We’ve been so busy the last two months, catching up on design work for the FPB 64s in New Zealand and dealing with projects put on hold last spring, that we have only recently had time to reflect on the past year.

The 11,000 miles which have slipped under Wind Horse‘s keel were amazingly comfortable. We had very little weather with which to deal – a brief northerly gale in the Gulf Stream and six hours of strong winds on the nose in Greenland (we don’t count the compression gale in the North Atlantic because we were surfing with it, having fun). We got a chance to sample the Bahamas (we will go back before too long) and experienced Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador.

For years some of our cruising friends have been urging us to visit Greenland. It sounded intriguing, but also hard to get to with a very short cruising season, and not without risk. Now that we have been there we are hooked. The ice, the unbelievable terrain, the people, and even the risk factors combine to put Greenland at the top of our cruising experiences. The problem now is what to do next?

Ireland and the UK have provided some interesting cruising. But they are crowded, and tame compared to what we found in Labrador and Greenland. Lots of history of course, good boat watching to be sure, and friendly locals. But the old world is short on adrenaline, and we may have become hooked on this self-produced drug.

We started out thinking we would balance the high latitude cruising with a bit of civilization – one season of excitement, followed by a period of mellow cruising. Now we are not so sure. We’ll just have to wait and see what feels right next spring when we return to the UK

Our cruising friends seem surprised at the long distances we have covered in the past year, and the lack of weather problems. Wind Horse and her ability to maintain ten to eleven knots under just about any conditions is a major reason for this. The speed allows us to pick weather windows limiting exposure, even during a late spring south to north transit of the East Coast of the US and the North Atlantic during a very stormy summer.

Another helpful factor is good communications. Between the Iridium Sat Phone and SSB radio based Sailmail, we are always able to pick up an array of weather data. Rick Shema, whom we used for routing when crossing to Greenland from Canada and the North Atlantic (www.weatherguy.com) also helped to keep us out of unpleasantness.

Another part of the equation are reliable modern systems. We’ve got a nice warm boat (Kabola diesel boiler), the Furuno 2117 radar and CH270 sonar helped us avoid problems in Greenland, and the little John Deere diesels ran flawlessly. Our WH autopilots, as always, steered without a hiccup.

We also need to give credit to our ROCNA anchor. It still rates as the best hook we have ever used. In the past year it has only once failed to hold on the first set, and here it was due to heavy grass cover on the bottom (the second set, with more scope, was fine). We rarely use more than three to one scope.

When we arrived in Ireland late in the summer the current financial mess was starting to gather steam. The one silver lining in all of this is that it has gotten less costly to cruise. The price of new and used boats are down, hardware is less expensive, and suppliers need business so they are ready to cut deals. You don’t need the latest or greatest to take advantage of the cruising lifestyle. Just a sound hull and rig, basic systems, good ground tackle, and a bit of weather and seamanship knowledge. You may have a smaller cruising budget, but it will stretch a lot further.

We hear that cruising destinations from the Bahamas to the South Pacific are a lot less crowded than they used to be. What are you waiting for?