5 Ways Sailing Can Strengthen Your Relationship
Oftentimes sailing with your mate is much more fun than sailing alone! Sailing with your spouse can also be a great way to strengthen an already healthy relationship. Here’s 5 ways sailing with your husband, wife, or significant other can help you strengthen your relationship and support each other’s strengths:
1. Sharing Experiences and Hobbies
Did you know about two-thirds of couples believe shared interests help their marriage to succeed? In fact, having no common interests is cited as a major reason of divorce. If you are looking for a shared interest to connect with your partner on, sailing with your spouse is a great hobby to pick up. Regardless of whether one of you already sails, both of you sail, or neither of you sail, there is a lot to be learned from sailing with your spouse!
2. Ability To Work As A Team
Teamwork is as vital on a sailboat as it is in a relationship! Couples that already have a strong foundation of teamwork can strengthen this skill when sailing. For example, who will take the helm while mooring and who will grab the mooring ball? Sailing with your spouse encourages mutual reliance and support, which translates into your everyday life.
3. Improved Communication
Sailing takes constant and clear communication. If you are going to become a competent sailing couple, you’ll quickly find out that you need to listen to each other and effectively communicate to get where you are going. Adjusting the sails, navigating, and making decisions all require good communication. Additionally, to be effective you might want to adopt the communication rule Go Sail Virgin Islands has onboard their boats— no yelling!
4. Problem Solving Together
Just like a relationship isn’t always smooth sailing, neither is the actual act of sailing with your spouse. Things will break, plans will change, the weather won’t cooperate. However, working through unexpected challenges together is a great way to improve your ability to approach difficulties as a team!
5.Learning To Compromise
Even if you both agree on your love for sailing, you likely won’t always agree on where you actually want to take your sailboat! For example, your other half may love sailing to snorkeling destinations and hanging out for a few days, while you prefer to keep going— circumnavigating islands and attempting new crossings. By compromising on where you sail, how long you sail, and what you do when you sail, you are sure to grow as a sailing couple!
Ready to Start Sailing with Your Spouse?
Rather than bareboating with your spouse on your first sail together, Go Sail Virgin Islands recommends taking ASA courses together first. Taking sailing courses together ensures you both have a solid foundation of technical knowledge to work with and can become comfortable sailing together in a more controlled environment. Go Sail Virgin Islands offers Cruising Couples Catamaran Courses to give you just such an experience. Sign up for one of these weeklong live-aboard courses here.