If I got to choose to be anyone else I might have to be my 8 year old nephew Levi. My nephews definitely lead the good life in part to a bit (lots) of spoiling from lots of people but Sam and I are probably spoil them the most. This week he is in sailing lessons for the week - yep pretty sure Uncle Sam had a bit of an influence there. After his first day at sailing camp he ran out to greet me telling me how awesome it was and he didn't want to stop sailing. Definitely taking after his Uncle here.
He is sailing in an Opti all by himself with the instructors coaching from dinghies. I was a little concerned the first day about how he would do and if it would all go okay and kept my phone close but turns out I had worried for no reason at all. Which I guess as far as worrying goes is really a good thing.
Levi shared his whole day with me, then with his mom, his Uncle Sam, and then with his dad. I am pretty sure at that point he was done recapping but each time he told everyone about it he got excited again about how well it went.
Yesterday he told me he sailed all the way to the floating bridge and on Friday they will sail from Meydenbauer Bay to Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island. Pretty impressive all in a small, tipsy, one child sailboat. The whole no motor idea doesn't hold much appeal to me for some reason. We tried that a few weeks ago and I really missed it.
Watching the kids in the boats it is pretty impressive how quickly they catch on. Also saw one kid fall overboard and within a few seconds he was scrambling back on board with a huge grin on his face. That is a kid thing for sure - can't imagine many adults still grinning or climbing back on so easily onto a very tipsy sailboat. Having tried to get back on board our Harbor after going swimming it was more like a beached whale flopping around since we didn't have a swim step.
What I have realized is that I should have started sailing as a kid then maybe the leaning thing sailboats tend to do wouldn't bother me at all. I also maybe wouldn't be so worried about tipping the boat since that is the very first thing they had all the kids do in class on Monday. Levi thought that part was great and quite fun - perspective certainly changes with age.
Guess if they get it out of the way early then they aren't scared when it does happen. But Sam it is a bit late in the game for that so don't get any ideas now - I prefer to keep our boat upright in a soft lean - no cleats in the water for me, blame it on not going to sailing camp as a child.
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