Ten tips for living well on board on a cruise
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We have collected from reliable sailors who sail all over the Mediterranean (Cino Ricci, Giovanni Porzio, Jacopo Loredan some names) a little bit of various tips for living well on board and have arranged them as in a ship’s notebook. We offer ten of them: there is no shortage of curiosities. Did you know, for example, that there is a foolproof method to ward off bees and insects in boats?
1. METEO
Despite increasingly accurate forecasts, the weather should never be underestimated. Coastal and seafloor orography can also greatly alter the forecast on a local scale. It is preferable to wait for the weather to develop rather than risk sailing in expected worsening conditions.
2. CHILDREN ON BOARD.
During the first year of life, the newborn is very easy to handle in the boat, unlike what people think. You can feed him at any time and place since he is being nursed by his mother and also “where you put him stays” since he is not yet walking. The only real caution is protection against sunburn; you will need to equip the boat with large awnings.
3. PROFUNDIMETER
It costs about a hundred euros and is very useful: it is a handheld depth sounder, useful in harbors or shallow water stretches. A word of advice: you take it on the forward tender and the boat follows fearlessly.
4. API
In places where there are many bees, put some jam in the bottom of a bottle and insert a tube with the hole facing downward. The insect enters, but does not leave.
5. GROUND CEMS.
Unfortunately, it is forbidden in Italy, but not in Greece. Mooring in the roadstead, with the stern to the wind, secured with floating lines on the rocks, allows the anchor on the bow not to work, which at that point no longer plows, but only serves to hold the boat in place.
6. IF SOMETHING BREAKS.
“Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual” by Nigel Calder is the book that enabled our contributor Giovanni Porzio to disassemble and restart the engine full of seawater: tested!
7. STABILIZING VEIL
For anchor mooring, when there is a wind that causes the boat to “windward” by running it over first to one side, then to the other, to hold the hull steady, simply hoist a small mistletoe sail on the backstay, which is then attached to the foot of the backstay or the stern pulpit.
8. THE RIGHT ANCHOR
For Jacopo Loredan, the best anchor is New Zealand’s Rocna. “The advantage of this anchor is that, like some others of the latest generation, e.g., the Bugel, thanks to the rollbar it turns itself around and immediately takes up the correct position, marre down; something that the Delta, while excellent, does not always do. This feature greatly facilitates stern mooring at the dock. Just give back and spin the chain, without any recall, quite certain that the Rocna is already in the correct position on the bottom. Once the stern lines are secured, you crank the winch, tension the anchor line, and you’re all set.”
9. THE MUSIC IN THE BOAT
To listen to as the sun goes down (a Neapolitan’s choice): Pino Daniele, Astor Piazzola, Genesis, Roberto Murolo, Frank Sinatra (pictured), Beatles. Upbeat and fun music is welcome on the cruise. Appreciated Rino Gaetano and Jovanotti, but the “big star” on Lucio Carli’s boat (Olio Carli) is Billy Paul. Rrose Sélavy’s song, a famous boat, is “L’important c’est la Rose” by Gilbert Becaud. While browsing, listen to the sonata of Paganini, Rachmaninoff, or jazz, perhaps Charlie Parker.
10. TO DRINK LESS
On Cino Ricci’s boats you will never find cold drinks that entice the crew to drink all the time, even when there is no need, and thus load an excessive amount of drinks on board, but only bottles of water, stored at room temperature that are used when one is really thirsty.
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