Captains' Log
Captain's Log May 2008Families that sail together stay together
Rosie and I are lucky enough to have spent our lives around boats and the water and managed to raise our kids aboard our sailboats whether that was during summers along the coast or over the five years we took off to sail together around the world.
Over all that time we have come to know many sailing families and we are still struck by how well sailing kids do when they grow up and by how close sailing families stay as life goes on.
These family ties that are built while living the sailing life are not exclusive to sailing. But sailing and cruising do have a way of forging bonds that survive many of the storms and bumpy nights that life can throw at us. There are several reasons for this but the most obvious is that aboard a sailboat at sea, particularly if you are sailing some distance, every member of the crew relies upon every other member. Sure, there will be a skipper and probably a mate, but the decisions and actions of everyone aboard who is steering, trimming, navigating, standing watch and keeping the boat ship shape has an impact on the safety and welfare of the boat and crew. There is no insignificant crew member on a family cruising boat, no passengers, unless they are under the age of five or so.
Having and taking responsibility really helps young crew build confidence and hone their judgment. You can’t be daydreaming while crossing a shipping lane or while making a landfall on an unfamiliar coast. You can’t be careless with a course steered or a GPS position entered into the log. Sailing and cruising have a way of making everything very real. And, in that reality, lives can depend upon the alertness, judgment and decisions of the crew. Young people who learn this early never forget it and it shapes their lives in school and jobs ashore.
Sailing also exposes you and those who sail with you to the natural
world in the most basic ways. For the most part you live outside when you
spend time on a sailboat, particularly if you are cruising in warm weather.
Everybody on board grows familiar with the characteristics of a changing
sky, the meanings of clouds and the story the wind tells. Everyone watches
the moon go through its phases and tracks the sun on its way north and
south through the changing seasons. You become familiar with the stars
and planets, with coastal and sea birds and with the creatures great and
small that live in the sea. Together you become more attuned to the world
than you do living in a house ashore.
But sailing really bonds families together because of the shared memories from good times and bad along the way. There was the time we ran aground... and the time we caught the 50-pound tuna... and the time we met local fishermen who traded lobsters for fishing lures... and the time we and cruising friends built a bonfire on the beach and danced in the moonlight with palm fronds knotted in our hair…
We hope you and your family are so lucky.
