FAQ - Questions from Kids

What kind of boat do you have?

The easy answer is; we have a sailboat. If you want to get more complicated then there are four main characteristics that can describe what kind of sailboat a person has; Hull Type, Keel Type, Rig Type, and Maker.

The Hull is the main part of the boat, like the body of car, the hull is the boat’s body.  The hull can made of different material, such as Aluminum, Steel, or Fiberglass.  A boat can have one hull (know as monohull), two hulls (known as a catamaran), or three hulls (known as a trimaran)!    Billabong has a fiberglass monohull.  The two left photos below show examples of a catamaran & monohull, click to enlarge.



The Keel is underwater (right photo above), at the bottom of the boat.  The keel provides resistance against the water; allowing the boat to move forward while keep it stable (basically it helps keep the boat from flipping over in strong winds!).  There are different shapes and sizes of keels (their official names are: Long/Fall Keel, Fin Keel and Bilge Keel).  Billabong is known as a Fin Keel.  (Click on picture above to enlarge)

The Rig is characterized by the number of masts (those poles that stick up from the boat), and the sails the boat carries.  There are actually quite a few different names and combinations, which can make remembering all the different types quite difficult.  I’ll just give you the basics on three of the more common types:  A sloop rig is the simplest and most common rig.  It has one mast and two sails.  A cutter rig has one mast and potential for three sails.  The cutter rig is very common among the cruising community.  A ketch has two masts (although there are other types of two-masted boats the ketch is the most common).  Billabong is a cutter rig. Examples shown below (click to enlarge):


The maker is pretty easy, it’s like a brand name (just like Gap and Guess are brand names for clothing).  Billabong is a French built Gybsea (Gybsea is the ‘brand’).

Do you have a motor? Is your boat a motorboat?

Yes, we do have a motor, but we are not considered a motorboat. Billabong is a sailing vessel (or sailboat). We typically use our motor in anchorages and when there is too little wind to sail. There are sailboats without motors, but it is not very common. In the old days motors were considered a luxury, now-a-days they are standard equipment!

Do you have a bunk bed? What do you call the underhole that you sleep in?

Our boat does not have bunk beds. On boats we call bedrooms cabins (or if it is a really fancy boat they might be called staterooms). We have three cabins, each with a single mattress that can sleep two people. Cabins are not nearly as big as bedrooms back home, basically there is only room for the bed and nothing else!

Do you have a computer on your boat?

We actually have THREE computers on board! We probably don’t need this many, but it is just the way it worked out. We use one computer for navigation software. The second computer is for storing pictures, videos, and other fun stuff like the website. The third computer is really just a backup, but we use it to write journals, emails, and answer things like these questions. The third computer is not as nice as our second, but it does not take as much power and therefore tends to get more use.

Do you have a TV?

We do have a TV, but it is most likely not like what you have in your home. We have a very small, flat screen that connects to our DVD player so we can watch movies. We do not have Cable TV (so we can only watch DVD movies like you would get at Blockbuster, not typical TV shows or cartoons).

What kind of games do you have on the ship?

We LOVE to play games, so we came prepared. Here is just a sampling of what we have; Uno, Yahtzee, Cranium, Cards, Scrabble, Kuuduk (card game), Connect Four, Battleship, Boggle, Skipbo (card game), Mind Trap, Crossword Puzzles, Dominoes, Chess, Batgamon, Tantrix, Hoopla, Rummy Kin, and Sequence!!! In addition we have a couple of books with mind teasers and other brain challenging games.

What is your real name KT?

K.T. stands for Kelly Tara (my first and middle name). KT became my nickname when I was about two years old, and it seems to have stuck because I have used it ever since!

 How old are you?

Chris turned 37 in January, and I just turned 30 in April (2004)!

How long have you been on your boat?

We started living on Billabong around January 2003. This is the first time I have lived on a boat, but Chris lived on a [different] boat a few years ago so he has quite a bit more experience at it then I do.

Do you go to sleep? What time do you got to bed? What is like to sleep on the boat?

When we are anchored sleeping is easy. We usually go to bed pretty early (by 9 or 10pm). When we are underway (sailing), then we must sleep at different times so that one person is always awake and watching out to make sure we stay on course and don’t hit anything! In this case we take sleeping shifts starting at 8pm and going until 8am. We trade every 3 hours. First you have to get used to having a smaller bed, but once you get through that it is very comfortable. At anchor we usually can’t even tell we are on water. At sea the boat can rock quite a bit, so it can be tough to get comfortable (imagine if your bed always moved side to side). We use a lot of pillows to help keep us from falling out of bed!

How much food do you have on the boat? Do you have enough food to cross the sea? Where do you get your food? How do you eat? What do you eat for food?

Since I am very used to having a grocery store "down the street" I did a bit of research before stocking up. I read that one should plan to have enough food for a conservative expected number of days at sea, plus twenty percent, plus a 30-day emergency supply. We were estimating 25 days for our crossing, add on to that an additional 20% (another five days), plus another 30 = a total of 60 days worth of food (per person). To this day I'm not sure how one decides how much food is necessary for a certain amount of days, without making some sort of "meal plan". This sounded like too much work for me, so I resorted to just filling every unoccupied space aboard to the brim with food! From my reading I also found suggestions for how much oil, peanut butter, flour, sugar, canned foods, etc one should carry ... most of these quantities tended to work quite well for us.

I did most of our shopping in the US prior to our departure for Mexico. Just before leaving Mexico we went on another shopping splurge until Billabong was practically bursting at the seams. The hardest thing to store and keep for the passage was fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. I made wild assumptions on the quantities we could/would eat before things went bad. All in all, I did an okay job, we threw very little out.

What I have learned since our crossing is that it is not actually the food for the crossing that was an issue, but rather getting by afterwards with minimal markets and stores. Throughout the South Pacific Islands it has been difficult (if not impossible) to find many of our favorite foods. Next time I will take more of the foods we love, or are extremely picky about (like KRAFT Macaroni and Cheese, KRAFT Real Mayo, SKIPPY peanut butter, & STARBUCKS coffee), and less of the more basic foods (like sugar, flour, canned tomatoes, etc).

As for what we ate on the crossing ... the first week or two we had enough fresh veggies, and fresh meats to make "normal" meals (like chicken or BBQ pork sandwiches, spaghetti, lasagna, salads, BLTs, etc). After the fresh foods ran out we were left with our canned goods. Prior to leaving the states I had ordered canned meats (online) -- these turned out to be fantastic! We tended to eat a lot of pasta dishes; they were filling, tasted good, and easy to make underway.

How do you drink?

We have a water maker that takes salt water from the Ocean and turns it into fresh water that we can drink.

What is it like when the waves are mad?

This is probably one of KT's favorite questions, because she feels it so accurately describes what the ocean be like; mad.  When the waves get angry it can get a bit scary aboard Billabong.  We move around a lot, and waves break into the boat - usually getting us quite wet, and it is really loud (both the ocean & the wind).  It is not enjoyable at all.  The good news is that we have a great boat, and we feel confident that she can make it through just about anything.
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