The smell of friends
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sat 30 Mar 2013 12:58
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How is friendship among yachtes different from
a landlife?
There is probably a lot in common, but let´s look
at what makes it special,at least for us.
First of all our experience is 99% with familes
having kids so it might be different if you are on your own or a
couple.
What we all share is vulnerability so there is
always a sense of dependence upon each other.Our boat might drag when we are
ashore and of course we hope that somebody would do the same to us that we would
do for them, save the boat.
When there is a call for help on the radionet there
are always a bunch of volunteers.
There is no other safety net than the one we
provide ourselfe, and that shows.
The sailing community is small, so you soon know or
recognise the boats as you see them moving the same way that you
are.
Before we left I heard that you will find french
sailors rude and bad at anchor, there is no such difference in nationalities, we
have met the nicest french families and we cannot see nationalities divided by
behaviour.
Normally you are very empathic with someone not
performing to well, they might be tired after a long bad sailing or a night at
anchor can be terrible.
We learn a lot from each other, there is always a
vast amount of information coming around, how to deal with different problems,
navigational, engines, food, upbringing of kids on a boat, seasickness etc
etc.
Now as we are all digital there is a lot of
swapping of digital documents, the memory stick being the most important
tool.
VHF and Shortwave radio being the next most
important tool.
As we arrived to Portobello yesterday we
switched over to channel 72 on the VHF.
Ch 72 being a common hailing channel between
yachts.
So we called a boat that we know might
be here. They answered and we suggested "one down?", meaning we go down a
channel, you never chat on the hailing channel. Then we can ask them for
anchoring experiences and problems in the bay. They will give us that and so do
we for others.
What we have found out is that this life is so
social that we have to take it a little "cool" trying to have our own nights.
It is easy ending up on another yacht every night
with a beer in your hand. The kids are playing and having fun somewhere on the
boat. Adults sharing good stories. Some flat bread being cooked or a been stew
served in pots to everybody. Then we drive home in the dark with our
dinghy (it gets dark around 1900 here), being families with children we are
never late.
When you get a great stew on a boat you ask for a
recipe and eventually you will share knowledge about spices you never used
before.
As with our friends on Sunrise, Laura made great
bean stews and other good food. Their boat always smelled different from others
with cummin, curry, seeds, coriander, salantro, mustard seeds and you name
it.
Now we left them and as we took off she gave us
three bags of different spices and some recepies for food we really
loved.
Tonight I made one of her stews and it is amazing
to feel the smell of Sunrise, rise in our boat. So they are with us in
everything we learned from them.
Conclusion:
Social life among yachtes is far bigger than we
could ever had anticipated.
It is very easy to be social with the English
speaking world, maybe because of the language but also because
they
are very easy going and are great at networking,
especially Aussies and Americans.
Swedish boats? Well, now we have not met or seen
one Swedish boat since we left Grenada. The only one we know going westward is
Miss My and we look forward to see them again in Colon.
Of course it is always easier to communicate in
your own language and probably differences show up more when you understand the
value of words better. But all the Swedes we have met have been easy to deal
with.
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