Vero Beach is my home base for dinghy sailing. I’m lucky there is an adult sailboat club here that is less then two minutes from my house. The club offers a variety of small sailboats including Hobie Catamarans, Lasers, Sunfish, Mariners and a large number of dayboats. I use an app to schedule reserve a sailboat and just show up. The club staff will tow the sailboat out of the protected docking canal out into the Indian River Lagoon.
For this adventure I invited Kelsey along for her first sail. She is a natural. We sailed from the canal launch out into the Indian River and then northward. We practiced tacking and spent the morning talking about wind mechanics and forces on the sailboat. Kelsey picked up the tacking skills quickly and started calling out when she was preparing to tack.
We sailed up to Riverside Cafe and dropped anchor but the winds were so strong we were getting blown into the mangroves. We ended up pulling anchor, sailing south where we radioed the staff to tow us back into the canal. We ended up securing the sailboat and driving the jeep over to Riverside Cafe for that delicious lunch.
Taking Kelsey out and having her get excited about sailing was a highlight. Life is short and its almost impossible to always be on the same page as my daughter so any moment I can share something I love with her and have her respond in a positive manner is a huge win. Can’t wait to take her out again this fall when she gets back from her summer adventures in Alaska. This will be her first summer away from Vero Beach in four years. I am looking forward to her videos and pictures from her trip.
