Saling away...

Can you hear that song? Well, I won't sing it for ya becuase we all know I suck at that, :-) but you get the drift. (lol, get it)
Anyway...
My sister in law, Julia, has a friend who is a part of a Sailing Club on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington. Well, he(Louie) enjoys taking people out on the sailboat with him. My husband went, a couple summers ago when I was pregnant becuase he is totally fascinated with sailing, with his sister Julia and friend Louie out sailing. He has loved sailing since (and before)! Well now that I am not pregnant I can go, so hubby talked me into going out with them. We went a couple weekends ago and it was ok. Not the greatest time I've had on a boat. We basically sailed back and forth across the river. Not very exciting and I was not thrilled about going again, BUT Julia called again Friday and asked if we wanted to go again. Of course, my husband was right on that bandwagon and eventually talked me into getting my other sister-in-law to watch our toddler son so I could try it again. I told him prior to going though, that if it was like last time again that I will not go again. It's good to give warnings before-hand I have learned. :-)

So Saturday afternoon we haul our child and stuff for playing in water over to in-laws house(Jonny's brother's) and we head out to the river. This time we were in a little bit smaller boat and there were 6 of us on the boat. My hubby and I and his sister, and Louie and 2 friends of his from work (man and woman). So we set out onto the water and boat up-river towards Mt. Hood or east for those of you who have no idea where I'm talking about. :-)

It was a very mild day as far as winds are concerned. We finally got our spinaker sail up and we got moving slowly upriver. It was beautiful to be able to sit and have no thoughts, no worries about the house, and not be watching 2 children under 2! (long story behind that, will blog later about that) Needless to say it was extremly peaceful and exactly what I needed. Funny how God knows just what you need when you never see the need yourself. There was not a lot of conversation on boat, some idle chit chat about everyday life and how to sail a boat which Jonny soaked in every word Louie had to say, where I just sat and smiled and nodded at what I thought might be the appropriate time without really knowing what the conversation was about. I sat and let the wind blow through my hair and all the thoughts from my mind were gone and I swayed with boat soaking in the hot sun. It was beautiful! Oh did I already say that... well it was a truly marvelous time. Well after we got up river far enough, we let down the spinaker sail and put up our main sail and jib sail (used for tacking back and forth). That kinda concerned me at first becuase our winds had picked up and we would be sailing into the wind now. Also, my previous experience told me that going back and forth across the river was not all that fun. Well, I was wrong... Our winds were pretty strong, I would say close to 10mph, which can really move the boat fast in the water and make the sailboat do the casual side tip that you see most sailboats do. Sounds kinda scary, it did to me to, but it was exhilerating! I mean moving that fast in a boat on the water just from the wind, that was actually blowing at us from the front and to the side. It was truly breathtaking. We continued to zip back and forth across this wide river, it just felt like we skimmed across the water. I got to be at the helm during this time, meaning I got to steer the boat, and that was truly invigorating knowing that I was steering the boat just right to catch the wind just right in my sail to make us zoom across the water and the boat to lean way to side so far that I had to almost stand on the seat across from me (on the side of the seat) to catch my balance. How cool does that sound!? And to think I almost missed it becuase I was being mopey becuase of not only the long week we had but the not so great time we had last time. I can now totally understand why my husband is so enthralled with sailing... I do believe that he has almost made me catch the bug too. :-)

Here's to more exciting days of summer! {raises glass of something bubbly}