Wifey B: Offshore. At the moment crossing from Viareggio to Monte Carlo.
If you're in your own boat after motoring across the seas, I'd really be impressed. However, really sounds like fun... you'll have to debrief us when you return.
Wifey B: Didn't motor across. Purchased in Italy. Not enough range on this one to cross the Atlantic although hope one day to do that. Shakedown cruise was May 18 to June 7 and we went to Croatia which was wonderful. Flew home for three weeks while waiting for more of Europe to open and now about to explore.
Limited to 90 days in Schengen countries so balancing act. Original plans included the UK but that is in question due to some other countries placing limits on UK visitors and some concerns ourselves about the UK risks. Still a lot of checking country by country. For instance, Denmark (including Faroe Islands which are not Schengen) has their own rules separate from other EU countries. They don't use the EU traffic lights but have their own set. Current plan is to stay in Europe through late October except for a two week break midway, then ship the boat home in November. If things were to take a turn for the worse, we'd leave the boat in Italy and try again next year.
Back to the original poll and question, even when we cruise the US coast, we generally do most of our travel off shore. Over time we've done most of the ICW (albeit avoid a couple of areas) but we'll cover the distances outside. Similarly we've done the GICW from Apalachicola west but not our normal mode of travel.
Radar always on and hope not to really need it too much but some of our long runs are at night and other times we've encountered fog and limited visibility. In my experience, Cape May and the nearby area of the Delaware seemed to especially attract fog but much of the Chesapeake does also.
We're hoping the rest of Europe goes as well as Croatia did, but time will tell. Not the ideal year for European travel. We are all vaccinated except the 7 year old and all tested and wear masks everywhere.
B&B. You guys do some impressive boating and am happy for you, but never any pictures or description of your boat(s)?
Wifey B: No pictures of us either. This boat is an AB 116, the antithesis of trawler. It's my fast boat I've always dreamed of. Had fast on the lake but now at sea. Just for the most part, what boat we're using is irrelevant. We cruise the same as others, just faster and with more people with us most of the time except at home in my fave where sometimes just the two of us. No trawlers, just boats. We still greatly prefer TF to fast boat sites or SF sites or such because people here do actually enjoy boating. Most people we've encountered with faster boat just like running and showing speed and then sitting in the sun, not exploring. We like speed because it takes us faster to more places. Our trip to Croatia would be a great example. We went to seven different cities in Croatia by boat. Travel from first to last around 414 nm, spread over 6 days of travel. No different trip than anyone would make on a trawler. Just quicker as we'd cover 50 nm in less than 2 hours and for some it would be a day trip. However, the big difference was getting there, 1211 nm.
Europe will be the same it would in any boat, we'll just cover more ground in the time we have. But Nice would still be just as nice in a trawler. Or I sure hope it's nice in Nice when we get there in a couple of days.
Trawler forum to us represents the top love for boating itself, for seeing the beauty of the world, heavy emphasis on US, but some rest of the world. It's not at all about the boat, but the boat as a vessel for the pleasure. Oh I can't help myself being punny today, maybe the jet and time change as it's 10:30 at night but my day has now been two days I think. Seriously though, TF has conversations about specific type boats but it has so much about the lifestyle. Other sites seem to lean toward showing how macho sailors are or what it's like to captain huge yachts or speed of fishing boats or just running a boat fast to nowhere. However, to the discussions here, the boat we're on is mostly irrelevant.
Do you have some connection with Viareggio? Not sure it would be one of my top choices on the west coast of Italy, some of which is just spectacular.Wifey B: Offshore. At the moment crossing from Viareggio to Monte Carlo.