Seems like a basic safety/planning kind of question since you’d be in the middle of a body of water

I think so, too. Swimming with a life jacket in my opinion is more difficult than swimming without one. However, I would think that treading water is more difficult than swimming with a life jacket so maybe if swimming with a life jacket is the expectation, then that’s ok.

Backing it up one step further, a common beginner mistake is to decide on a destination irrespective of the wind direction. This sometimes makes sailing more difficult than it needs to be and can result in the unnecessary torturing of guests as the captain stubbornly pounds into wind and wave to achieve a destination not superior to other options that would provide a more congenial travel experience.

this is really helpful, thank you!