[Editorial note: While Webb is correct in pointing out that a lo

I created this website, SailFarLiveFree.com , to document my own growth as a sailor. Remembering where I came from and how I acquired a certain skill or memory is important to me and I've found is also sometimes of interest to others. A lot of the content on the website is my way of exploring the sailing lifestyle hotels in tucson arizona and examining hotels in tucson arizona the many different perspectives that make it so fascinating.
From time to time, I've brought in experienced voices to help me sort things out. For example, both Ted Brewer and Bob Perry have generously written guest posts here about bluewater sailboat design. In this particular post, I'm excited to share an interview I recently did with Webb Chiles, a well-known enigmatic sailing voyager who's completed hotels in tucson arizona 5 circumnavigations in a variety of sailboats spanning several decades.
If you're been reading hotels in tucson arizona my blog and have an interest in ocean voyaging aboard a sailboat, I'd be shocked if you haven't already heard of Webb Chiles. hotels in tucson arizona In all likelihood, many of you have probably hotels in tucson arizona read one or more of Webb's books , several of which are available through Amazon in print and/or Kindle format . I particularly enjoyed The Open Boat , which chronicles Webb's epic 7,000 mile voyage alone across the Pacific in an engineless 18' open yawl.
Webb holds sailing knowledge and perspective hotels in tucson arizona that would take most people several lifetimes to amass. Consider just a few of his experiences that we can all learn something from: five circumnavigations, first American to sail alone around Cape Horn, the sinking of his own 36' sloop and subsequent 26 hours of floating and swimming to survive, and the braking of Sir Francis Chichester s record for the fastest solo circumnavigation in a monohull by more than three weeks. Even at his current age of over 70 years old, Webb still hasn't written his final chapter. He's planning a 6th circumnavigation on another small and unassuming sailboat.
I've read a lot of Webb's articles and books and I've heard him interviewed, but I still had questions. Fortunately, Webb was gracious enough to give me a bit of his time for an interview while he's wrapping up his preparations for the 6th circumnavigation attempt mentioned above. Read his answers below.
But in considering your question, it occurs to me that if someone hotels in tucson arizona needs much outside encouragement to leave what appears to be a secure life ashore, probably they shouldn t because that encouragement won t be there offshore. The reasons to go need to come from within.
Webb: I don t believe the Pardey s have a copyright on that advice. I love small, simple boats. CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE , my 18 open yawl, was about as small and simple as they get; and GANNET, my present boat, an ultra-light hotels in tucson arizona Moore 24, is probably among the smallest and simplest boats presently being prepared for ocean voyaging.
However, I don t see many people going small and simple. Over the years the trend has been just the opposite. Forty years ago the 37 EGREGIOUS was average size in the harbors of the world. On my last circumnavigation hotels in tucson arizona in 2008-09, the 37 THE HAWKE OF TUONELA was usually the smallest or one of the smallest boats in sight.
One of my greatest satisfactions in preparing GANNET has been figuring out how to live on her. I now can and do everything important to me, write, listen hotels in tucson arizona to music, read, sail, except be with Carol, my wife. But the fact is that few people really want simplicity. Most want to have everything they have ashore on their boats, and pay the price in complexity, expense and delays for repairs and parts.
Kevin (SFLF): You once wrote in one of your books that the hardest part of fulfilling a voyaging dream is returning to land and all of the emotional, physical and perhaps hotels in tucson arizona financial bills. Is there a way to prepare yourself for those realities? Does sailing offer you an escape from those 3 types of bills?
Webb: I must admit that I have forgotten writing that. It must have been true after my first circumnavigation, but has long since ceased to be for me. Even though I ve spent time ashore and as I write this am in Evanston, Illinois, from the time I left San Diego in 1978 on CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE at the start of my second circumnavigation, I ve never really come back and reentered society. There has always been a voyage ahead. There is nothing ashore for me to escape from. And, again except for Carol, and my writing, which I can do anywhere, my real life is at sea.
Kevin (SFLF): Most of your voyaging hotels in tucson arizona and circumnavigations have been single-handed. What practical hotels in tucson arizona tips can you give to others who are considering long solo passages? How do you handle the work (watch routines, repairs, navigation, etc.)?
hotels in tucson arizona Navigation has changed over the decades. On my first two circumnavigations I navigated by sextant, taking a sun sight in the morning when the sun was about 20 above the horizon although there are refraction tables, I found them unreliable at lower angles and another sight at local noon, and made a running fix.
Now I use GPS and use chartplotting software on my laptop(s) and iPad(s). I ll probably have two of each on GANNET, and an iPad mini with the iNavX app will probably be my primary. Of iNavX, I will say that it does the job, but I am not completely satisfied with it. The User s Manual is inadequate and many actions unintuitive.
hotels in tucson arizona Of repairs, there is no set routine. We re talking about responding to unexpected breakage. On THE HAWKE OF TUONELA I had a lot of spare nuts and bolts and good tools and could jury rig something. On GANNET I can carry less, but then there is less to go wrong.
I don t stand watches. I sleep at night, waking often or not depending on where I am. Near land I wake often. The body and mind break down quickly from lack of sleep and water. Food is a very distant third.
Kevin (SFLF): I ve got a wife and three daughters that love to sail and travel with me. For the most part, they share (tolerate?) my raw passion and desire hotels in tucson arizona to cruise under sail. I can t imagine undertaking a long voyage without them, yet I m fascinated by people who can make epic voyages single-handed. I guess what I'm wondering is how do you feel about the social aspects of solo sailing on long voyages? How do you deal with the solitude? Leaving loved ones behind? Do you feel the need to socialize and talk with other people when you reach an anchorage hotels in tucson arizona or make landfall?
Webb: I m an only child and it took. I m used to being alone. It is natural for me. I enjoy entering what I have called the monastery of the sea. But I am also much married. I try to find a balance. Obviously I haven t always been successful.
Of children, I knew from certain deficiencies in my own childhood that parents owe their children time and love, and that children are not a responsibility consistent hotels in tucson arizona with the way I want to live, so I had none.
Webb: The animal inside all of us that always wants to survive becomes alarmed when conditions are threatening, particularly when they get out of control, so I ve been frightened when waves have thrown my boats around, sometimes masthead in the water. But I am not intimidated by the sea, not even the Southern Ocean. I don t claim to have courage. Courage is doing something you are afraid to do. Often people are afraid of the unknown. I ve spent years I m not sure how many, four or five, maybe more at sea making passages and more than a year in the Southern Ocean. The sea to me is not the unknown.
Kevin (SFLF): The boats you have owned and used for your circumnavigations represent unique choices. Many are not what I think a lot of mainstream cruising sailors and dreamers picture as bluewater cruising sailboats. For example, your Drascombe Lugger was a very small, open and unballasted boat; a daysailer by most accounts. Even your current hotels in tucson arizona sailboat, a Moore 24, is more of a light displacement racer than a long distance cruiser. What influences your choice in sailboats and what do you consider the most important features for an offshore cruiser?
After my first circumnavigation, in which I became the first America hotels in tucson arizona to sail alone around Cape Horn and broke Sir Francis Chichester s record for the fastest solo circumnavigation in a monohull by more than three weeks, I began seeking a qualitatively different challenge, thus the open boat voyage.
With GANNET, I wanted a new-to-me sailing experience. While they ve often been raced successfully from California to Hawaii, no one has ever gone farther in a Moore 24. Being an ultra-light, the boats can surf. I expect to reach speeds hotels in tucson arizona I never have under sail in my other boats, though CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE did peg her knotmeter at 10 knots at times in gale force winds.
I want a boat that sails well. The most important quality of a sea going boat is that she be well built, regardless of size. CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE and GANNET both were. Everything else is secondary; and I learned long ago that it is often easier and always cheaper to adapt yourself to the boat than adapt the boat to you.
Kevin (SFLF): While I don t think I ve ever met a sailboat I didn t like, my favorites are traditional salty double-enders with a full keel. I m also smitten with pocket cruisers like the Pacific Seacraft Flicka. What s your experienced opinion of my list of favorite pocket cruisers ?
When I looked at your list I was struck by one thing: they are all expensive. To check, I went online and found prices for all but the Tom Thumb, ranging from $30,000 to more than $100,000, with an average probably around $40,000. This is more than I have ever paid for a boat. Maybe $40,000 is nothing to most people, but it is to me, and I would think that if someone wants to go small, go simple, go now, and has $40,000, they would do better to buy a boat for less than $10,000 and keep the cash.
I paid $9,000 for GANNET. I know of a man preparing to sail away on a Cal 27. When I was sailing CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE, a man was circumnavigating hotels in tucson arizona on a Catalina 27. These aren t my favorite boats, but they will get the job done.
[Editorial note: While Webb is correct in pointing out that a lo