August 16, 2002 -- Brian's First Sail

We woke up early this morning in order to make sure that we were completely ready to go to Coche for the weekend. We didn't have a lot to do, but enough to keep us busy for a an hour or two. Brian was already awake as Mike came into the main saloon. Brian poked his head out his door and said, "Hi Grandpa." Mike smiled and said, "Hi Brian, would you like to get up now?" Brian replied, "Yes Grandpa." He came out of his room just as I was coming up the stairs asking what everyone wanted for breakfast. Immediately, Brian said, "Fruit Loops!" (Brian had Fruit Loops every morning, and always had 4 or 5 loops left when he was done, that were to be fed to the fish. He enjoyed feeding the fish every morning and watching them eat.) I fixed Brian his Fruit Loops, then fixed breakfast for Mike and myself. After breakfast, while Lisa was in the process of waking up and having her coffee, Mike and I set about readying the boat for travel. First, we put the tender on deck. This wasn't nearly as easy as it sounds! You see, the little dinghy was sitting in the cradle for the tender since we were doing some work on its floor. So, we had to take the engine off the small dinghy and then move the small dinghy to the coach roof, where we secured it for our trip to Coche. Finally, we put the tender in place and loaded the small dinghy engine and fenders into it. Next I put the last two stanchion bolts in place while Mike took care of the swim ladder, gas cans and all of the other stuff that had been displaced by the varnish work we are doing. After a final sweep outside, we decided we were ready outside. We moved inside and put away the last minute things there such as the coffee pot, blender and the pineapple. Before we got underway, we explained a few basic rules to Brian. If he went anywhere out of our sight, he needed to tell us where he was going. If he went forward on the boat he had to put his PFD on and be sure someone was with him. As long as he was inside, sitting on the aft deck, or on the fly bridge, he didn't need to wear his PFD; the boat was wide enough that he wouldn't be in danger of falling over then. We set off on our big adventure at 1400 GMT (10:00 AM AST). We sailed off the anchor, and headed out with the wind on the beam. We sailed at approximately 4 to 5 knots. We introduced Brian to making the flipper call. The flipper call is where you shout, "Here Flipper, Flipper, Flipper" twice. Brian managed to call, "Here Flipper, Flipper. Here Flipper." Unfortunately, we weren't immediately successful. However, along the way, we saw a whale in the distance! The whale never came close to the boat, but Brian had fun tracking where it went by its spume. We watched where we wanted to go, and turned to starboard when we knew that we would not be running directly downwind. We continued on down the channel between Margarita and Coche. As the wind swung more to the stern of the boat, we decided to put away the main and jib sail. Once we did that, the boat picked up speed, and we sailed between 5 and 6 knots! Next, we saw dolphins! Lisa, Brian and Grandpa Mike went up to the bow of the boat to take pictures and watch the dolphins playing in the waves in front of the boat. Eventually the dolphins went off on their way and everyone returned to the aft seating area. More dolphins came to visit us and played all around the boat. All together, Brian counted 20 dolphins that swam with us. And then, a blissful silence descended on the boat as a tuckered out Brian fell asleep. We continued traveling under sail until it was almost time to drop the anchor. Brian woke up just before we rounded the bouy near Coche and again, we sailed with the wind on the beam until it was time to turn the motors on to make the final approach into the anchorage, where we anchored in 10 feet of water. Mike and I readied the small dinghy and launched it. Next, we gave Lisa the trial by fire dinghy driving lesson. We put her in the dinghy, talked her through starting the engine and then tossed the line to her! She drove around for a little while getting comfortable with it before coming back to take Brian to the beach to build sand castles. While they were at the beach, Mike and I took a nap! They returned to the boat, and we fixed Beef Enchiladas for dinner. Lisa even ate one! It was a great first sail for Brian!