Jobs on a Boat

“To function at sea, every boat needs a captain, cook, engineer, electrician, navigator, sailmaker, meteorologist, ship's surgeon, and watch captains. In port, you'll need all of these at different times as well as a cruise director, cultural ambassador, naturalist, and interpreter.” --Beth Leonard, The Voyager's Handbook

Beth Leonard's catalogue of crew "jobs" made Sue reflect on how Curtis's and her varied backgrounds might contribute to a successful cruising partnership. Of course, Cilantro hasn't even left the boatyard yet, so who knows how the responsibilities will truly shake out? It could be interesting to look back on this post after we've cruised for a while.

1. Captain: Cap'n Curtis. Cap'n Sue. The captain is in charge, and not just of the helm, or steering wheel. The captain also shoulders responsibility for safety of the crew and boat. She or he may seek suggestions and advice from others but is the ultimate decider when it comes to choosing what a course or course of action to take, whether to motor or sail in particular conditions, what sails to have up, how to trim the sails, when everyone should don PFDs (personal flotation devices, aka life jackets), whether a line of clouds spells danger or just rain, when and where to set the anchor, etc. Each member of a two-person crew has to be willing to relinquish control at times to the other person. Mutual trust and respect are essential. So is acceptance of mistakes (including one's own). We're not perfect, but we should do pretty well.

2. Cook: Sue likes to cook and is intrigued by the challenge of stocking the galley and preparing meals on board. Curtis is a fantastic grill-person but does not prefer planning whole meals. This will be a shared hat on grill nights.

Cilantro's galley: 3-burner propane stove + oven,
double sink, refrigerator (not shown)

3. Engineer: Curtis has a good mechanical background from having built houses, trained as a private pilot, and worked on his own cars. Sue has a little of this background, too, having owned and worked in an auto repair shop (with her first husband), but she prefers a back-up role in engineering.

4. Electrician: Curtis. Sue can rewire a plug and wrap electrical tape around anything, but her head goes fuzzy trying to comprehend circuits.

5. Navigator: Sue learned paper navigating pretty well and is game to learn GPS. Curtis is a former pilot and current technology nerd. He will be glued to the chartplotter and radar screens as well as the iNavX app on the iPad. We're both trained in coastal navigation, so we hope we can get ourselves out of a jam, or avoid one in the first place. We also believe in having many sources of information, including (at a minimum) printed charts, a cruising guide, and chartplotter with maps and GPS. Maybe we'll get a fish finder too!

6. Sailmaker: Sue admits to sewing as a teenager. Of course, that mostly meant shirts and skirts, but maybe some of the general know-how fossilized into her gray matter. Curtis, would you like buttons or a zipper on this sail...? Slash pockets? A shirred hem?

Name those cloud types!

7. Meteorologist: Curtis, a certified weather geek, is always talking about frontal passages and the like. Sue likes to take pictures of cool cloud formations. Curtis wins.

8. Ship's surgeon: We might be in trouble on this one. We should probably put Curtis's sister Loren (a nurse practitioner and wound care specialist) on satellite phone speed dial. Curtis thinks a first aid course is in our future.

9. Watch captain: This is the job of staying alert at the helm on a long passage, day or night, while the other person sleeps. But Sue isn't signing on for long passages yet, so this hat stays in the hatbox for now.

10. Cruise director: Curtis plays this role on most of our travels, although he definitely accommodates requests from Sue. 

Green heron

11. Cultural ambassador: Both of us could do this, but Sue is probably more sensitive to the "cultural" aspect. Curtis, however, is fabulous at meeting people anywhere under any circumstances. 

12. Naturalist: Both, enthusiastically. We met each other on an Audubon trip to Texas in 1995. We are birders, Sue is now a botany nut, Curtis has a degree in biogeography, and we are excited to learn about whales, dolphins, and other sea creatures -- including lobsters in Maine this summer. Nature tends to impress us more than the human race does.

13. Interpreter: Sue habla español (y sigue aprendiendo). Sue parle français (un petit peu). Curtis can download an app for this.