Today, I went ahead and joined the little sailing club near our house. It’s not the most flashy place, but it’s only a few minutes away, truly family oriented, and very affordable, less than $200 Australian ($150 US) a year for membership, race fees, and the mandatory Queensland Yachting dues, which at $85 Australian is almost half the cost. The club has a variety of boats (Pacers, Mirrors, Sabots, and one Laser), which are available free of charge the first year and then for a small fee after that. The intent is to get people sailing, and then if they like it, they will eventually buy their own boat. Just like the "Wednesday Afternoon Go Sailing", it promotes the sport by getting people out on the water.
I had hoped that we would all go together, but Mark needed to do some work on the computer at home (Boeing stuff) and Erik was invited to go swimming at a friend’s house, so I drove over by myself with the idea of signing up and then possibly taking out the Lasar with the Radial rig.
After I finished filling out the paper work, several people were milling about looking for crew, so I ended up sailing on a Mirror, a British design plywood boat, kind of like a big El Toro or Sabot with red sails and spinnaker. It seems I can’t escape boxy plywood boats, but it would actually be a good choice for Erik to learn in.
It was interesting to sail on the river, really puffy and shifty, much different than Morton Bay. We could sail right up to the riverbank, which at today’s tide was just a tangle of mangroves, and see the big expensive houses on the one side and a mud/sand bar island with trees full of fruit bats on the other. The racing is pretty civilized. They sail every Saturday, September through April (not that we'd go out that often), starting at 2:00 pm and finishing around 4:00 pm. Of course, once the boats are put away, there are refreshments (beer, pop, hot dogs, sausage rolls and lollies – that’s candy for kids) at the clubhouse. I stayed for a bit and met a few families then headed home.
When I got to the house, I noticed Erik’s bike was gone, so I went down to the park to find Erik pretty much riding solo. Hurray! He just needed a little help from Mark to get started. It’s been a slow learning process (for both parents and child) because the bike we bought Erik is a bit too big for him, but he now seems to finally have got the balancing down. Hopefully, we’ll soon be able to ride our bikes to the sailing club.
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