Ryan and I learned how to sail in the summer of 2007 on a 25' Lancer in the lakes of Oklahoma. We were really just looking for a lake cabin and none were available, so we bought a sailboat instead. A lake house that was literally on the water. Our first and only sailing lesson was in an airport hanger with the boat on the trailer. Our friend came over and showed us how to set up the mast and run the lines, that was it. No further instructions.
So 5 o'clock on a Friday we drove the 60 miles to the local lake unloaded the boat and set to work putting up the mast. Mission accomplished at about sunset. Well me, being the practical one, thought that we should go to bed and figure everything else out in the morning. Ryan, being the stubborn mule that he his, said he was going sailing right then. So we pulled the main up and began our first sail ever in the cold dark.
Did I mention that this is early March? In Oklahoma? Where it does not even begin to resemble warm until sometime in late May?! Well it was! And anyone that knows me knows that I DO NOT do the cold. EVER! So it didn't take me long to flee inside under the blankets. Eventually after a couple of hours out in the cold Ryan decided to go inside as well. So he anchored off in a cove and we slept the night onboard. Early the next morning, just as the sun was barely starting to light the sky Ryan woke me up with something like this...
"Wanna go sailing?"
"NO! Its cold and I have a headache."
"Well I wanna go sailing. (Insert pout here...pause...then big smile) Is it okay if you stay down here sleeping and I pull up the sails? I think I can do it on my own."
"I don't care. Just let me sleep a few more hours."
"Okay!"
And off he goes. Well I don't know how the next few hours went because I was sleeping, but I have been told that they went flawlessly and it was perfection on the water. However I do know that when I woke up I was on the other side of the boat, on top of the table, with my face smashed up against the starboard port hole, watching water rolling over the glass. While Ryan was in the cockpit yelling "I GOT IT! I GOT IT!" and pulling on random ropes. My first thought of the morning: "Well, That didn't last long." Followed shortly behind by "Damn! I'm going to have to get in that cold water and swim."
Somewhere during the excitement and rope pulling Ryan succeeded in righting the boat, and I pried myself off the wall. Hmmm no headache - immanent death must be an instant cure. So feeling better I climbed up to the cockpit and began to learn how to sail. Every time the boat began to keel over we knew exactly which rope to pull on to "fix" the situation. And the rest of the day was fairly uneventful.
Now all of you true sailors out there are probably laughing at us right now. But you have to understand that Ryan and I had never even been on a sailboat before, let alone control one, and if a motor boat leans over like that it is a SERIOUS problem.
For everyone else...sailboats lean over. It is perfectly normal and even sometimes preferred. We know that now. And once we realized that we were not sinking our boat we tried to see how far/long we could lean over and hold it, it was fun.
Another thing that nobody ever told us, sailing is an illness and it is highly contagious. It did not take very long at all for Ryan and I to realize that the lake and the boat we had were way to small and that we were madly in love (with sailing). And then, like her parents, Sissy had the sailing bug. She would spend hours laying on the deck watching the sails or napping on the cockpit floor rolling over whenever we would tack. So with the new addition to the family and our new found love of sailing we began looking for a bigger boat.
And all the time that we were perfecting our sailing skills, we had a friend filling our heads with nonsense. Stories about how when he was young his parents took him and two siblings on a ten year cruise through the Pacific. And how wonderful everything was and stories about all the things they did and saw. Then we met his parents and they were no better influences than their son. With plans and schemes on how easily it could be done, and questions like “Why not? What’s stopping you?”.
Before long Ryan and I had a full blown case of sailing fever and began making plans of our own; shopping for ‘Ocean-going’ boats and searching for further destinations than the waters of Oklahoma. Then before you knew it Marilyn (Ryan's Mom) had caught the sailing virus too. So we began looking for an even larger boat.
And now, after almost 5 years of searching and planning, we are all living aboard Sandy Dreams on a journey to waters far away from Oklahoma. And you know what? We couldn't be happier.
16 years ago
