Preparing for a long-distance voyage begins well before departure. Planning your itinerary, choosing the right boat, preparing the crew, and selecting the right equipment are all steps covered by Pete Goss in this webinar Garcia Yachts. As an offshore sailor and ambassador Garcia Yachts, Pete shares the lessons he’s learned from his experience on blue water cruising, particularly aboard his Garcia Exploration 45.
Plan Your Itinerary Before Choosing a Sailboat
For Pete Goss, choosing the boat comes after choosing the program.
Where do you want to sail? For how long? With what crew? In which regions, and with what level of self-sufficiency?
He draws on his own experiences to show how different plans lead to very different choices of boats. For a multi-year round-the-world trip as a couple, he had chosen a Garcia Exploration 45.
Preparing Your Boat for a Long-Distance Voyage
The webinar then discusses the key decisions that shape a boat designed for long-distance sailing: equipment, energy, water, fuel, spare parts, rigging, and the ability to maintain and repair onboard systems.
Pete Goss emphasizes one principle: every choice has consequences, and those consequences become more significant the farther one gets from infrastructure.
The goal, therefore, is not to increase the number of facilities, but to build a cohesive system that aligns with its program and level of autonomy.
Helping the crew grow
Preparation involves both the crew and the boat.
Pete reflects on his experience sailing as a couple: organizing watches, dividing responsibilities, and each person’s training and progress. He recommends gaining experience gradually, without waiting to master every aspect of offshore sailing before setting out to sail.
Adjusting Your Pace Once You're Underway
Traveling doesn't mean following a set itinerary.
As their journey unfolded, Pete and his wife learned to slow down, adjust their pace, and make more room for the circumstances, seasons, and opportunities they encountered along the way.
An approach that sums up the webinar well: prepare your project thoroughly so that you then have the capacity and freedom needed to adapt it.
Watch the "Preparing for the blue water cruising " playlist on YouTube →
