Sailing around Australia; Many hats

12/4/2013 Many Hats

No matter where we are, whenever we are together with the “Zofian’s” (aka Brian and Eva of SV Zofia) we have quite a few laughs.

On Brian’s birthday he received a gift of a replica police cap. As they were on board Easy Tiger for lunch at the time, I raced inside and got my fire service hat. We also found a customs officer hat in our collection. That hat we sat on our table and toasted the third member of our sailing trio who was absent, but would have worn the customs hat with pride.

We laughed at Brian with his hat on as he tried to be authoritarian in a cockney accent attached to a red when slur. I was putting my head up to the horizon in search of any sign of smoke, while advising everyone that I was a “coiled spring”, ready for action with hose at the ready.

It was decided that what was needed next was an Indian head-dress and a construction workers helmet so that we would have the entire village people collection!

The topic of hats, reminded me of a book that I read by Edward de bono, called 6 thinking hats. That book explains that there are 6 ways of looking at a problem or even 6 ways to answer a question.

I started thinking of the many hats that people on a sailing adventure must wear and how important it is to share these hats around.

1. The Captains Hat; On Easy Tiger, I wear the captains hat. The buck has to stop somewhere. It doesn’t mean that I make all the decisions, as anyone who knows Leanne will attest. I tend to do the passage planning, setting the waypoints etc...

2. The First Mate /Communications Hat; Leanne is the first mate on Easy Tiger. She does most of the vhf radio work, contacting VMR’s and logging on to marine safety networks. Plus Leanne makes many suggestions on passage planning etc…

3.The Weather Hat; We made a decision recently that we will both look at the weather forecasts every day at breakfast. The weather forecasts dictate what we do every day.

4. The Catering / Providors hat; Leanne wears this one on Easy Tiger. We try to do major provisioning whenever and wherever facilities are easy to access.

5.The Engineers Hat, Its my brief to keep everything working, maintained and serviced on Easy Tiger. Fuel and water come under this hat.

6.Sail masters Hat; I do most of the sail set up and trim on Easy Tiger, although Leanne does the trim when she is on watch.

7. Ropes and storage hat; I will be the first to admit that when it comes to rolling ropes up neatly and packing away I am unco, and dyslexic. I tie the knots, Leanne tidies and wrangles the ropes, fenders etc…

8. Fishing hat; Leanne is undoubtedly the master of fishing on Easy Tiger. My inability with ropes is only surpassed with my inability with fishing line.

9.Deckhand Hat; Outside the boat is my brief. The dew must be mopped off each morning and we like to keep the decks free of bird messages and dust. Inside is Leanne’s domain.

10. Anchoring / Mooring crew hat; When we are going to anchor I am on the front deck with Leanne on the helm, when we approach a mooring Leanne is on deck and I run the helm.

11. Socialiser’s Hat; I think it’s fair to say that Leanne specializes in keeping in touch with family and friends, face booking and organizing social events. My bit is to write the blog.

12.Watch keeper’s hat; Leanne and I share this hat when on passages. We normally run around three hour watches but this is a nominal figure that is often varied as to how we are feeling at the time.

With at least twelve different hats worn by cruising sailors, it is easy to see why things on board can get a bit heated and one or the other can feel a bit miffed.

We find that a fair distribution of hats is what works best for us. The real trick to teamwork on board comes in assisting the other with their current hat, not trying to wear it for them.