Waterworlds

Published May 2, 2004 12:00AM


Family Vacations, Summer 1998 Waterworlds Whatever your vessel, it wouldn’t be summer without a big splash of H20 By Thurston Clarke When my wife, Antonia, was seven months pregnant, we answered a newspaper ad offering a third-hand sailing dinghy for sale, the same model she had unsuccessfully begged her parents to buy 20 years before. It was suspiciously cheap, and we should have scented trouble when the seller’s two young daughters hardly turned from their pink plastic Barbie castle to see the boat go. The seller explained he had given up trying to make his wife and children enjoy sailing and had taken up windsurfing instead. We smiled smug smiles. We live on the shore of America’s “sixth great lake” (Vermont’s Lake Champlain) and both love water, swimming, and boats; there was no way our children would prefer Barbie. Our twin daughters were born the next day. Now, when I hear them telling their friends “kayaking is cool,” and “we love to capsize the sailboat and swamp the canoe,” I recall the many times over the past ten years when we inadvertantly almost turned them into Barbie girls, and smile proudly. For instance, I was sure we’d lost them the day Antonia saw the lee stay swinging in the wind and ingeniously repaired it as I held firmly to our tack. As gallons of water sloshed into the boat, eight-year-old Edwina shrieked with terror. It took 12 months of careful coaxing to get her back into the boat. I remember an excursion in a large aluminum canoe on a stormy day. The adults at the paddles loved the adrenaline rush of constant near-swamping and the hard work they planned to reward with extra beers, but Phoebe, age seven, experienced a horror of Titanic proportions. While I was making these mistakes, I watched instructors at the kids’ camp cleverly and steadily give them the skills and confidence they needed to enjoy water sports safely. It’s what I’ve learned from them and my kids that gave us so much family pleasure on the water last summer. The first lesson may seem obvious: Learn to swim. With good life jackets and parents who want to get out on the water, it’s tempting to take children along on activities that turn out to be scary for nonswimmers. For children to have confidence and fun on the water, they must wear life jackets and be strong swimmers. Along with swimming comes good training in the basics, like how to right a boat or rescue a friend when his canoe swamps. Remember that a child’s idea of fun is very different from an adult’s. We think it’s fun to breathe fresh air, view beautiful scenery, exercise our bodies. Kids think all that is just boring. They like fun and games, like pelting other canoes with old tennis balls as part of a July 4 “war,” paddling with their hands, or rowing blindfolded. And they like adventures like exploring an “uninhabited” island. Finally, keep water activities safely below the panic threshold, while constantly raising the bar. The youngest kids must be with adults at all times. Then let them row or canoe alone, but within a defined area and closely supervised. Next, establish your own family test, like sailing a triangle between three obvious landmarks, after which they may go out alone. Last summer we enjoyed our controlled adventures on Lake Champlain. We picnicked on islands, found treasure (sea glass) on the beach, and sent a message in a bottle. When we sailed to Schuyler Island, we could not believe that a few years before the girls had hardly dared go in the water. Now that they were strong swimmers, they begged us to anchor so they could swim ashore. I was unsure of the anchor on such a gusty day, so we stayed with the boat. Although they’ve come a long way and have never been Barbie girls, it will be a few years before they’re ready for the Robinson Crusoe adventure of being stranded on an island. Illustration by Greg Clarke

Family Vacations, Summer 1998 Waterworlds Whatever your vessel, it wouldn’t be summer without a
big splash of H20
By Thurston Clarke When my wife, Antonia, was seven months pregnant, we answered a newspaper ad offering a third-hand sailing dinghy for sale, the same model she had unsuccessfully begged her parents to buy 20 years before. It was suspiciously cheap, and we should have scented trouble when the seller’s two young daughters hardly turned from their pink plastic
Barbie castle to see the boat go. The seller explained he had given up trying to make his wife and children enjoy sailing and had taken up windsurfing instead. We smiled smug smiles. We live on the shore of America’s “sixth great lake” (Vermont’s Lake Champlain) and both love water, swimming, and boats; there was no way our children would prefer Barbie. Our twin daughters were born the next day. Now, when I hear them telling their friends “kayaking is cool,” and “we love to capsize the sailboat and swamp the canoe,” I recall the many times over the past ten years when we inadvertantly almost turned them into Barbie girls, and smile proudly. For instance, I was sure we’d lost them the day Antonia saw the lee stay swinging in
the wind and ingeniously repaired it as I held firmly to our tack. As gallons of water sloshed into the boat, eight-year-old Edwina shrieked with terror. It took 12 months of careful coaxing to get her back into the boat. I remember an excursion in a large aluminum canoe on a stormy day. The adults at the paddles loved the adrenaline rush of constant near-swamping and the hard work they planned to reward with extra beers, but Phoebe, age seven, experienced a horror of Titanic proportions. While I was making these mistakes, I watched instructors at the kids’ camp cleverly and steadily give them the skills and confidence they needed to enjoy water sports safely. It’s what I’ve learned from them and my kids that gave us so much family pleasure on the water last summer. The first lesson may seem obvious: Learn to swim. With good life jackets and parents who want to get out on the water, it’s tempting to take children along on activities that turn out to be scary for nonswimmers. For children to have confidence and fun on the water, they must wear life jackets and be strong swimmers. Along with swimming comes good training in the basics, like
how to right a boat or rescue a friend when his canoe swamps. Remember that a child’s idea of fun is very different from an adult’s. We think it’s fun to breathe fresh air, view beautiful scenery, exercise our bodies. Kids think all that is just boring. They like fun and games, like pelting other canoes with old tennis balls as part of a July 4 “war,” paddling with their hands, or rowing blindfolded. And they like adventures like
exploring an “uninhabited” island. Finally, keep water activities safely below the panic threshold, while constantly raising the bar. The youngest kids must be with adults at all times. Then let them row or canoe alone, but within a defined area and closely supervised. Next, establish your own family test, like sailing a triangle between three obvious landmarks, after which they may go out alone. Last summer we enjoyed our controlled adventures on Lake Champlain. We picnicked on islands, found treasure (sea glass) on the beach, and sent a message in a bottle. When we sailed to Schuyler Island, we could not believe that a few years before the girls had hardly dared go in the water. Now that they were strong swimmers, they begged us to anchor so they could swim ashore. I
was unsure of the anchor on such a gusty day, so we stayed with the boat. Although they’ve come a long way and have never been Barbie girls, it will be a few years before they’re ready for the Robinson Crusoe adventure of being stranded on an island.
Illustration by Greg Clarke