This is not “normal blog content” for us but I hope you enjoy it.
This morning I asked twitter “what should I write about?” and Alan Johnson replied first…
@allanbranch Or you could just tell me what I should do to learn how to sail.
— Alan Johnson (@commondream) December 16, 2016
He probably asked because I’m always posting pictures of our boats and family videos of us sailing.
Around the age of eight I took summer sailing lessons and my buddy who lived next door has a small sailboat called a “Sunfish” which you could buy used today for around $1000. Now at age 36, I have a few little boats under 20 feet and a bigger sailboat a Morgan 30’ which we camp in overnight.
Sailing is magical to me. It’s harnessing a mostly invisible force to power your vessel thru the water. It’s dangerous when the wind is too strong and tricky as it changes direction and dies down under certain condition. It’s a timeless skill and the technology advancement around sailing has been minimal over the past hundred years.
Sailing can be relaxing, sailing can be a test of your patience or test your improvisational marine skills or somedays embarrassing as I’ve run around, flipped a boat and gotten stuck before.
I think you’ll find most sailors LOVE teaching others how to sail. Seeing someone else start to learn the basics of sailing is a joy to watch.
Sailing teaches you to stay calm under pressure, I love knowing when others might be scared, worried, freaking out I can stay calm and think. Sailing teaches you about planning ahead, finding a course, working that heading and making small adjustments but thinking about plan B.
Below are two videos of my kids learning how to sail. The interesting part is watching Jimmy’s lack of confidence during his first day of sailing practice and comparing it to the next day when he was teaching his little sister how to sail. This is what I love about parenting & sailing.
If this blog post inspires you to learn to sail, please let me know. I’d love to hear what you’re sailing and where you’re sailing.
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