Welcome to Cruising Off Duty. We are Craig and Janice. We love travelling and we love sailing, so we figure the best way to see the world is by sailboat. We presently have a 35' Beneteau Oceanis sloop that we sail out of Kingston, Ontario Canada, which is on Lake Ontario. We have a longer term plan, when we retire in a few years, to sell everything and buy a 40-50' Catamaran and circumnavigate the globe. Craig loves photography along with land based and drone videography and plans to document everything along our travels to share with the world through Youtube and other social media. For now, follow our channel as we show you the beauty of the Great Lakes and the 1000 Islands area of the St Lawrence River. You will also see the steps we take as start narrowing down the Catamaran we think will suit us best as we move closer to our goal of living full time on a sailboat and exploring the world. It should be a journey worth watching.
Welcome to Cruising Off Duty. We are Craig and Janice. We love travelling and we love sailing, so we figure the best way to see the world is by sailboat. We presently have a 35′ Beneteau Oceanis sloop that we sail out of Kingston, Ontario Canada, which is on Lake Ontario. We have a longer term plan, when we retire in a few years, to sell everything and buy a 40-50′ Catamaran and circumnavigate the globe. Craig loves photography along with land based and drone videography and plans to document everything along our travels to share with the world through Youtube and other social media. For now, follow our channel as we show you the beauty of the Great Lakes and the 1000 Islands area of the St Lawrence River. You will also see the steps we take as start narrowing down the Catamaran we think will suit us best as we move closer to our goal of living full time on a sailboat and exploring the world. It should be a journey worth watching.
At WeBoating.com, we profoundly acknowledge the unwavering dedication that Cruising Off Duty and other creators invests in crafting each and every video. Their passion for delivering exceptional content shines through every frame, and it's a labor of love that deserves your attention.
We invite you to watch their captivating videos and actively engage with their content, including their social media links above. Liking, commenting, and sharing their work goes a long way in fueling their creative fire.
We're also inviting you to explore any sponsorships and partnerships highlighted in the videos descriptions, or directly on YouTube. By considering their offerings or purchasing services and items, you not only support Cruising Off Duty but also the brands and collaborators they're associated with.
If you have any feedback, corrections, or additional information about Cruising Off Duty or their videos, please use the comment form below to share your thoughts with us.
Thank you for being a part of our community and supporting the creators we cherish. Your time and support truly matter!
This is the latest update on the progress of the Off-Grid house build as of Feb 5, 2025. Things have mostly gone well. A few setbacks and the Solar system still needs some bugs worked out, but overall we are happy with the progress.
The Woodboiler is a ...
This is an update on the progress with the ICF, off-grid house build. The Heatmaster G10000 wood boiler works great for heating the house and the garage. The Enphase solar system is up and working to power the house but there are changes I would have mad...
This is part 3 in the series following our build of an ICF Solar ICF-powered off-grid house build.
In this episode, we show the 2nd ICF floor of the house being completed and the roof being installed. We also received the Heatmaster G10000 wood boiler an...
I live in a trailer while we build an Off-Grid solar-powered house. I have various types of Renogy solar panels of all different sizes and I have never had any problems with any of the Renogy Panels so I feel that they are a top-quality product. I just r...
Wanting to use my drone to capture awesome sailing footage this summer meant getting in some practice taking off and landing while anchored, before trying it from a moving boat. I learned some lessons that almost cost me my drone twice.
Drone is a Yuneec...
We discuss how to buy a cruising sailboat. How to make sure your wife is onboard and what lessons we learned when we bought our sailboat.
You can follow us on Facebook: Cruising Off Duty
Or at www.Cruisingoffduty.com
Had fun last weekend on the boat at Baskin's Beach on the Ottawa River. Took out my drone ( Yuneec Q500 4K) and got some cool footage. Figured I'd post a fun drone only video. This is not a full numbered episode of Cruising Off Duty. I hope you enjoy i...
This episode shows the Canada Day weekend spent at anchor in Constance Bay. It shows the storms the fireworks we got to see, and drone footage of Constance Bay.
Canada Day was wet and windy but it was still really fun spending it with multiple boats and m...
What we learned when we shipped our sailboat a long distance (North Carolina to Ottawa Canada) on a truck across an international border and what it took to make a saltwater boat ready to be a freshwater boat.
Check out episode 1 where we explain what we ...
Why a Cruising Sailboat (Floating Cottage) is better than an actual cottage. Plus I give you a tour of Off Duty and why it has everything a cottage has but for much cheaper and with less problems.
You can follow us on Facebook: Cruising Off Duty
Or at...
The Ottawa River has over 1000 sailboat boats registered to the 4 different Yacht and Sailing Clubs, but we are landlocked by the Deschene Rapids to the south and the Chat Falls Hydro Electric Dam to the north. In essence we are on a 27 mile long lake. T...
This video will show you, through time-lapse video and drone video footage, how much work was required for our sailboat to go from being under its winter cover to ready to sail. It gives you Drone footage of the Nepean Sailing Club when all of the boats ...
Working shift work means I have days off when no one else does, so I sail the Ottawa River solo a lot. So how hard is it to sail alone? I will show you in this episode. You will follow me as I pack up the boat and sail towards a planned NSC party at Bas...
This Episode of Cruising Off Duty covers the NSC party at Baskin's Beach. A good time was had by all, but a Boy drown just up river from where all our boats were anchored to attend this party. Then on our sail home, we watch a house on shore erupt into f...
This Episode I talk about the pros and cons of Crystal Bay as an anchorage. I explain that thousands of sunken logs from the logging days 100 years ago, is the reason that the Ottawa River is brown and I show that sometimes when you pull up anchor, you ma...
In this Episode, I give you the Pros and Cons of Aylmer Island as an anchorage. I am covering the various anchorages starting at the closest anchorage to the Nepean Sailing Club and going to the furthest. Be forewarned that I am not a fan of Aylmer Islan...
In this episode of Cruising Off Duty we show you our favorite anchorage to go to shore and get some exercise. That Anchorage is in Constance Bay. In a perfect world we would like to get 10,000 steps in a day. That is almost impossible if you stay on you...
Only have the Monday of a Long Weekend Off Duty? Wife is out of town and you are alone? Doesn't matter. Don't let a beautiful day go to waste! In this VLog, I go out on the boat and catch the tail end of the weekend end of the weekend and have have a g...
In Episode 12, I continue my series on the Pros and Cons of the various anchorages on the Ottawa River by covering the most popular anchorage on the river, Pinhey's Point. For 94% of my subscribers and viewers that are not Canadian and not from Ottawa, I...
Trying to take advantage of every possible weekend on the boat we can before the season comes to an end. We braved cold and windy conditions to spend the weekend at Pinhey's. This episode is in the VLog style. Last episode was all about information and...
Did you miss the Tall Ships Festival in Brockville? Don't worry, we have you covered. We stood in the lines for you. Watch this and you will see everything there was to see. Watch to the end to see the view from the air too, which is probably something...
Fellow Ottawa Youtuber Simon from the Channel "Finding Simon", who lives and travels full time in a Camper Van, is considering giving up that van life and travelling the world by sailboat. In this episode, I take Simon out and show him the ropes and hopef...
We tried to go out and get one last weekend on the sailboat but the weather just isn't cooperating. Clearly winter is coming. It sucks to be a sailor in Canada and have such a short sailing season. So this episode is going to go over the Pros and Cons o...
Did you miss going to the Annapolis Sailboat Show? Well, we did the 9+ hour drive from Ottawa to Annapolis and in this VLog we will take you on the trip with us. After having a very long drive filled with construction delays, unexpected detours onto tol...
In this Episode of Cruising Off Duty, we continue our coverage of the 2016 Annapolis Sailboat Show. This episode we show you all of the Catamarans from Nautitech and Fountaine Pajot. We talk about what we liked and didn't like about each boat, asking our...
In this episode of Cruising Off Duty, we continue showing you the Catamarans that were at the 2016 Annapolis Sailboat Show and telling you what we liked and didn't like. We cover Catamarans from Leopard, Bali and Lagoon. In the next episode we will go o...
This is the final part in our series comparing the various Catamarans at the Annapolis Sailboat Show. In this episode, we focus on the "boutique" or custom boat builders that are designed with the live-aboard in mind. We looked at the Xquisite X5 50', th...
We have big news as we have decided to leave the confines of the Ottawa River and move our boat to Kingston. Kingston is located right at the crossroads of Lake Ontario (and the other Great Lakes) to the west and the St Lawrence River and the beautiful 10...
In this episode I am going to ask myself the question, "Should I really own a Cruising Motorcycle and a Cruising Sailboat?". The problem for me has been that you only ride your motorcycle on a warm dry day and those are the same perfect days that you also...
I finally got my new drone. The Mavic Pro. This episode is about my first flights and my first impressions. My first flight ever was in my house, where I crashed it. My first flight outside was where I met a friend who has the Phantom 3 and we compare...
Last Episode was mainly about how the Mavic Pro would handle and fly compared to the Q500 and the Phantom 3. This episode is more about how much range you can get with this new Ocusync technology and how good the Camera looks.
The speed, range and compac...
With winter coming, I have to take every opportunity to practice using my new Mavic Pro. This episode, I go to Pakenham Ontario to try and take some scenic shots of the stone bridge in this small town outside of Ottawa. Since the filming of this footage...
This Trailer explains what has happened in the past season of Cruising Off Duty and what is coming up in our short and long term future. The future is exciting with things like an upcoming BVI catamaran charter, our next season sailing in the 1000 Island...
Ever wonder if the Mavic Pro can fly in cold weather? I mean really really cold weather like is found in a Canadian winter? Well in this episode, I will fly my Mavic Pro in -10c and show you that the Magic Pro does not seem to have any issues flying in t...
In this episode, I continue the Mavic Pro Tutorial Series. I will explain what settings I have changed in the Mavic Pro to make it fly more smoothly, so that it is a better platform for taking smooth video. I will explain what the Tripod mode is and why y...
This episode of Cruising Off Duty, Janice and I take you to downtown Ottawa to see the Christmas Lights. We also bring along the super small Mavic Pro (drone) so we can show you some of the lights from the air. We wanted to wish all of our viewers, subsc...
In Ep30 of Cruising Off Duty, I go over the issues that the Mavic Pro has flying in the cold. I see if the new firmware update has helped its cold weather flying abilities. Since my iPhone can’t seem to stay charged out in the cold, I show you how my n...
I have been looking forward to using my Litchi App with my Mavic Pro to be able to pre-program waypoints to create a route my Mavic can fly. Unfortunately the Litchi App is way to Glitchy with the Mavic Pro. While flying a waypoint route the Auto Focus o...
Litchi App still "glitchi" App with the Mavic Pro but I found a fix for the brutal blurry Autofocus. You must focus on something far away (infinity focus) before you take off or you are stuck with whatever focal length you had on the ground. Infinity Fo...
Do you find your Mavic Pro acts like a "Weed Wacker" when you land on grass or are worried about landing on any slightly uneven surface? I was too! The Mavic Pro was designed with way too little ground clearance. I have bought landing gear that is ligh...
Manage Cookies
We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. We do this to improve browsing experience and to show (non-) personalized ads. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Always active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
