ABOUT CLEVER MARINER

A site dedicated to discussions on our favorite boat upgrades, learnings from real world tests, and other DIY projects.

I started Clever Mariner as a way to document our journey upgrading, maintaining, and outfitting for full time cruising / full time working boat life. I hope to give something back to the online sailing community that has saved me countless hours and supported our cruising ambitions. We hope you find something useful here to add to your own cruising adventures or ambitions!

THE SAILING LIFE FOR US

We are full time cruisers and WFBers (Work from Boat-ers) on SV Confianza, our 2004 Privilege 435 Catamaran. Connie (for short) is currently sailing the east coast of the USA. Our goal, as set by my co-captain, Angie, is to follow 75 degrees!

The Start of Full Time Cruising

We had purchased Confianza (Connie for short) back in 2016 with the intention of shoving off to travel someday. We knew from other sailors in our life that it was best to spend some time getting comfortable with our new (to us) boat before setting sail for a long term journey. And we met a number of aspiring travelers in her first birth in the now defunct Newport Marina in Jersey City, NJ, doing the same thing. We watched one by one reach their set goals to trigger their send off.

With no tangible goal of our own in mind, "set-backs" didn't really matter. We lost a season due to a lightning strike. We lost another season due to a mechanic tearing the boat apart only to skip off to the Caribbean.

In between, we took every opportunity to get in some light adventures. A week or two up the Long Island Sound or down to the Jersey shore and Atlantic City. All adding to our knowledge of our boat, its systems, and our favorite types of destinations.

Then the Pandemic Hit

We spent that summer getting out to the boat yard in Staten Island, picking a new set of projects every weekend. Connie was really the only thing getting us out of the house.

As summer turned to fall, days were getting shorter, and one weekend, Angie turns to me and says, "I don't want to be cold."

"What do you mean?" I responded. "It's getting cold, and it's getting dark, and everything in NYC is going to be shuttered for the foreseeable future, so why are we staying here? Let's just...go," she said. "Let's go find 70 degrees."

Since then, Connie has helped us learn about our shared sense of adventure and trying and testing new things to make our life on the water that much better.

I Grew up Sailing. She Didn't.

I grew up sailing with my father in the 90's on his 1964 Tartan 27 at the Raritan Yacht Club in Central New Jersey. I was signed up to join the sailing program at the club when I was maybe 7 years old. There I learned to sail and race dinghies. I'm grateful for having learned so young, since sailing is just as natural as riding a bike or walking even.

Angie was introduced to sailing on our previous boat, Halia, a 1984 S2 9.2c that I bought with a friend circa 2011. What a wonderful boat it was (and still is!). Our experiences on Halia taught us about our shared sense of adventure, our love to see new places by sail, and our love for having boat projects we can do together as a couple.

Gebo USA

As we navigate our cruising journey, we have made some great relationships along the way. Originally the idea was to bring in some Gebo product into the USA to help folks we met access replacement parts. Eventually the conversation evolved into becoming the exclusive North American (USA, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean) for Gebo Portlights, Hatches, and more.

Please check us out at www.gebousa.com.

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