Annapolis to Iceland. This was the voyage facing me, our crew, and our Farr 65 Falken this summer—3,000 miles that I knew would be challenging. The trick would be to make it look easy. The essence of seamanship is in fact just this, making the difficult look easy, making the extraordinary routine, and while any successful voyage is 90% preparation and 10% execution, anticipation and adaptation are integral to that math and that “easy” outcome.
Anticipation leads to proper planning and preparation. Cold weather? Pack thermals. Ice and fog? Install a good radar, learn how to use it. Challenging weather conditions? Learn how to really read and understand weather models ahead of time.
Anticipation, in other words, can be learned, and it’s critical to that preparation stage.
