Cruising Life: The Real Story of Everyday Life Aboard CYAN

The photos on other pages on this site show all the places we go and sights we see. On this page we want to show what we do in our regular life living aboard CYAN. So many folks ask us about everyday life aboard and perhaps the answers are here.

So, are we really on a continous vacation? When we ignore all the maintenance aboard and just go out and play and enjoy the ports-of-call, it can sure feels like it. But there are prices to pay and the jobs mount up! Seeing the ports we visit often include touring alone or with other cruisers, water sports, hiking, and, of course, eating out! From shopping and cooking to finding a place to take the trash or do laundry, it all takes more time and preparation than it does on land.

Priorities first! We always need to make sure we have enough fuel, water, provisions and electricity. We have enough solar panels and a generator to make our electricity and a watermaker to fill a 180 gallon tank. We need to make sure we have navigated and planned our course considering locations and time to stop for provisions and fuel. If we have good winds the fuel can last for months!!!

We need to spend a fair amount of time every day staying in touch with the weather conditions over the VHF radio or SSB [like a short wave radio] to plan for a safe voyage and even to plan on how many anchors to use when we are at anchor. There needs to be a certain amount of research done concerning our course and our next ports, especially searching out the best anchoring locations, which includes getting there in the right conditions to anchor. Anchoring well makes for comfortable living!!! We try to let family in the US know our float plan: that is when we sail offshore and on long several overnight sails.

The schedule is usually something like this:
Day 1 in new place... Approach...swing around to scout out best anchoring location, set anchor [discussing it all between the bow and the helm], put away navigation stuff, drop dinghy [if we have tied it on board, we often tow it], lower and attach motor, Chuck goes to shore with boat papers to check in with customs and immigration while Lynn cleans up boat.Then we take off in the dinghy to check out the location, often driving around anchorage to see if we know other vessels and plan "happy hour"!
Day 2...Do errands like pharmacy, marine supplies, groceries, and laundry. Sometimes we try to walk as much as possible and take hikes to forts, hills or coves when we can. We also try to snorkel or scuba if it's a good spot and the wind is soft.
Day 3...Either more of the same, fix something on the boat that needs attention, help someone else fix something, catch up on all the curren news or plan for the next location and wait for the best weather to go!

For internet access and to pay bills and order items we use net cafes and wireless nets in many bars, carrying the computer ashore. We have a close relative hold our mail and handle most items over email using the SSB email addresses. We rarely have a location to receive paper mail anymore. If we need something we have to improvise or wait weeks or months for delivery...or pay 3-4 times the price!!!

We are always meeting new boating and sailing people and they are the most interesting folks from all over the world as well as fascinating locals, too. We read 4-7 books a week each and always look for book exchanges. Chuck reads over 75 a year!!!

Here are some photos that show us in our day-to-day life on CYAN and some of the comical and often boring but unusual ways we do things now.


Chuck bales the
dinghy after a 3" rain
Lynn cooks bbq on
the grill on the lifeline
Chuck unties a knot in
muddy anchor chains
Defrosting deep fridge
Lynn tapes teak trim
in stylish kneepads!

Chuck varnishes
teak side from dinghy
Chuck multi-tasks on phone
and fills water tank
Using chartbooks
to plan voyage
Hoisting the dinghy
to prevent theft
Juan Checks us
into Venezuela

Refueling from
delivery pump boat
Coconut from
Flagman in St Lucia
A gang of typical
cruisers at the bar
A group tour of
Dominica
Does food shopping
look like fun?

Many of the cities in the world we have visited
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