It was mid morning and we had just backed Conversations II's stern up to the dock and tied her up Mediterranean style, maybe ten minutes ago. As is the fashion common to cruisers, Anna-Christina had strolled down the dock to lend a hand and welcome us to Port Villa.
Anna-Christina looked like a sailor, like a long time cruiser. In the morning sun, I noticed her long blond hair was beaded and that she was a deeply tanned and healthy looking woman about middle age. I learned right away she was French and a crew member of a neighboring boat soon to be sailing to New Zealand to dodge the cyclone season. It hadn't taken her keen eyes and ears long to gauge the experience of our crew during our docking, but I was a little surprised by directness of her question. Though
they had handled it pretty well, it was the first time most of them had done this. 'God bless the French for speaking their minds' I said to my self.
"It's great to have newbies" I said to her, "They learn to do it all my way, and I am the ultimate control freak" I joked.
She smiled.
"No really" I went on, "As you know, it's the character of the people you put to sea with that makes the difference."
She nodded, smiled and started to share something of the character of her skipper and fellow crew mates.
After a while I excused myself and went back on board to tidy up and plunge into the long list of stuff to be done when first alongside. But her comment stayed with me. Anna-Christina was right. Many of my crew are novice sailors. Not coincidently, many of them have asked me the same question in different ways - "What's it like to sail with so many inexperienced sailors?". Of the six crew we had on the first passage from San Francisco to Hawaii, only one crew member had any experience sailing offshore.
On the passage from Hawaii to Fiji, only two of four crew had some experience sailing onshore, but very little offshore experience. On the present passage to Darwin from Vanuatu, everyone except Matt, who now has two passages under his belt, are new to sailing.
Fellow cruisers are also a bit taken aback when they learn there are five, six or seven of us on board. "How do you ever get along with so many people?" they all want to know. But that's the thing - it helps that there are a lot of them. With so many crew, I don't stand my own watch for the first while until everyone gets accustomed to steering and looking out for weather and other boats. So I do a lot of teaching and a lot of explaining, and some shouting from one end of the boat to the other! And,
at night, I am up for just about every watch long enough to get things sorted out, then nap in between. If these passages were difficult passages, this would be tough, but trade wind passages are usually pretty gentle.
But the real key, as Anna-Christina and I agreed, is the character of the people onboard. It takes a lot of maturity to show up in this environment. It's tough to be a beginner 24/7, to get used to sleeping only 4 or 5 hours at a time, to be up every night for 3 hours to stand watch, and to be away from all the comforts of home and work. It's tough to volunteer to do the cooking in a swinging galley, to wash up the dishes then stumble around on the foredeck in the middle of the night gybing the monstrous
spinnaker poles this boat carries. And it's got to be realty tough taking orders all day long from yours truly! But we really are having fun because we all have the character to show up and work together.
The other thing about having lots of crew is this: Everyone has something special to contribute. Some turn out to be great cooks, a contribution never to be underestimated at sea. Others are quick to learn how to steer and manage the sails. Others are able to restore the constant stream of broken equipment that is a part of sailing. Everyone brings their unique contribution to the mix and we sail happily on. I guess it comes down to this: Passage making is a team sport. Whether such a venture is
a success (its fun) or a failure (we want to kill one another or jump overboard, depending on our style) stands on our learned capacity to self manage and show up and contribute as we can.
I cannot resist the analogy for life and work. To the extent we are Captains of our own lives or careers, we have the opportunity to choose carefully the people we bring onboard for our passages, whatever that might be for all of us. We need the right mix of talent on our 'boat'. We need people around us whose journey, interests and passions parallel and compliment our own. We benefit if we surround ourselves with people in whose presence we learn and with whom we do our best work. Thee opposite
is true too: We suffer when we spend time with people who drain our energy and confound our purpose. Like a Captain chooses his or her crew for fit and character, we benefit if we are strategic in surrounding ourselves with people whose presence in our lives is a compliment to our journey, and move away from those who are not. Hang out with cool people, have fun and succeed. It doesn't happen by accident.
I didn't spend too much more time in conversation with Anne-Christina after that first meeting on the dock, but I watched her around the place and noticed her knack for meeting people. Independent, yet interested in people, she seemed to check out everyone, and then pick who she spent time with. She looked like she was having fun to me!
C. Cresswell
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