Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to All:

JB>  I almost fell off my chair.


         Because you saw my message just after your adventures with sailing...?



JB>  Part of the boating experience is a christening of sorts.


         Yeah... I had my own at a kayaking camp earlier this year.  One of
the life guards tipped over a kayak with me in it, then helped me figure
out how to get back in.  Nora had her christening at a school camp before
her stroke.  She was in a canoe which overturned when her classroom
teacher... reportedly a good swimmer, but not an experienced canoeist...
tried to rescue some other kids who suddenly found themselves in the water.
 Although she still complains about how she bruised her shoulder on a rock,
Nora was not the slightest bit reluctant to try canoeing again.  She did
that a few days after the sailing episode....  :-)



JB>  Besides horseplay, it took me WAY too many years to be
JB>  anointed.


         Well, I could say much the same... [chuckle].  I'd been on a
converted fishing boat in a gale.  I'd been on a CPR ferry in a hurricane. 
I'd been on a BC ferry when it was rolling alarmingly from side to side. 
But until recently, I'd had no experience with water craft on which an
inboard or outboard motor...
... the noise from which I found quite irritating... wasn't used routinely.
 We all got interested in kayaking when Nora tried it.  For her it was a
revelation
... hey, there's another way to get around!  Nora was having so much fun
Dallas & I decided we'd like to try it too.  And we met a guy who had
devised a way of paddling a kayak with one hand.  When she borrowed his
kayak she was in seventh heaven.  With canoeing & sailing, apparently,
an able-bodied person must do the actual work.  With the pivot he created
Nora can do it herself... so she's less dependent on others.  I still
haven't been in a sailboat or a canoe, and I keep thinking I must be nuts
to take up kayaking at my age.  However, we enjoy doing it together &
Nora finds it more fun than the alternatives she's tried....  :-)



JB>  I needed to drink the waters when I was with a tourist,
JB>  and a dog of all things, and it took the both of them


         The universe works in strange ways.  It took two hemiplegics to
get me into a kayak.  I've learned quite a lot from tourists & dogs as
well... [grin].



JB>  and the force of the water on the keel-less Yellow
JB>  Submarine to convince me to take a dip.


         One of Nora's favourite songs, BTW....  :-))



JB>  Your subject found the hard way, that sailing wasn't for him.


         A legitimate learning experience, IMHO....  :-)



JB>  He now knows that he can survive what was otherwise
JB>  considered a disaster.


         Yes, yes, yes!!  That's very important....  :-)



JB>  He also found out he wasn't about to shrink nor melt.


         Or, as I'm fond of saying, kids are washable....  ;-)



JB>  It sounds like the two of you were thoroughly entertained,
JB>  if not occasionally scared witless.


         Uh-huh.  I was quite bruised after climbing back into the kayak...
but I survived, and so did you!  Now the life guard tells me I have to blow
through my nose... i.e. when I've been suddenly dumped into cold water...
while keeping my mouth shut.  It's not easy, after umpteen years of playing
clarinet....  :-/




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+