We started off Level 2 training with the Royal Yachting Association Sea Survival Course, then our Safety Brief on the boat followed by four days of sailing in the English Channel on our watch system with many evolutions and a few Man Overboard Drills.
Royal Yachting Association Sea Survival Course
The Sea Survival Course was a bit of doom and gloom but interesting to see how safety on boats has evolved over the years. We spent about two-thirds of the day in a classroom reviewing processes and various elements that we would be up against if we had to abandon ship. Then we spent the rest of the time in the swimming pool in gear and life vests running drills on various situations we may encounter like how to swim as a group, how to huddle, how to enter the life raft, how to purge the life raft of carbon dioxide, how to regulate the temperature some, how to flip the life raft if it deploys upside down, etc. Overall, this felt like a worthwhile course that I hope to never need.
Reflections from 24 hours in:
If you would have told little Jaci that she would someday be sailing across the English Channel with thirteen strangers, her eyes would have lit up with excitement and disbelief. But here I am. We just completed our first watch rotation. The 10pm to 2am watch was really something special. The wind was gentle and consistent, the sky was black, the stars were bright, and there was some bioluminescence trailing behind the boat on our path. I felt whole laying on the deck looking up at our mainsail as we glided through the water peacefully. The biggest drawback was that some of my favorites from Level 1 training ended up on the other watch so I didn’t get to spend much time with them but would still see them in passing. One of them kindly woke me up for my watch with a hot chocolate one time. Love them!
Reflections from 96 hours in:
We made it back to the dock. Everyone is exhausted and a few people are cranky. I am recognizing the importance of a hierarchy/structure if you want to accomplish anything as a team. Or at least a unified vision and ability to communicate and agree on a plan. Our skipper and first mate were extremely hands-off this week and as a result, we had entirely too many chiefs. I am finding it easier and easier to sit back these days. Egos were running rampant and insecurities were surface deep as some tried to prove their skill and importance. I have been learning that I have nothing to prove to anyone besides myself and it has been such a freeing lesson. I don’t have to have the last word, I don’t need my voice to be heard at all really, I don’t need credit for a good idea, I don’t need the recognition that I used to seek… and I can see these traits in others and remember how uncomfortable it used to be to sit with those emotions.
I struggled this week with what is “good enough”. I have always felt that if I had the ability to do something exceptional, why wouldn’t I? But when I am surrounded by others that are satisfied with marginal work, am I expected to settle to their level? If I settle consciously then am I compromising my ethics? But it doesn’t seem like carrying the load and striving for excellence in all things until I am burnt out is the correct answer either. Ideally, I would be able to inspire others to strive to do better, but how do you do that with such short interactions with others? How do you judge what is good enough? My “Mother Watch” partner did not strive for the same level of service as I had wanted. Don’t get me wrong, he completely checked the box of delivering a tasty meal but there were a lot of little areas where we could have moved it from an A to an A+. I felt helpless with our joint work. I spent an extra hour and a half cleaning/organizing trying to satisfy my need for excellence until I realized I really needed to be back up on deck with my watch crew for evolutions and had to walk away from the project without achieving perfection.
The watch system goes:
6am-noon*
Noon to 6pm
6pm-10pm*
10pm-2am
2am-6am*
One day I would cover the asterisked and the next the non-asterisked. Both days have their perks but I preferred the days where I covered the 10pm-2am. I loved the night sky and I felt like I was only being woken up once. The other day, I would get to see both the sunrise and the sunset.
I loved the sailing part. We encountered some more extreme conditions with fog, thunder, lightning, downpours, and gusts in the upper 20s that required us to put in some reefs. It was so exciting! It is in these moments, I can recognize that my mind is 100% present.
Loved what you read, share this post to your favorite social website!