Sailing, sailing over the bounding main...

Scott has an enormous affinity for the water. E. Nor. Mous. When we lived in Hawaii, there was a stretch of Nimitz Highway that Scott literally could not drive without commenting, "I just LOVE it here." And it was a spectacular bit of scenery--just as you come into downtown Honolulu, to your right was a marina filled with sailboats. I just found it so endearing for that specific point to move him so consistently.

For Father's Day this year, Scott took a sailing course. Sailing, you may be surprised to learn, is actually a lot of hard work, and he would come home every night sweaty and tuckered out. And very, very happy. This weekend he took us for our first sailing adventure as a family.

He had been teaching Will the various knots over the last few weeks. When Scott tossed a rope to Will and told him to put a stopper knot in that so we could grind the jib (I have a long way to go before I'll be fluent in sailing lingo!), Will took his responsibilities very seriously. When he handed the perfectly tied knot back to his dad, there was a look of quiet confidence and pride in his eyes.



Katie preferred to stay below deck to read in the shade. (That's my girl!) Once we were underway, she quickly realized that it was more fun to have the wind in your hair, so she joined the rest of us.



I think everybody got a turn manning the tiller. (Will was only momentarily disappointed that the boat didn't have a wheel like pirate ships.)

Of course I have to share a couple of the really funny moments. Will got to blow the air horn from the bow as we pulled out of marina. Except Scott forgot to tell him just to give a short blast. After about 8 looooong seconds of earsplitting racket, we were finally able to yell, "STOP!!" loud enough for him to hear us. Classic William: he stopped the horn and yelled back, "what? I can't hear you over this horn!"

And then we almost had a catastrophe at the end of our adventure. It was my job to jump out of the boat onto the dock and secure the boat with ropes as Scott finished guiding it in. Because I'm known for being good under pressure and steady on my feet. Does this sound like a setup for America's Funniest Videos?? Well, sorry to disappoint, but I nailed my landing and tied da bugger up perfectly.

But then Scott went to tie up the bow. He admits to thinking to himself, "This is a bad idea,[emphasis mine] but I'm just going to put one foot on the boat, loop the rope and push myself back onto the dock." So--of course-- when he did that, the boat started to push away from the dock. Scott's boat leg was getting further and further and further away from his dock leg, and all I could do was watch in horrified fascination, thinking "he's going to push back...he's going to push back." Well, just a millisecond before he was going to have no choice but to fall in, he did push back. He looked around sheepishly and said, "Yeah, I know that was a bad idea."

But two have such two minor occurrences over the course of a 3-hour sail is pretty miraculous. All of us agreed that we want to go sailing again as soon as possible.

And now Scott and Will are actively shopping for sailboats. It's really pretty precious to see them huddled around the computer screen, discussing various sizes and features. I'm not going to get really worried until they start discussing what to name the boat.