How teamwork during a sailing expedition rebuilt a family
In 2015, my kids were entering their mid-20s and due to divorce, moves, remarriage, and other changes, we were becoming strangers. I needed to own that.
So how to fix it? Answer: A sailing expedition.
My plan? Get them interested (and trained) in sailing with the carrot of a week’s vacation in the Caribbean.
We lived in Minnesota, so warm weather was the right bait.
It turns out through the magic of sailing certifications, training, and the bareboat charter industry, you can fly to the Caribbean, provide a credit card, and you effectively own a 20,000-pound, 40-foot, twin-hulled sailboat for a week.
This trip was the first where I was the captain and my kids were the crew. Sailing and operating the boat were 100% on us.
We were ready for the challenge.
But we had a lot to learn. And we had been sailing through darkness, for years.
Truth is, we didn’t know each other anymore.
We landed in the Charlotte Amalie, USVI, then transited via ferry to the British Virgin Islands where our boat was located.
To be honest, the boat and the environment were very intimidating.
Although we had sailed in the BVI the previous year for training, the boat was now my responsibility, 100%.
All 10 tons of it, and although the BVI is a the world’s most popular cruising ground, the seas get big, 4-8 ft is common.
But that’s the essence of an expedition: you are pushing past your comfort zone into an unknown. Even if it’s known for others. If it’s not known to you, then it’s a (light) expedition.
After adjusting to the boat and it’s idiosyncrasies, the first few days went very smoothly. We certainly enjoyed the 100+ degree temperature difference, from -20 F in Minneapolis in early January to 84F in the BVI.
We enjoyed all the delights of sailing the Caribbean’s finest cruising ground: wind, beautiful anchorages, and sunsets.
But the best part of the trip was the most stressful & challenging, and came on the third day, when we headed to Anegada, an outer island surrounded by reefs.
And this is where things got interesting. What we had experienced so far was idyllic; that was about to change. The skies darkened, the wind picked up, and we had to push through a big storm, big seas, and dangerous reefs to get to the best part of the islands: Anegada, and it’s endless, glistening white sand beaches.
During that part of the voyage, both my son and daughter played critical roles. My son stayed calm and found the outer buoy leading to the safe channel into the island’s only harbor. My daughter learned the right holding strategy from other boats when the visibility went to less than 100 feet (just hold in position, right into the wind, until the squall passes), and schooled us on it.
They tempered my worst tendency: to just stick with the strategy and force things, rather than adapt to circumstances.
We were soon rewarded with a gorgeous anchorage which, post-storm, was awash in rainbows and glistening white beaches.
Since this was an expedition, it required teamwork to complete the mission.
That teamwork reunited my kids and I, the success we had rebuilt trust and love, and the gorgeous natural surroundings cemented that love.
Conclusion
Most travel today is focused strictly on maximum comfort in known surroundings. Expeditionary travel is different: it’s about learning new skills, applying them in strange, unfamiliar environments, and adapting and growing in the process. It should be mentally and physically demanding, at a level that is appropriate for you.
Too much comfort is the enemy: it’s why we have an epidemic of obesity; it’s why being outdoors is so strange to so many of us; and why we focus so much on removing risk from our lives. The pervasive ill health we see today, including mental illness, is partly due to this incessant search for comfort.
By learning sailing skills and then applying them in challenging situations with some risk, a great thing happened. I was able to rebuild my relationship with my kids via the teamwork required in a difficult situation, build my own confidence, and most importantly, get ready for the next challenge.
I recently introduced the concept of light expeditions as journeys accessible to anyone willing to develop the necessary strength, courage, and mastery. A light expedition is a short, performable (in personal cost, preparation time and duration) journey with a purpose that leverages and develops masculine skills and confidence while building self-understanding. It also affords opportunities to discover secrets and achieve firsts.
There are basic principles of execution that apply to all light expeditions. I’ve organized them into five groups: planning and organizing; equipment care and maintenance; training for skills; in the field; and post-mortem reviews. Following these principles can help you safely and efficiently complete your mission while focusing on the task at hand and recording your efforts.
Planning and Organizing
Have a Trip Plan and Give the Plan to a Family Member
Write up your travel route, planned and potentially unplanned stops, dates, and most importantly, the expected time and date of your return. Give the plan to a responsible family member or friend with instructions on how to contact the appropriate agencies (e.g., Coast Guard, National Park Service, etc.) in case the return date passes without them hearing from you.
Although this principle seems obvious, it’s often violated with sometimes deadly results. This past summer, a young family kayaking between the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior fell into the lake when their kayak overturned during a sudden storm; although wearing life jackets, 4 of 5 family members died from hypothermia while in the water. If a trip plan had been deposited with family or friends, it’s likely a search party would have gone out shortly after the storm hit and rescued the family.
2. Use Your Imagination to Determine Worst Case Scenarios
Think hard about worst case scenarios on your trip. If your sailing, what is the worst weather and wave conditions you might experience? What shoals (shallow water) and other navigation hazards exist on or near your route? If you’re white water canoeing, where are the large waterfalls and most dangerous rapids and what portage trails are available to avoid them?
Even as a beginner, it’s your job to know the most likely disaster scenarios. Then have a credible plan to adjust to these worst-case conditions, i.e., portaging around rapids (insure there is an actual route for that) or a safe harbor within reasonable distance.
3. Organize Gear Before and After Your Trip
Have a organized process for storing and staging your gear before your trip, then cleaning and repairing your gear after the trip. I avoided this for years until the complexity of my trips, which often included multiple different activities each with their own equipment (i.e., camping, boating, and kayaking in a single trip) made a haphazard system too error prone and time consuming.
4. Map out Team Dynamics and Have a Plan for Managing the Team
The more challenging and grueling the trip will be, the more you need to understand each team member’s strengths and limitations, their best and worst potential roles, and how the team will work together.
Training
5. Be in Shape and Eat Right
Light expeditions are physically challenging trips that require a base level of endurance and strength. Being overweight and out-of-shape increases risks and distracts you from the mission.
6. Train for the Particular Skills You Plan to Use
It’s tempting to assume you can train for the skills you need while on the trip. In a few cases that is possible, but best practice is to train before your trip in progressively more difficult conditions. Training during your expedition significantly increases risk and and stress levels. Ideally you should train with a mentor or in a formal class setting. Before training begins, study and read about the skills you will train on. Get into a rhythm of training pre-trip, keep track of your progress during the trip, then up your training levels to match your new skill level. Skills like sailing, whitewater canoeing and surfing take a lifetime to master and you can always learn more.
7. Learn to Cook
Eating well during a light expedition is important for health and energy. But it also plays a big role in the quality of your experience. I personally find tremendous satisfaction in preparing a great meal after a difficult day. I once prepared dinner after a difficult 12-hour day of portaging and canoeing 15 miles in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. A huge rainstorm was about to hit when we reached camped and we had just enough time to set up a tarp and get the burners going before the rain came down in torrents. In a few minutes I was ankle deep in mud and water working on the meal while the rest of the team finished setting up camp. Dinner never tasted as good as that night.
Although packaged de-hydrated meals are available for expeditions, light weight and convenience are emphasized; taste is not and they are expensive. With the advent of lightweight, portable cooling and cooking techniques, it’s generally possible to take real, fresh foods and cook them in a way similar to home. This has the added benefit of of allowing you to train yourself for field cooking right at home by learning to cook there.
Equipment
8. Be as Light as Possible, but No Lighter
As a general rule, use the lightest gear possible that you can afford and that meets the requirements for your expedition. For example, unless I’m in an area that is known for lots of rain, cold and wind, I use the lightest rain jacket possible so I can reduce weight and space required. For cooking, I use very small, light propane burners and find ways to work around their small, intense flame to get the cooking results I’m looking for.
9. Bring Spare Parts, Extra Fuel, and Emergency Food and Water
Bring spare parts to make repairs to critical equipment, extra fuel kept in canisters separate from the fuel tank, and 20% more food and water (or be able to produce fresh water in an emergency) than you need for your scheduled trip in case you are delayed.
10. Obtain and Know How to Use Communication and Signaling Gear
Light expeditions are generally in remote areas that lack cell phone coverage. Although some purists argue you should totally cut yourself off from civilization, that is irresponsible in the age of low-cost satellite phones and SPOT messengers ($75 at this writing plus $200/year subscription).
SPOT messenger leverages satellites to allow others to track your location at all times, and you can send and receive short messages to communicate in an emergency. From a review of cases where people became lost or accidents incapacitated them during an expedition, I would estimate that 90% of the time SPOT could be used to quickly find them. If a trip plan was filed and someone is watching and monitoring your progress, then it’s almost impossible to get into critical situations where you are lost or hurt and unable to obtain help.
11. Have an Emergency Transmitter (EPIRB or SPOT)
In addition to SPOT messenger devices, an EPIRB is an emergency transmitter that sends a signal to local authorities that you have a critical emergency and need help immediately. My recommendation is to use SPOT to allow tracking and messaging with friends and family, and leverage EPIRB in case of a dire emergency where the SPOT system fails or is lost. Having a backup for critical, life-saving devices is always a good idea.
12. Have the Right Safety Equipment, Including that Required By Law
Make sure you have the required safety gear and especially a way to signal your location both at night and during the day. Flares are helpful but if you are on the ground and want to be spotted by an aircraft searching for you, creating smoke is the best approach. Smoke “flares” are available and it’s a great idea to bring 2 or 3 on an expedition.
13. Adapting in the Field
When conditions change drastically and dangerously in the field, be it weather, lost supplies, massive equipment failure or something similar, you have three choices: adapt, migrate, or die. The third is unacceptable, the second is useful if there is no alternative other than a new location, but if you have to stay where you are at, adapting on-the-fly is critical. If you’ve followed step 2, you’ve thought through many potential worst-case scenarios and have to come up with a plan.
14. Situational Awareness and Workload Management
Situational awareness is “the perception of environmental elements and events with respect to time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their future status.” It means being aware of what is going on around you in real time, and making sure you have enough margin (in time and space) to react to the situation appropriately.
It sounds simple and obvious, but it’s not.
Successful situational awareness requires workload management: you need to be able to keep up with the your operational tasks in real time while still maintaining awareness of your current situation. If your workload increases dramatically in a short period of time, you typically need to slow down your progress so that you can maintain that workload and situational awareness simultaneously. The biggest danger is focusing exclusively on a single task (e.g., trying to restart your motor or get a sail back up when your drifting in to a pier or shoal) and losing your situational awareness altogether. (Note: the people in the boat that was thrown into the pier in the video survived with only minor injuries, a minor miracle.)
Losing Situational Awareness Can Be Very Dangerous.
15. Be Able to Fix Equipment in the Field
Make sure you have the skill sets and training to make critical repairs in the field.
16. Know the Basics of First Aid
Understand how to stop bleeding wounds via pressure, how to tie a tourniquet to stop severe bleeding, and recognize the three stages of hypothermia and how to deal with each. Knowing how to set a broken bone is also useful. Your goal is to stabilize the injured person’s condition and then get them to medical help as quickly as possible leveraging your emergency communications tools. Minor injuries (e.g., a lightly twisted ankle) can wait till you return. Serious life-threatening injuries must be dealt with via experts, so your job is to get to that expert help as quickly as possible.
17. Know a Core Set of Knots
Know the two half hitches, bowline, sheet bend, and truckers hitch and you can create a non-slip loop, tie two ropes together, and have an adjustable-length line. That covers 90% of the use cases for knots in the field.
18. Record your Trips with Photos, Video, Logs, a Diary, and Drawings
We are entering a golden age for amateurs to record and artistically express what they have accomplished on light expeditions. Incredibly cheap yet sophisticated digital cameras like GoPro’s, combined with cheap film editing tools like iMovie and Final Cut Pro allow literally anyone to beautifully record their light expedition.
Post-Mortem Trip Review and Organizing
19. Review what went right and what went wrong on your trip and aim to fix the latter.
Once you’ve returned from a light expedition, don’t just clean your gear and put it away. Write down what went right and what went wrong, and what you can do better next time. Yes it’s work, but writing forces you to think, and thinking is what helps you learn the most from your experience.
