When Your Heart First Opened to Sailing...

[S/V_Surya]

I have always been a boat person (my parents were power boaters, lord forgive them) . Was going to purchase a canoe but before I did took a trip to Canadas "Lake of the Woods" with first x-wife. Beautiful trip, but when I got back after paddleing for a week and hit the shore with my arms ready to fall off, I swore to God I will never travel by paddleing again. Thus I became a sailboat owner.

[thinwater]

12 years old: Robin and the Dove, National Geographic. Went out and built a working model. But parents were not boat people, and we lived far inland, or at least far to a kid with no wheels.

22 years old: Hobie 16 Nationals at Cape May, sailed off the beach. Rented a Sunfish the next week, and bought a Prindle within a month.

45 years: First Delmarva circumnavigation, on our Stiletto 27 with my 10-year old daughter as crew. Great father-daughter time. Absolutely hooked me on cruising.

And a lot of sailing miles in between.

[ChamJam]

I was 18 yrs old, on a Laser on a lake in British Columbia,Canada. The cold water motivated me not to tip over and I had just seen the movie "JAWS" so I was really motivated to go fast!!!!!!!! I know, there are no sharks on lakes, but I just couldn't get that "Dunda...Dunda...Dunda..." music out of my head!!!!!