What Do the Kids Do on Sailing Passages?

Part of sailing life is often moving your floating home. This can be anywhere from a 2nm anchorage change to a 4000nm Pacific crossing and anything in between. The most common length of time at sea for us? 3–7 days. That’s at least 72hrs to keep the kids busy.

So, what do the kids do on passage? Let’s dive into the different strategies, techniques, and tips we’ve learnt over the years to keep the kids happy at sea.

Passage Reality

First of all, for those who don’t know what passages are like, here’s a rough idea:

You’re ‘stuck’ on your 46ft home that’s just turned into a sailboat. There’s always someone at the helm watching sails, wind, speed, and everything else. You’re moving at about 6.5kts and watching the water fly past, somehow never fast enough. The boat will be rocking and constantly moving the entire time.

At night, you’re doing night watches in the dark, trying to keep yourself awake with snacks and audiobooks. During the day, you’re sleeping, eating, or listening to more audiobooks.

How’d I do?

I don’t want to put you off if you’re just starting off, that’s definitely not my intention! I just want to try and paint a picture of passage life for you.

So, if this is passage reality, what do the kids do?

How Do the Kids Participate?

At the start, several years ago now, the kids were a lot younger (Bella was 8 when we left and she’s the oldest). Let’s just say they weren’t as helpful as they are now. It was a matter of Kris or I sailing us while the other would be entertaining, cooking, and keeping the kids occupied.

Credit where credit is due, however, they were amazing at listening to us when they needed to and, with four of them, would often keep themselves busy with games or something.

It’s a lot different now, and it’s been amazing to see how much they’ve grown in the roles they play on passages now! We’d be a lot more sleep-deprived, to say the least.

Wanna know what they do to help on passages now?

Everything.

They do night watches, cook all the food, help make weather decisions, sail changes, fuel log, navigation, literally — they do everything! It’s a far cry from where we started, and while they are a bit older now, they still have to keep themselves busy.

So, how do they do that?

What the Kids Do on Passages

Let’s go through the things the kids do to keep themselves busy when they aren't keeping the boat moving forward. I’m going to just give you a bit of a list… let’s start with the favourites that happen every day:

Reading. Everyone on board has a Kindle — they are actually lifesavers out here. We’d be sinking with the amount of books we’d have to have on board. If you or your kids don’t have one, please go and get one here, you will not regret it.

Legos. I mentioned they’re getting older, but you’re never too old for Legos! The little two especially love passing time building new contraptions and then showing them off to the rest of the crew.

Sleeping. I have to put this in, even though you’ll probably laugh. It’s honestly a great way to pass the time — especially if you were up at 2am for your night watch.

Movies. Yes, we have a daily movie on board. It’s something for them to look forward to, it spends an hour or two, and gives Kris a great quiet time to sleep. We have a massive hard drive of movies so they can watch them offline. This results in several watches of the same movie, but hey, it’s better than nothing.

Cooking. This is probably one of my personal favourites, simply because I get to enjoy the results! Finn and Pippi are by far the most keen on cooking and will spend the afternoon baking or making nasi goreng for everyone. It’s delicious and passes time well.

Dishes Games. This is a daily passage ritual that has somehow developed over the weeks and months at sea. Every night before cooking dinner, the crew will play 3–6 rounds of a game called FortyBelow. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a mix of luck and skill that’s easily scoreable, and the loser has to wash the dinner dishes.

Simple as that, and as competitive as it sounds.

These are things the kids do every day and help pass the time on passage really well.

Some other things that might come out from time to time would be:

• Other games like chess, cards, and Scrabble.
• Audiobooks and music.
• Colouring in/drawing.
• Painting.
• Practicing hairstyles on the girls.
• Filming.
• Photography — how many different shots of the endless horizon can you get?
• Friendship bracelet making.
• Puzzles.

• Online maths games.
• Beauty salon.
• Cubby building.

Of course, it depends on what your kids like. We don’t believe in video games, but those who do could use that as a pastime.

There are so many more things that they can do at sea, and I just want to say these are suggestions and are not limited at all! Make your own list, or if you want an extended version from us, comment and let us know and we’ll see what we can do. 

Summary

And there you have it. There are so many things the kids do on passages, and if you’re at all concerned about your own kids going to sea, I hope this post has given you some ideas and confidence.

Honestly, one thing to say here is: leaving your kids to get bored is actually not a bad thing. Like, having to learn to keep yourself busy is a great skill in my opinion. Why not start practicing now? You’ll be amazed at what they come up with.

I know I haven’t even touched on safety for kids at sea. That is a whole other post in the making, but it is even more important than this and shouldn’t go unmentioned.

What I’d love from you are any more suggestions on pastimes for the kids — we’re always open to ideas. Also, any and all questions are welcome. There’s a comments section for a reason, and we’d love to hear what you think.

See you there!