dolphin Tales to retunr home for a few months and she is currently waiting for us to return to the El Cid Marina in Mazatlan  to escape further South this fall. 

 

Story # 5 : From Andrea and Frank Carreras, Can Drac, Beneteau 43

Cruising for a Cause

Franc and Andrea Carreras always knew they would embark on an adventure together. “We met at the Manhattan Sailing Club in 2000 and always shared the passion for new horizons,” said Franc. They just weren’t sure when or where that adventure would be. They talked about it often, tossing around ideas of how they could evade reality for a year or two.
In 2008, Andrea, a native Long Islander, was working as a telecommunications executive at a top 20 Fortune 500 company and Franc, who was born in Barcelona, was working as a music executive at a major record label in New York. With such stable careers, their discussions were always centered around “one day” that would arrive post children, post retirement, but no time soon.

“One day” came sooner than they expected. It began where all the best ideas begin: while dangling their toes in the water and drinking wine on the transom. They were anchored behind the Statue of Liberty and decided the time had come.They created sailforwater.com and joined up with Charity: water, a non-profit organization that brings clean water to Africa. They were drawn to the organization because, as cruisers, they understand the preciousness of fresh and drinkable water. Unlike landlubbers whose water comes forth endlessly from a faucet, cruisers at sea must carry and ration their water. “We know what it’s like carrying limited amounts of water aboard and often have to travel all day to fill up just with water from remote sources,” said Franc “But we do it by choice. Others have no other option.” Charity: water had never heard of an excursion quite like the Carreras’ but they were excited to collaborate. The plan was to sail across the Atlantic and raise $1 for every mile, eventually making enough to provide drinking water for 500 people for 20 years. “We had always dreamed about making a difference in the world bigger than ourselves,” said Franc, so they were thrilled to find a way to bring clean drinking water to some of the 1.1 billion people who go without it.

Franc and Andrea purchased a 2008 Beneteau 43 and got her fully outfitted in South Carolina (an excellent excuse to escape the New York winter). They named her Can Drac, put their jobs on hold, and fully stocked her with food and supplies for 6,300 miles of travel. From February to May, Can Drac will sail from Florida to Antigua and back up to Tortola for the start of the ARC Europe rally. In May they will take off to cross the Atlantic Ocean toward Barcelona. After a welcome party in Franc’s native town, they will continue through France and Italy, spreading awareness and gaining support from their website along the way. “Leaving family and friends was very sad and giving up our income completely was very, very scary,” said Franc. But they believe the trip will be worth it. “We set out to make a difference in the world greater and larger than anything we could have imagined,” said Franc. “We are two people who have set out to make two of our dreams come true, together.”

 

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