Written by JFA Yacht & Ship Consultant Jim Query
If every sailor is a storyteller, I am proudly one too. I have many stories to share but when someone asks my favorite, one specifically always comes to mind.
My wife Kristi and I took a two-week trip to the Virgin Islands in 2015 aboard our sailing catamaran, “Being Nauti.” We had friends, as well as my brother and his wife, with us for the first week. Then, some of our crew had to fly back, so we picked up another set of friends for the second week and made the same loop. Both were exceptional weeks – the fun, the fellowship – and it was fascinating how the same exact trip could be so different based on the group of people on board.
It was the first time through the Virgin Islands for everyone but Kristi and myself, so they were seeing new places, but what was extra special for me was that they had never been on a sailing catamaran before.
Being on a smaller sailing cat (it was a 41-foot boat), everybody must be involved. When you’re sailing there’s a lot of togetherness and we built such beautiful camaraderie as we worked as a team. From picking up the mooring balls and raising the main sail, to getting out the jib and making sure we had a good set when the anchor went down. This tremendous collaboration brought up good conversation during the long hours we spent together. We learned things about our crew we had never known before, even after many years of friendship!
In life it can seem as if we live in this never-ending rat race. Especially as an entrepreneur, you’re always chasing something and working on what’s next. Power boating is almost an extension of that “go-go-go” mentality but with sailing, it slows. Everything is about the journey.
The time we spent together when the engines were off and the sails were up, is a time I will always cherish. If I close my eyes, I can still hear the wind in the sails, the creeping in the rigging, and the slap of the water on the keel and the hulls. Knowing I was surrounded by some of the people I love most in this world – that’s what it’s all about! I felt more connected to my friends and family than ever before.
We still talk about the trip with each crew to this day, and we still laugh thinking about funny stories from our time together. I can’t wait to get the whole group back together again someday. I know we’ll never recapture that trip, but I know we will be able to recapture some of that feeling.
