Perry Style

When we signed up for "Find a crew" and "ocean crew link", we were thinking it would be a good idea to try an ocean passage on a. Graham and I will be ready to purchase our next boat in the summer of 2020 and we thought before we completely scratch Cats from the list we should actually sail on one. We had plenty of experience partying on catamarans but zero sailing experience.

Our new floating home is a Lagoon 450F. Basically 45 feet of all the creature comforts I remember craving and envying as we sailed the oceans on our 1976 ketch.

I packed my bags for "roughing" it sailing though having no clue. I planned for no showers and no clothes washing. 20 pairs of underwear and only a few quick dry tanks and tees and a couple of shorts and Columbia fast dry pants. I brought my handkerchiefs for my hair and baby wipes for my showers. Some baby powder to get rid of any stickiness and I was ready to sail "Perry style".

Well turns out my wardrobe was not yacht club appropriate for our week at dock before departure. Invitations to cocktails titled "formal attire" scared the heck out of me. I was confused. Where are my croc wearing, shirtless, hippy sailors?

Everything feels very much like you are living in a very modern small apartment. If you are as addicted to tiny houses as I am this seems to be just that. Everything you need to live comfortably just in a smaller amount of space than a home.

The outdoor cockpit space is massive and keeping the boat tidy seems easier. The washing machine and dishwasher are really efficient and super easy. The hard top fly bridge where you sail from is fully enclosed and has a huge long cushioned seating area making navigating super comfortable. The fact that the boat doesn't heal is the nicest thing on my list of likes. This means life on board can continue normally. Things stay in place. Appliances are out on counters and glass dishes are in the cupboards. The fear that I get when we heal way over in a monohull is gone on a cat. This cat also has a huge amount of space to put solar panels and battery banks. The generator is built into the boat as well so power doesn't seem to be an issue at all with three different sources: engine, generator and solar. There are huge water tanks and the water maker has no problem keeping up with our use.

There are plenty of areas to hang out in as well so if you want alone time it's no issue in finding space.

I'm pretty sure the AC in the tropics would probably also hit my top five things I love about this boat. Right now it's not that hot but we do turn it on occasionally to dry out the boat a bit.

The other nice thing on Mareas is that there are a few head sails to choose from in different conditions. We sail so fast downwind with the "Win" eker (similar to a spinnaker) and the Code Zero sail is also great in light winds and it's really easy to furl if winds come up. I am constantly shocked how fast we are going while still feeling so comfortable. The other day we had the big beautiful Win-eker up, going about 7 knots and we were all sitting up front having a drink on the outdoor couch and the Captain even had a cigar in hand. Felt like a Lagoon commercial ;-).

So long story short...this Cat is friggin awesome but for some reason I still miss "Perry Style". I liked the "camping" or "roughing it" feel of life. Nuts right?

As much as it scared the shit out of me being so close to the ocean, healed over with water running along side of us, I understood it. I got the mechanics of monohull sailing and deep down I knew that our boat could handle way more than I could and could keep me safe regardless of any of my poor decisions. I liked life being a little hard so that sweet tasted just a bit sweeter. I liked working hard for perfect moments. As I get older I do find I want things to be less hard but I think we can find a nice line between luxury Cat and our 1976 Ketch. And if I was to be totally honest I couldn't afford to purchase and maintain this beautiful boat ;-). It would need to be a smaller or older cat.

So for this voyage we soak in as much knowledge as we can from our captain and crew mates and savour all of the wonderful perks. We surrender ourselves to showers, sit down dinners and plenty of rest. Lol.

And we dream and talk of our next boat! Top of the list currently are Amels, Oysters, and Hallberg Rassey's. Probably something about 15 years old. Who knows though how the rest of this voyage will impact our thoughts. One thing is for sure though, we can't wait to call the ocean our home again.