Oh wow, Travel,
SO sorry for the crummy situation, but it's just one of tolerance.
Regardless of the fact that you're a new
skipper or not, people who are going for a sail for the first time will have completely different perceptions of what is going on than you will. To you, the
weather and conditions were perfect. To them, all those waves at the entrance and the strange (to them) movement of the boat signalled
danger.
Earlier this Summer, I went on a trip with relatively
new sailors on their relatively new-to-them boat. We needed to do a 3-hour hop to get to the nearby harbour in a 15-17
knot breeze. We put in the first reef and got out in the thick of a beam reach where we were surfing down waves and hit a boatspeed of 7.7 knots. Their nausea and fear of the boat's heeling and speed was counterbalanced by the exhiliration of the boat's heeling and boatspeed of 7.7 knots! Long story short, we've now been out in 20-25 knots and we fondly remember that day when we were flying along in 17 knots of breeze, scared sh**less.
What I've found to be helpful is just a little chalktalk for your guests:
Before you leave the dock: Start out with very brief principles of sailing.. "you know that a sailboat uses
sails to capture the wind? Okay, we'll be doing that with the boat today. The
forecast is for 10-15 mph winds, which is 5-10 knots of wind.
Excellent sailing
weather. So, once we get that amount of wind in our
sails, how do we know that wind won't push the boat right over? Explain that there's a lead
keel attached to the bottom of the
hull with a weight equivalent to that of a Volkswagen - it will
always pull the boat back upright, even when it seems to be tipping over, so they needn't worry about that.
Then, finally, apprise them of "approaching dangers" (but don't, for heaven's sake, call it that!) Just say something like, "as we leave today, you are going to see the tide running out - and with the wind blowing in the opposite direction, there will be about 10-15 minutes of what we call "confused seas". We will
motor beyond that and you'll find the water will settle down and then we'll all enjoy a lovely sail."
Then when you can see the confused seas coming up. Point them out: "See those waves up ahead? That's what I was telling you about. We're going to
motor past those seas and then you'll find the water will settle down and we'll have a lovely sail - but it will be a bit bumpy as we motor through it."
I guess I would say it's all about forewarning and letting them know that you know exactly what's happening and you've got it well in hand. (You did have it well in hand, only they were too inexperienced to understand that.)
Warmly,
LittleWing77