Topic: Relationships
Reluctant Achiever
Ians Review of
The Reluctant Mariner by Joanna Hackett
I've seen so many descriptions of this book as funny. Yeah it is. It's also funny when Donald Duck drives a nail through his foot or Charlie Chaplin plays The Great Dictator. On another level however we have to pay attention to workplace (or liesureplace) health and safety, and watch out for fascists trying to run our lives for our own good. So let it be with the Reluctant Mariner.
Joanna advised readers not to take the mickey out of their skippers by heel-clicking, saluting, and saying "Yes Sir, No Sir!". So is she being ironic when she announces early in the book that Lindsay will be referred to in the rest of it as Skipper, Captain Lindsay or Sir? In other words, takes the mick out of him for the rest of the book. He deserves it.
I firmly believe that Joanna was co-skipper of the yacht and that sailing life-partners should assert their right to be co-skippers. She repeats the old saw that "there can only be one Skipper at sea" but makes no statements to support that view. I would say the One Skipper idea has been the habit of centuries but that does not make it always right for the Twenty-first Century, or for the late twentieth century.
If Lindsay alone was the Skipper, I would rate him a 3 out of 10. The vessel did complete the voyage I suppose but he does not deserve all the credit for that. If Joanna was the crew, (she must have been if Lindsay was the sole Skipper) then I would rate her 10 out of 10 in the areas of competence and contribution to the success of the voyage. As a person, she went way, way out of her comfort zone and proved her sterling qualities to anyone who cares to see them. I only wonder if she knows this herself?
Things Joanna achieved.
Found and assembled emergency tiller p29.
Rigorously cleaned dirty and hard-to-access spaces. Takes it for granted that Skippers won't clean toilets.
Cooked ahead of time, made fresh bread at sea.
Understands his feelings p39. (Did he express them other than by complaining, blaming and sneering?)
Supports him in his "cranky mechanic" mode, humouring him without complaint, fetching and carrying, refraining from criticizing his lack of preparation for the task.
Learned to tie knots if not shouted at. (Very effectively. Her ability to replace mooring lines saved the vessel during a storm. Lindsay had absented himself at the time.)
Learned to be diplomatic with officials (p79).
Worked out how to get fish aboard, kill and clean them without mess and injury. (Her reward - to always have the job).
Was always successful in Man Overboard drills p105, (and yet states her faith in his skills, and lack of confidence in her own).
Behaved with courage. ("I would always be nervous but not disabled" p67.)
Kept her head in dangerous situations. "I knew what had to be done and I did it." (There were a number of these episodes, some of them caused by Lindsays want of prudence, acting on impulse, and plain lack of consideration.)
Planned and prepared for the Red Sea passage, lessening the risks.
Did the chart navigation. This "had been my job since departure" (p27), after negotiating the length of the east australian Great Barrier Reef, crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria, and coasting the Northern Territory. Navigation is a skipper-level responsibility.
Persevered in spite of her feelings.
Overcame her mental reservations and completed the project.
Joanna had some frightful situations to deal with or to endure, yet she puts an amazing positive spin on what other people do, and reserves recriminations for herself. For example she feels bad about her inability to "talk Yachtie" at the same level as Lindsay and some visitors. This is quite unneccessary. Sir Chay Blyth himself has commented that the use of "arcane yachting language" serves no useful purpose. It's good as a put-down of course. She recounts that "two mechanics helped the Skipper repair the gearbox". Strange that. When most people hire mechanics, the mechanics repair things, sometimes with the unskilled help of the hirer. The Skipper got fed-up with repairing the engine. Was he really that good at the job? While doing one job, he and two male helpers went to the yacht in the dinghy, leaving her on the beach in a third-world Muslim country where it was known that lone women are a target for harrassment and abuse. She sought shelter in a household of local women.
He lacked humour when the wind got up (p316). When she played taped music to take her mind off storm noise, he complained,so she stopped playing the tapes (p374). He couldn't manage mediterranean mooring without straining their relationship (p194). He said "we've lost it![the sail]" when it blew out. He was the one on watch at the time. Skippers are good at collective responsibility for mishaps.
The situation I found most appalling was when he impulsively jumped onto another yacht to help its owner when a storm was coming up, leaving Joanna to mind theirs. The other yacht left the spot, Joanna had no idea when he would come back. She prudently prepared for a possible departure. The waves were violent enough to cause their mooring-line to pull a huge concrete block off the jetty. She replaced that and another stern line. She had to launch the dinghy and climb on and off the jetty in wind and waves, and tie knots under strain. (p329)
By any standard, Joanna is a bloody good sailor. And yet, one reviewer says ".. the Skipper's skills got them through." To my mind, she did better than he did. This book can certainly be read as a fascinating account of travel to exotic places, I enjoyed it for that. As a study in human dynamics, people can be inspired by the resources a person found in herself. Some "One Skipper" types, mostly male sailors I am afraid, should have a damned good look at themselves and decide if their own skills and personal qualities justify their exalted position.
posted 23Nov04
first published on web 12/03/02