Keeping a lookout

High Seas

"Keeping a lookout" is a concept the cruising community has embraced well beyond the simple act of keeping a keen eye out for passing ships, argues Stuart Kininmonth.

Just imagine you have sold your house, bought your dream yacht and are about to hand the house keys to the new owner. Before you pass the keys over, you run your hands over the front door trimming and say, “She’s well designed and solid, certainly look after ya’ in a storm, keep the maintenance up and, of course, keep a good lookout”.

The new owners frown. “Look out?” they query. With a wise tilt of the head you suggest, “Yeah, every 15 or 20 minutes get up and check the kitchen, check the power meter also and duck your head out the door to check the sky for danger”.

At this stage the new house owners would have placed you into the lunatic or eccentric fringe group of society and yet this simple statement of “keep a lookout” most clearly defines the cruising community.

The great divide

Many book authors, including Jim Trefethen and Hal Roth, describe the cruising sailor as a self-contained individual who is willing to part with the comforts of modern plug-and-play appliances. Lying anchored in remote pockets of the ocean separated from the temptations of 24/7 shopping and entertainment is certainly not for everyone. Yet it’s undeniable that there is not a single mould that defines the character of the sea-bound misfit. People of all walks of life are cruising the world’s oceans. I have met retired merchant captains, fishermen, computer engineers, builders, doctors and everyone in between and all with differing views on life. The one noticeable feature that is common is the willingness to keep a lookout.

While the term “keep a lookout” would initially spark a response about being run over by ships while underway, the cruising community has embraced this expression in a broader sense. At a personal level cruising folk are expected to look after themselves in a very focussed and serious manner. Training in all aspects of life on board, from fire drills to first aid, helps equip the sailor to be self-reliant and knowledgeable. Keeping fit and healthy while gaining experience is also a critical trait. There is no room here for the feeble or the half-hearted sailor, especially when the wind howls and seas pound.

In contrast the ever-increasing circle of litigation and misplaced responsibility that dominates the land dweller makes me wonder where society is heading.

Looking out while underway or even at anchor demands a focus on the world around us. Few people live so tightly bound by the rhythms of life as sailors do. The flow of the tides, the changes in air pressure or the appearance of cumulus clouds on the horizon generate more than a passing interest. Each hour is compared to the hour before and this philosophy of not being caught out napping dominates the sailor’s mind. Reducing the sails or closing the hatches or checking the anchor snub lines is only effective before the onset of inclement weather. Similarly the creak and groans of a vessel straining against the wind and water become like a background heartbeat.

Camaraderie

For many of us, the wonderful attraction of the cruising life is the camaraderie and sense of community. Without doubt cruising sailors will keep a lookout for their fellow travellers in often astounding ways. Keeping a lookout for a yacht drifting at anchor or one ear listening to the VHF radio develops a sense of community I have only seen elsewhere in the more isolated farming communities. And it’s not just based around emergency responses. Sharing a meal with neighbouring yachties to peering down the engine bay offering advice are common ways we interact. Providing a listening ear or a confidence boost is essential to dissipate the stress and frustrations of living. A strong community looks out for all its members.

So our willingness to be alert to ourselves, our environment and the community around us tends to differentiate those who enjoy cruising from those who would find it all too stressful. Will this change in the future? To a certain degree we can alter the comfort levels and even modify the adventurous cruising plans to suit our mood, but we can’t change the state of the sea. As technology permeates through the yachts of tomorrow we might be mistaken in thinking we can relax to the hum of AIS, radar, chartplotters and hundreds of other sentinels, but these machines lack the capacity to sense change and rhythm that make for a proper lookout.

My biggest worry is that the security-focused land-based bureaucracy will start to erode the fundamentals of self-reliance and henceforth degrade the cruising “community”. Thankfully the anarchistic nature of the cruising community will delay the implementation and the freedom of the sea will prevail for at least my lifetime. Oh, time to look out . . .