Hot sauce in the crew pot

One of the great delights of being on board has already begun to reveal itself: getting to know the crew. I was told, again and again, how diverse the group would be, and it’s true. We come from different countries, languages, and life experiences, but somehow we’ve all ended up here, on this ship, moving in the same direction. I’ll share more about them soon. But today I’ve been thinking about the way Dave used to put crews together.

I could never quite tell whether his way of inviting people to come sailing was intentional or simply a bit careless. Whether it was a casual Sunday outing or a leg of a long-distance voyage, the crew always ended up being an odd combination of new faces and familiar ones.

Strangely enough, these unlikely groupings usually worked. That’s what makes me think there might have been a method to it. Then again, knowing Dave, it might just as easily have come from a kind of indifference to how group dynamics can shape the atmosphere onboard. He always seemed to take people as they came.

I never saw him lose patience with anyone’s behaviour or habits. But he had little patience with hearing me grumble about the people who got under my skin. It was as if, for him, the real craft of putting together a good crew lay in allowing for unpredictability. And maybe the unfamiliar element, the new personality thrown into the lot, was what gave the whole thing its edge. Like hot sauce stirred in at the end.

Now, watching this crew find its rhythm, I feel echoes of that same mix—structure and surprise, familiarity and friction. There’s a quiet alchemy at work when strangers become shipmates. Dave might not have said much about it, but I think he would have understood exactly what’s happening here.