Welcome aboard. The boat is a 1980 Catalina 30 tall rig, her crew the Williams family. In October of 2006 we bought her in Charleston, South Carolina and sailed her 80 nautical miles south to our home on Hilton Head Island. For the next three years my family and I sailed the local waters, from the ICW to the open Atlantic, without getting ourselves killed. And we succeeded. Even the dog has avoided Davey Jones' locker.
Sailing with children is a hat trick. Nothing takes the fun out of an afternoon under sail like inadvertently getting your wife and kids into a life-threatening situation. Although they'll never admit as much, children frown upon careless parents. Think your wife will get busy with you in the v-berth after a nasty broaching episode? Think again.
We have yet to experience any close calls on the water. After a hundred or so days on the water, I can honestly say that it's all been good. My wife and I owe our good fortune to possessing something we call "common sense." It's not a nautical term, but common sense should have its own chapter in Chapman Guide to Piloting and Seamanship. Common sense is to seamanship what vermouth is to the martini. Common sense is to safe sailing what deep-fried twinkies are to morbid obesity. Common sense prevents parents from shitting their foulies when their first-born falls overboard without a pfd.
Safety first, as they say. It's a worthy saying and probably as good a way as any to start a blog about sailing with the family. And that's what this blog is about. It's for folks who are currently sailing with their spouses and kids or would like to. Of course it's not all about safety, but how to be in the presence of your loved ones while negotiating the watery parts of the world under the power of wind and tide. There is nothing -- and I mean absolutely nothing -- like it.
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