By Rich

There’s a dirty little secret about long-term cruising on sailboats “they” don’t want you to know. Other bloggers won’t let you in on the full skinny, but here on rover.com you’ll always get the real scoop.

Here it is:

It turns out that there isn’t as much sailing involved in the cruising lifestyle as one might think.

There. It’s out now.

During cruise passages, we often focus on keeping our speeds up as much as possible. As such, motor-sailing is more often than not the best one can hope for during extended cruises, with motor alone more common still.

Since Le Sabarage is generally staying put for the winter in Fort Lauderdale, we’ve been able to get in some sweet daysailing. Two weekends in a row we found ourselves enjoying moderate Westerly winds, which meant flat water and a chance to do some spinnaker work.

As always, we found ourselves in awe of how this boat performs on any point of sail. She tracks superbly under spinnaker and then proves a joy to sail pointing back home on a true beat with the centerboard all the way down.

The overwhelming odds are that the next boat we buy won’t sail nearly as well as Seb does, if for no other reason than so few boats do. So this winter we’re going to focus on getting in as much sailing time aboard her as we can before we hand her over to a new owner.

Over Thanksgiving, we also got in a quick overnight cruise to Lake Boca, our favorite intracoastal waterway anchorage in the area.

Good times!