Apr. 19, 2005 - The family

Meant to mention that the kids, Lets call 'em C, my daughter, aged 9, and M, my son, aged 6 are both pretty excited about Magna Carter....

C decided this evening that the summer camping trip we had previously planned to the national championships of the Optimist class dinghy should be cancelled in favour of a week on Magna Carter..... didn't want to say too much out loud, but...... top kid!

SWMBO, C and M are all sailing newbies.... SWMBO has done a week charter wth me and loved it, and both kids have done a little dinghy sailing, but the whole 'yacht' thing is a new adventure for them truthfully...

I'm obviously keen that they enjoy sailing as much as I do, so my plan is to start the first season off pretty gently... nothing too distant, and nothing too extreme in terms of conditions... lots of pretty stop offs and hopefully good memories....

I've just turned down an opportunity to cruise Magna Carter across to the continent in company with several other boats from the Scuttlebut forum late in May, as, while I am sure that I would enjoy it, I don't want to push the family too hard at that early stage..

Oh, and what about me?

Well, I've sailed since I was old enough to walk... mainly in dinghies, but about 20 years ago, I was introduced to yachts, and in a 5 year period from then, logged quite a few thousand miles..... then work, marriage, and laterly kids curtailed the sailing to the odd weekend here and there on charters, usually around the Solent, and a little corporate hospitality stuff through work... so I am one of a large number of people who have logged quite a lot of mileage, and have a fair degree of experience across many different types of boats, locations and weather conditions, but have never had to worry about the detail of boat ownership.....

I for example, a few weeks back had to finally (and you might say about time really) undertake an SRC course and exam to legal for VHF radio usage

So....i'm sure that later in the year, we'll be looking for a few pretty anchorages, and maybe meeting up with a few people, perhaps a BBQ on a beach somewhere?... who knows....