Chinese relatives go sailing

This past week, Vicky returned to the USA with a carload of relatives in tow - her parents and her aunt & uncle.  So after a few days to get used to the time change, and after morning Tai Chi exercises (her aunt is an instructor), we loaded up the minivan and headed to Keyport, NJ.

We had debated exactly how far to go for this first trip.  Vicky's parents have been on-board before and we knew they weren't exactly thrilled with sailing.  We didn't know how Aunt and Uncle would fare.   We realized that sailing with a destination is more thrilling, but do you really want to commit to a trip to NYC (4-5 hours for us typically) on a first trip?

Wisdom prevailed and we scheduled a basic afternoon of sailing on the bay.  There's not much else to tell...  we sailed across almost to Mt. Loretto Chapel, tacked once or twice, with time for the requisite photos at the helm, etc.

We had a bit of excitement on our final turn when we went to furl the mainsail and it wouldn't go into the mast - and the reefing line came out of the ratchet again.  I went forward to the mast and cranked it in.  This spooked Auntie who requested the sea sickness bands.  Now we've had one or two guests who have been seasick on Seas The Day... Auntie didn't show these symptoms, so I figured this was a case of "I've had enough and I want to go to shore" sickness.  That's fine... with the exception of Maggie, we don't shanghai people, and one reason to do a day-sail on the bay first was so we could end it quickly if people got tired.  We were back on the dock within an hour (including a long launch ride) and ended up having dinner at Nemo's.