I've heard of skippers going at guys with winch handles. If you're going to do distance sailing i.e. more than 5 days at sea, it's best to invite a well interviewed/researched stranger as crew rather than your best friend. That way you risk gaining a new friend rather than losing an old friend. If you're crew, talk to other crew about the skipper before you commit. People behave in unexpected ways on long trips. Some of them are awesome, in the galley every day baking bread, doing the dishes in rough seas, etc. Others get really weird, stay in their cabins and sulk, throw random temper fits, etc. Some skippers are awesome, chilled. Others have reputations for being psycho assholes [not mentioning names].<p>I have around 20k nautical miles, 2 atlantic crossings, cruised africa, thailand, and my younger bro and parents put me to shame in miles/experience.
Once in a while I am blessed enough to come across a post like this. It made me think a lot about my life and who I wish to become. I've been working a "normal job" and just forgot that it is possible to do something like this.
I do a lot of whitewater kayaking and have been involved in swiftwater rescue training a number of times. The first lesson I learned and have tried to teach others is that <i>most people do not want responsibility.</i> One of the first things I teach people is that if they are the first on the scene of an incident, in almost all cases, others (even those demonstrably more experienced or qualified) will defer responsibility to the first on the scene because they want to be told what to do (just human nature). The most important thing you can do is immediately establish who is in charge, and think hard about being that person. Overcome your natural tendency to follow. The best way to do this is practice, and it's the single most important lesson you can take away from being in situations like this (or even better hearing about other people's experiences).
Fantastic post, very good to see someone's similar experiences. I haven't sailed around the world, but been through things that taught me the same; I'm glad for it every day.
I really enjoyed reading this. Especially the section about bravery, "the opposite of fear is initiative not courage". Well said. I'm leaving today for a big wall climbing trip and trying to prepare myself mentally for the intense fear that I feel high on the wall. Sometimes that fear will shut me down and I stop climbing even though I'm safe. When this happens I have to keep moving and keep making decisions.
<i>Blowing his horn and chasing Cape Horn dreams, Harry [Mitchell] sails out of Charleston on September 17 1994. 'For the rest of your life don't waste any time. Make the best of what you may before you turn into clay,' he told students before he left Sydney for the Southern Ocean.</i><p>(Harry Mitchell, age 70, was lost at sea in the Southern Ocean in the 1994 BOC solo around the world yacht race).<p>-- Paul Gelder, The Loneliest Race<p><i>I began to understand the struggle and the despair in the simply written ships' journals, in the monochrome prose that could suddenly bloom with feeling:<p>March 29, 1913: Terrible heavy NW gale. Lost mizzen upper topsail and main lower top gallant sail. Got two men hurt. All hands on deck all night.<p>30th. 6 AM: quick shift from NW to SW with hurricane force, with terrible heavy cross sea. Ship under two lower topsails and under water. Lost outer jib. Washed off the boom.<p>31st: wind SW. Very heavy gale.<p>April 1st: terrible heavy WNW gale, ship under two lower topsails and drifting to the eastward, and my heart is broken under these heavy gales all the time.<p>So reads the log of the Edward Sewell, 263 days out from Philadelphia to Honolulu, battering to westward in the grip of The Horn for 67 days.</i><p>-- David and Dan Hayes, My Old Man and The Sea