A day of firsts

The whole family –all six– went out onto Lake Pymatuning for the first time together. For the first time, Wayne was the skipper and the most able seaman onboard. We did pretty well; we sailed from point A (the launch ramp) to point B (across the lake), and back again to point A without mishap. It was a gorgeous fall day- 50s and sunny, with a light breeze. Telltales flapped, water chuckled, kids and parents grinned, no one fell in. I think that counts as successful day boating! We dropped anchor for the first time slightly offshore, just to see how the boat would behave. No worries there. Patrick took the tiller for the first time and did rather well. Blaise slept…like a baby, for part of the ride and screamed…like a baby, for another part. I think the infant sized life-jacket may have contributed to the discomfort. He’ll get better with it once he’s able to sit up on his own and grows a bit more.

Taking the Helm

Can his grin get any bigger?

O Happy Day

See, we all fit!

We need to get better at our docking sequence and assign seats and tasks for sensitive times like launch and retrieval. Right now there are many elbows and knees that can get in the way, fingers that cleat and uncleat the jib just for fun, and adults nearly playing Superman trying to reach the bow.

I’m still amazed at just how well we all fit in Good Enough. Welsford’s Navigator is certainly a generous 15 foot design! Really– two bigs and three smalls and a tiny fit without being too close. And she is such a good looking design, to boot! She got a couple compliments from people who were stunned to see a yawl from sleepy little Steubenville. It struck them as rather incongruous. I don’t know why- it seems perfectly sensible to me!

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