How to Deal with Sick Crew on the Boat – Podcast Transcript

Cruising is generally a pretty healthy existence, but what happens when a crew member gets sick? Hi, I’m Nica Waters, and welcome to The Boat Galley podcast. Today, I’m answering the question that we got from a reader and a listener a couple months ago: namely, what do you do when a crew member gets sick? 

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You may be hearing some noises in the background, and that is my husband doing the dishes tonight. Because that is part of life on a boat is all about. It’s sharing the chores you have to do. Sometimes that means that you’re sharing those not-so-much fun sicknesses that you get when you run into somebody ashore. 

Before I go any further, though, I’m just gonna say this is not a common occurrence. Sailing, at least as far as we understand it and have experienced it, is a pretty healthy lifestyle. You’re out in the fresh air a lot. You’re not cooped up down below or in closed-in spaces the way you are often when you’re on land. And I can count on one hand the number of times that we’ve been sick aboard in the multiple years that we’ve been cruising on and off. 

The most recent was actually in the Marquesas. After a month of sailing from Panama to get to French Polynesia, we picked up what we’re pretty sure was COVID in one of our treks ashore. We hitched a ride with somebody, and a couple days later, came down with something. 
So what happens when a crewmember is sick aboard like that? 

Well, it’s a little bit like being in a house. The person who’s sick hunkers down, lies low, rests, drinks lots of water or tea, maybe it’s crackers depending on what it’s like, and the other person does their best to just keep the boat running. Yes, because you’re living on a boat,  you’re often gonna trade those things back and forth. But it’s like being in a house. If somebody gets sick in the house, often everybody else in the family gets sick too, and then it just comes to an end. 

If somebody’s really sick and you have the space on your boat, definitely have them sleep in a different cabin. You can sleep in a different cabin from where they are. You wanna leave the boat open so that you get lots of fresh air running through there. But again, I’ll stress, this doesn’t happen super frequently.

If you are the kind of person who picks up bugs on a regular basis where nobody else gets sick around you, but you happen to get sick and come down with something anytime you go someplace, well, probably one of the things that you’ll do is to make sure that you have those kind of symptom-mitigating medications on board. You might have more cold medicine or cough syrup. You might carry more ibuprofen, Tylenol, or something like that to help with the symptoms therein.

Because one of the things that’s challenging about being sick on a boat is that sometimes, weather dictates that you have to move, and you can’t just stay put. And in that case, sometimes even if you’re sick, you’re gonna deal with the work that you have to do to get the boat to the next place and sometimes its that your partner on the boat, if you’re sailing with someone else, sometimes it’s that they will be single handing to move the boat to move the boat to someplace else. Chances are good, hopefully, that you’re not having to move far. But, in general, being sick on a boat is a little bit like being in a house. You take care of yourself. You rest. You get over it. Maybe you trade it with your partner. But often you don’t get sick. And I know that sounds a little bit flippant. But in general, when I think about the number of times we’ve been sick on board, it’s almost nonexistent. 

Like I said, the one time most recently was in the Marquesas, which was back in April after we came in. I don’t know if our immune system just got used to not being exposed to anything with the month that we were at sea, or if there was a good strain of COVID or something going around. We did talk to a couple other boaters who also similarly had come down with something that they too thought was COVID in the same timing in the same anchorage. And what did we do, and what did they do? Hunkered down. We just stayed where we were. 

There was a little bit of weather that came in; if we had both been feeling 100% we probably would have moved the boat to get a little bit more comfortable. But it wasn’t bad, and we just stuck it out where we were.

So if somebody gets sick on board, yes, you might pass it to the other person who is on the boat with you. And you also might not. But in general, cruising is a fairly healthy lifestyle, particularly if you are not the kind of person who tends to get sick at the drop of a hat. So don’t worry too much about it.

If you do get sick at the drop of a hat, just stock your med kit with those symptom-mitigating issues. And if you get sick frequently or you have a disease or some kind of an illness that’s much more chronic and requires more hands-on medical attention, then spend some time choosing your cruising grounds so you have closer access to medical attention.

I can’t wait to share an anchorage with you when we both are feeling great, and we’re not sharing bugs with each other, and we get to toast to this incredible good fortune at being able to live this amazing lifestyle. Thank you so much for listening to The Boat Galley podcast. The Boat Galley is all about making boat life better, and I hope I’ve given you a little bit of peace of mind about what to do if a crew member is sick on board. Have the most spectacular week.