conversation over breakfast could have been about what home improvement was going to be accomplished that weekend: Te pros, the cons, the timing, the supplies we’d need, and maybe questions about the right time to get it done…and more. I don’t think there’s much difference in running a boat versus running a household—same conversations, different details. To take this idea a bit further, when do you get stressed and


need your space on land? When things are path critical; when they’re not going your way from either outside forces or not being on the same page with your partner. Te same is true on a boat. Our outside stressor was the weather. 2018 was a hot and humid summer for New England (what’s up with that?), when we had taken this adventure to skip the heat and humidity of the Chesapeake Bay. Our adventure dished up days of either no wind, from Gratitude to Chesapeake City, or wind in the wrong direction from Point Judith Harbor of Refuge to New London (ick—motorsailing), or just too much wind (why, yes, let’s spend an extra day in Nantucket because we’re getting swamped over the transom while trying to depart). But the solutions are the same in tight quarters as they are anywhere else. For the factors you can’t control, you make a plan that is as pleasant as possible. In our case, it was stopping a bit earlier to anchor so a cool-down swim aſter motorsailing could be done before making dinner… or deciding to revisit the cutesy bookstore because it’s looking like an additional reading day in Nantucket is on the calendar, wanted or not. Learning to assuage your inner child when out- side factors create stress has little to do with the proximity of other people. As for not being on the same page, well, the solving of that is


the same no matter how much space you have. You gotta talk it out, and the small-boat size can be a favorable circumstance. In a


SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR


bigger space (or larger boat,) you can avoid talking to the other person. But on a small boat, even if you’re not speaking, you’re still in each other’s space—going to the galley or head, going on deck, you’re constantly aware of where the other person is. It’s a form of being on the same page, even when you’re not seeing eye to eye. You’re still doing the dance of getting out of each other’s way, and still cooperating. On land, “hand me that fill-in- the-blank,” can easily be retorted with “get it yourself ” or even, “I’m outta here.” But when mad at each other on a small boat, the hand-me-whatever, results in the whatever handed-over, because there’s no physical room for them to get it themselves. It’s that idea of cooperating through necessity that will facilitate the talking through of the problem, and getting back on the same page faster than if you had the luxury of lots of space or the ability to leave. None of this has to do with sailing the boat. It’s not that I’m


overlooking the obvious, it’s just that everyone who has ever said our boat is too small for their vacationing comfort is not talking about the boat’s performance or its ability to get from Point A to B. Admittedly, we don’t point so well, and our protruding belly of a main doesn’t help, but that’s not what people mean. Tey are talking about daily living in close quarters. I stand by my go-to comparison that small boating is like small-apartment living, and no one runs around saying that’s impossible. Instead, it is celebrated as bohemian and edgy. It’s for the young and those who have more important things to worry about, like where they want to sail next. Besides, if you wait until you can afford the roomier big boat, you might never get to go on your adventures. (Tere’s also the concept that the smaller boat is less complicated to operate, which means less to go wrong. Less stress and less drama equals fewer disagreements, and that’s what most


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