I’m subscribed on several crew-finding sites, although  (because I often sail solo these days) I don’t NEED to find crew to sail Mojo back to the Caribbean for the 2026-27 winter season.  But it’s more sociable and fun with others on board, especially if it’s their first time transatlantic.  So EXCITING!   

I kinda suspect that Mojo is an attractive option for wannabe crew.  Big boat, done the trip many times before and nice references too.   I had over a hundred contacts in just the first six weeks. This downwind Transat is popular.  I started looking in late June.  The most organised wannabe crew do the same. 

Over fifty different people have now completed a transatlantic trip with me, mostly first-timers, although several have come with me more than once.  Some have been very skilled sailors, but most haven’t.  Yes, they all survived. 

It’s usual and understandable that skippers often take crew who are similar to themselves - similar age, similar experience and perhaps long-standing friends.  I did the same the first time across.  These days I find it more fun to find new a new crew: new people with new perspectives and new stories. 

It’s also a valid challenge, a test to get the boat ready for new crew.  I’ll need to go through the whole boat with them, not just “same again” for the same gang.  Renewing the crew kinda forces full review of everything. A good discipline. 

So how to choose the crew? It’s all online of course.

First the easy cut: no photo, no deal.  Photo of them unwashed or dreadlocks and they’ll either stink or clog the shower drain - nope.  Vegans or vegetarians meh, too awkward, no.  Couples - no, not on this trip; it can be a bad dynamic- a team within a team.  I also get antsy if they’re too specific, too much NOT this NOT that on their bio.  It’s a free trip, not a cruise ship? 

Surely any crew will need lots of sailing expertise?  No, not really.  However expert they are, they won’t “know the boat” so I’ll have to show-tell everything to everyone, regardless of their experience. I’m struggling to think of many transatlantic sailing skills that are taught by RYA sailing courses: there’s hardly any other ships/boats, no shore or dock for hundreds of miles and the depth sounder is irrelevant.  Even the sailing is mostly a downwind spinnaker, a big bag, not cleverly-trimmed sails. The most relevant knowledge is - do you get seasick?  

Professional sailing crew wanting a ride towards the Caribbean season might be a good fit.  But I don’t want anyone too sailing-weary, laid-back, deflating the excitement, or who roll their eyes at yet ANOTHER safety briefing.  Super-experienced crew may even kinda indicate that they’re “doing me a favour” because they “usually get paid”.  No thanks.  

Sailing qualifications aren’t a bad thing of course, but maybe some qualifications might ultimately “over-teach” safety to the extent that EVERYTHING about a Transat is “dangerous”.  One of my most anxious crew was a Yachtmaster Examiner, very expert.   But he’d spent a lifetime sailing in small boats at speeds where I’d start motoring if it got that slow. Almost the entire trip was (for him) Dangerously Fast.  

“Owning their own boat back home” also sounds good. But I once took several guys who ALL had their own boats back home - and brought great trepidation with them. Their decision to go with someone else on a bigger boat was perhaps telling. 

Specialist skills can be more useful than sailing prowess: medical professionals, auto electricians, computer whizzkids,  diesel mechanics and professional chefs can be great, but they’re rare.

More immediately useful is local-language native fluency - Spanish in this case. I can speak reasonable French, not Spanish.  But they need fluent English so they’ll understand sometimes-technical explanations addressing safety. They must be able to hold and follow conversations, in English.  

I check if wannabes have actually acted upon their claimed interest in boats/sailing, whether they seem interesting, intelligent, fun and chatty, and if their bio shows effort - especially if they’ve tailored their efforts addressing this boat and this trip.  

If they’ve raced sailing boats (not just once) then that’s Very Good.  They’ll rush to implement whatever my latest strategy/daft idea or hopefully have better ideas.  Racers respond well to any sort of time deadline, including emergencies.  They’re often the Right Stuff, they LOVE speed, and can inspire others too.  

If people have shown keen interest in a Transat but haven’t done very much sailing, then I’m looking for them to have done other adventurous/iffy stuff: rock climbing, motorbikes, skiing, scuba or similar. 

It’s another plus if they’re long-time travel junkies and/or have actually lived on a boat full-time for weeks/months; they’re adaptable and likely fine about almost anything on board. They’ll say positive things like “Wow, hot water” and “What, so everything actually WORKS?”

I prefer honest excitement rather than those who “play it cool”.  Their enthusiasm should be obvious, infectious and only barely controlled.   I want people who can hardly BELIEVE they’re being considered, that OMG they’re actually going to do a Transat! Argh! And yeehah!  Butterflies, apprehension- that’s a good thing.  

On crew websites the boys outnumber girls maybe 8:1.  I’ve laid out in the bio that we share the cooking, but not many boys tick the “enjoy cooking” box, most indicating that they’re only “willing” in that department or “should be okay”.  Hmm. 

A key issue is Mojo’s big 4-berth aft cabin starboard, which kinda means it’s gotta be all boys OR all girls. It’s good to have at least SOME girls in a crew - a civilising influence.  Last time downwind 2022 I took an all-girl crew and it worked well.  So I decided to do that again. 

Food, mealtimes and cooking are an  under-considered aspect of long-distance sailing.  Mealtimes become much more important at sea, not less.  And of course there’s proportionally more cooking needed with more crew.  Whereas everything else - the sailing and boat-related activities (fuelling, fixing stuff) stay exactly the same.  Only the food prep scales up with more crew. Yes, okay, more water, more lifejackets, easy enough. 

Foodwise, the options are to have a dedicated cook OR to rotate the food prep between the crew. Easily the most fun is to rotate. Nobody can really complain or snigger if the dedicated cook/chef has a bad day.  Very demotivating.  Whereas it’s perfectly okay to josh each other if taking turns. “What are you gonna burn for lunch today?” Haha. Not too much though - it’s your turn soon! 

Seriously, it’s odd that otherwise expert sailors often can’t (or won’t) do ALL the everyday jobs on a boat, including cooking.  I think it’s a crummy sailor who can’t cook.  Yet it’s perfectly possible to gain offshore sailing qualifications - even to boss a superyacht - without the slightest idea of how to boil an egg. 

The rotation of cooking works because it’s fair and equitable.  And the key aspect of rotation is not so much that it’s YOUR turn one day in four - it’s that the other three days it ISN’T your turn.   No muttering about who “avoids the washing up”, no sexist shit that “obviously” the boys do the sailing and the girls stay in the galley.  And yes, skipper helps watch-keeper at the helm AND skipper helps in the galley if needed too, whatever it takes.  

Of course, we all help get things to and from the table. And we all keep the place clean if making coffee or snacks at night; it’s a rotating “mother” watch system, not a rotating “slave” watch system. 

If they get through all those filters …we’ll have a video phone chat.  

For me, the phone chat should last MUCH longer than planned, and afterwards I oughta feel that the boat would be better  off (and the trip more fun) WITH them along rather than without, definitely.  The  question is - could you get along with this person well enough to spend a few weeks with them on board?

This isn’t the first time I’ve taken female crew of course, and it’ll be the second time I’ve taken ALL-female crew.  So it obviously worked well the first time.  

So!  I’ve found

• an American race sailor/teacher since childhood who crewed on a Med charter boat this season and has rave reviews attached to her bio from other skippers, some of whom plead for her to return.  She’s also enroute to Mojo, flying over to check it out as I write this, and to drop off her sailing gear. 
• a European one-time boat owner/liveaboard who grilled me about the boat, safety gear, medical kit and loved her several years afloat. 
• a wannabe Yachtmaster, Spanish with fluent English, scuba diver, and parents include a commercial mariner.  One of her photos shows her hanging outside a moving train.  She’s planning to visit Mojo for a week in September because a local boating safety course got cancelled.
• another American, from California, been everywhere,  crew/adventurer who had annual holidays on parents’ boat in France for years,  and last year  joined another catamaran in French Polynesia for a month, all fine. 

They’re all variously enthusiastic from “extremely” to “level 11” and beyond.  It’s Laura, Emily, Nerea and Andrea.   

How do I know they’re definitely gonna turn up? Well, I don’t - uncertainties are partly what makes it an adventure.  But  there’s lotsa hitchhiking types in Las Palmas through November if any of this crew  unexpectedly can’t make it, and I’ve kept details of other possibles too.  I’ve needed to find last-minute crew before four separate Transat trips.  It won’t stop the trip.