I’ve been noodling on a concept for over a year and now seems about like the right time to bring it to my consciousness.

People who take off on boats to travel to distant shores, known as cruisers, often feel a shift in life perspective after experiencing this mode of living. Once you have this new way of seeing things, it never reverts back. It’s not unique to cruisers, this awareness may come to people who deeply contemplate or experience different or simplistic modes of life, whether by choice or not.

In general, it is seeing the world and people in a way that rearranges your personal priorities. In a positive sense, it can make you more grateful for the very basic things in life and not take anything for granted. You may find it harder to relate to some people, or easier to connect with others who “get it”. This change in perspective is often written about in articles and personal blogs of cruisers and other travelers.

I have experienced this perspective shift first hand after cruising full-time. I’m always keen to seek out others’ experiences to try and understand it better. Sitting at the base of my subconscious, I had thought about someday trying to express (as many have already) how this expanded awareness comes with challenges, but ultimately enhances one’s life. Over many interesting discussions with cruising friends and new cruisers, the common thread is that your “eyes become open” and you “can’t unsee it”.

To get at the bottom of why my current perspective is different than my pre-cruising view (which already had seen plenty of world travel), it finally struck me. I visualized the classic (Maslow’s 1943) pyramid of basic human needs (ref 1) and realized that time and again, we cruisers have our basic needs challenged in new ways every day.

I am not a psychologist and can only speak from my personal experience. However, given the current situation in the world facing a coronavirus pandemic, I realize that I am already prepared for many of the challenges that this new situation is creating for all of us at this moment.

Without a need to dive into great detail, I thought I’d highlight some personal experiences below that have helped formed my outlook along with Mark’s in a way that, we hope, enables us to face challenges with humility. Similarities with the pandemic experience are glaringly obvious, so you may find that some of these needs resonate with you today.

1. Physiological Needs (food, water, warmth, rest):

I often say that I had to channel my grandmother to gain competency in her depression-era cooking skills. Her mantra was “waste not want not” and I find it painful to waste anything that can’t be used and reused as scraps and leftovers. When we cruise in remote locations for long periods of time, which is our “happy place”, there are few to no grocery stores to visit to restock the pantry. With expert provisioning and lots of creativity, I’ve learned to make my own cereal/granola, bread, bagels, yogurt, soup, sprouts, chips, etc, etc., which along with fresh fish can keep us fed for a very long time.
We have a watermaker to produce fresh water from seawater. The first few months after leaving for full-time cruising, we did not start using it right away and had to visit marinas to fill up the water tanks. I personally found this a challenging situation with stress underlying everything you did with water, from drinking, washing dishes, showering, and doing laundry. I would not want to cruise without a watermaker, which explains why we just installed a new high throughput (30 gal/hr) system.
Usually we have no problem staying warm in our tropical cruising grounds. It is more a challenge to stay cool, which lots of sun shades and frequent swims will help provide. Protection from the elements is a huge part of the cruising and outdoor lifestyle. Nature is all powerful.
We have spent countless nights awake, whether on shifts for multi-day passages or anchor watch. As we’ll see in our safety needs, the weather dictates everything for cruisers every single day. We have experienced an extended rainy/electrical season of interrupted sleep and it does shake up your well-being to the core, keeping the body on high alert for an extended period of time.

2. Safety Needs (security, safety):

The security that comes to mind while cruising is that you really get a sense of loss of control for your rights and safety when checking in and out of new countries frequently. We are keenly aware that our civil rights are at the discretion and laws of the country we are visiting and, at times, the officers that are inspecting us or checking us in. Deference and respect go a long way here and it can be shocking when we see cruisers enter a country with a false sense of entitlement. Their country, their laws. It also makes you appreciate the integrity and values of your home country and your citizenship.
One also must be aware of the varying levels of underlying crime and social injustice that you might encounter in each country. This goes beyond petty theft that targets tourists, or cruisers’ dinghies and outboard engines being stolen. We’ve been witness to adrift refugees escaping their home countries. We’ve seen the chain of events unfold from murders yards away from where we are sitting on a busy roadstead street, an island bar and in a big city. The cruising community has been victim to their share of violent piracy attacks and these are countries that we avoid altogether.
Safety is probably the biggest challenge for any sailor. Highly technical engineering goes into keeping a boat functioning and afloat. Knowledge, skills and maintenance are critical to staying safe at sea. We have been witness to several boats go up on reefs or blown-up in flames. Unfortunately, we have had friends lost along with their boats at sea. This is our direct experience, not meant to be sensationalistic. The potential loss of your own life is one of the things that you actually must come to terms with at this stage.
Weather is the greatest factor that plays into safety at sea when sailing and at anchor. Finding safe harbor is not just a saying, it is a daily requirement, as is weather forecasting. Our boat has been struck by lightning more than once, we’ve been in several burgeoning waterspouts ~ not to mention dodging hurricanes ~ and we even face dangers when swimming in the sea from strong currents to marine bacterial infections to sharks.

3. Belongingness and love needs (intimate relationships, friends):

The first experience that cruisers face when sailing full time is the 24/7/365 time that you will now spend with your partner, spouse or crew. This close quarters requires constant work on relationships. It can be very humbling. You must be able to gain a self-awareness and still like yourself and your partner afterwards.

Families are often spread wider geographically than in past generations; however, when cruising there are literally oceans in-between. We have been lucky to have families who are very supportive of what we do, including sailing away. With annual family visits for a few weeks at least, I’ve often thought that we get to spend more time with family since we’ve been cruising. We have more time to spend and it is more quality time than when we were working non-stop in our all-consuming corporate jobs.

Having, losing and making friends is one of the biggest challenges and most often talked about and written about aspects of cruising/traveling. It was hard to leave friends in the first place, and then when you meet new friends who are sailing the other way you have to leave them too. On the flip side, you are more often meeting someone who “gets it” , so it becomes very easy to form quick and meaningful new friendships.

Cruising can feel very isolating whether you are anchored remotely, or in a marina or big city. You can’t just jump in the car and go do something. Every step must be researched and planned so you can land your dinghy on shore, get to your errand by walking or public transportation, and manage your errand carefully, such as not buying more groceries than you can carry on your person.

4. Esteem Needs (prestige and feeling of accomplishment):

We are both PhD research scientists. This came about through hard work and a commitment to science into our respective personal achievements through degrees, presentations, publications and careers. Absolutely ZERO of that matters when you are out cruising. Cruising is a great equalizer. Everyone is out there in the same situation…experiencing the same weather… with a similar list of boat projects!
Intellectually, we knew that we’d need to re-discover our identities “out there”. When we left science we shut that professional door. The challenge was to discover what our new identity would be! It took a few years, and that was a rough transition for sure. Eventually, I found personal accomplishments in ever evolving hobbies, including cooking, yoga, underwater and nature photography.
Mark has developed expertise in boats, electronics and systems. He has achieved major boat refits and renovations that have improved our floating home. He taught himself to play guitar and has an eclectic repertoire of music to entertain us… and he’s a damn good spearfisherman. Each of our hobbies come with communities that help feed the need for mutual recognition, as well as groups of friends and relationships that help feed our basic needs.

5. Self-actualization (achieving one’s full potential, including creative activities):

For all of levels 1-4, human motivation occurs when these needs are deprived, whereas this 5th level of the pyramid is considered a growth need (ref 1). One that creates it’s own motivation. This level is described as a desire “to become everything one is capable of becoming”.
Later refinements of Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs in the 60’s & 70’s added new growth needs, including: Cognitive Needs (knowledge and understanding, curiosity, exploration, need for meaning and predictability); Aesthetic Needs (appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc); and Transcendence Needs (values which transcend beyond the personal self).
These levels fall within the continuous learning aspect for us. It is my opinion that wisdom is knowing that you don’t know everything. In some way, choosing our cruising and traveling lifestyle fits into these higher level needs in terms of our desire to expand our perspectives and constantly challenge ourselves intellectually.
We now include land travel to visit new countries and experience new cultures, following a realization after many years at sea. Land travel refreshes our perspectives from life at sea and helps us avoid burnout from all of those basic needs that can add up to stress. With my newfound interest in history, I will devour many books on new countries that we visit.
The very best part of cruising lifestyle is living in nature. Our “backyard” is alive and we are always outdoors. It has given me a real love, appreciation and respect for nature like I never would have gotten otherwise. For me, this meets the Cognitive Need when researching fish, birds, plants, coral, shells, mushrooms, and the Aesthetic Need for witnessing nature’s and humanity’s beauty every day. In reality of course, life is not that perfect, but reflections like these keep my eyes open to continue to be grateful and take nothing for granted.