One of my favorite things to do while we’re spending time in Michigan is to go sailing. We didn’t get the boat rigged up for nearly the first week because I was busy with work, and we all were busy with tubing on the big boat and fishing.
The wind on Friday was perfect which lined up well with my planned mental health day. We carried the boat down to the lake, pulled the rest of the rigging down from the attic, and started to rig up the boat. Dad and I really have this down to a science so it didn’t take too long to get setup, and soon we were ready to go.
Dad, Crosby, and I went out with the jib sail and had a really nice ride. Crosby was talking the whole time and definitely liked when we were going out the side a bit. With the jib and the main sail, we had a really good ride. He wanted to keep going, but we knew it was about time to go in so that Dad could make dinner.
I wasn’t ready to stop quite yet, and I wasn’t sure if Carlyn was actually going to go. I didn’t want to take her out along, but really wanted someone else to go. Korey (surprisingly) had come out and was ready to go with her, so then the three of us set sail.
I figured that a slightly calmer ride would be a better option, so we left the jib at home. Given that Carlyn was very nervous before we even got out past the bullrushes, we definitely made the right call. The slight rocking of the boat was making her really nervous, but then she settled in.
We took a slow ride with the wind to get away from the shore and find a bit more wind. After that point, we started tacks back and forth to go back to shore. As she got more comfortable, I even had her holding the rope a bit. “I’m sailing, daddy!” It was a great experience and definitely a very ride to get Carlyn started on her first ride.
The next day there was a nice, but not very heavy breeze. It was enough that we were going to have a good ride, but it wasn’t going to be a super rough ride. Crosby was eager to go again, so the three boys went out for another sail. The wind was coming from the south or southwest so again we went away from shore to get a better breeze.
We went out towards second point on a tack and made our first turn. I asked Crosby if he was ready to go in and he said not quite yet, so we made another couple of turns back and forth enjoying a beautiful day on the water.
I asked Crosby how he was doing, and he said he wanted to go another 10 minutes. We were still quite a ways out but it looked like we could take a pretty straight shot in. It still wasn’t all that windy, but there were some gusts that got Dad and I hiking out on the edge of the boat.
Then all of the sudden… BANG!
Everythings started going in slow motion.
The sail slowly started to fall away from the boat. Based on what the sail was doing, it was as if the boat was tipping over. The only thing is that the boat was staying flat. Dad and I flopped over the side of the boat because we had been leaning back.
My first thought was Crosby. I popped up and he was sitting there in the boat smiling. Whew!
Normally when the boat tips, you need to make sure the mast doesn’t go down, so that’s what we did again. I crawled back into the boat and started to pull the sail back towards the boat. Dad was out at the tip of mast to make sure that i would stay up. I started untying some of the sails so that we could rotate the mast into the boat. It was then we could see for sure that one of the stays snapped.
There was no way we were sailing in. Crosby thought this was the coolest thing, and in true Crosby fashion, couldn’t stop talking about it. In his mind, this was the best sail ever.
We got the rest of the sails untied and situated in the boat. There was only one way to get in at this point. Dad was in the front of the boat pulling and kicking. I went out the back of the boat and kicked. Fortunately it wasn’t super wavy today, so we were able to make some progress. We were about halfway towards the shore down by Brotherton’s.
Then a boat came up and asked if we needed help. They had a rope which I held at the front of the boat and they started to tug us back to the dock. When we got to the bullrushes, I hopped out and walked us in the rest of the way.
The girls were sitting there on the dock taking pictures of us… thinking that we might need some help. We surveyed the damage, and while we probably could have done a short term fix, we opted not to and that turned out to be the last sail for the trip.
Insight, Perspective, and View into Life 