Learning to Cruise

[Amorous]

The first time that I made the trip through the Erie and Trent-Severn canals I was very green and naive.  I didn't even know for sure that there was a canal system through Ontario.  Actually didn't find out until I was almost to Oswego!  This is where these internet boards and other information sources shine. 
I consider myself an independent soul, and yet, on that first trip ( from Deltaville, VA to Duluth, MN) on my newly aquired 1934 Winthrop Warner cutter, I spent ALL of my money, and had to call everyone I knew to have them send me MORE!  I stayed at marinas because I didn't know any better.  I didn't understand, at the time, that I could have been totally self-sufficient had I spent a little time and money on systems instead of a lot on marinas and other "umbilical cords".  I stayed at marinas whenever possible.  I bought fuel at marinas and canal-side stops while clearly seeing gas station signs advertising it for 2/3 the price, in every town I passed, because, well, I was YACHTING and that's just what yachtsmen DO.  Dumb!
When I pulled up to the dock at the yacht club at Avon-on-Hudson and the ol' fella in the office told me that they only rented the hand crane, and that I would have to unstep my mast myself, I was HORRIFIED! 
It was only after entering the Erie canal system and being forced to spend the night between locks, that I really began to understand what I needed to do to "cut the cord".  I consider myself lucky in that respect as I could just as easily been in more exposed circumstances somewhere along the coast or........?
I was forced to pay attention to my electrical usage and get another battery after a disheartening morning of click.......poop!  It's unbelievably hard to get a jump in the middle of nowhere!  Then I found out what that fitting in the front of the engine was for.  If I only had the darn crank that would fit it! 
I also found out that all those places that looked so inviting on the charts...........WERE!  And that nobody would come chase you out! 
Unfortunately, I also discovered that 99% of the people that own boats are inconsiderate idiots.  However, the other 1% make being a part of the cruising community something very, very cool!
The first experience along that vein was one day before I reached Oswego, NY when, after tying to a dock at a municipal park, a Grand Banks trawler approached.  Slowly and carefully it inched toward the dock just in front of me, pivotted, and stopped, just inches from the dock.  As the young captain stepped out through the door he calmly glanced at the dock, grabbed a line, threw a quick clove-hitch around the piling, and locked it with a sliding half-hitch around the line.  Then he stepped over onto the dock and finished tying off.
After a final check, he looked back with a huge grin on his face and lifted a hand.
"Hey, cool spot, where're all the women, you drink scotch?"  He fired off the questions as he stepped back onto the boat and into the cabin.
"Uh, well......."  I stuttered.  My girlfriend stuck her head out from the companionway and asked what I had said.  I just pointed forward.
The trawler captain re-emerged with a bottle of Johnny Walker Black label in his hand. 
"Heeeeyyyy, there ARE women here!  You guys grab a cup and come on over."
During a very pleasant evening of drinking, laughing, and generally enjoying life, we learned that Jim lived aboard his sailboat.  He sailed back and forth between the islands and the east coast, finding work each summer wherever it was to be found, and depending on what he felt like doing that particular summer.  He was coming from Michigan and was delivering the trawler for a friend in Baltimore.  He told us about the Trent-Severn waterway and we traded charts of the rest of his trip, for charts of the rest of ours.
Using what we had learned, we began to find ourselves simply ignoring the weekend warriors, a group we considered we were finally outgrowing, and seeking out the "real" cruisers.  The task was made a little easier by the fact that Ningui, my boat was REAL salty looking even with the spars laid along the deck!  Bowsprit, boomkin, boom gallows, wooden spars.  She was in the Yacht Register and had crossed the Atlantic 14 times!  We were a hit wherever we went, and gave tours through her whenever anyone expressed an interest.  We even gave a family of 5 a ride between locks once, after we reached Ontario.
The Erie and Oswego canals are amazing both as a feat of man and the fact that they traverse some very beautiful and historic landscapes. 
The Trent-Severn Waterway is totally different in that it is a system of locks and canals between natural bodies of water.  The lakes and rivers that it connects wouldn't be available to an ocean going vessel in any other way.  There is something magical about floating on a small inland lake, sipping a hot cup of coffee while sitting silently at anchor and looking out through the early morning fog at the muskrats, mink and otters collecting their breakfast while the loons call to each other over water as smooth as glass.
This, truly, is what cruising is all about.

[starcrest]

my experience of learning to cruise is whatever you werent prepaired for you will find out after about 3 or so days.

[CapnK]

Good story! :D

Cruisers are, as a general rule, much nicer than weekend warriors.

You'll have to post us some pics of that boat sometime, she sounds like she is/was a grand old lady. :)