03 Mar SO YOU’RE GOING SAILING WITH YOUR FRIENDS?
Here is my rookie list of things to consider
It is going to be awesome: hang out with your best friends, take swims in the ocean when on anchor, have sundowners every night and do hikes on a pristine island beach every morning. In other words, sailing is the perfect vacation, whether you’re full time cruisers or renting a sailboat in the Meds. But! you are also going to be on a sailboat, and you are the captain – which means that you’re responsible for everyone’s safety as well as sailing the boat, planning the route, docking, checking the weather updates and so on. So how do you balance both of these roles? How do you have fun with your friends and at the same time be the captain who ensures safety and security on board?
In my experience… it is hard! But you can make it easier on both captain and crew by – as with everything else with sailing – yes you guessed it: Proper preparation. To be honest, preparing has never been my strong suit, so the advice and ideas that I am going to share here all come from hard earned experiences.
If you are a cruiser couple or regular crew that is used to sailing with each other, remember that this all new to your friends – oh and you might have picked up some weird cabin-crazy habits you want to inform your friends about (or get rid off…). 😉
But remember; this is merely our experiences as the ever evolving rookie sailors that we are, so do not expect a final checklist. Instead, you can add your own experiences to the list.
Anyway, here is some of our best advice on how to prepare yourself for a sailing vacation with friends, while maintaining the role as captain.
BEFORE
Have an informal sail meeting before the vacation even starts and talk about everything below (and all the stuff I forgot or didn’t yet know). This is also the perfect time to decide (and test!) your favourite sundowners.
Make sure to include:
- Sailing and safety. Keep it short and simple - and mention it all again when you’re on the boat. While it might not feel that way, sailing includes more risks than renting a vacation house on land. But stick to the principles and to how everyone should respond in a crisis or just a situation. But don’t lay out all of your own considerations and concerns.
- Roles. Yes, we all know who is the captain. But what does that actually mean? Explain it. Make sure that everyone knows how to respond to your decisions and instructions while sailing, and not necessarily while visiting on land. Also, let your crew know beforehand that the task of being the captain can be tiring, and that you might not be the one to cook dinner after a long day of sailing.
- Expectations for where you will be going. What do you want to experience as a group? Make someone or some two in charge of researching the places that you potentially want to visit. And then inform everyone that it is the weather - and not you - that usually decides where you go.
- Food. This is an important one! Our best solution to figuring out food on board - when you’re not dining on land with the locals - is to have everyone in the group come up with their go-to dishes and add the ingredients to the shopping list. They should then also be in charge of cooking that dish.
- Shopping for groceries. Send a team! If you’re renting a boat, this might be a great opportunity for the captain to get some solo time and acquaint him/herself with the boat or do the mandatory walkthrough with the rental company. If you’re on your own boat, this might also be a great opportunity for the owners to do their last preparations or solo-walkthrough of what’s next. So basically - let your friends do the shopping !
So basically - let your friends do the shopping ...
- Rules on the boat. Not to be underestimated. Even if your group consists of friends whom you hang out with all the time, being on a boat together for a longer period of time will show your differences. So be explicit about rules. They can be about anything from doing the dishes, to how loud you play the music, to how you handle the trash or the dinghy or how careful you should be about water consumption. In our experience, it is better to agree on the rules before you leave the dock, so that it won’t come as a surprise during the vacation.
- Sailing hours. When planning the route, don’t plan on too many hours of sailing every day, and make it optional, so if it is a perfect day and everyone is up for it, you sail. Of course this depends on your friends - if they are also sailors or maybe want to learn about sailing, or if they are more up for finding a great anchorage to explore or bathe in the clear waters all day. It will depend on the group.
DURING
- Learning. Remember to ask if anyone wants to “try” something. Steering, managing the sails and so on. In our experience, some people will jump up at any occasion, while others will wait until you ask them. I love it if someone really wants to learn more about sailing, but I don’t want to force more than what’s necessary on the crew, if this is not of their interest.
- It's a vacation. As written above, don’t exhaust your friends. They might say that they want to go sailing all day, but what they really mean is “Let’s see those sails and then find us a beautiful safe anchorage, with turquoise waters where we can swim and have sundowners.” If this is the case, don’t forget that you’re the sailor, who probably would love to do a 10 hour sail in the warm breeze and with the wind coming from behind; your friends might not.
- Mornings… Mornings are a big thing on board our boat La Louve. I love having my morning coffee out on the deck alone, just enjoying the wind and the water. One of my best friends loves a morning run. My point is, we all have different morning routines but mornings are magical on a boat - so give space and prepare for great, flexible mornings. For instance, if we are on anchor, we try to always have the dinghy or paddle boards ready to grab, if one or two in the group want to go ashore. Only rule is to make sure that you have rules for this, e.g. letting the others know that you have gone ashore.
- Seasickness. If someone is prone to seasickness give them pills to start with, so that they won’t get a horrible beginning of the vacation.
AFTER
- Share the pictures! But only the good ones.. Share a dropbox, google drive or whatever you prefer and only choose your favourites to share.
- Do it again!! Sailing with friends is awesome and in my experience it builds stronger friendships.
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