by Ryan Harris
09/30/2008, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

"O.K.," Rado began as we walked done the beach with our newly rented windsurf board," you need to keep your balance on it or you will tip and fall in the water." Uh-oh, I thought. I figured you just had to keep the sails balanced, and you had it made. We got to the perfect spot to practice getting on, going forward, and turning.

Rado was going to teach Wesley, then me, and last but not least my Mom. (My Mom was last because she needed a bigger sail for her to practice, so we were going to get her a different sail after my brother and I were done). Wesley hopped on and immediately starts to lurch forward. Wesley went a few yards before having to jump off so he didn't hit someone. Rado taught Wesley the basics of windsurfing for about 20 minutes.

Finally, it was my turn. Rado signaled me to come over and try to balance on the board. It was easy to balance the board, since it was long and big. To bring up the sail you pull a rope that is attached to the mast, and you grap hold of it when you get it up. I started up and zoomed on at a high-speed of around 1.5 mph. The thing about windsurfing is that the wind should always be 90 degrees to you back. To turn you push the sail back and the wind pushes you. Then immediately push the sail forward and then when you've turned, you go to the other side of the sail. After going around for 20 minutes and turning for a while I started to get the hang of it.

Now it was Mom's turn. When my turn was almost done Rado went to get the other sail. By the time I was done Rado had brought the other sail. Mom got on the board and also started to lurch forward. It took her awhile to get the ability to turn, but she did fine after a while.

She practiced for 20-30 minutes. Then we each took turns for another hour. After two hours, it was time to return the windsurfer. We gave the windsurfer back to the renter, and when we started to walk, we realized we were famished. We went to a grocery store and bought a six-pack of doughnuts, two loaves of bread, one and a half liters of a local orange drink, a coke, three peaches, and some gummy worms. We found a nice place to sit with an ocean view, and ate everything but a half liter of the orange drink.

We hitchhiked for a few miles until we reached the bus station, and then took the bus all the way back to the boat. I had lots of fun on my first day of windsurfing, and I can't wait until the next time I get to go again.

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by Wesley Harris
09/30/2008, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Our good friend Rodo had a great idea to go wind surfing on a nearby beach. But we only had one problem; we had no ride to get there... We checked out the bus schedule and we realized the bus just left, and they only have a bus every four hours. We waited for the time to pass by. After our restless wait, we walked to the bus station early, hoping some options might appear. We were stumped... We had no idea what to do, but then Rodo had a brilliant idea, HITCHHIKING!

Rado was a pro at hitchhiking. He had hitchhiked from Slovakia to Gibraltar, and through many parts of the world. He said in Europe it was a very common and safe means of transportation (unlike hitchhiking in L.A.). He gave us instructions and we took our positions--Rodo in back, Mom in the middle, and Ryan and I in the front. We all stuck our thumbs out and waited for a kind driver to pick us up. After a few minutes a company laundry trunk pulled over and we hopped in (Ryan and I hoped for a nice huge Toyota or limo, but we knew we weren't gonna get it). The only down side was there were only two free seats up front which Ryan and Mom slid into, whereas Rodo and I got to sit in the back with the laundry. The kind person took us as far as he could. Then we graciously thanked him and hopped out. Now Rodo and I smelled like socks that came from who knows where. We took our positions and waited for another friendly driver to pass by. Our next ride was a nice lady from Cuba in a 1997 Suburu. We all had to cram in, but hey, at least it is better then walking. After a 15 minute ride we ended out on a nice sandy beach and found a windsurfing rental store.

Now, it is time for Ryan to say how well we did windsurfing for the first time!

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by Ryan and Wesley Harris
09/15/2008, Gibraltar

Deja vu... Just about three years ago we were going past the point of Gibraltar. We can remember vividly what it was like. We were ten, now we're thirteen. We remember when we were clueless about sailing... Now we can take you anywhere! We know all the best places. We are med masters!

It took a lot of work to get us here. We could man the boat together if needed. We make good crew and great deckhands. But being back here in Gibraltar brings back memories... We passed through, now we're passing back through again three years later.

We are glad to see how much we've changed and how much we haven't. We are going to look back to these days when we are older, and ask ourselves again if have changed or not.

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