Today we took my Mom out for her first sail aboard Wee Happy! It was a beautiful warm and sunny day with great wind. Not too much, not too little. We went out by the 7 mile bridge and towards Bahia Honda beach. Mom took it all in with a smile on her face and didn’t mind the waves rolling us around a bit at all. Here’s a quote from her when asked what her favorite part of the day was:
“I liked watching you guys operate, and seeing all the details it took to get the sails up and down.” She got an inside look at the work it takes to sail!

We anchored near the beach, and wanted to take the kayak in to the beach for a walk, but the waves were rolling us around so much it made it too difficult to get in and out of the kayak from the sailboat, and we did not bring our dinghy with us today, so unfortunately we were stuck on the sailboat….so we just had a little lunch at anchor while rolling back and forth like crazy, and then we set back towards the harbor.
On the way back Mom tried steering the boat. It’s a good thing the water isn’t a road — there isn’t much to hit out there and you can’t run off the road….we just veered around the water while she got the hang of steering. And she got it! By the end of the afternoon she was steering like a pro! Steering the boat is counter intuitive because if you want to go right you push the tiller to the left, and if you want to go left you push the tiller to the right….it takes a little while to get it right!

When we got back to the harbor we took the kayak out in calm protected water around the mangroves just before sunset. We watched pelicans and birds and got a little arm workout with the paddles.

Then we went out to dinner to our favorite place in Marathon, the Keys Fishery, where we stuffed ourselves on shrimp quesadillas and key lime pie.