25 July 2007

Starting Slowly

I had a very eventful sail this last weekend. My daughter is really starting to understand sailing (see post below) but equally important is that the whole family went out.

See, we're a bit scared of the boy. Not in a Children of the Corn way where he has mysterious powers or knows kung fu or something, but in a "wouldn't it be nice to have a relaxing afternoon without having to chase him down all day every day?" way.

But, he very calmly handled the 90 minute sail (about the limit of ANY 2 year old's attention span). Granted, he wouldn't leave his Mother's Lap the entire time. And he does look ridiculously similar to the sta-puft marshmallow man in his sailing gear.


But his newfound cooperation has allowed us to spend more family time on the boat. His resistance to moving means that Heidi can relax a bit other than balancing 30+ pounds of deadweight. And with Camille's incredible new helmability, the two of us can sail the boat.

There are a couple of compromises. I'm back to reefing the main in anything over 5 knots of wind. The first sign of a gust and the traveller is dumped and I'm on the edge of just letting the main fly. Sails are shorter and have to be in the morning before the wind kicks up which is usually when the fog is in. But, as we showed with Camille, this all pays off in the end, you get a kid completely comfortable and safe on a boat.

And I get to sail more often.

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