Our blessed Life: Captain, Skipper, and 1st Mate

This past weekend J, Banana and I took a 3 day sailing 101 course. We have been discussing getting a sailboat as a activity we could do as a family. J loves boating so it would be a great hobby for him but he was pretty adamant that I take this class along with him so I know how to operate the boat in case there is an emergency. At first it sounded horrible to have to find someone for the daycare and be away from Carrot for 3 days but I admit it was pretty fun and a memorable time with Banana. I also like to give J a hard time :)

The details actually worked out smoother than I could have ever imagined. The week of the lessons 2 of my daycare kids were on vacation and Sarah had not been given her date to leave for her Disney cruise line job yet so she was able to come substitute for the daycare which only was Carrot and one other 5 year old girl for Friday. Then she took Carrot home with her for the weekend and she was entertained by her Aunt Paige, Sarah and Meaghan (Big shout out thanks to all you you).

Day 1 we went on the boat and discussed all the parts of the boat and all got to practice tacking the boat back and forth.

Day 2 we were discussed the proper way to sail using the different points of sail, tacking and a little jibing while the wind was low.

Day 3 we practiced the figure 8 man-over-board technique which made me a little nervous. It was one thing to practice using a floating device as the item you needed to "save" but thinking of having to sail away from your child in order to turn around was another. We also learned to dock the boat on a mooring and then after we sailed to a local restaurant for lunch we took a 100 question test.

The test was not too hard but a little different than I expected. Many of the diagrams where backwards from our practice book and Banana looked completely lost when he first started the test. My mommy heart wanted to so rush over and explain it all to him but I knew I couldn't. There were times I was trying to concentrate on my questions and he looked so confused and my heart just broke. I had to press on and get out of the room and let him do it on his own.....and he sure enough did. He passed with a 91%. I was so proud of him. There was so much to learn and some of the questions were were pretty tricky.

It was a fun experience and I am glad we did it....and Yes, J - I am glad you made me study ahead of time. I might not be able to say that out loud but I can at least blog it :)

Day 1