Question: I can’t swim — is boarding a sailing boat simply asking for trouble?
Answer: quite the opposite. First the facts, then a counter-intuitive observation.
The facts. A sailing holiday is not a sailing sport: you need not know how to swim, any more than taking a train requires knowing how to drive one. Life jackets are provided by the head; the deck has railings; and the captain’s first duty is to keep everyone on the boat rather than in the sea. When it is time to go in, we always anchor in a waist-deep bay, buoyancy vests on, someone at your side. And should you rather not go in at all, you may pass the entire week without touching a drop of seawater — the days on deck are abundant enough: taking the helm, watching the islands, reading, fishing, ripening in the sun to the colour of honey.
The counter-intuitive part. After many parties of guests, we have found that those who cannot swim are often the happiest aboard. Those who can tend to treat the sea as a pool — splash down, splash up; the sea is their activity. Those who cannot treat the sea as scenery, and spend far longer looking: watching the water change colour by the hour, watching the flying fish, watching the sunset draw out the shadow of the mast. In the end, the one who remembers this stretch of sea in the finest detail is usually the one who never went in.
And there is one gentle, common ending: on some day of the voyage, in some shallow bay of impossible clarity, the one who cannot swim, buoyancy vest on, is coaxed into the water by the whole boat — and then will not be persuaded out again. We have seen it too many times.
So, back to the question: can you board a sailing boat if you cannot swim? You can. The sea has something in store for everyone, including those who only wish to watch it from afar.