Boatyard Boredom? Not for These Two Young Sailors.
While Paikea was on the hard and we were deep in the refit, Harry and Olly needed something to do. The yard next door had a little Gos 16 sitting unused and said they could sail it as much as they wanted. That was enough.
The sails they took out weren’t the ones that came with the boat. They’d been in the sail loft with me while I was working and had made their own — which meant they arrived at the dinghy with a wardrobe to test. They spent the morning methodically trying every combination they could rig, tweaking, adjusting, figuring out what worked. I went down at some point to see if I could get a ride and couldn’t get their attention. They were somewhere out there in about five knots, completely absorbed.
I eventually waved them in. Harry reported that the little boat was easy to accelerate and very hard to decelerate, which is an accurate assessment. They went back out. Shayne went out with them later in the afternoon. The sun set. They were still out there.
They came in when they got hungry. That’s a pretty good day.
Growing up aboard means sailing is never a holiday activity — it’s just life. If that sounds like something you want for your family too, the forum is a good place to talk through what liveaboard life with kids actually looks like in practice. Join here.