Sailing on the Chesapeake

So, until yesterday I'd never been sailing. Except in a sunfish. On Fort Pond. For about 5 minutes. Does that even count? I guess we have mostly landlocked friends without boats and it hasn't been a priority to get me on a sailboat, apparently. So, I've been on except horrible horrible ferries that smell like fuel, some powerboats, a catamaran once when I was a pre-teen somewhere up in Maine, and canoes and kayaks, and a river cruise ship in Egypt. But sailboats? Not so much.

C45 has a friend at work, Captain Howard, who bought a 30' sailboat back in December of 2013. 10 months ago, essentially. And he's been looking for people to take out with him. So, yesterday was our day!

C10 wasn't looking forward to it, but she wasn't actively against it. Q8 was actively against it. And once we got on the boat, C10 was totally into it. She loved it. When offered to steer, she jumped right up. Q eventually got up and did it as well, but not the multiple times that C10 did. She had a high level of trepidation.

 

I guess not so surprisingly, since she is our girl who loves amusement park rides a whole lot, C10 love love loved when the boat was heeling (this the right term, yes? sailing people???) and Q8 wasn't so keen on it. Q8 stayed closer to the adults, whereas C10 sate whereever she wanted to be (as long is it wasn't in the way of Captain Howard).

 

Family portrait interlude!

Every chance she got Q8 asked to turn around and go home, and C10 asked to go further, faster, at a deeper angle. I'm always surprised when C10 gets into something and is positive about an activity, but this was one of them, and I think she'd do it again. More than just think, I know she would.

And Q8 remained unconvinced until we turned around and were motoring in. At that time I went up to sit on the bow. I was there only a few minutes when Q8 came up to be with me. And took my place immediately. Can you see the happiness there?

And then C10 came up to the bow, and a little kerfuffle ensued about who got to sit where, of course! But we worked it out and got some selfies, which they thought were hysterical.