Alone at the Helm in a Storm on his FIRST OFFSHORE SAIL | LIVE
I’ve been delivering boats for 25 years and I’ve sailed over 90,000 miles offshore. I’ve sailed with great captains, bad captains, and a few I’d never step aboard with again. When I started writing Be The Crew, I asked you to send me your stories. You did.
One sailor was alone at the helm off the Washington coast in a building storm. The autopilot was dead, the engine alarm was screaming, and the captain never left his bunk. One delivery left Maine with the engine seacock closed, algae in the fuel, and the sails still sitting on the dock. One two-man passage turned into a screaming match over a preventer, and the crew member spent the rest of the trip keeping his distance from the rail. And one crew member heading north from San Francisco held the jib on with a soft shackle he’d tied while listening to the audiobook.
Tonight we’re talking about the decision that comes before any of that: whether to step aboard at all. How to vet a captain before you fly halfway around the world to meet him. What to ask, what to watch for on the video call, and when to walk away. And what good crew looks like when the captain isn’t up to the job.
First, a quick recap from Annapolis. Then it’s your questions. Crewing, boats, gear, passages, buying decisions. Bring them.
*Got a captain story of your own:* [email protected]
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⏱️ CHAPTERS
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Chapters will be added after the stream.
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⚓ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
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⚔️ Inner Circle on Patreon (join the WhatsApp crew): https://www.patreon.com/c/bethecaptain
📖 Be The Captain, my maritime field manual on seamanship, leadership, and crisis at sea (unlocks 10% off Defender Marine + 20% off PredictWind): English: https://bethecaptain.com/ · Español: https://a.co/d/08yiAfse
🧰 Free downloads in the Captain’s Locker: https://bethecaptain.com/locker
📚 Getting ready to buy a boat? Leadsman offers market intelligence and 17-page vessel condition reports: https://leadsman.ai/
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Defender Marine: outfitting boaters since 1938 with trusted marine gear, expert advice, and refit supplies. 👉 https://defender.com/en_us/
PredictWind: the world leader in offshore marine weather forecasting, routing, and departure planning. 👉 https://www.predictwind.com/
#sailing #offshoresailing #bluewatersailing #sailingcrew #crewing #liveaboard #BeTheCaptain #BeTheCrew
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I've been delivering boats for 25 years and I've sailed over 90,000 miles offshore. I've sailed with great captains, bad captains, and a few I'd never step aboard with again. When I started writing Be The Crew, I asked you to send me your stories. You did.
One sailor was alone at the helm off the Washington coast in a building storm. The autopilot was dead, the engine alarm was screaming, and the captain never left his bunk. One delivery left Maine with the engine seacock closed, algae in the fuel, and the sails still sitting on the dock. One two-man passage turned into a screaming match over a preventer, and the crew member spent the rest of the trip keeping his distance from the rail. And one crew member heading north from San Francisco held the jib on with a soft shackle he'd tied while listening to the audiobook.
Tonight we're talking about the decision that comes before any of that: whether to step aboard at all. How to vet a captain before you fly halfway around the world to meet him. What to ask, what to watch for on the video call, and when to walk away. And what good crew looks like when the captain isn't up to the job.
First, a quick recap from Annapolis. Then it's your questions. Crewing, boats, gear, passages, buying decisions. Bring them.
*Got a captain story of your own:* [email protected]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⏱️ CHAPTERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Chapters will be added after the stream.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚓ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚔️ Inner Circle on Patreon (join the WhatsApp crew): https://www.patreon.com/c/bethecaptain
📖 Be The Captain, my maritime field manual on seamanship, leadership, and crisis at sea (unlocks 10% off Defender Marine + 20% off PredictWind): English: https://bethecaptain.com/ · Español: https://a.co/d/08yiAfse
🧰 Free downloads in the Captain's Locker: https://bethecaptain.com/locker
📚 Getting ready to buy a boat? Leadsman offers market intelligence and 17-page vessel condition reports: https://leadsman.ai/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚓ RECOMMENDED GEAR & PARTNERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Defender Marine: outfitting boaters since 1938 with trusted marine gear, expert advice, and refit supplies. 👉 https://defender.com/en_us/
PredictWind: the world leader in offshore marine weather forecasting, routing, and departure planning. 👉 https://www.predictwind.com/
#sailing #offshoresailing #bluewatersailing #sailingcrew #crewing #liveaboard #BeTheCaptain #BeTheCrew
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Alone at the Helm in a Storm on his FIRST OFFSHORE SAIL | LIVE
I've been delivering boats for 25 years and I've sailed over 90,000 miles offshore. I've sailed with great captains, bad captains, and a few I'd never step aboard with again. When I started writing Be The Crew, I asked you to send me your stories. You did. One sailor was alone a...
Alone at the Helm in a Storm on his FIRST OFFSHORE SAIL | LIVE
I've been delivering boats for 25 years and I've sailed over 90,000 miles offshore. I've sailed with great captains, bad captains, and a few I'd never step aboard with again. When I started writing Be The Crew, I asked you to send me your stories. You did. One sailor was alone a...
Your Boat Is Not Worth Your Life
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They Hit a Marked Rock at Over 11 Knots
An Oyster weighing more than 120,000 pounds struck a marked rock at over 11 knots during Hamilton Race Week. Cutting a corner while racing under spinnaker puts the severity of this grounding into context for the debate over keel safety. Full Stream: 📗 Get My Book:
A Violent Grounding With the Keel Still Attached
Team Vestas strikes a reef after sailing at roughly 19 knots at night, but the keel remains attached. The crash footage carries a simple navigation lesson: zoom in on the chart and check the hazards along your route. Full Stream: 📗 Get My Book: