Have you ever started the day with "rose colored" glasses and an unwavering optimism about the upcoming events of your life, but you find yourself chest deep in water standing in a lake wondering, "What the HELL was I thinking?"

I have been looking forward to Amy and I taking my two small children, ages 7 and 4, sailing. The weather was forecasted to be mid to high 70's with winds from 5-10 knots, Wrong! We woke up as early as usual to 54 degree weather with 15-20 knot winds, and preceded to finish loading the boat and kids for the lake. Life preservers, check. Coolers with Caprie sun and Lunchables, check. Jackets, "in July?" Mother Nature can be a bipolar pain in the rear.

With a rocky start trying to control the kids and get the boat ready, I should have just put on the brakes and headed to the beach. The kids would of had more fun, and Amy and I would have been more relaxed and the upcoming increase in boat cost would not have been acquired. The boat was launched and the new 135% Genoa was put up. Amy and I did not work well together seeing that it has been almost a month since our last sail. The kids added stress, as well as the unforeseen wind conditions, making sailing difficult and not much fun. Truth be told the wind was fine, the kids were not.
While sailing a wench handle was lost over board making trimming the head sail difficult for Amy given her smaller size. Later, back at the boat ramp the trailer was not pulled down into the water far enough to allow for proper seating of Barely Awake. This seating caused the newly replaced swing keel cable, that was replaced earlier this season, to brake. To fix the problem I had to get in the water and swim under the boat and wrap a line around the keel. I attached it to the wench on the other side and looked over at Amy and thought, "I really wish we had a wench handle right now". Cold, wet, and truly pissed at myself for not being more forward thinking when it came to my children, I braced myself against the boat and lifted the swing keel up and clewed off the line. Now cold, wet, pissed, and knowing I will be hurting in the morning, we backed the trailer further into the water and loaded the boat correctly. It will be heading back to Lake Rathbun for a new swing keel cable while we are in San Diego, Ca. next week.

Total cost of the trip: 100.00 to repair the swing keel, unknown amount to replace the wench handle, and untold effects to my own sanity, and don't forget the $ 3.95 for a bottle of Advil.

The ranting and raving being completed, I would like to point out the good stuff. We will never let go of another wench handle, and we will back up the trailer further in the future. We were able to sail Wing on Wing (placing the boom to one side, and the head sail on the other) reaching 6.5 knots. We measured our speed on Barely Awake and reached 7.2 knots as our max. Quite fast for a little boat. Finally no one got hurt, maybe a little cold, but not hurt. Sadly the kids will not be coming sailing for a couple more years, instead we will go to the beach.

I would like to say good luck to Windrunner and her owner with their up coming adventure. Also good luck to Jackie and Colin with their trip to the Caribbean. Last but not least, to Hello Texas get back out there so I have something to read.