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CRUISING PLANS Mantra is currently at Larnaca Marina, Cyprus for the 2010 winter. I’m planing to set off cruising again on 3rd July, 2010. As you will have seen from the Immediate Plans Summary I am planning to spend the 2010 season cruising from Cyprus to France. Exact route is up for discussion. It is likely to be via Greek Aegean islands, the Corinth Canal, Gulfs of Corinth and of Patras, Greek Ionian islands, the south of Italy, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, the south of France to Port St. Louis du Rhone / Port Napoleon where we would lower the mast and prepare for the canals. Then into the River Rhone and up the Rhone and the Saone to wherever we are going to enter one of the canal routes. I am currently researching places to spend the winter and would like to pre-book a winter berth.
Scenarios for 2011 onwards At present I am thinking in terms of continuing along the canals to Paris and then down the River Seine and crossing the Channel so as to get to England where I think I will look for a shore base and where I will put Mantra seriously up for sale. Again, I would discuss precise route with whoever is cruising with me. Whether I’ll buy another boat remains to be seen. If I were to buy another boat it would be one particularly for the inland waterways of Europe and some coastal cruising Watch this space! I have not yet succeeded in doing the uploading of details of the areas sailed previously, but sometime I hope to do so.
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LIVING ON MANTRA Living on Mantra is casual and is meant to be as relaxed as the weather and its effects allow; and as relaxed as the needs of work on the boat allow. The primary purpose of all this mass of information available on my web site is to help us keep the atmosphere on Mantra hassle-free & problem free and to provide a structure within which life is predictable and where people find life enjoyable, do not get on each others' nerves and, hopefully, enjoy each other’s company. All people on board are expected to be social and to participate in the life of the boat & to help (without having to be asked). I do not look for people whose inclination is mainly to pursue their own independent interests alone and who I would therefore regard more as a passenger / occasional helper / visitor. On Mantra the social group is more important than the individual. GENERAL I do most of the navigation and keep any radio net schedules. If nobody else's skills are better than my level of mechanical / electrical skills, I am forced to attend to boat repair/engine maintenance work but I am happier if someone else can take that over, or at least help me with it. I supply the boat and pay for its upkeep. While under way there's always something to do whether it is active about the boat (keeping lookout, adjusting course, plotting position & doing log entries, checking fuel consumption, sail trimming) or is maintenance & cleaning & wish list jobs etc, or fishing, or reading, or sitting & thinking or just sitting! There's plenty of room and plenty of space for one to lie out if one is tired of sitting. Mantra is also just big enough for one to be able to get away more to oneself if one feels a need for a spell of personal space.
I have scuba equipment and two tanks. If people scuba dive and if I lend them a tank of mine I expect them to ensure it is full again when they leave or that they pay for it to be filled later. We have fishing rods and lines. We fish for food rather than for sport.
Though Mantra is primarily a motor yacht, we hoist sails whenever it is worth it. Our range under power alone is above 3,000 nautical miles. Having sails up is not only more fun but also economises on diesel. For more information on living on Mantra and on what is required of you, please see below:
WATCH KEEPING Usually there are no formal watches during the day. Each person takes some of the load, but not on a scheduled basis. Whoever has the whistle hanging on their chest is the person responsible for the boat at that time. If an overnight sail is involved, formal watches start at 9p00 and end around 9a00. We do take effective watchkeeping seriously. Which watch I take depends on SSB radio schedules and on how many of us there are. If there are only two of us, it is likely we would do 3 hours on and 3 hours off to cover 12 hours of night watchkeeping. I would normally take the midnight to 3a00 watch and the 6a00 onwards watch. My crew companion would take the 9p00 to midnight and the 3a00 to 6a00 watches. If there are three of us, we might do 4 hour watches or one x 4 and two by 3½. In that case I would usually split my watch into 2 + 2 and would take first and last. That way I can cope more easily with being woken as required for any problems and when advice is needed. When we are three, the other two people work out how they would like to allocate the other two watches. MEALS A Roman general is quoted as having said "An army marches on its stomach". Life on Mantra while on passage tends to revolve round its social pattern of meals. (It does not revolve round each individual's preferred sleep pattern.)
Breakfast is usually tea & cereals or fruit, sometimes porridge, sometimes tea & toast or croissants, sometimes pancakes or even scrambled eggs on toast -- but usually cereals or fruit. Lunch is more of a snack, a very light meal, often cold unless it is soup or a baked potato. The evening meal is the main meal, usually cooked after the galley has started to cool from the day's hot sun. We eat the same food rather than having separate dishes to suit each different individual taste. Apart from breakfast, we eat at table. We eat meals together. We eat well! When cruising (rather than on passage) we tend to eat the evening meal ashore if there is a convivial taverna available.
Unless we are going to have something special or someone takes over the cooking, either I prepare the breakfast or we each do our own. Unless there's a member of crew who is keen on cooking, I often attend to the snack lunch. The cooking of the (main) evening meal is usually done by the other member(s) of the crew. I do not enjoy cooking, though I do much enjoy food
We often have pasta dishes. We constantly try to catch fish to eat. I eat meat, but depending on who is with us, seem to be eating far less meat than before. We try to be conscious of cholesterol. I have an aversion to garlic and do not like poultry (ie: chicken, turkey, pigeons), nor game (ie: venison, pheasant and very rich meat that needs to be hung) so people need to be able to do without poultry & game and without garlic.
As already mentioned, it helps if at least one member of the crew likes cooking as I do not like cooking. SPACE & ACCOMODATION Storage space is at a premium. WORK Provided they actually do their share, it is up to the individual when they do their share of "boat work". For more details of the requirement to help with boat upkeep, maintenance & improvement please refer to Boat Rules. RECREATION & TOYS Recreation - We do go ashore very often to happy hours or to drinks on the beach. We also try and get ashore frequently to walk, sightsee, shop or windowshop. When at anchor / in port we often have the evening meal ashore, unless eating out is particularly expensive in that place. When there are just two of us and where we can afford it, we eat out a lot. At 6pm we usually have a sundowner drink in the cockpit. It is not unknown for me to have a shandy before lunch. Toys - We have cards, poker dice, music, videos, films and books. When cruising we tend to swap paperbacks and videos en route with other boats. There are three TV's but when cruising these appear rarely to be used. One (in the dinette) is a multi-system TV. The TV card in a computer is also multi-system. Another TV is in the owner's cabin. There's a stereo radio / CD player and I have a selection of music. There's also a cassette player which can be hooked up. The computers also play DVD’s and have good external speakers. DRINKING Mantra is not an AA "dry" boat. However, people are expected to regulate their drinking. Getting even slightly "inebriated, boozed, glazed, mellow" while at sea is a definite no-no. Frequent heavy drinking or binge drinking while not out at sea but living on Mantra is also a no-no. But our sundowner drink(s) before supper seem to take place most days - as in Mantra’s cockpit at Sifnos in the photo below.
OBJECTIVES My objectives are to enjoy life in a leisurely manner, to keep healthy, to see interesting places, meet interesting people, avoid difficult people, cruise comfortably and to cruise with the minimum of stress and in warm waters. Other objectives are to avoid risks that can be avoided and to avoid humidity & cold. It helps if my crew companion has similar objectives. I like living on boats and I regard Mantra more as being my home than I regard her as being a boat. I live aboard all year round, not just for extended vacations. That Mantra is a personal home as well as a boat is one of the keys to understanding life on Mantra so as to enjoy it to the fullest extent possible for you. The other keys to understanding life on Mantra are: On Mantra the social group is more important than the individual. My main reasons for wanting crew (rather than single-handing) are for effective watchkeeping and for companionship and because I do not like cooking. Many people think one's main reason for wanting crew is that one is unable to handle the boat on one's own. That is not the case here. Help with handling the boat is a useful bonus by-product of having company. If my crew companion knows less than I do about yachting, then I would be happy to pass on as much of my knowledge as the other person wants to learn. I’m told that I am an effective and patient teacher.
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