The Strangest Thing I’ve Ever Done
“I would guess that we are one of five sailboats that will sail through the Falklands this year.”
For someone who has never sailed in their life, I was really diving into the deep end, taking an RYA Competent Crew course in the “Furious Fifties.” The reason for my trip: I am acting as a guinea pig for a program called The Preparation which is meant to prepare young men for the future. This program is designed to be a replacement for the only three routes advertised to young men today - go to college, the military, or a dead-end job. Over the past year I’ve been gaining various skills from becoming a certified EMT and wildland firefighter, to learning horsemanship and working as a ranch hand on a regenerative cattle ranch. The idea to add sailing to my list of skills for The Preparation was given to me by my friend Matt Bracken, a long-time sailor himself.
Maxim and Yannick stowing the mainsail
Intro to Sailing
The basic mechanics of sailing aren’t the most difficult thing to learn in the world, but things do get more complex on a 23-meter boat with a mainsail, mizzen, and 3 headsails (genoa, jib, and staysail). Multiple people are required to hoist the main and mizzen, tighten preventers, furl and unfurl the headsails, and drop or pick up the anchor. Just about everything on Amundsen is at least a two man job. I found starting to sail on a larger and more complex boat was actually helpful for me to learn more.
I learned about basic navigation, rope work, knots, helming, wildlife, leadership, terminology, cooking, and other bits of seamanship throughout the course of the trip. Each moment of sailing was awesome despite the cold, the wind, and seasickness.
Sailing through a squall - with Bonnie, John, Paul and Maxim
Cooking a roast lamb dinner for eight
Baptism by Fire
The few times I have been to sea were only ever on cruise ships where you can hardly feel the movement of the ocean beneath you, maybe twice in my life. Our first day of sailing began many hours after dinner. We were due for a 14 hour trip.
We picked up the anchor and snubber, set a few reefs on the main and mizzen sails, unfurled the staysail, and started our course around the islands.
I was fine for an hour or so until the rocking motion of the boat over rough seas began to have an effect on me. My legs started to shake ever so slightly and I tried to look at the light from ships on the distance to focus my mind on a stable object, but it was too much for my body to handle.
At one point I thought to myself that if the next 2+ weeks were like this I would rather die. I could barely move or speak without nearly throwing up. Then it happened. It was a brief reprieve from the seasickness. It came back quick and, now being extremely tired, I laid down and fell asleep on the deck for a few minutes. The cold interrupted my sleep though, so I ended up stumbling to my cabin at midships and slept until 1pm the next day when a crew member (who’s now a friend) woke me up. Seasickness is an unpleasant rite of passage.
Resting in the rolling seas
The ocean crossing to Punta Arenas is something I will never forget. We hit choppy water as soon as we left the cover of the islands and as we ventured further into the open ocean we dealt with high fetch (greater height and width of waves) which were the cause of the nauseating motion. Nearly everyone got seasick. I remember eating good risotto for lunch, looking down at it, and thinking to myself, “I’ll probably see this again later”.
Indeed, that lunch went to waste.
Another crew member, who graciously took up my job to make lunch on the first day of our crossing, went back and forth between the galley and the bathroom 4 or 5 times that day to throw up. As far as I know, everyone got seasick that day except for a wise, kind, and fiery 72 year old woman (another student) from Liverpool. Somehow, and I’m happy for it, she was lively and unaffected by sea sickness the entire trip.
Meeting interesting people
In the West Falklands, we bounced around from island to island - Pebble Island, Keppel Island, Saunders, New Island, Beaver Island, Dyke Island, Dunbar Peninsula, and West Point.
Keppel Island is famous for the fact that Anglican missionaries brought the Yaghan people from Tierra del Fuego to a settlement on Keppel. The married Yaghans were separated from the single men, and the single Yaghan women were maids and housekeepers for the missionaries who sought to convert them.
Shane, the new owner of Keppel Island now wants to start his own tourist business to make some money and help preserve the island’s history. He told us that quite a lot of Falkland Islanders want to visit the island as well. On top of that he owns 600 sheep and is always at work on the island.
The Keppel Island settlement and Amundsen in the background
Later on while trying to hide out from a strong system that was coming in the Poncet family allowed us to attach the boat to a mooring buoy outside of their home on Beaver Island.
Amundsen with some of the Poncet’s boats at Beaver Island
Now, I had never heard of the Poncets before this trip, but they are a famous sailing family. To give you an idea of the type of people they are, in the 1980s, Jérôme and his then-wife Sally overwintered in Antarctica, with their boat frozen into the ice. Sally became pregnant, and when they thawed from the ice, rather than return to society, they made a trip to South Georgia where their son, Dion, was born on the boat’s table.
It was a great privilege to meet the Poncets as they are legends in the sailing world. Not only that, but we were invited into their home and given a tour around their property before we left.
Dion and his wife are incredibly kind and welcoming. And, when you meet Dion, it’s clear that he can fix just about anything. He has an intimate understanding of boats, sailing, and every type of craft that is required to build and maintain a boat.
Maxim, John, Kate and Rachel with Jérôme Poncet
In Reflection
It was wild to learn the basics of such a useful skill in the strangest place I’ve ever been to in my life. And, I cannot forget to mention the people I had with me aboard Amundsen: the crew and the other students. The crew was incredibly helpful and positive. I told them that I was there to learn and they gave me opportunity after opportunity to learn more. I think I managed to get more out of the beginner level Competent Crew course than most people ever do. My fellow students were two fantastic women. Both wise in their own ways.
Lessons with Bonnie, Rachel, Kenneth and Maxim
A dinghy ride with Yannick, Rachel, Maxim, John, Paul, Rachel and Kate
We all had a great time sailing in both sunshine and harsh squalls. We tacked and gybed from island to island, and I learned something new with every sailing maneuver.
Preparing to anchor with Yannick, Maxim and John
I also made a friend around my age who is also seeking to do a lot with his life, I learned new skills, gained a wider view of the world, and did things most people never have the opportunity to do in their lives.
What I read during the trip
● Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L’Amour
● A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols
● My Life as an Explorer by Roald Amundsen
● A book on Anne Bonny and Mary Read (two female pirates from the end of the pirate golden age) but I couldn’t find the book online
Photos by Kenneth Perdigón, Kate Schnippering, Yannick Tarrés, Bonnie Bazley, and Paul Guthrie
Maxim Benjamin Smith
Competent Crew Student
