Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Keep the boat - modify the crusing.

Your kids have about the same age spread as ours (Son now 30, daughter will be 28 in June). After they got "mobile" sailing became a problem for us and excruciatingly boring for them. For a few years we would mostly motor out to a beach someplace and let them play in the sand and water, then back to the dock. Before we knew it they started taking an interest in the boat and even the sailing part. The other Big Smart Move my wife made (one of many) was to assemble a craft and project box filled with string, cloth, a hand drill, small hot glue gun and lots of other miscellaneous stuff. I kept some styrofoam blue board, wood dowels and stiff wire on board and it would keep them busy for hours. Working with the blue board caused all sorts of mess but their results were well worth the trouble. Honestly, the most difficult part was for me to finally get my head around the idea that we were not going to sailing all the time and reset my sights in different directions.

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