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After 5 months with only each other to play with, the girls were elated to finally have
other children to play with over the winter at the marina.
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When we started out on this adventure we wrote about the
support our friends and family provided leading up to our departure. We thought that it was only appropriate to write a bit about the
people we’ve met over the past 10 months but we haven’t really known where to
start.
We can write about the
amazing people we’ve met and friendships that have been born but how can we
explain the incredible sense of community that exists among sailors?
I’m not sure we can articulate why it’s
so striking for us.
What could be
so different about the community we’ve found out here than that we had at
home?
How can we possibly explain
if we don’t understand ourselves?
It’s not like it was unexpected. If you ask any long-term cruisers what the lifestyle is like
you will hear about the sense of community among voyaging sailors. We were told that cruisers can be
expected to lend a hand and advice without the expectation of repayment and
that friendships are fast formed as winds and tides will pull you apart as
quickly as you meet. We were
advised that the strength of community is one of the greatest benefits and
safety nets available to sailors. It turns out all of this is true, but it can also be true
about friendships and communities that exist outside of cruising.
So why is this so different?
Community at the speed of light. For some reason, bonds form quickly when you’re out
cruising, much more quickly than back home. I’m not sure if it’s because we know that one party or
another may be moving on soon, or if it has to do with the intensity of the
shared experience of sailing a small boat across large waters. Whether it was a couple vacationing
from Bellingham in Poros who in the space of a week charmed our kids at a
parade and shared coffees and dinner or the tidal wave of hellos and welcoming
smiles we received when we reached our wintering spot in Finike, we have seen
how quickly friends are made.
Where else do you meet people one morning, within minutes have dinner
invitations for the next night and end up sharing breakfast the next morning
all without knowing their full names?
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A couple we met from Delta, BC while we were in Poros. It is amazing how a quick hello
turns into a couple hours of visiting over coffee. |
No shirt, no shoes, no problem. As most boaters can attest, the boating lifestyle is
somewhat bereft of formalities, at least when it comes to social events. In the past we would arrange to get
together with friends weeks in advance in order to accommodate busy schedules, give time to tidy and prepare a meal to share. With the transition to living on a boat and settling into
one place for the winter we found there were many days where neighbors would
pop by to say hi and leave hours later after sharing a coffee, lunch or helping
out with boat chores. One
particularly memorable evening resulted when I arrived back at the boat with a
fresh crate of beer while several of our neighbours were chatting on the
dock. 8 hours later, after
drinking all of the beer (and ½ of the crate someone else brought), eating all
of the food we had on the boat, hastily feeding the kids chicken nuggets and
ordering pizza for the crowd, we were saying goodnight to the last couple and
grinning like fools at the fun of an impromptu party.
A problem shared is a problem halved. As a firm believer in the adage that if
you want something done you need to do it yourself, and the corollary that it’s
easier to do a job on your own than explain in detail what you expect of a
helper, I had a hard time with adapting to a cruising community. Sailors are not just willing to help,
they’re eager. So eager in fact
that there were a couple of instances where my help got working on a job before
I was ready – a fortunate event since it forced me to deal with some things I
was prepared to ignore. Now, we’ve
become used to the idea that if you ask for help from one friend, you’ll get
assistance from at least 3 with offers of help from another 3, and unsolicited
opinions from another 6. Sailors
are unfailingly selfless with their time, strong backs and expertise – a fact
that has come in handy over the past several months.
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| This is only three of the six guys who showed up to help us drop the rudders. |
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| Our amazing neighbour, Joan, who spent hours baking with the girls! |
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| Sandra, who has infinite patience to teach Ella to knit. |
So why does this feel so different than any other community
we’ve been a part of? We’re still
not sure. Perhaps the community of
travelling sailors is actually closer owing to a shared understanding of the
challenges in keeping a small boat afloat and the hardships of being far from
home in new and unfamiliar lands.
Perhaps it’s us that is different, we have time now to appreciate the
community we’re a part of. Time to
meet our neighbours, time to partake in an impromptu coffee over a cup of
borrowed sugar and time to offer and accept help from friends without
consideration of coordinated schedules.
More likely it is a combination of these, and perhaps a bit of something
else – the magic that comes from being out here and free of some of the more
restrictive aspects of life ashore.
Whatever it is, we are grateful for it.
