What a great day! Jesse and I took a vacation day today, and our little family headed out for a whale watching, picnic lunching, yacht sailing extravaganza. We went out on the America, a replica of the famous (and gorgeous) original "America" for which the America's Cup race is named. (Here's a great history of the vessel and first race, which took place around the Isle of Wight. Worth the read.) She's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship....all wood (not one speck of fiberglass)...139' long with a main sail of 105'. It was such a treat to be aboard! There were no seats really, and the side walls were barely 5 inches tall most of the way around; it was a real deal racing yacht first built over 160 years ago—so yes, we kept William within arms reach the entire 4 hours. We got to help hoist the sails, and the boys (along with the one other small child onboard) raised the flag up the mast. The fact that we got so see whales once we were out at sea was just icing on the cake.
Plugging ears for the horn blast as we pushed out of dock.
Jesse helping raise one of the sails (I helped on another line).
The boys raising the flag all the way up 100 feet!
One major modification from the original: the current America has an engine as well as sails. We motored most of the way out (what we're doing here), but the engines were silenced for most of the sail back home. It was so quiet.
An hour or so in, a crew member headed up to serve as lookout for spouts. He spotted one almost immediately, about a mile off. We headed that way and soon were rewarded with several sightings of gray whales.
It was pretty chilly out on the open water, but we wore layers and enjoyed a cozy blanket the crew provided for the boys. The crew also handed around lots of snacks and drinks, and hot chocolate too, supplementing our picnic lunch very nicely indeed. Definitely an awesome day!
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