Seaside women / 4: the passenger who doesn’t participate

We came to the fourth type of woman who might show up on board. We have seen the Woman who never has to ask, the Hostess, and the Reliable, now it is the turn of the Passenger. She usually gets seasick, she gets scared because the boat tilts, but what is more important, being on board for her is like staying at the Planibel in La Thuile. The boat doesn’t matter much to her, she usually accepts the invitation out of love for her boyfriend. “When are you coming?” If we had taken the car we would already be there,” “I’m cold, I’m sleepy, I’m hungry” are her usual phrases. But perhaps no one will have tried until then to make her participate. Don’t resign yourself to the idea that you are necessarily dealing with an apathetic: suddenly it might come out of her, “This fall I’m enrolling in a sailing school.” A crossing could thus be an opportunity to teach her a bowline or speech or to get her to stay at the helm or even for a short charting lesson. In short, try not to ignore her and try to make her as integral a part of the crew as possible.

Photo above by. Patrick Demarchelier taken from Vogue America.