From the Spring 2025 issue of Multihull Power & Sail, a special issue of SAIL published in partnership with our sister magazine Power & Motoryacht. For a free subscription to this biannual publication, click here. Pictured above, Lehua Kamalu contemplates the conditions while navigating across the ocean aboard Hōkūleʻa. Photo courtesy of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

If you ask any sailor or boater what they love most about being on the water, they’ll put “disconnecting” high on the list. Whether you’re headed offshore for a bluewater passage or spending a couple hours anchored somewhere the kids can swim, we always talk about how good it is to get away. And who could blame us? Between the news cycle and emails that can reach you long after work hours are over (and before they start and on the weekend and holidays and…), we all could use a chance to catch our breath. Life comes at you fast.

Funnily enough, while chatting with Lehua Kamalu, a captain and navigator aboard the Hawaiian canoe Hōkūle’a, for “A Golden Anniversary,” I found our conversation instead circling back to the idea of connection over and over. Connection with people and communities, connections to the places we come from and the places we find along the way, connection with a greater sense of purpose and belonging. 

For her community, the canoe isn’t about escaping but coming together. Even offshore—when the crew is out of communication range with the rest of the world, navigating by ancient methods and living pretty much as analog as it gets—she said it evokes a sense of togetherness with the community and culture back home. Facing down the open ocean made her feel closer with the community who’d made it possible. There was an immense sense of gratitude for all the hands and hours that had gone into making their canoe strong and sound enough to carry the voyagers safely for thousands of miles at a time. I’ve thought about that a lot since then. Instead of using the boat to escape, she and so many other Pacific Islanders were finding their way together through it. 

I do think Lehua and the average recreational boater are talking about two sides of the same coin. Both are acknowledging the value in being present and focusing on the analog world for a bit. Disconnecting from one thing grants you the bandwidth to reconnect with something else. And while I’m ready to admit the distinction between “connected” and “disconnected” in this case is just a matter of perspective, if there’s anything I’ve learned from my years as an editor, it’s that framing matters. How we talk about our adventures, our values, and our joy matters. And whether we say we’re escaping or coming together, we’re right. 

Maybe you’re dreading an ever increasing list of spring commissioning projects to work on. Maybe you’re dreading the ever increasing bill for someone else to work on them. Maybe the spring rain is making it hard to imagine that summer is on its way. But oftentimes we’re just a perspective shift away from finding agency, value, or community. It’s all in how you frame it.

We are incredibly lucky to spend time on the water with friends or family and have the freedom go places that so few other people get to see. I’m primarily an offshore racer, and the way racing simplifies life down to a few tasks handled a few hours at a time clears my head like magic. Maybe the magic is in something else for you. Maybe it’s sharing something with your kids that your parents once shared with you. Maybe it’s as simple as a summertime sunset or a chance to be out in nature. Maybe it’s time with loved ones.

In today’s world, I can’t tell you how to build a life you never feel like you need a break from—if you know the secret, please send me an email—but being on the cusp of the best boating months of the year, I think it’s worth taking some time to refocus on what we really appreciate about being on the water. I’m willing to bet the things you actually value most are as much about connecting as they are about disconnecting. 

— Lydia Mullan

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