Sailing practice and autonomy
Anticipation and autonomy, the two keys to bluewater sailing
When at sea, a crisis situation can quickly escalate into very unappealing scenarios.
Coastal / offshore autonomy
When at sea, a crisis situation can quickly escalate into very unappealing scenarios. The first antidote to this kind of dead end remains anticipation. Made of grey matter and 100% natural elbow grease, it will allow you to master the elements and avoid the vast majority of problems at sea.
When sailing, anticipation must therefore become second nature. More concretely, it concerns everything that can be foreseen to avoid dangerous situations and that can be classified in the following areas:
-human (physical fatigue, “silly” accidents, tensions between crew members), -environmental (dangerous weather, keeping the boat on the right course)
-equipment (keeping the boat in good working condition).
These three levels are also concerned by our second key word, autonomy. For greater safety, you must train yourself to manage as many situations as possible without external assistance. Of course, autonomy is acquired with “sea time”. What does it contain? A cocktail of experience, skills and determination that will allow you to face the unexpected. Of course, the bottle improves with age, within certain limits of course...
As you will have understood, setting off is not improvised. The most effective solution remains to train in a cruising school with competent professionals. A friendly piece of advice: diversifying experiences with different skippers will help you gain perspective on different techniques, extract their essence and keep the ones you like best. If you work diligently, after a minimum of two seasons you should be ready to take the plunge (figuratively speaking of course), while being aware of your limits, in order to “log the miles” and gain experience. Once techniques are acquired, one never learns better than in a position of responsibility where everything must be analyzed independently... even if it means coming back to train again to fill the few gaps that remain. After two or three years of such treatment, beginner symptoms should have completely disappeared.
