I don't know if you've noticed or not but sailing has played a not insignificant part in the family's life over the years. Certainly it was a big part of Dad's life which translated into your life and then I got dragged into it all. You may have also noticed that there was a rather abrupt stop when it gets to my family. I'm not exactly sure what happened - I didn't really plan on *not* getting my kids into sailing - it just seemed like the opportunity didn't really present itself.
By the time the kids came along, Deb and I were into biking, and then we moved way inland, and they got into soccer, and well, it just didn't happen. We took the bareboat trip back in 2004 and that had somewhat of a mixed result. The kids were initially so taken aback by the 3rd world-ishness of it that they spent the first half of the trip complaining. They ended up having a good time but they didn't really learn anything about sailing.
Fast forward to last weekend. Deb's brother Tim came up to visit and we decided to go down to Newport to go to the beach and just bop around. It was a beautiful day and the bay was *filled* with sailboats. After driving and walking around Newport, I asked one of the local tour boat operators if there was any place that rented boats to sail. They pointed me to SailNewport so we went down there and had a look around. It was a nice place and they rent J-22s for not a terrible amount of money. As we were walking around the boats, I was really feeling nostalgic for the good ole' days. It's such a different, exclusive world and I kind of missed it. Apparently, Kyle was starting to feel the pull of the dark side because, out of the blue, he said that he wanted to learn how to sail. He said "Grandaddy does it. You do it. I want to continue the tradition. Someday, I want to take my family on a Caribbean charter like you did."
Wow! Where did that come from? Well, I got some information and we drove home. Later on, I was thinking about whether I really wanted to try and pursue this and I remembered that I had a friend who had taken sailing lessons at a lake in Worcester. That would be a lot closer than Newport so I gave them a call. Turns out I could join with a 30 day or 60 day membership and then, after proving that I knew what I was doing, could just show up and take out one of their boats (primarily White 14s).
Kyle and I drove up on a Friday afternoon to check the place out. This place is practically in the heart of Worcester on Quinsigamond Lake. It's called Regatta Point Community Sailing and it seems to be geared towards teaching city kids to sail. There's a beach right next to the place and it's a very "city" crowd. The "club" also rents paddle boats and canoes. We talked to the guy in charge and I signed up right there. I asked if I could get checked out and take a boat out right then and, at first, he said he didn't have anyone to conduct the test and it was looking like we would have to come back the next day. He then said that he did have someone so I ended up being tested by 13 or 14 year old Callie. Through some communication mix-up, I was only being certified for a mainsail. Jib cert is a separate test...
Anyway, after coming back in (Kyle waited on the dock), de-rigging the boat, and putting the sails away, I was cleared to take the boat out. So Kyle and I re-rigged the boat and went out. This place has some of the craziest wind I've ever seen. The lake is not very wide and there are trees and buildings all around so the wind just swirls. One minute you are close hauled and the next you are dead downwind. Not the best of conditions to learn to sail but I gave Kyle the tiller and he sailed around.
We headed home after a bit and Kyle seemed to have really enjoyed it. He had a friend from school visiting the next day and suggested that we come back and take him for a sail. So, on Saturday, we went back for another sail. I had to get certified with a jib so the manager guy told me to rig a boat and he would check me out. I grabbed some sails and went down and moved a boat to the downwind side of the dock for rigging. As I brought the boat around, I handed the bowline to Kyle for him to tie to the dock so we could start rigging. He bent down to pass the line through a ring on the side of the dock and then just kind of froze. I looked down and saw the bowline sinking in the water and the boat starting to drift away from the dock. With a "You did *not* just drop that bowline!" I dropped down on my stomach and plunged my arm, head, and upper body into the water and snagged the line. As I scrambled to get my head and chest back on the dock, Kyle's friend grabbed my leg and, instead of holding it down on the dock, lifted it up - basically bending me in two. I managed to get myself out of the water anyway and tied the boat up.
Kyle and I then set about rigging the boat - he remembered a lot from last time so I just told him what to do. The last part was the jib so I hanked it on, hooked up the halyard, ran the starboard sheet through the fairlead, and finally, the port sheet through the fair... Oh look, there is no fairlead on the port side. It's been ripped off of this boat. So, we de-rigged this boat, took it back around to the other side of the dock, got another boat around to the leeward side and rigged that boat. I finally went back to the manager and told him I was ready for the jib checkout. He told me to go ahead on out and he would come by and see how we were doing. I never saw him again.
We had much better wind this time (stronger if not any more directionally consistent anyway) so we just sailed around for an hour or two. I gave Kyle the tiller and he did OK unless we got a good puff and things started happening fast and he got confused on which way to move the tiller. One time (I was on the helm), we got a really good puff and just about went over. As I was scrambling to the high side I was thinking "Great! Thrown out for capsizing on my first day!" The extra wind and hiking out helped to stoke the interest however and both Kyle and his friend said they loved it. When we got home, we watched YouTube videos of all kinds of extreme sailing.
So, you never know. Maybe the interrupted tradition will be resumed and Kyle will be able to pass it down to the next one.
