Our Island in the Sun…A New Sailing book…A Detailed History Of Brick House! (And a bonus of the RECENT history of Brick House…how she came to be “my” boat, then “our” boat, and how we afford to keep going after more than 12 years aboard!)

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The history of Brick House…before we owned her…is the history with Garry and Carol Domnisse, her previous owners…when she was named “Yellow Rose”.

Their new book describes in detail, the adventures they had outfitting and sailing “Yellow Rose”. Everything from SSB radio schedules, to their daily lifestyle and their passages. Carol is a lady after my own heart and you will hear from her personally in this book. You will see why I say that…

The book is available in Kindle edition and hardbound Here On Amazon and at Barnes and Nobles, and on Garry and Carols blog at https://ourislandinthesun.com/

Here is the recent history of “Brick House”…during our ownership…

How exactly, does “BRICK HOUSE”  afford to sail around the world for over a decade now? How did Rebecca come to own Brick House aka Yellow Rose…and How did Patrick come to be co-owner?

Before SV Brick House became my sailboat, “my island in the sun”, Garry and Carol Domnisse owned her, and called her “SV Yellow Rose”. They cruised between Alaska and Texas and beyond, and had some of the best years of their lives cruising on this 1976 Valiant 40, in the 1990s.

But then they sold Yellow Rose…to me, Rebecca…Here is the story of how we afforded to sail off on this cruising sailboat..and how Patrick came to join me to sail around the world on Brick House, and how we manage financially, to keep sailing and cruising on her, and probably will for life.

In 2001, with my previous husband, with my dream boiling over with enthusiasm, we purchased SV Yellow Rose, and thought we were off on a new adventure with her. However, what was really MY dream didn’t quite work out as planned. My then husband, it turned out, wasn’t “onboard” with the dream we, or more accurately, I, had been planning for more than a decade, and well…

…I tried to rid myself of my sailing and cruising dream/addiction but alas, I was too contaminated to take the dream back, and settle for what I saw as a “second best” life, on land. Jim was a good guy, but I didn’t want to drag someone along, nor did he want to be dragged. We then divorced, but still, I put Yellow Rose up for sale, since sailing it and maintaining it by myself just didn’t seem reasonable at the time. I had just met Patrick, but he had already sailed around the world once, and I didn’t think he would do it again, and he concurred…he didn’t want to cruise this time, on such a small boat as Yellow Rose. He wanted a Swan 48 or equivalent, because this was what he has become accustomed to sailing offshore, in the NARC rallies that he sailed from Newport to the Caribbean on.

I figured that was probably just an excuse for not truly wanting to cruise, but I fell head over heals in love with Patrick anyways… so I continued to try to sell Yellow Rose. Yes..I had a little big of baggage…and should have believed Patrick Childress when he said he was earnest in wanting to sail around the world with me!

Just before signing a P&S on Yellow Rose, Patrick and I attended a seminar by Douglas and Bernadette Bernon who preached to “take the boat you have and go now”.  Douglas and Bernadette has just returned on the Shearwater Cutter 39 footer, from full time live aboard cruising. Patrick quickly learned from their wise words, and concluded that a Swan 48 would mean working for another decade. He had friends younger than him dropping dead of various ailments. He decided we should call off the sale of Yellow Rose, and go cruising soon! She was paid for, and not such a bad boat!

So I got rid of the P&S in the nick of time, and we started our preparations. I still wasn’t completely convinced Patrick would actually go…oh yee of little trust…. But saving every dime wouldn’t hurt nonetheless, and so we worked hard, saved every penny, and slowly prepared Yellow Rose for world cruising. Every weekend she was further ripped apart, and I cried to see her become a shell of a boat in the name of renovation. We renamed her “Brick House” since Patrick refused to cruise on a boat with the soft name of a flower. She splashed in June 2007, we married on her in July, and we actually sailed away in August. We waved goodbye to a friend on another sailboat as we left Newport Harbor…”see you in 4 years!”. I felt like that was a lie at that time. No way could the money possibly last that long! Would we even really leave the USA, or would it all fall apart just as my hopes rose?

We raced down the east coast narrowly escaping fall and winter, and then departed to the Bahamas. That’s when it started to feel real for me. We then raced towards the Panama Canal by way of the western Caribbean. I didn’t want to run out of money in India and have to work for a dollar an hour for the rest of my life to afford an airline ticket home!! I was so jealous when we met cruisers who were just “out for as long as it was fun”. We were on a monetary expiration deadline.

Secretly…I had another bank account though…with enough money for another year, if need be. Later I found out…Patrick had almost the exact same amount, representing another year, if needed!

Just as we started approaching a smaller than comfortable bank account, we drained our accounts with a dismasting in the northern Pacific. Luckily, with some determination to not end our cruising , we landed jobs in Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands where we worked for 16 months to fill the kitty back up again. That represented year 4.5. The only thing we had to buy there were 2 bicycles (no cars on the island), and some boat parts. Everything else was provided and we only had to pay Marshallese taxes of 5%, and social security from our paychecks. Nearly every dime earned went in to the kitty. When we left there in 2013, we had the same money we had when we departed Rhode Island, so we assumed we would be Ok for another 5 years. Patrick started his social security benefits slightly after departing there, and our very small writing income continued, so the money has lasted much longer. As we start year 13, as long as we are somewhat frugal, we manage to keep our head above water financially, and there is now no end in sight!

I think a big part of our financial success on the boat came from NOT buying that Swan 48 that we both would have both preferred. Going with the boat that was well within our budget, and not stretching things very far to have the biggest, fanciest boat we could have. I feel sad for the younger cruisers out there that enjoy nice big new boats, and experiencing this lifestyle, but then have to sell the boat, and work again. I can not imagine having to go back to long term work after living this way. But I do like those fancy big comfortable boats they sail in!

Now, Patrick and I sail, and do not see any end in sight for our adventure. Brick House is our home, as it was for Garry and Carol. It takes us to far corners of the world, and let’s us stay there extended periods of time exploring new cultures, and meeting new people. We don’t cherish the ocean crossings, but we love that the motion of Brick House is kind, that she carries us safely across the oceans we need to cross, and is comfortable at anchor and in marinas. We are glad she isn’t flashy or shiny… we think it probably discourages theft because we certainly don’t look like the richest boat in a harbor. She has what we need, and is well outfitted for all the comforts in life you could need. We do not insure her, ex dot for third party liability, because insurance companies think old sailboats are more of a risk than newer boats, but with Patrick Head of the Maintenance Board, we feel she is far safer and seaworthy than any newer boat out there.

Garry and Carol set off on Yellow Rose in their retirement. They sold her smaller boat, their land home, and everything they owned I believe, to sail off on Yellow Rose. Brick House was a newer boat back then but Yellow Rose was never an extravagant luxurious boat. I think for both us and them, she represented an affordable option to go out and live this lifestyle, and I encourage all new cruisers to NOT stretch their budgets for the biggest newest possible boats. This lifestyle can certainly be enjoyed in a modest boat like Yellow Rose, like Brick House, and the cruising kitty can be preserved for fun, maintenance, and emergencies. True freedom is when the boat is paid off, and you have a comfortable sum of money in the bank. Don’t finance a boat…only buy one you have cash for. I think Garry and Carol would tell you the same.

Garry and Carol just released a second edition of their book called “Our Island In the Sun, which describes the adventures they had outfitting and sailing her. It’s in both his and her voice which adds interest to the story.

The book is available in Kindle edition and hardbound Here On Amazon and at Barnes and Nobles, and on Garry and Carols blog at https://ourislandinthesun.com/

I enjoyed the old version too…how could I not enjoy reading about my Valiant 40’s previous life? This edition is promised to be more organized and edited, and in color! I am so looking forward to reading it again. My autographed copy, hot off the press, arrives this week!

 

Ten Years Ago, Where Was Sailboat Brick House? (FLASHBACK)

 

Who is Patrick Childress..and why a YouTube Channel?

Female Crew on a Sailboat: Sailing Safe

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Female Crew on a Sailboat: Sailing Safely

Go to the profile of Matt Ray
I met an interesting man this past year, on another boat. His name is Matt Ray. Yes…a man…And he has written this interesting blog for me…because crewing seems to be in his blood. He has coined a new phrase: “Global HitchHiking”, and has been crossing oceans for a few years now, about to complete a circumnavigation, crewing on other people’s sailboats. Sailing around the world, on other people’s boats… Pretty cool, hah?
But is it safe? What can you do to make crewing safe?…especially for women who sail and want to crew, who may face a few more challenges than a man doing this by himself, with people who start off as complete strangers…
Honestly…it’s probably a little easier for a man to do this “global hitchhiking” kind of thing, and being the kind of guy Matt is…he realizes this, and when he meets women crewing on other boats, he really listens to what they have to say about their experience crewing on other peoples boats, doing much the same as what he is doing. But they are women.
As a women, having crewed a lot before going cruising, his advice touched me, and reminded me about a life previous to Brick House, trying to get ocean experience, and actually, quite trying to get cruising out of my system, so as to perhaps ‘save’ my (first) marriage. It didn’t really work. Saving the marriage that is…
We all know what happened next…I have been cruising around the world for 12+ years now….with a great man, my husband Patrick Childress.
Below is Matt’s article…
I encourage you to go see his other posts on Medium and Living Large by Living Little. 
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GLOBAL HITCHHIKING V: SAILING SAFELY: CONSIDERATIONS FOR WOMEN CREWING

Why am I, a man, writing this article? I don’t pretend to know what it’s like to be a woman, nor do I claim to be an expert at what it’s like to crew on a sailboat as a woman with people you don’t know and particularly with potentially aggressive men. But I do know some women who have crewed a fair bit and they have shared their experiences with me. The focus of this article is to share tips and tricks on how to safely Globally HitchHike around the world as a woman, although the ideas shared here will also be helpful for men who are crewing.

As I’ve mentioned in past articles, crewing is much like dating, not from a romantic perspective, but from finding the appropriate match perspective. I’m not trying to find a date when I’m looking for a boat, but I’m trying to find a boat that I can enjoy being on for a passage or two, one that is going in the direction I want to go, and one where I can get along with the skipper and crew. Unfortunately, there are many single captains who use crewing sites and crewing opportunities for romantic companionship, even though they disguise their attempts as “looking for crew.” Many I have talked to have had experiences where they went aboard a boat to crew, only to find out that the skipper was really just interested in having a nice woman on board to keep them company or more. I don’t really know what to say about this other than it’s an unfortunate reality that lonely skippers will seek out opportunities to invite women crew on board for this purpose. It’s a large part of why I’m writing this article and why you should be extra wary when crewing as a woman. I realize it is a problem, but unfortunately, it’s not a problem I can solve with this article. I can only control my actions, not others.

Three Weeks Can Seem Like An Eternity

I can say that if you don’t do your homework and make sure you get along with the people you plan to sail with, three weeks can seem like an eternity. I sailed from Tahiti to Tonga in 2017 with a guy who I should have spent more time with, getting to know him. I did not get along with him after a day or two. In fact, we ended up hating each other. He was older and was very set in his ways and was really not prepared to share his space with me. Everything I did was wrong in his eyes. In Bora Bora, I jumped off his boat with fins and snorkel and went from boat to boat in the harbor asking if they were looking for crew. In the end, I sailed with him for three weeks to Tonga, but it was the longest three weeks of my circumnavigation. Imagine being stuck on a boat with someone you can’t stand, but you have to eat together, sleep near each other, share responsibilities for the boat together and there was nowhere you could go to get away from them. That’s why it’s important to spend time making sure you’ll get along with your shipmates before embarking on a passage. Luckily, out of the 7 boats I’ve crewed on, circumnavigating, I’ve only had one bad experience. It saddens me that my travels in that section of the world were tainted by the unease I felt in that situation. Bora Bora was a place I had dreamed about my entire life. It was supposed to be one of the highlights of my trip, but instead, I spent the whole time trying to find an alternative ride and feeling uncomfortable on the boat. I believe it was this experience that made me realize how much worse it could be for women in a similar situation.

Here are some ideas I have come up with as well as some that have been suggested to me on how to avoid running into problems with your crewing opportunities.

Be Prepared

This is the fifth article I have written about Global HitchHiking. If you haven’t read the other articles I’ve written, please read them as there are many practical ideas and suggestions about being prepared to actually crew on a boat. The more you know about what you’re doing, the more respect you will have from your skipper and shipmates when crewing. I’m not saying that knowing more about sailing will guarantee you won’t have problems, I’m just saying that sailors tend to respect you more if you have sailing experience and knowledge. In fact, I recently spoke with a woman who has done lots of crewing and has never had a problem, but she said she had lots of experience and really knew how to sail and her shipmates always respected her for it. So having some sailing knowledge will go a long way.

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Safety In Numbers

The personal experience I describe above could have been lessened had there been at least one other crew member involved. I have found that when there is at least one other person on board a boat with you and the captain, it breaks up situations that could arise. Especially in the case when one of your shipmates is being unreasonably vindictive or aggressive. Or even if your personalities are not meshing well. When it’s just you and one other person, there is nowhere to go or nothing you can do to break up that dynamic. Having at least one other person on board might help to do that. It also helps with temporary problems, such as an argument or one person getting angry at the other for something they did. Having a third person on board helps to balance that all out and allows you to get back to a sense of normalcy sooner.

In the case for women on a boat where a captain is being aggressive, particularly sexually aggressive, having at least one other person on board would help in that situation as well. Especially if the other person was a woman. But even if it’s not a woman, there is a sense of accountability in having one other person on board. We tend to try to save face if nothing else when there is an extra witness to our acts of possible aggression. I love the old joke, How do you keep a Mormon from drinking all your beer on a sailing trip? Invite another Mormon! It’s kind of the same idea. People are typically better behaved when there’s someone else along.

Crew on a Rally!

Rebecca and Patrick’s favorite Rally, which offers great opportunity for crewing and learning from professionals!

Here’s a google link to tons of rallies happening all over the world. One of the links says there are over 50 rallies going on right now. Rallies tend to be safer than sailing with individual boats for more than one reason. The first of the reasons go to support my paragraph above; There is safety in numbers. Rallies typically consist of many boats and many sailors, men, and women, and there are often crewing opportunities on these rallies. With so many boats (many of which are a VHF radio call away), you can almost always feel safe on whichever boat you are crewing on. Rallies are also run by a group of sailing professionals who are there to provide support and logistics. And they help settle issues when they come up between sailors. These rallies typically cost money, but when crewing, the expense of the rally isn’t typically passed on to you. So you have a safer environment to work in without the overhead.

Brita Siepker is an attorney from New York I met last year, circumnavigating. She did most of her trip on the ARC Rally. Her blog about her experiences is called, Life Is Water. She wrote a blog about this topic and I believe it offers keen information and insight on crewing safely. It can be found here: Crew Finder

The fact that she never had a problem with skippers and crew, was largely due to the fact she was crewing on a rally, and not an individual boat. A lot more vetting needs to be done when doing this, but with the rallies, most of that is taken care of by the nature of the group. People on rallies tend to have nicer boats as well and are typically better funded, so the chances of having a more comfortable experience would probably be a bonus to the other benefits it provides.

(I, Rebecca did most of my crewing, before I took off on my own boat with Offshore Passage Opportunities I can recommend them heartily as a way to gain experience, and be safe while doing so, with professional captains. Patrick has a new sailing series called “Tips From The Pros”, who is one of the captains on this trip, with 5 crew aboard. (Video is Here)

CREW WITH WOMEN SKIPPERS

There are at least three or four skippers that come to mind who are women skippers, cruising around the world. Dana Paredes has a beautiful Dolphin catamaran called Vida Libre she has been cruising in the Caribbean for 13 years. She loves taking on crew. Not sure of her financial arrangements, you’d have to seek her out to determine this. Linda Lindenau is a sailing instructor and her rolling class is continuously circumnavigating the globe. She only takes on women sailors who want to learn more about sailing, except for an occasional passage with her husband on board. Great couple and a great way to learn more about sailing in an easy, experience-based way. Here is her website.

I’m sure there are lots more out there who would be open to crew, you’ll just have to seek them out. In fact, there are some Facebook groups out there that only allow women. Women Who Sail, Sailing and Cruising Women, and Women Who Own Boats (Without Men) are three of them. I’m sure there are others.

There is also an organization called Offshore Passage Opportunities…that sometimes have reputable, screened captains looking for crew…

 

Is Cruising Safe? Panama Pirate Attack in Guna Yala/San Blas Islands

 

TowBoatUS Memberships that Supports Brick House too!

 

Something is Missing from our Keel!

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Something is Missing from our keel…

Patrick Childress, after 12 years on Brick House, on his second circumnavigation explains what he does when he finds out we are missing the proper amount of structural foam in our keel…it is hollow! When sitting on the hard, this problem can cause a keel to oil can, or even crack,  when its blocked in the unsound section of the keel. Patrick then shows the process for the correction of what to do when your keel is hollow or damaged. He demonstrates sailboat keel repair with epoxy fiberglass, and how to fill the voids. Keel repair can be done by a sailor, it just takes some sailboat diy knowledge.

We have been sailing around the world for 12 years on our sailboat Brick House. We are hauled out of the water , and it’s time to fix and upgrade a few things on this 41 year old boat!

We received a lot of valuable technical support from AMT Composites here in South Africa, and we thank them for their patience and time. Very knowledgeable and like-able people to work with.

We will be using a number of products they recommended, imported from all over the world, namely Gurit Fiberglass Resin which is very comparable to West Systems. They seem to have all the supplies we need for this fiberglass keel repair, as well as for our blister repair, epoxy barrier coat, and right down to the paintbrushes! They supply the materials for many of the major boatbuilders in South Africa, and are highly respected among the professionals here.  Every cruiser who hails out here, should definitely consider doing business with this company to make sure they get the higher quality resin and other materials in South Africa! If Sarah doesn’t know the answer, ask for John…he is an absolute wealth of knowledge and will help you figure out the right materials for your fiberglass boat project or repair.

Contact here:

Sarah Cochrane|Amt Composites (KZN) | Tel: +27 (0) 31 705 2034| Email: sarah   

https://www.amtcomposites.co.za

 

What Worked, What Didn’t, After 11 years…on Bluewater Cruising Sailboat Brick House