The fear of sailing

As I single hand a fair amount, perhaps the trick is to have faith in the boat and let it do most of the worrying?
Why sit scared cold and wet and tired in the cockpit when you can reduce sail a bit more but still move along v nicely, go below and cook a nice hearty meal, warm bunk fer a read, pop head out of the hatch every 20 minutes or so. Radio, play geetar, whatever..

I am far more 'wary' close to land ( which inevitably means the entire Englsih coastline sadly. A jolly beat to windward in 15 knots can become something else with an adverse strong tide, some squalls, a few more knots of wind that puts you a bit more on a lees shore if anything breaks, and a skip who has not remembered to stay warm, well fed and rested...

Basically at sea I let the boat do its thing, my job is to be on 24h standby rested and able, and able to fix stuff that might need attending to, well enough to carry on to destination without jeapardy.
Does that help?
 
Daydream believer said:
Most of my sailing is single handed & i have been sailing thus for About 13 years. I have been sailing with crews for 54 years. So all in all i have a reasonable amount of sailing under my belt. I have sailed round the norther half of Biscay, been to Holland as far as Amsterdam i sailed up & down the English Channel numerous times & last year i sailed round England via the Cally Canal on my own.
Today i met a single hander who has almost completed the same circumnavigation as myself. He was asking about the leg from Ramsgate to Dover. He suddenly admitted that he was S...t scared!!!
This lead me to thinking--- here is a man who has sailed round England & still is nervous about a short trip o Dover
I then realised that I am just as scared about journeys as he is.
If i sit in a strange port too long i get" marina bound" i listen to the wind in the rigging, i look at the swell outside the harbour & really do not want to go especially so the longer i stay.

Once outside & the sails are up & i am settled in i feel i can go on forever. It is just that horrible setting off bit i cannot avoid

How do others feel at the start of journeys. Are you excited & anxious to get going or do you have to force yourself?
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Your description fits me exactly except that I am too afraid to single hand. I go out racing in any weather in winter as skipper with a full crew of pals but as soon as summer comes along and I am in effect single handing with SWMBO I get harbour rot big time.

I suspect that we arent alone.

I have complete faith in my boat. What I dont have complete faith in is me.
 
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prv said:
Still irrational, though, as she's no less likely to drown just because some cliffs are visible on the horizon...

Pete
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Human beans is irrational; we stopped for a dip half way between Gib and Malta on a delivery trip once, perhaps 50 miles from the algerian coast and flat calm. It felt most odd swimming in the that depth of water, I had visions of being eaten by sharks so didn't stay in long(despite there being no risk of being eaten by anything).
 
Interesting thread.

Personally, I get nervous before nearly every trip. Once the engine is on and there's stuff to do, it goes entirely, until there's nothing to do again., which normally means when we're next tied up safely. It's irrational, but to some degree, seamanship is pessimism.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
Your description fits me exactly except that I am too afraid to single hand. I go out racing in any weather in winter as skipper with a full crew of pals but as soon as summer comes along and I am in effect single handing with SWMBO I get harbour rot big time.

I suspect that we arent alone.



I have complete faith in my boat. What I dont have complete faith in is me.
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+1 without the racing bit.
 
The venerable Slocum remarked on this subject......something about the sea is for sailing on and should not be forgotten.Many a time I have looked out from the shore on a dark windy night and thought ,not nice to be at sea then I recall I have been at sea in such condition and everything was ok,faith in the boat and your practiced skills.
 
mogy said:
The venerable Slocum remarked on this subject......something about the sea is for sailing on and should not be forgotten.Many a time I have looked out from the shore on a dark windy night and thought ,not nice to be at sea then I recall I have been at sea in such condition and everything was ok,faith in the boat and your practiced skills.
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I think that sums it up beautifully
Once i am out there i am at one with the sea
I have no fear about the boat it is just my ability to get up & actually DO it that has me on edge
Invariably i do "do it" but i always have that nagging doubt before departure
 
Fear no, concern and anxiety ... yes.

I do a lot of ocean passages and day sailing too.

I am concerned and anxious when I am sailing a boat that is new to me. I am concerned that the route may have uncharted hazards. I am anxious about the weather and whether I can protect my boat from damage.

When I am sailing on boats where I am not in charge, I am concerned that the captain is capable and is capable of listening.

When I am sailing alone I am concerned about getting enough rest to pilot my boat safely.

Fear? .... what is there to be frightened of? Not being able to cope with a situation? I've always found that decisions are easier the worse the conditions are as there are fewer alternatives. Fear is self-defeating.

Fear must surely be caused by not being in control of your destiny and not trusting the person or thing that is.

I once had a ten year old boy on the boat. As soon as we left the dock he started to panic. His mother was there and she didn't help as she was anxious too. I got the boy helming the boat. He then had a great time and started to learn about his environment. His mother got better too as she wasn't worried about her son .... and shared in his joy.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
Your description fits me exactly except that I am too afraid to single hand. I go out racing in any weather in winter as skipper with a full crew of pals but as soon as summer comes along and I am in effect single handing with SWMBO I get harbour rot big time.

I suspect that we arent alone.

I have complete faith in my boat. What I dont have complete faith in is me.
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Me too.... not a worry in the world when I have an occasional crew (a trouble shared and all that??) but single handed I will always have a feeling of trepidation or anxiety... over imagination??

I've spent my entire professional career looking for problems before they occur, and putting in places the fixes and processes to ensure that should they happen they can be fixed/circumvented quickly - I reckon that thought process has spilt over into my out of work life... :rolleyes:
 
Fantasie 19 said:
ensure that should they happen they can be fixed/circumvented quickly - I reckon that thought process has spilt over into my out of work life... :rolleyes:
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;) And don't thoughts grow with attention !

As a single hander, in port on your own in bad weather, you can think yourself bananas if you're not careful. Why do we do it ?

Lucky I only do short hops and day sails now.

There was a nice piece from the philosopher Aldous Huxley . Following a lifetime in pursuit of truth, when asked what was most important, he is reported to have said " After all the years of studying philosophy it's a bit embarrassing that upon departing this world I have little other advice than " Be a little kinder than you need to be" . I think this applies to ourselves as well. ;)
 
I'm finding this thread tremendously affirming. I thought it was just me! The common theme seems to be that it is in the planning and lead up to departure that most of the anxiety lies. I envy those who are not affected by this.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
Your description fits me exactly except that I am too afraid to single hand. I go out racing in any weather in winter as skipper with a full crew of pals but as soon as summer comes along and I am in effect single handing with SWMBO I get harbour rot big time.

I suspect that we arent alone.

I have complete faith in my boat. What I dont have complete faith in is me.
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Understandable. :p
 
Another one, always get a touch of anxiety before casting off, and can usually be found pacing pontoon going over the plan, once off it all settles down.
 
Does it help to know your class of boat has been sailed across the Atlantic or circumnavigated......my boat is an Albin Vega which seems to have been everywhere.....so if we dont go to sea its probably us!
 
My greatest fear is of having to go on the coachroof or foredeck when it's v. rough and the boat is being thrown about. This is a logical fear as I have a very poor sense of balance and also get feelings of vertigo looking down into approaching wave troughs when standing at the mast. Obviousy I have jackstays etc. but the fear is still there. If I don't have a crew who is free from these disabilities I am very fussy about the forecast weather I'll go out in.

My boat has most lines brought back to the cockpit but you never know when something will snarl up or break, and I still have to go on deck to put in my third reef or pull the down the last third of mainsail when dropping it.
 
:o

Yes, quite ordinary thoughts and trepidations i'd say :o

Unfortunately the longer one goes without doing it the more the trepidations grow :o and lack of confidence, maybe, takes over

Also perhaps its our 'comfort zone' that we are leaving behind or at least emerging from, slowly, and as with 're building' a boat over a long period of years its now become our 'comfort zone' ashore, talking and thinking about boats and boating :D

Or just maybe boating and sailing is really not for us :mad: after all :p
 
Woodlouse said:
I can't remember ever being scared at sea.........
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My, so far only, crossing of the Channel as skipper, though I have done it many times with no worry at all as part of a crew .... all was going well, and we had crossed one of the shipping lanes with no difficulty ...
then the fog came down
Scared? just a bit, in fact quite a lot

(and then the sun shone, and the fog vanished ... the RELIEF!)

now have an AIS receiver and a BIG radar reflector to replace the small one
 
Capt Popeye said:
Also perhaps its our 'comfort zone' that we are leaving behind or at least emerging from, slowly, and as with 're building' a boat over a long period of years its now become our 'comfort zone' ashore, talking and thinking about boats and boating :D Or just maybe boating and sailing is really not for us :mad: after all :p
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Wise words - and in my case the very reason I took up sailing - to shake me out of the rut. In my business (large US corporation) our training geeks talk about "paradigm shift" - going sailing is my attempt at "paradigm shift"... :D
 
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