So, Did Charlotte like Sailing?

Short recap: a few months ago Charlotte and I took a leap of faith and ordered a new Hanse 388 sailboat for us and the children. It really was a leap of faith since Charlotte had never sailed before. Now she has.

And well … 🙈

It was our first day out on the sea and Charlotte wasn’t feeling very well. Quite horribly sick, actually.

I felt so bad for her. She was using both the patch and a pill her brother recommended, but unfortunately they didn’t help at all.

“It’s terrible. I don’t remember how many times I’ve vomited and now it feels like there’s nothing left in me”, she said and looked so disappointed with everything.

Hours and hours later, when we got into our first anchorage, she started to feel a bit better. This was a great relief for us both.

We rested for a while, and then went to explore a nearby island with the dinghy. She got to see the Allen’s Cay iguanas and that made her a bit happier.

But then back to the boat again.

“I don’t know”, she sighed. “I don’t feel that bad just now but the boat is rolling all the time, I keep losing my balance all the time, and everything is just moving around in my stomach and my head. Maybe I’m just not cut out for this”, she said and had a sad look on her face.

“So.. you think this is too much and you really don’t want to do this anymore?”, I asked, a bit afraid of what the answer might be.

“No, I’m not giving up”, she answered quickly, and took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I will have to do this five, fifty or two hundred days more before it gets better, but I’m not giving up.”

Just One

It took just one day more.

In the morning all the terrible sea sickness was gone!

We went for more dinghy exploring. Then out to the sea again, sailing. Upwind and downwind, tacks and gybes, waves, the lot. (Charlotte was actually very calm and talented, I thought, at doing whatever was needed!)

In the end, we had a wonderful week together sailing and exploring, and I will certainly write more about this in later posts. In the end, everything turn out well.

“We have to come back here someday, and this time sail to those other islands”, Charlotte said to me, in the taxi on the way to the airport, happily smiling.

I think so too.