I ask every crew if they would be willing to write for me an open honest essay about their experience crewing for me on WildChild. My condition is always the same, be brutally open honest upfront and direct. There is no point sugar coating anything and I want future crew to have an honest idea of what the experience will be like.
Here are Daisy’s unedited words in answer to the question
What was it like to crew for Captain Lexi on WildChild…
From Daisy Lewis
Sailing with Captain Lexi has been the most awesome, intense, fun, scary, thrilling, miserable, once in a lifetime adventure!
When she says “say what you mean and mean what you say”, she means it… she is literally so blunt and straight forward that when you first meet her, she can come off as rude and arrogant. Once you get to know her, you realise she really is just She-Sheldon and doesn’t realise that what she is saying could be construed as inappropriate or mean.
Since getting to know Lexi, I’ve found that she is one of the kindest, sweetest and most genuine people I’ve ever met. She is a patient and informative teacher and really does know her stuff. Usually, if I hear someone say “I’m a really amazing teacher and incredible captain” I kind of assume they are just full of themselves, so I didn’t really know what to expect (I hadn’t watched too many of her videos or blogs before coming out here)… but after taking Captain Lexi’s Sailing School and then seeing her in action, I realised she was just being her straightforward and honest self. No false modesty here – she is a very capable, talented and knowledgeable sailing captain.
The training is quite intense and there is a lot to learn in a relatively short amount of time. She has very high standards and expects a lot from you. Lexi is very intelligent and has a deep understanding of the physics of sailing which allows her to explain the trickier information to beginners in a simple way that is easy to understand. I enjoyed learning with her.
Her thoughtful intelligence also means she makes incredibly indepth, informed decisions regarding the boat that you can usually trust (even with such unreliable information like wrong weather and chart data!). Of course she can make mistakes but you feel pretty confident that she made the best decision possible with the data available.
I feel safe with Captain Lexi (even if she does constantly remind me of all the horrible things that can and do go wrong on the ocean!) and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have by my side if the shit really hit the fan – she’s so good at coming up with solutions to problems and is calm and adaptable in a stressful situation. She’ll only break down after you and the boat are safe!
Lexi is incredibly concerned with safety and shows you all the safety procedures for leaving the boat in an emergency, including what to bring, what is in the ditch bag, and the evacuation procedure. You are always required to wear a life jacket and non-slip shoes and sailing gloves. She thinks through every decision and her attention to detail and safety makes you feel like you really are in the best place should those 10 bad seconds occur! She is very concerned with not putting crew in danger and will always be the first to volunteer to do anything dangerous or risky (even if you are happy to do it!).
I did feel a great deal of pressure whilst sailing with Captain Lexi to make sure I didn’t let the team down and really hated to get things wrong – Lexi won’t let you get away with it and she’ll tell you to your face if you do something stupid! She won’t hide her feelings and if she thinks you deserve a slap on the wrist, that’s exactly what you’ll get! But she also builds you up a lot, makes you a better, more knowledgeable sailor, and praises you when you do things well.
She is not one of those captains that is overly confident and sure of herself all the time. She will share all of her concerns with you when planning a passage or when a passage is underway (whether you want to hear them or not!) and is much more of a realist. For example, any issues regarding potential pirate threats, sharks, storms… usually complete with a few real-life horror stories just to ram the point home! If she’s scared or worried, she won’t hide it so if you’re a nervous sailor, this might not be great for you.
Obviously Lexi’s seizures are something that crew will have to be aware of and I don’t find it a problem at all, it’s easy to deal with. She can pass out while sailing, walking in town, or while snorkelling (this is always a fun one!!)… literally anywhere so you should make sure you’d be comfortable helping her when she comes back and doesn’t know where she is, or comes back crying and scared.
She is very open, raw and emotional and doesn’t worry about letting her feelings show. We had many struggles whilst sailing together – like the dinghy engine constantly failing, the main engine having problems, breaking the hatch, sea sick overnight sails, dragging anchors in a storm, or just her seizures on an early morning or night sail making her feel like shit… and while she may cry and curl up in a ball on the floor sometimes, she never gives up and always has new solutions to every problem! She’s a strong chick.
I was thrown into the deep end on my first passage with an overnight sail while alone at the helm from Dominican Republic to the Bahamas, whilst throwing up and not feeling at all ready, after hearing horror stories from Lexi of pirates along the route(!), but we are both big team players who do what needs to be done so as not to let their team down. So she would be there, seizures and all, whenever I needed her.
For all the hardships, there was so much more joy, happiness, lightness and fun! Wandering along our own private beaches, snorkelling in crystal clear water, meeting sharks and rays, lazy sails on calm waters with a gorgeous breeze sharing stories, seeing dolphins swimming alongside the boat, drying off on deck after swimming with snacks and a rum punch, watching the sun set over the sea, star gazing with no light pollution, land adventures on small islands, and just laughing and getting to know a new friend… Lexi has given me so many wonderful gifts along this trip and so many amazing memories, I feel like I couldn’t have gotten luckier choosing WildChild and Lexi to sail with, and being welcomed by them. She really made an effort to make sure we had a balance of hard sailing and fun, chill time which was really kind and appreciated.
Lexi and I are actually very similar, both laid-back hippy girls, so she has been super easy to live with. She is very pro-freedom and doesn’t push any unreasonable rules on you, she just lets you be you and only asks that you let her be her in return. If there are any issues, she will just tell you to your face so you always know where you stand with her. You don’t need to read into things she says or worry she isn’t being genuine – she’s incapable of not being (sometimes painfully!) honest.
Lexi is very generous and accomodating – she is clear that while sailing, her word is law but whilst living together you have equal say. The living area is small so you should be okay with very little privacy and a lot of time is spent just chilling on the boat relaxing, reading or doing boat jobs, which could be a problem if you are more of a sociable party animal!
Lexi is unique, quirky, weird and funny which made me feel very at home! Not only has sailing with Lexi given me an incredible life experience and a huge amount of new sailing skills that I’ll remember forever, I also learned a lot about myself from our many deep, spiritual conversations and I feel like I will leave WildChild a more self-aware and understanding person. She’s become a really wonderful, lifelong friend and I will be forever grateful to this girl for the experience!
I would only add that I see this as an extremely fair and accurate realistic assessment.
I concur.