Any skipper can become so involved with the challenges of command that he or she forgets to keep the crew in the picture.
It’s as important for a briefing to include the basics of the coming passage as to explain where the liferaft is and how to use the heads. As the miles roll along, morale is boosted if all hands are advised about progress. A man freezing in the cockpit will cope better if he knows the tide will turn in the next hour and that the gruesome sea state should soon begin to ease; an encouraging remark about there only being another fifteen miles to go might save a mutiny.
It sounds obvious, but it’s often ignored.
