The answer to No.
1 is yes, I believe you can. And to No. 2: Certainly not.
I have read and
heard stories about round-the-world skippers who ask for money from prospective
crews in two ways. They ask for passage money, and/or they ask for pantry
money, a contribution toward food. Neither request is valid, in my view. The
workman is worth his salt. A crewmember provides skill and labor and ought to
be recompensed, either with cash in the normal way, or with food,
accommodation, and a passage from port to port.
There are various
ports scattered around the globe where long-distance cruisers more often take
on extra crew. Durban, South Africa, where I once lived, is one of them. After
following the reasonable gentle trade-wind routes for thousands of miles, the
mom-and-pop cruisers are suddenly faced with the prospect of a tough passage
around the Cape of Storms to Cape Town. It often seems to be a good idea to
take on an extra hand to help with the rough-weather watches and sail handling.
And if things work out well during this passage, it’s possible that the extra
crewmember could go much farther with them.
There are several
websites (listed below) that aim to put prospective crews in touch with
prospective skippers. They’re interesting to read, but some are aimed more at
professionals than others. More helpfully, there is a book that is intended for
the amateur sailor, and even the unskilled amateur. It was written by Alison
Muir Bennett and it’s called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Oceans: Crewing
Around the World.
I haven’t read it
myself, but I see that the respected British magazine Yachting Monthly
has called it “an invaluable guide
to crewing anywhere in the world,” which
is a valuable recommendation. It’s apparently packed with practical information
about how to find a crewing position, what to expect from different kinds of
skipper, and (most importantly) how to be in the right place at the right time
of the year.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide also spells out ways
of improving your odds of being taken on as crew and what will be expected of
you under way. The author also provides “yacht migration charts” showing where
and when seasonal bottlenecks occur.
I wouldn’t want to kid anybody by suggesting
that you can just pitch up in one of these places and find a host of desperate
skippers pleading with you to come aboard. It can take time and a lot of effort
to find a compatible berth on a small sailboat, and skippers are a notoriously picky,
not to say cranky, lot. All the same, whether they like it or not, they
sometimes need to take on extra crew and the odds of success are with you. And
so are the odds of bargaining away any suggestion that you should have to pay
your way like some first-class passenger on the QE2.
Today’s Thought
There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of
Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were
not seamen.
— Macauley, History of England
Tailpiece
“Pardon me, sir, I’m looking for a friend.
Do you have a Sexauer on this ship?”
“Mister, we don’t even have a lunch-hour on
this ship.”
(Drop by every Monday,
Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
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