I went sailing yesterday and introduced another wife to the joys of sailing. I have sailed with her husband (he was crew and learning) a few times but he couldn't convince his wife to come with us in the past. So last time we went out sailing we all went out to dinner together where I meet the wife. We talked a little and I told her next time to come out with us. Well she did on a beautiful fall day on the Hudson river. My goal was not to overwhelm her at first and build her confidence as the day sail progressed. I put her in the stern seat at first to watch and get used to the motion of sailing. After awhile I assigned her starboard
winch duties. I showed her how to operate it and she did a great job. So not to tire her out we heave-too and had a nice lunch in the bay after about 1 1/2 of sailing. After cleaning up we went back to sailing the bay and I let her take the helm. With some very quiet talk I coached her of the finer points of helm control. When the boys went up on deck to sun themselves, thoughts of dumping them into the bay crossed both our minds but I didn't want to do MOB drills, just too nice of a day to mess around. While running with the wind, (2 hours later & the boat being level) we girls decided it was snack time and out came desert. We sailed another hour after that before heading in. On the way in her husband said something about getting a boat next season and there was a smile on her face!
