Sailing with New Crew
28 September 2015
It is always important to train new crew members.
On Saturday, Sep. 19, Barbara Wallace joined me with two of her grand daughters, Annie (13) and Maggie (4). This was Maggie first time going out on the boat and all the safety items were in place, cockpit jack lines, a youth lifejacket with tether. The tether gave her full range of the cockpit and she was clear the she could not fall off the boat.
Before we left Annapolis Maggie helped close and lock all the cabinets and drawers. Then we headed for Shaw Bay on the Wye River. As we passed Thomas Point Light, Maggie wanted to know the name of the light house. Then we passed Bloody Point light house and Maggie started looking at the chart plotter. She started to understand the relation ship of the boat to the chart and started asking questions.
We were to turn into the Eastern Bay at G-1 which Barbara pointed out on the chart. Maggie then started looking for the green buoy. She let us know when she saw it and then we planned our turn.
As we were going in the Eastern Bay Maggie started asking was some of the symbols meant. Tone was a radio tower on shore that I pointed out. She was very happy.
Once we arrived in Shaw Bay, we anchored and then watched all the jellyfish swimming past. We had BBQ chicken for diner in the cockpit and then watch all the stars.
Sunday, while we were were sailing back, Maggie watched for buoys, steered and named the light houses.
She got this big smile on her face when I told her were were going to sail and turn the engine off. we were doing 8.5 kts with just the genoa.
The weekend was a great adventure, Maggie went on her first sailing trip and Annie got to see the Milky Way.