It’s easy to settle into particular roles on the boat. After three years of full-time cruising, preceded by seven years of summers on the boat, Brian and I have pretty defined jobs. But I’ll tell you, if you want to have a new appreciation of your spouse and their contributions to the boat, switch it up. Take over some of their tasks and responsibilities. We’ve been forced to do this twice now in the last two months.

At the end of July, I was off the boat for 10 days to see my mom back in the U.S. While I was gone, Brian took over all the meals and schooling—usually my domain. He hates cooking more than just about anything, so I left him with several pre-made, frozen and easy-to-assemble meal options. I still received multiple rounds of text messages both thanking me for all the meals I make on a daily basis and swearing that he never wanted to cook again. He’s always been an appreciative audience for whatever I make, but after my return he was even more vocal in expressing his gratitude for the the time I spend down in the galley. 

Last week, Brian cracked a rib (or two). He didn’t quite realize how bad it was until he tried to pull up his side of the dinghy on the davits and was in a lot of pain that got worse by the next day. Even sitting up was painful. After several days of taking prescription painkillers, he was able to back it off to a combination of Advil and Tylenol, but his recovery will take awhile. In the meantime, he’s unable to do anything physical on the boat, including hoisting the dinghy, raising the main sail, even climbing into the back lazarette to turn on the freshwater flush and remove water filters from the watermaker—basically anything that could cause him to twist or pull and exacerbate the injury. 

We’re especially concerned with him healing as much as possible before we start our six-day passage to South Africa in about two weeks, so I have taken over all the physical jobs. I was definitely hopping during our last sail, as I prepped and raised the main (possibly the slowest ever on Atlas), shook out a reef as the wind died, furled the headsail, then dropped the main and sealed up the stack pack. The lowering and hoisting of the dinghy each day is also a good arm workout. I feel like I’ve always appreciated many of these tasks that Brian took on, but I have an even better understanding now of the work he’s undertaking. I’m looking forward to when he’s back in action and we’re working as a team again. Although he thinks it may take several months to heal when it comes to his least favorite jobs. Wish me luck!