Lesson Learned #137

Now, if your first thought is, “I wonder how I missed the first 136 lessons learned?” you wouldn’t be wrong.  While almost all of the posts related to cruising on Dauntless have some lessons learned, I don’t label them as such.

So, as mentioned I have fleshed out a general cruise plan for the coming year and into 2017.  In a nutshell, we’ll be cruising the west coast of Europe from north of Scotland to southwest Spain by year’s end.

Now, every day, without much else to do, I look at the map, longingly; like porn, maps grab your attention and won’t let go.

I imagine sitting in Dauntless on the Algarve or Cadiz next winter.  I know the Med is no fun in the winter.  But the spring? The following summer 2017??  How can I not go check it out?  A few miles here, a few miles there.

Then, the cold hard facts strike home:

• $1.10 per nautical mile fuel cost crossing the Atlantic
• $1.34 per nautical mile in fuel cost in Europe this past summer;
• $4 per nautical mile for all costs.

So this means that while a good rule of thumb is $1 per nm when crossing oceans; this past summer, cruising along the coast, stopping for the night, eating, drinking and general shenanigans cost money on the order of $4 for every nm traveled.

Sure, this coming summer, I will average less than half the miles every month then we did this past summer.  But 30 days on the road is still 30 days on the road.  My travelling less, I save fuel money, but that’s it, at only 33% of total costs.

So that $4 figure, may get as low as $3, but won’t go to $2, let alone $1.

Another issue, we still want to be in the Pacific by January 2018!  That means, being in the Canaries in October 2017.  So, if we are in the south of Spain Jan-Feb 2017 and then maybe go as far as the Balearics in the Spring of 2017, as weather permits, what next?

So I longingly gaze at the charts.  I would love to see the Adriatic and Greece by Kadey Krogen.  I have friends there. How neat would that be!

But the distances!  1,000 miles just to Sicily.  One way. 1300 nm to Greece, 1800 nm to Venice. Now double all those numbers, as we have to return.

And now multiply by $4.  $12,000 to see the Greek Isles; not happening.

Too many miles, too many dollars, too little time.

But the year not spent in Europe, will be a year spent in the Pacific.

New places, new faces and new friends to make.  It’ll be a fun time.

Author: Richard on Dauntless

I’m an eclectic person, who grew up in New York, lived overseas for many years and have a boat, Dauntless, a 42 foot Kadey Krogen trawler yacht. Dauntless enables me to not only live in many different parts of the world, but to do it in a way that is interesting, affordable, with the added spice of a challenge. Dauntless also allows me to be in touch with nature. As the boat glides through the ocean, you have a sense of being part of a living organism. When dolphins come to frolic, they stay longer if you are out there talking to them, watching them. Birds come by, sometimes looking for a handout; sometimes grateful to find a respite from their long journey. I grew up on the New York waterfront, in the West Village, when everything west of Hudson St. was related to shipping and cargo from around the world. For a kid, it was an exciting place of warehouses, trucks, and working boats of all kinds: tugs and the barges and ships, cargo and passenger, they were pushing around. My father was an electrical engineer, my mother an intellectual, I fell in between. I have always been attracted to Earth’s natural processes, the physical sciences. I was in 8th grade when I decided to be a Meteorologist. After my career in meteorology, my natural interest in earth sciences: geology, astronomy, geography, earth history, made it a natural for me to become a science teacher in New York City, when I moved back to the Big Apple. Teaching led to becoming a high school principal to have the power to truly help kids learn and to be successful not only in school but in life. Dauntless is in western Europe now. In May and June, I will be wrapping up the last two years in northern Europe, heading south to spend the rest of the year in Spain & Portugal. Long term, I’m planning on returning to North American in the fall of 2017 and from there continuing to head west until we’re in Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, where we will settle for a bit. But now, my future lies not in NY or even Europe, but back to the water, where at night, when the winds die down, there is no noise, only the silence of the universe. I feel like I am at home, finally. View all posts by Richard on Dauntless