Really good sailing today! The wind was just about perfect, between 8 and 13kts. I was a little more liberal with the sail this time out, allowing a whole 50% of the surface area to be active. I'm still really hesitant to overload the repaired mast, but am gaining confidence. It was solid this whole outing, even with a couple of less than gentle jibes.

The rest of the family disappeared on the kayak and seemed to have fun exploring areas of the lake that we have not seen before.

No sailing pics this time. I was experimenting with doing everything single-handed, to see if I could go out on my own a few nights while its light so late. Looks like the only thing I will have trouble with is getting the two mast sections together and apart. A couple of solutions may answer, so I'll try them next week.

On to other things! My daughter did the Monterey Bay Aquarium SCUBA dive for kids Monday. Oh, Lord, did she look cute in the gear. They have custom made dry-suits for kids of all sizes, tiny little tanks, and miniature regulators. Just adorable. Proving once again that she is my baby, she was the first of the 8 kids to be geared up and in the water. There was no sense of her actually caring about being first, but the competitor in me saw that she was likely to be done first and for some reason I was glad it happened that way. Silly, but that's me.



My girl was incredibly good in the water. She was intent on paying attention to her instructor, quick to point out things on the floor of the little tide pool that were interesting, so the instructor could swim down and bring them up to be looked at.

The kids don't submerge, which is wise, but their drysuits are super-inflated so I could have cannon-ball dove onto one and not sunk them. The down side is that the tank rides very high above the water, resulting in frequent otter-rolls. The kids just took it as "what happens" and flipped back over (looking like adorable little techno-turtles while trying).

This little tidal pool is surrounded on 3 sides by the Monterey Bay Aquariou. The 4th side faces the ocea, but large rocks prevent all but the largest waves from coming in. A couple did and the kids all just took it in stride. I learned later that the instructors made a kind of "Ride the wave" game of it, and there were no concerns after that.

I am just completely amazed at how professional, courteous, patient and kind the instructors were. Not just ours, but every group seemed to be led by someone who possessed a love of the sea, of kids, of TEACHING kids, and of watching their eyes light up when they saw somethign cool. There was no sense of condescension that I saw or heard. They were like the best elementary school teachers you remember, but in wet suits.

After the dive, the instructors filled out the dive logs with the kids and they discussed what they all saw. They each got a free cup of hot chocolate, and then there were lots of high-fives.

We stayed and explored the Aquarium and saw lots of things, but the best part was just being there with her and watching her learn and grow... and just to be with her. Some more narcissistic part of me is glad that she is now old enough to remember this and someday, long after I am gone, she will remember her first dive outing with dad.

It will not be the last. For the next 2 days I heard repeatedly about how she cannot wait to learn to dive for real. Looks like I have to find a place that actually teaches 10 year-olds. That is the stated minimum for PADI, but none of the schools around here seem interested in actually training that young. Probably not many kids actually self-aware and focused enough to actually do it. 5 minutes with my little tadpole should prove them wrong.

This has been a good week in and on the water for my family.