On a snowy, windy evening, March 7, some 30 BCYC members hosted an extraordinary presentation by Tom Crafton, his wife, Kathleen, and two of their children, Ben and Jena. The event was held at Maryland Capital Yacht Club’s facilities.
Tom and Kathleen had determined (correctly, it turns out) that self-schooling and the opportunity to experience a number of different populations and cultures would be better for their three children, of whom two are developmentally disabled and one is genius level. This evening, they, along with Ben and Jessa, described the seven years the family spent cruising aboard their 43-foot Hans Christian ketch Nueva Vida, noting that the day they moved onto the boat, the sibling rivalry and complaining stopped.
They also discussed their blue-water sailing experiences and life aboard Nueva Vida, a sturdy, but heavy vessel which could not effectively go to windward and motored only with high consumption of expensive diesel. This influenced several of their decisions to continue on a westward sailing circumnavigation that involved 83-months and 30,000-miles. They learned how to sail on their own and survive storms; experiencing five hurricanes in Florida, before sailing south to the Americas.
The Crafton family: Tom, Jena, Kathleen, and Ben.
They returned in 2010 to put their children back into shore side schools after 7 years of correspondence courses, and especially to get their daughter Kali into Brown University, who graduates this year. At sea, they survived on fishing and canned goods. Rejecting refrigeration, they caught rainwater rather than use a water-maker. With five of them, they largely self-steered. Communications were by VHF, SSB radio, and emails.
The family shared intriguing tales of cultural experiences and new populations encountered. From Florida they visited countries in the Americas before traversing the Panama Canal in 2006 and heading westward. The sailing was often slow, involving many miles and even months between exotic destinations, such as Vanuatu, where people possessed the least but smiled the most; the New Guinea islands; and also experiences in New Zealand, where they almost stayed permanently, leaving after 18 months to head onward.
They detailed their experiences and provided slide-shows of the incredibly varied populations and places they visited, analyzing cultural contrasts and foods they experienced (including their three-day rule when visiting aboriginal tribes, leaving before they might be considered potential meals) as well as experiences with concepts of tribal rather than private property, where sharing everything was the norm. The discussion lasted 3 hours after the initial happy hour reflecting the extent of materials in the book they are completing on their travels and experiences. Quite an enthralling educational event!
Forthcoming Club highlights starting in April are a Happy Hour event on the 11th and the St. Johns v. Navy croquet match on the 18th to which we will be attending. In May, our sailing season starts with our Change of Watch Ball on May 2nd, a Mid-week party on the 13th, a New Member Party on the 16th, and the start of our 8-day Spring Annual Cruise on the 23rd. Come join the fun! Details for joining us are at BackCreekYC.org.
