Sailing with the heirs to our pastime
Issue 110: Sept/Oct 2016
This was the summer that will be remembered fondly aboard Mystic for the times we took kids sailing with us. We didn’t go far. In one case we were never out of sight of the marina, but we did introduce sailing to five enthusiastic youngsters between the ages of 4 and 14.
Not long after launching our C&C 30 for the season, we invited a family of five to visit for a weekend. They slept in a nearby motel. Due to Mystic’s size and the amount of gear we carry aboard, we daysail when we want to share the experience of sailing with others.
They say you can’t choose your relatives. In the case of this young family, the children’s grandparents are not nearby and they adopted us as surrogates. We were flattered. Shouldn’t all sailing grandparents try to impart to the next generation some interest in their favorite pastime? This wasn’t going to be difficult. These kids had been wanting to go sailing for quite some time. I had to laugh when I entered their motel room. The two younger girls, were already wearing their life jackets and squealing in delight at the very prospect of a sailboat ride.
We sailed one cool afternoon after a rainstorm had passed and the following morning in much warmer circumstances . . . until the next series of passing squalls complicated our plans and it was time for their departure. Each of the girls — Matilda, 4; Maggie, 7; and Avital, 14 — took the wheel for a time and they all (parents too) helped with our sailing chores: making up lines and stowing fenders, raising the main, rolling out the jib, tacking, and preparing docklines for arrival.
For the younger girls, the destination was the goal, although they will remember some of the sailing activities as building blocks for another visit in a few years. They were looking forward to visiting a beach at Madeline Island on the warm day. All the adults aboard were glad to be tied up there (just coincidentally) when a fast-moving storm blew through. The seven of us huddled in Mystic’s cabin as we waited out the blow, which did cut the beach time short.
At 14, Avital was in her glory on board. She had read a series of nautical history books for young adults called the Bloody Jack Adventures, and she immediately imagined herself as Jacky Faber, her favorite heroine in the series. Avital already understood much about sailhandling and wind direction. She took to the wheel eagerly and laughed as the wind blew her hair. She wanted to learn every knot, do every chore, know all there was to know about sailing. We will long treasure her enthusiasm, along with that of her younger sisters who were simply thrilled to participate as part of the crew. We basked in their obvious joy.
A month later, friends at our marina were visited by their grandchildren, 9-year-old twins named Violet and Henry who live in Manhattan. These kids took classes on Optimists every day and were learning about sailing from an entirely different perspective. They had just finished day one of their class when their grandmother introduced them to me as they headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s powerboat. Once Henry and Violet learned that I was a sailor, they filled my ears with all the cool things they had done on their little boats that day. Their enthusiasm was contagious.
A few days later, we invited them to sail with us. They had plans in a couple of hours but we all begged, and Grandpa agreed to let us borrow them just for an hour. These two wanted to know every term, be involved in every evolution, identify every part of the boat. They were true sponges regarding all things sailing and had already learned many knots and much of the nautical vocabulary. We enjoyed every minute of the precious time they were aboard, and we hear that, after they arrived back home, they gave their parents an earful about all the sailing things they did during their week in Wisconsin.
For Jerry and me it was revealing, encouraging, and powerful to experience sailing as brand-new through these energetic youngsters. Each one had unique responses to the experience of sailing, and they were all a pleasure to have aboard. We look forward to further planned and serendipitous opportunities to share this pastime we call sailing with the sailors of the future.
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