Sailing Away

After ten years of marriage, I am convinced Dan and I can get through anything together if we can survive five days of Lakeside Sailing Lessons. We have had a good time learning how to do something completely new. Quite humbling to be with your best friend and be so clueless about what you are learning. We have had fun learning from our two Lakeside Sailing Instructors who are college students. Nice kids, but better comedians than instructors. Dan has been the sailor and I have been along for the ride although I am picking up a lot of vocabulary and the concept.

Things to remember about our sailing experience are:

1. We read in the course syllabus (during class) that there was a swim test. We were walked out to the end of the swim pier into the wide open Lake Erie and told to tread waves/water for 4 minutes. We barely passed the four minute swim test, being thrown a life vest in open waters, told to swim to it , put it on (with jello legs) and then to swim fifty yards and back. I thought I would die and then Lakeside would never be the same for my family.

2. Classroom time was a stitch but, learning to use what they taught us when we actually got out on the water was sometimes difficult.

4. Getting hit in the back of the head with the boom (sail) and landing in the water during a game of sail tag was a new experience.

5. Our "big" trip to East Harbor Beach by sailboat was fun but, really slow. We were the first to arrive and the last to get back. Turns out that our boat is a lot smaller than everyone else's boat.