My wife heard from a coworker that Triton Yacht Club was doing its annual Big Brother/Big Sister sail this weekend. Having been involved with first (and several subsequent) Big Bro/Sis sail many years ago, we decided to lend a boating hand. (If you don't have the program in your area, Big Brother/Big Sister is a program that pairs volunteer adults (Bigs) with disadvantaged kids (Littles)). Well, it was a beautiful day with record high temps, but unfortuantly only light wind. Some 69 bigs and littles and 17 boats showed up for a hambuger grill to start the event. After lunch, bigs and littles were paired with sailers, boarded their boats and headed out onto the lake. We agreed to take a larger group, and ended up with 4 littles and one big (appearently some bigs were unable to attend) as guests on Kara's Boo. Our littles ran from about 5th grade to 8th grade ages and were really excited about going on a sailboat. Once clear of the docks we raised sail and started letting the littles try steering. Almost uniformly, as soon as they got the tiller, they wanted to watch the water flowing past the rudder. Our course was anything but straight. Eventually the wind pooped out, so we dropped anchor and let them swim off the boat in their lifejackets. I noticed a number of other boats doing the same. When the wind finally returned, we sailed off, refreshed and cooled, with the littles now comfortable on board and spread out along the rail and foredeck to rest. All in all, it was a fun day for everyone and well worth our time. Jim Kolstoe, h23 Kara's Boo
Big Bro/Sis
- Thread starter Jim Kolstoe
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