Captain Jeremy E. Elwell at Reef Runner Sailing School is This Month’s Featured Instructor
A quick read into Captain Jeremy’s back ground and you might be motivated to leave your life, get on a boat and find a new wife. Sailing does that to you and this month’s featured instructor is an example of the sailing lifestyle taking you in and never allowing you to leave.
Captain Jeremy E. Elwell is this month’s ASA Featured Instructor.
ASA: What got you into sailing?
Captain Jeremy E. Elwell:
I was looking for a new at to travel the world but on a meager salary. I stumbled onto a blog of someone crossing the Atlantic on a 30-foot sailboat and it opened a whole new world. It got into my minimalistic ideology and I dove down the rabbit hole, and have yet to come out!
ASA: What was your most memorable student or class?
Captain Jeremy E. Elwell:
I don’t have many friends these days that aren’t former students. When you spend 4-7 days living on a boat doing 104 or 106 classes with students you tend to make life long friends. I’ve got a bunch of those now. My favorite student though…we stayed in touch after class…and realized we couldn’t live apart and got married 10 months later.
ASA: Your favorite place to sail?
Captain Jeremy E. Elwell:
The Gulf of Mexico is my home and always has my heart. However, Maine keeps me challenged, but nothing beats waking up at anchor in the BVI’s and starting your day off with a snorkel in pristine Caribbean waters.
ASA: What do people not know about sailing that they should?
Captain Jeremy E. Elwell:
I hear strangers walk by my boats everyday and say, “gah sailing, I just couldn’t do it, it looks so complicated and like so much work!”
While there are aspects of it that are more complicated than firing up an engine and pointing the bow where you want to go and throttling up, it doesn’t have to be hard and it doesn’t have to be complicated.
ASA: Why Should People Sail?
Captain Jeremy E. Elwell:
Sailing, for us, is about living a simpler life. We like small boats without all the bells and whistles that we left behind on land. It’s like hiking a mountain versus driving your car to a cabin. You get the same end destination but with sailing, like hiking, you have to think a little bit harder, plan a little bit more, and in the end you appreciate the details along the way savoring the effort it took to get there.
“The sheer joy of it! It’s peaceful, it’s challenging, it’s relaxing, yet it’s hard work.” -On sailing, Captain Jeremy
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