"Capt. JG" wrote in
easolutions:

Had two J-24 with three students per boat with a jr. instructor on the
second boat. Twas the second of a two 4-hour class. Mostly practiced
tack/jibe, MOB, heave-to, getting the feel for sailing, since they had
basically zero experience before the class. Sailed out of Treasure
Island,


Thanks for taking young people sailing, Cap'n. Very commendable.....

This lady brought her son to a dock party when he was about 11. I've
never seen a white boy THAT pasty looking! The poor kid had no father
and only a proper southern belle for a mother who never went outside,
herself, except to get into her Lexus. He looked like a life-sized
doll, almost fake. An 11 year old boy is supposed to be TANNED, even
just a little!

I had no date for the party, so was free to "corrupt" the lad a bit when
Mom wasn't looking. If I had known he was coming ahead of time, we'd
probably had gone on a little harbor evening cruise, instead of sitting
at the dock. There was just the slightest air moving about, nothing to
upset the party goers below, so I showed him how we unfurled the various
sails and a little about how to set them and answered his questions
about what this did and that did as best I could aboard the Amel Sharki
41.

I lit off the electronics suite I'm so proud of and cranked up the radar
so he could see the GPS place us on the Raymarine's chartplotter/radar
display and he sat just fascinated as we watched several ships come and
go out of the harbor on the radar display. The party was too intense by
the radios at the nav station, but I had the M602 fired up at the remote
mic in the deserted cockpit so he could hear the ships and harbor pilot
traffic and Coastie broadcasts on 22A.

I distracted Cap'n Geoffrey long enough to get him to ask Mom if we
could take her and the boy on a little harbor sail on Sunday at high
tide about noon. She'd had a few wines to loosen her up a bit and she
agreed after the boy did a little whining....

He had a great time "sailing" the ketch for 4 hours on Sunday afternoon
in a nice 12 knot breeze. There wasn't any chance he'd get sunburned
after all the chemicals she lathered on him inside his PFD tethered to
the boat. I think we may have started a blister on his girly soft
hands.

I never saw him again after that day and wondered what ever happened to
him. Your post dug up that memory. Poor kid. He'll probably be a rich
lawyer living on a beachfront mansion driving expensive cars and never
have had fallen into the drink trying to step off onto the dock....or
gotten his hands bunged up when the wrench slipped off the stuck nut on
a diesel.



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Larry
You can tell there's very intelligent life in the Universe
because none of them have ever tried to contact us.....