History: A Sunset Cruise

So after watching the sailboats from our condo for a while we decided to look for an opportunity to sail.  It turns out that there is a catamaran (two hulls or "boat parts" connected by a lounge area) down the road from us - the "Kathleen D" - that offers sunset cruises, which seemed a nice way to try things... short... only a couple hours... and some photographic opportunities.

How seasick can you get in 4 hours?

You see... growing up... water was never really my forte.  I learned to swim (badly) only in grad school when we lived across the street from our apartment complex pool and the undergrad lifeguards gave lessons at incredible prices.  Beyond that, my water experience was a bunch of summers at the NJ shore when I was in elementary school (each summer consisted of a major sunburn the 1st day, then sitting on the porch with Dad the rest of the week).  I also was out on my brother's boat a few times... maybe twice.

Ah... can't forget... the Boy Scout rafting trips down the Swatera Creek on the USS Leaky, an old WWII era life raft the scoutmaster found after a flood.  This thing had maybe 10 or 15 leaks in it that were sealed by these rubber o-ring compression clamps that I'm sure worked great on the open ocean, but everytime we would hit a rock on the shallow creek, they would shift and someone who was just sitting on the side of the raft suddenly found himself sitting in the creek.  Only boy scouts could enjoy something like that.

So on June 9, 2013, we boarded the Kathleen D, and met Captain George.  To my complete surprise, as soon as we boarded, Vicky starts in asking him how you learn to sail.  Note, we haven't even set down our food at that point.  I have this photo of him getting out his wallet to show his various credentials shortly after we arrived.

The guy in the light blue is my son, John, who we invited to join us and Vicky's childhood friend, Maggie, came along as well.

We had a wonderful evening.  There was another group on the boat, but plenty of space for folks to spread out.  Captain George and 1st Mate Kirsten did a nice job.  The weather was great, the sunset was incredible.  I never knew how calming life out on the water could be.