Finding the sailor within you - and a Nordic Folk Boat

Summer 2007

5. A teenager's first taste of sailing

- photos by David and by Keith Bryant: there are more here -

A real good start to the summer with five days out of nine at sea, now it's when I'm on land that the world is rocking around me, only on the boat that things feel stable ...

Last Sunday, the first day of the first full season with my own Swedish boat, with Vendela (7), Linnea (10) and their father Lonny: a delightful leisurely sail into the next bay with a picnic to mark our arrival: I got a few photos, though I was too busy to do it while we were sailing ... Edwin's choice was to come on his own the next day, and Karin was feeling under the weather so neither of them came this time, there will be plenty of other times: fortunately there wasn't time to stop to think beforehand, but afterwards I realised I'd been terribly nervous, setting things up the day before took so long that I hadn't had the energy to make a solo trip to make sure everything worked, so I was at the same time having to function as a boat-owner, to make sure things were safe and working, as a sailor for the first time in nine months, as a skipper in charge of a boat with three people on board who knew nothing at all about what might need doing or even how to make sure they didn't fall in the water or get knocked out by the boom, and as a suggestopedagogue so that no-one would have any hint of anything going wrong and have only successful experiences, not be bored, wet, cold, hungry, thirsty, caught short (= need a toilet), irritable, whiney or any of the other things that seem to happen to people ... I do believe I managed it to everyone's satisfaction, though I had a hard job keeping awake during the 'apres-voile' (like 'after-ski' but when you've been sailing) ...

Linnea was really useful with ropes and tying up and untying and I showed her other things she could manage like fastening the sails onto the ropes, and I guess she had a really wonderful time ... Vendela had a good time too I think, though she tended to say it was frightening: but she found it great to be able to take herself on deck up to the bow and lie flat under the foresail alongside Linnea, and they both had lots of fun playing houses in the cabin which they made very cozy ... Lonny was a bit spaced out, having just got back from Hong Kong, but enjoyed sunbathing while Linnea and Vendela played in and around the water, and he got to steer on the return journey and I think had a good time - he said my landfalls were perfect, though I had to have two goes at both of them and felt really clumsy myself!

We didn't go far, just down the bay and round the point into the next bay: but it was round the point and seemed quite exciting for anyone who hadn't have their sights set on Ulvön, and we could make a landfall and have our picnic and feel like real adventurers ...

As we went out, the girls were very keen on the idea of feeding the lone swan which we saw at a distance, and had no chance of making contact with; but lo and behold! as we came in several hours later she came in with us keeping us company ... I found a bag of bread they could feed her with, and they found a load of peanuts, some of which had fallen on the floor of the car, with which the swan seemed very pleased ... except that when it seemed to be losing speed she raised herself up to full size, which was about the same as Vendela and gave a hiss that would frighten many an experienced adult, but Linnea just hissed back, instantly restoring everything to its natural dynamic ...

The following Saturday we did the same trip actually, with Vendela, her mother Karin, and auntie Ylva: and Vendela has booked me for an overnight trip with just the two of us, she had already finished her packing last night.

Sunday I was out for 10 hours with Edwin (13) and friend Keith. It was even the first time Edwin had seen the boat, he takes time to feel when it's the right time for him, his feet had hardly touched the deck before his first reaction burst out, 'Oh! - what a lovely thing!' ...

It was wonderful having Keith along because he could fix several important things I wasn't sure about, and between us we managed to give Edwin a very complete experience with at least a taster of almost everything that belongs to sailing:

• rigging sails (fixing them to the ropes that will haul them up)
• hoisting sails
• tying and untying the boat from her moorings

• real sailing with a fairly strong breeze pushing the boat over at a 30° or 40° angle
• using the engine when the wind was still
• sailing against the wind and still getting somewhere at a reasonable speed
• running before the wind (when the wind is directly behind you and you have the two sails open and filled in opposite directions, one left the other right)

• sailing in a narrow sheltered bay
• sailing in a wide but still fairly sheltered fjord
• sailing in open sea with a big island between us and Finland
• sailing in open sea with nothing between us and Finland
• sleeping in a berth in the cabin
• sailing in a narrow channel between two islands

• making a landfall in a strange harbour on a big island (actually the one where the boat was built) for lunch and a toilet break
• dismantling the rigging and sails when back in harbour

Apart from the general richness of the experience, perhaps the most satisfying for all of us was Edwin's taking the tiller (rudder) for nearly an hour on his own, to get us back from the distant island we had visited, and making his own judgements about steering towards the lighthouse and round the point when we turn in from the open sea back into the fjord, in the knowledge that he didn't need to ask anything: after several shorter periods when we talked about everything he thought of doing until he'd got the hang of it, he was to follow his feeling of what was right and as long as things were OK we wouldn't say anything, but we would be taking responsibility for nothing going wrong ... and of course given that starting point, nothing did go wrong ...