Friday, July 2, 2010

our first sail!




yes! cricket sails!
today we had the extreme pleasure of having our good friends anna, david, jason and becca vandewettering visit us aboard cricket! after jason kayaked anna out to the boat (in his own kayak), and pam kayaked david out to the boat (becca had to go to work for a while) we went for a most loverly sail! first sail of the year! and cricket loved it, and told us so! she danced and pranced in the waves, and sailed upwind with gusto, and sailed on beam reaches like she's been waiting all winter and spring long to do just that! we were making 7 and a half knots on 15 knots of wind... beating! the sun was shining. the temperature was a perfect low 80 something. and the kids, david and anna have a great time learning to sail a big boat, each of them taking several turns at the wheel. jason (dad) also loved to sail with us, learning a few things along the way as well. jason loves being on the water, and we sailed back and forth and forth and back, up and down the york river, passing by his place of work, where he wasn't today! jason works at the coast guard station here on the river.
the kids released a couple more of mark mettler's homemade, "sailing lake calhoun" boats, and that was great fun. (watch my youtube video, "on the wing of a gull") it took anna and david a long time to pick out just the right little boat for each of them to set free into the sea. david picked one of the littlest of them all, and anna picked out the largest. both beautiful, of course. we decided to wait for a launching moment when the winds died down a little bit, so that we could watch them sail away longer. when the right moment came each went to the stern pulpit and dropped his/her boat down to the water. anna's big boat went down and sailed off like a dream. it was large enough to watch it drop astern for a little while. but when david's boat dropped down it went sail (feather) into the water and the little keel just wasn't heavy enough to right her sail side up, and the tiny boat quickly disappeared into the distance... david kept a very good attitude about the "unsuccessful" launching. we sailed and sailed a few more times up and down the river. probably a couple of hours worth, and many miles when all of a sudden david yelled out, "there's my boat!" we all looked out in disbelief that he could've spotted the tiny thing again on such a big body of water after so long, but sure enough, there it was! and not only was she there, but the little craft had righted herself, feather-mast up, nad was cheerily sailing on a perfect beam reach just like all the other mark mettler boats launched thus far on the chesapeake! huge smiles on all the cricket's faces! wow!
after a little lunch on board, some ice cream ashore, a little swimming time at the beach, and some sweet, quality time with becca (who'd gotten off work now), it was time to load jason's kayak onto there car, say our good-byes, and be off. as the vandewetterings drove away in their car, pam and i set off from the yorktown dock back to our mooring to be rocked to sleep by the Hand of He Who keeps us afloat.

we've checked the noaa forecasts, and it looks like it's off to the mouth of the cheapeake bay tomorrow, and out into the north atlantic!

i haven't forgotten the pictures i've promised. they're coming... and some movies too! ...

1 comment:

  1. . . . "there's my boat!" . . .

    oh benjamin ...

    thank you for sharing ...

    we are filled with joy ... to read about the little boat ... to read about the power of a boy named david ...

    holiday greetings ... with all our love and affection ... from all sailors ... sailing lake calhoun

    werner

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