The day after our cat class, we decided to go back to the Shorewood Yacht Club/Northern Breezes Sailing School on Lake Minnetonka and practice our basic sailing on a rented Ensign. We took Greg’s stepdad Bill, a long-time sailor, along for advice. What started out as a cold, overcast, blustery day turned into a cold, sunny, blustery day, with the noise of the wind whistling through the shrouds outmatched only by Melinda’s screams as Bill showed us what it really means to heel over. Afterwards, Greg contributed to Melinda’s horror by forcing her and Bill to do repeated crew overboard drills. Alas, Melinda has no skill yet to use as a weapon for revenge, and so she resorted to falling down akimbo into the bottom of the boat when trying to tighten the jibsheet and causing a slight delay in the tack. Take that!
To our fascination, we managed to circle an island in a close reach the entire time. I think the lake thought it best to keep us restrained.
In the end, it was clear that Bill had a great time racing around with the boat, and Greg and I have learned a lot since we first ventured out on our own.
Barnacle Bill Hopper
The Burnett Family will never forgot this life changing voyage!