The Why of Arcturus

Man, it has been over two years since I have written a blog post. Quite some time. I guess. A heck of a lot has happened in that time but those are all stories for another day or maybe never. I have been preparing and thinking about my reentry into the blog world for a while now. I want to write meaningful content. Or at least some entertaining long winded rants. However, I struggle with the feeling that I am being vain and narcissistic when I expect people to look at my photos, read my stories, pay attention to me. Kind of everything social media. As if I have some grand advice to tell people or that I expect people to care about what I am doing with my time. It still kind of feels that way but I enjoy writing and taking photos and want to get back in the habit of sharing that with people. So here we go. I’m back.

I have recently redone my entire website. I started the ideas for this website almost two years ago. I have been distracted and too damn stubborn to put up anything but exactly what I wanted. So I developed ideas and started working on the perfect bad ass website. That perfect idea website is not what I launched last week. The challenge was combining a classic travel blog with a page that encompasses my business as well. There were no models I could find to go off of. Nothing that fit. I think I never would have posted anything if I had not just settled and tried to put up something that represents the plan. Actually some of the best bits are still in the works. Anyhow. During the past couple of months, I have had a lot of time to think about The Plan. Not just the small pieces of how to move the boat from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. What items to bring back with me when I return. No, as I have been trying to decide how to convey the substance of The Plan on the website, it gave me a chance to step back and reflect on why I am doing what I am doing. The Why of The Plan.

So I took a step back from the small design details of the site. So much is missing. I consider myself a conversationalist. I love to talk and listen and meet new people and hear their stories. So many questions keep coming up over and over again when I first talk to someone about my plan. I looked over the site and had trouble getting a good feeling of the heart of the plan. I present the information as if someone already knows what I am about (CAN anyone know what I’m about…that’s a post for later…). So many key parts of the story are not represented on the site, this blog or social media. Time to fix that. I decided my reentry into the blog world is going to be series of posts filling in the gaps. I think the core philosophy is missing and I want to share a portion of the massive amount of thought that went into my Plan.

Everything revolves around travel. Travel is the goal. Every decision should be made as: “Does this help the travel plan or not? Yes? Great! No? Well, there better be a good reason for that.”. A simple idea yet difficult to live by sometimes. The more I live out the Plan, the more it reinforces that this is the right lifestyle for me. The next blog in this series will be themed on travel but that is not today’s focus.

So I determined that Travel is for me. What is the best way to travel? Backpack? Hitchhike? Bicycle? Submarine? (Side note: my perfect plan is still to have a sailboat that can go underwater during storms (on purpose!), wait out the weather, and then carry on sailing. Haven’t quite worked that one out yet…) I decided that sailing is the cheapest and greenest way for me to take my home with me and be able to have access to anywhere I want to go in the world. That decision was a long time coming but I still believe it is the best one.

Great plan. But how do I make money? I started my business in 2008 and web design was the way to go at that time. I am a big nerd and have always been pretty quick with math and computers. I started Sail Away Web Design on the foundations of Web Design and Photography. I have now added Fine Art Printing as the third tier in the business. The idea was to be able to make income from anywhere that I am and continue the travel plan. If the business collapses, make money as a dive master. Delivery captain. Kayak guide. National Geographic photographer (can’t hurt to dream, right:). Something. Luckily mobile business is becoming easier and easier since 2008. That is the third part of this series and is also for another day.

Today’s focus is on my partner in crime. Arcturus. My beautiful sailboat. The Travel is the Why of the Plan. Arcturus is the How but she has her own Why and back story. There will be plenty of blog posts and information on small projects on board, upgrades, refit information, etc. Today is about the main essence of what Arcturus is.

The name is the easiest to explain. That came long before I ever laid eyes on the boat. Names are important. Your boat name is how you are known as you are sailing. People identify you by that name and always associate you with that name. Very important. As a classic planner and overthinker, I spent a tremendous amount of time trying to think through my boat name. I honestly do not know how long it took, but by the end of the three-year Great Boat Research Project, I landed on Arcturus for my boat name. I was determined not to have some punny sailing name associated with Knots or Wind or the Sea or anything of the sort. No offense intended for anyone rocking those kind of names. Your boat. Your Kingdom. You rule that world. Not for me, though. Arcturus was my choice.

Why Arcturus? I have a 30 second Elevator Speech and a 2-3 minute say Ski Lift speech already prepared for any time this question comes up. Which is almost always in a discussion about my boat and sailing plan. This is your lucky day, reader friends, because I think today’s version is going to be the We Are On a Long Night Watch Together and Need to Fill Time speech that is the full version. Luckily, you can just bail out and go browse something else if you get bored. You don’t have to choose between in-depth philosophical rant and jumping overboard into the Atlantic.

Astronomy is one of my longest lasting passions. I became fascinated with the stars during my first summer working at Camp Albemarle. I would sit outside the cabin as the campers were not really going to sleep and just look up at the incredible, clear summer nights. So spectacular. A good friend of mine and I decided to learn the stars together that summer. And we did. I still vividly remember my early days of learning the constellations. I would no longer look up into the sky and see a scattering of stars without a pattern. I could start looking up and begin to identify everything I saw. It all began to make sense. So. Why Arcturus? Bootes was the first constellation I learned besides the classics like Orion and the Big Dipper (which isn’t really a constellation but anywho). The handle of the Big Dipper points to Arcturus (not the North Star;), which is the primary star in the constellation Bootes. I was able to work my way from the Big Dipper to Arcturus. To Spica in Virgo. On to find Canis Venetici. Corona Borealis. Leo. Scorpio. Sagittarius. Arcturus was my first waypoint into an entire exploration of the night sky. It had an impact on me.

Next, Camp Albemarle is where I first learned to sail. I loved my summers at Camp Albemarle. I grew up going there for a couple of weeks each summer until I was old enough to work there. I ended up spending five years through high school and college working there. I have many incredible memories and experiences from my time at Camp Albemarle. Sailing in the Bogue Sound. First slow dance. Great friendships. Legendary counselors. I would not be the same person I am today without Camp Albemarle. The things I learned, the challenges, the amazing rewards. Wonderful place. Send your kids to some camp. Working at Camp was my first official job outside of college. I lived onsite and became the first Assistant Director ever at Camp Albemarle. This was a whole different set of meaningful experiences. Camp Albemarle was a huge part of my life for about 15 of my first 25 years. So. Why Arcturus? Arcturus is highest up during the summer and is always typically visible in the summer sky. Whenever I see Arcturus in the sky, I am reminded of my time at Camp Albemarle, the impact it had on me, and my initial love of sailing.

Third, I grew up in New Bern from 10 to 18 and that is where my parents lived for 20 years. New Bern is named after Bern, Switzerland and Bern is apparently bear-themed. So New Bern has iconic bears all over the place. The middle schools are the Grizzlies and War Cubs. The high school mascot is the Bears. Downtown, there are bear themed names and images everywhere. There is a square that has some really cool bears carved out of wood by chainsaws. So, being from New Bern, the port of call for my boat would be New Bern. This would be on the back of the boat below my boat name wherever I went. So, all together now: Why Arcturus? Arcturus actually means Bear Guardian. So the boat will be the bear guardian of me and my crew as I head out to sail around the world. Like I said, I had about three years to come up with a name.

Picking the boat itself was a much longer, nearly three-year process. Luckily, I did not have the money to buy a boat early on and was able to thoroughly (massive understatement) filter through all of the options. It is actually amusing to look back on my early Boat Possibility lists. I went from looking at the cheapest available to what I think is the best possible choice for me. I still laugh when I meet new sailors out in the world that comment on how perfect Arcturus is for my plan. I thank them, and tell them it was a three-year deliberation process and is no accident. I think my Dad was just as happy as I was when we finally found and bought Arcturus. It had been literally three years of daily discussion and research on boat possibilities. I was relentless. Dad was my constant sounding board. I couldn’t think about anything else except creating this business and finding the right boat. We looked at countless boats. Read everything that existed on every single boat we were looking at. Every spare thought for three years revolved around the plan and what boat to select.

I finally narrowed it down to a short list. It is fun to talk with sailors that are out sailing in the world and ask them what their short list was. Everyone has one. The challenge is that there are so many boats available in the world, but only a very small percentage of them are capable of sailing safely around the world. Some may be your perfect boat, but none are available while you are looking to buy. So you have to have a shortlist of your top picks and you take the best of what is available.

I was limited by money. Everything that I read said to prepare to invest around 100% of your buying price back into the boat to safely refit it to sail across oceans. I spent at least that in the six years I have owned Arcturus. So I did not want to buy too big of a boat and not be able to afford to refit it properly. Hell, I was only 25 when I bought the boat. So, bluewater capable boats that were in my price range were very limited. As a boat gets bigger, the cost to refit and maintain that boat are not linear, they increase exponentially. Bigger rigging, thicker anchor chain, bigger sails, etc. There were plenty of shitty, bigger boats available at a cheap price. I wanted to find the smallest boat that could comfortably take me around the world. When I first bought the boat, smaller size was only because of money. Now, after sailing on Arcturus for six years, I am a huge spokesperson for smaller boats for so many other reasons. Another blog post, another time.

So here are a few of my short list picks for any of the sailors out there. A few were out of my price range but I had them on my list in case a good deal came about. I did not want a project boat but didn’t need a showpiece either. Pacific Seacraft Orion. Pacific Seacraft Mariah (70-80s) version. Waquez Pretorian. Cabo Rico 34. Cape Dory 30. Pacific Seacraft 34 (this was my number one pick but was out of my price range unless I got lucky). Westsail 28 or 32 (nicknamed the Wetsnail but built like a tank). Probably a few more but it has been over six years since I was shopping. Those thoughts have now been replaced by other planning thoughts.

We shopped and shopped. I was ready to go up to Maine and figure out how to sail my future boat back. Looked in Florida. Looked for boats in California and prepared to ship them across the country. Good quality bluewater boats are hard to come by. Which makes my find of Arcturus all the more lucky. I found Arcturus in Oriental, NC less than 30 minutes from my parents’ house. Unbelievable. Arcturus, then known as Fantasea, was owned by a British fellow that had sailed her to Bermuda, the Azores and solo all over the place. He knew sailing and she was in great shape and meant to sail. He had records, manuals, receipts of the things he had bought for the boat. He wanted to sell the boat to someone that would use it. He did not want it to just be sitting stagnant at a dock and getting old. He came way down off of his original price when he found out my plan and I got a great deal. It was one of the lowest prices for a Pacific Seacraft Orion within the broker records. After I purchased the boat, he bought me new flares, fire extinguishers, a bow light, and a throwable U-buoy for the back. Awesome dude. I was very lucky with my brokers and previous owner.

Pacific Seacraft is one of those respected brands that always generates a slow head nod and murmurs of affirmation from sailors when I am describing my boat and bring up the manufacturer. They make amazing boats. All of their boats from 20 feet all the way up have sailed around and all over the world. Their boats fit the perfect mix of comfort and luxury for me. Function first yet refined. The Pacific Seacraft Orion is the most expensive 27’ sailboat ever made (at least it was when it was produced). They pack all of the features of a larger bluewater boat into a small package that one or two people can safely take anywhere in the world. Traditional look yet modern design features. I was in love with classical boats but did not want a slug in the water either.

The Orions have 6’2” headroom which was key because I am just under that. I had a few sailors warn me that I needed to be able to stand up inside my boat or risk losing my mind. She has tons of teak which I love. Tons of bronze. I love shiny things. High bulwarks (the sides of the boat when you are on deck that keep you from slipping overboard). Heavy boat. She rides like a Cadillac through the waves. Built like a tank. The layout was one of the big draws for the Orion. The entire starboard side is the galley. She has a huge icebox, a big span of counter space, two deep sinks, a two burner kerosene stove and oven, and more counter space. I did not want a traditional layout that burned too much space with the double settee (couch) style. Tons of storage space. Their C layout that I bought, is actually their offshore model with 70 gallons of water in the tanks. Incredible design.

She spoke to me from the get go. Check out the About Arcturus page on my web page for more information about the Orions and Arcturus.
Well…I guess that’s about it. I have read through this three times now and I think that just about does it. That is the Why of Arcturus in a nutshell. Next up will be two blog posts covering the idea and philosophy behind Why Travel and How to Try and Make Money from Anywhere. Maybe the last one should be a whole book…