Nostalgia Strikes Again

     While paddling ashore I hear a hail, by name, someone I know or have met.  It comes from a distinguished looking gaffer a hundred meters to starboard, a vessel that arrived in recent days, which I had intended to check out more closely.  She reminds me of the Alice Wragg, one of my favorites, with friends John and Valerie, to whose grandchildren I gave dinghy sailing lessons.

     With my old eyes, I can’t tell more about these folks, so I paddle over.

     It is Daniel and Linda Brink aboard Daphne du Cap, whom I met nearly a decade and a half ago at Bequia.  I taught their kids, Katie and Sam, to operate my Fran-type sailing canoes.  Daniel and Linda remind me of some specifics.  I have memories as well.  I particularly and fondly remember Katie’s gift, treasured still.  She wrote a poem of appreciation as part of their flexible home schooling program – of which serendipitous dinghy sailing lessons became a part.

     Katie was thirteen, her brother, Sam, eleven.  That was fourteen years ago.  I gave a lot of dinghy instruction back then and occasionally loaned one of my two “Fran” dinghies to qualified dingy sailors.  How had Katie and Sam’s dinghy adventure begun?

     Sometimes it would begin with kids hanging at the rail excitedly watching me sail by.  They instinctively see a sailing dinghy as a kid thing, from about age seven up to… well, I’m seventy-seven so far. Sometimes I would hail the yacht and talk with the parents.

     What started it this time?  Daniel, dad, recalls making an inquiry.  Sam recalls me approaching them.  I fancy it was the kids coming over and asking.  Such are the vagaries of distant memories.

     Their yacht, Daphne du Cap, had been commissioned with family cruising in mind.  She is an interesting boat, a one of a kind 38-foot gaff cutter, built in Cape Town, South Africa and launched in 2006.

     In March 2007 the family departed Cape Town for an eighteen-month cruise to South America, the Caribbean, Bahamas and US East Coast.  They were in the southern Windwards for the beginning of 2007 hurricane season when I met them, first at Bequia then at Carriacou.

     I don’t remember the specific dinghy lessons I gave to Katie and Sam so long ago.  I taught many to operate my strange little kayak-paddled sailing canoes during those years, about half of them kids.  I had two “Fran” boats at the time, Fran II and Fran III.  Fran III was normally stowed aboard in three pieces.  Fran II, my main dinghy, Ambia’s tender, hung astern and even towed… towing a dinghy in a seaway is another story.

     If Fran III wasn’t already in the water, the first lesson would have been launching and assembling her three pieces – in the water, modus operandi for that particular boat.

     Once assembled, just for the fun of it, we’d capsize her full of air and duck under into the magic cave – hand over head coming up.  The water within is so smooth you can see the bottom as if with a mask.  If you linger, remember you are breathing oxygen from trapped air.

     That would be followed by self-rescue, righting the boat while pouring out as much water as possible and bailing the rest – either before or after boarding, depending on the boat and how clever you were.  Besides being fun in clear, warm tropical waters, self-rescue is a great confidence builder and sometimes a necessary skill.

     Fun.  That’s what I was pushing.  Messing about in boats.  There is a diversity of novel things to be learned – and for an instructor to share.  Learning through play.  What fun.

     In fact, here is thirteen year-old Katie’s report on it:

 

 

     Katie’s poem was part of the home schooling program.  I may be a bit partial but I’ll give it an A+.

     Nothing like a treasured memento to fuel nostalgia.

     Had their lessons begun with launch and assembly or was Fran III already in the water?  Nigel and Chelsea, to whom the dinghy was loaned for some weeks, were there at the time — the Brinks remember them.

     Nigel and Chelsea had a thirty-foot junk-rigged schooner of some distinction and for much of their stay at Bequia Chelsea was the captain of the Bequia schooner Friendship Rose.  I didn’t give them lessens in Fran, I just gave Chelsea a demonstration and turned her loose.  But I did teach her something she didn’t already know about sailing.  When sailing a dinghy in a wind that is too strong or gusty, especially downwind, over-sheet the sail, pull it in to close hauled or close reach. “That sounds counter-intuitive,” Chelsea said.  But over-sheeting depowers the sail, moves its center of effort close to the center of the boat and makes the sail much easier to handle during unexpected tacks and jibes.  In turn, Chelsea taught me something I hadn’t realized about my Fran boats – they sail as well (though differently) with a passenger as they do solo.  (A solo sailor in Fran is “live ballast”, constantly moving.  A passenger sitting in her bilge makes her hybrid to a ballasted sailboat.)

     Old-friend reunions cause memories to flood.  Not only that, the Brinks have photos and Kate and Sam are remembering via email.

     If I had started them with launch and assembly, they’d have mentioned it.  Kate’s first remembered impression is of how unstable Fran seemed.  Sam remembers learning to handle the sail (stepping, sheeting and unstepping the rig) with the boat on a long tether, a method I sometimes used. 

     More important than particular lessons are the impressions that dinghy sailing left on them.

     Young Katie’s poem was written in real time.  Note that its last word is “fun!”  Fourteen years later, these are some of Kate’s reflections.

     “What a valuable experience that was!  To be honest, for a thirteen year-old girl and her eleven-year old brother, both relatively new to sailing, it was a little daunting.  … soon we were able to rig her up, set the sail, read the wind, and tack up and down the bay.  What incredible freedom!

     “My favourite lesson was learning how to properly read the tell-tales … I felt a great sense of empowerment.  Finally I understood how my parents knew exactly when to release the main, or pull it in — and now this skill was mine too!

     “Another favourite … learning how to relax into a capsize — and then right yourself … Hutch encouraged us to test the dinghy’s limits at different wind speeds and courses, and embrace the moment when we had pushed the little boat too far … a point at which the vessel wasn’t happy … attempts to find the spot that was ’just right’.  This also made us more confident sailors on our home, Daphne –  understanding when she was under strain, and why, and how she could be eased into a happier course.  Much later, when I took my partner and his family sailing on our family dinghy, Roseanne, back in South Africa, I retold these same tales of advice.”

     Kate’s email said a lot of stuff that made me proud to have made my contribution.  Kate’s focus seems to be the sailing itself and I reckon her key word to be “empowerment”.

     Sometime after Nigel and Chelsea left Bequia, they sent word of building their own rowing/sailing dinghy.  After some weeks of messing about in my little boats at Bequia and Carriacou, the Brinks moved on to Hog Island, Grenada, and built their own sailing dinghy, Hogwash.

     Sam’s remembered impressions tout utility aspects of sailing dinghies.

     “Being able to sail a small dinghy was a source of great adventures while cruising with my family, and most importantly a great source of independence.  Using Hogwash and being able to sail myself around the anchorage meant that I could rely on my own imagination and ability to sail in order to preoccupy myself for hours.  It was also a very good way to meet fellow children who were also cruising and had dinghies.  I remember at Hog Island in Grenada, there was a large group of children – each with their own dinghy, who would sail around the anchorage in big flotillas, often capsizing dinghies near the beach or racing each other in sailing or rowing races!  Having a dinghy taught me a lot of responsibility and how one should take pride in what you own.  These are invaluable life lessons that I was privileged to learn at a young age through owning something as simple as a small sailing dinghy!”

     The family continued its cruise then flew back to South Africa.  The kids did high school and Daniel and Linda went back to work.  Daphne was shipped home.  Kate and Sam had some apprehension about re-integrating into school after so long an absence but soon realized that they had earned an advantage.

     And now, all these years later, Daphne du Cap, Daniel and Linda, are back, after a 48-day passage from Cape Town to Carriacou with a brief stop at St. Helena.  The “kids”, now 27 and 25, are off on their own life paths.  Kate is a marine biologist.  Sam presently teaches English in Vietnam – though his degree is a BA in Creative Brand Communications.

     Long years ago I realized that kids living aboard cruising yachts – yachts actually practicing the lifestyle, traveling – are generally a cut above, well above.  Cruising aboard a yacht making passages and new landfalls cultivates necessary discipline and responsibility.  A vessel on passage is on her own (for the most part) and must be self-reliant, subject to nature’s whims according to season, location and chance, and such problems as the vessel herself might have must be dealt with… that only scratches the surface of being out there.  And everybody aboard is living together in a confined space for the duration.  The next landfall will offer a new climate, new geography and/or a different culture.

     Most cruisers I’ve met over my decades aboard have sailed away, around the point, over the horizon – or I have.  Sometimes I hear news of them, rarely we turn up in the same bay.  If they were a family, reports of the kids, now off on their own trips, often blow me away: where they are, what they are doing.  Their apparent grasp on life is generally above what I suppose to be the norm.  These kids learn early in life that you make your own luck (for the most part) and how to do it. 

     Kate and Sam are now adults, twice the age yet still early in their life adventures. 

     Here’s Kate’s update, extracts from emails she sent since learning of her parents reunion with me in the Grenadines:

     “… finished [my] degree in Marine Biology and Oceanography.  … my sailing and cruising experience has had a profound influence….

     “Throughout my undergraduate, I spent much time near the sea, both in studies, and in play.  I finished my PADI license and a Commercial Diver’s license for science research, and in 2015 I was lucky enough to be given a berth on the South African research vessel, Agulhas II, for a three-month research trip to Antarctica.  It was an incredible passage … encouraged to pursue future experiences that would take me to more wondrous parts of our beautiful planet. 

     “After I finished my studies, and on the back of such a special adventure to a pristine wilderness, my partner and I went travelling for a year-and-a-half to South East Asia and for the most part, South Island New Zealand.  Having experienced the sort of travel that sailing offers, I feel very comfortable with moving through new places, so exploring these Indian/Pacific islands felt like greeting an old friend.” 

     Kate’s email goes on about building yurts and cabins with her partner as guest accommodation on a family-run farm, getting Day Skipper tickets and starting post-graduate study in Renewable Energy, “using ocean-study backgrounds to figure out a harmonious future for energy development and our coastlines.”

     Kate and her like-minded partner are looking forward to their next sailing adventure, joining her parents aboard Daphne du Cap for the Atlantic crossing to the Azores, en route to Daniel and Linda’s next adventure, which will be Ireland.

     From Sam:

     “Fast forward 14 years and my love of the sea has grown with each passing year!  The older I get, the more I cherish and appreciate all my experiences at sea and on the water, whether it is sailing yachts, sailing dinghies, kayaking, surfing or merely sitting near the shore and staring out at the vast and endless ocean.  Cruising as a young child definitely had a big positive impact on me and influenced who I am today…. I am grateful for all the souls which crossed paths with my own.

     “… my experience cruising at a young age was an invaluable life experience…. Being exposed to so many different people, places, and cultures humbles you and allows you to grow with a more holistic perspective of the world….  Cruising taught me a lot about how little one needs to be happy and to enjoy the small moments. One of the biggest lessons I learnt was that the generosity of strangers is something truly incredible.”

     Sam still sails, has his Coastal Skipper’s license, plans to work on charter yachts in the Med or Caribbean and dreams of one day doing his own cruising adventure.

     Kate and Sam got an early start and became citizens of the world.  It was the Brink family voyage that got them rolling, not the dinghy sailing, as useful and entertaining as it had been.

     As for me, I reckon that I had as much fun as they did and it sounds like they had as much fun as I did.

 

 

Caribbean Compass, November 2021.

 © 2021