The Strangest Advice I Got While Living On The Water

When I was a teenager my mother and I decided to explore an adventure of a lifetime. There was a yacht being sold down at the local marina, long story short, it became my mum’s. My lovely, wonderful, spontaneous, adventurous mother asked me if I would like to move onboard this boat with her and live the life of sailors for 1 year.

Of course I said yes.

She became good friends with the previous owners and we went to have coffee with them on their boat. Now, the boat my mum owned was beautiful, everything you could possibly need — a triangle bed at the front (I’m using non-sailor terms for all you non-sailors — not because I’ve forgotten it all), two smaller triangle beds — that you have to slide into- near the back, a kitchen (saloon) with a swinging oven — so it can stay stable on the high seas — and a dining room/lounge with a big [ shaped couch and a table; together these could be transformed into a big double bed.

Luxury.

Then we went onto the previous owner’s new boat and it looked like a house. You have the fresh air and sea spray up top (what more could you want), and downstairs they had a double bed with a wardrobe; a shower you could stand up in; and a coffee machine. As a teenager if someone had a coffee machine, it was like they had made it in life.

We were chit chatting away and they kept complimenting their previous boat, missing all the little details it had, the storage space, blah blah blah — we didn’t have a coffee machine.

And then they started talking about general boat life.

My mother and I had never been on a boat before and neither of us knew how to sail.

Call it a mid-life crisis, call it my mother being awesome, call it what you what, it was awesome.

The previous owners were well aware of this and they were happy to inform us of everything we needed to know. They loved their boat and even built parts of it. I think my mother used to call them regularly when we first started.

But back to the story.

We’re sitting around staring at their coffee machine, and they were talking about daily life and showering on board. Now, I think they had moved from a boat built for major ocean crossings to a boat made more for a settled lifestyle. They said they would shower on deck, completely naked, and not worry because there was no one around to look.

But they were staying in a marina at this point.

I remember the man talking about his wife. He mentioned that she liked to walk around the boat naked and they found it easier to shower on deck, that way you can get rid of the water more quickly. And of course, you shower naked. (I mean, I would opt for togs in that situation but each to their own). There was a man on another boat near by, they were in a marina at this point, and he didn’t like what she was doing. The man on the other boat said she needed to be hiding her body. The owner of the boat, the naked lady’s husband then yelled “If you don’t like it, don’t look.” And he went on about how people are so stupid they don’t realise they can just turn around.

And he went on about how people are so stupid they don’t realise they can just turn around.

This piece of advice resonated with me in multiple ways.

1. A body is just a body — we all have them and there’s nothing to be ashamed about.

   
   

2. If you don’t like something, you can just look the other way.

   
   

Boat life had so many interesting things about it and there was so much to learn. This has definitely stuck with me and I still think about how Man stuck up for his wife in that situation, and was appalled the other guy didn’t just turn around.

Sometimes, I think we all need to remember we have the ability to turn around in life.