Who would of thought that after living next to Puget Sound for the last 30 years I'd come to Montana and take a sailing lesson? It's something John has been wanting to do for quite a while. He found a marina in Dayton on Flathead Lake that gives lessons and rents boats....today was the first lesson and I decided I may as well give it a try, too. It was fun and I found myself remembering all those long, hot summer days on the water when I was growing up! Jim took four of us out in a 21' boat after a short land lesson and the real learning came with the hands on time on the water. We learned a whole lot of nautical sailing terms in a short bit of time. Some of them were explained, but mostly we just caught on as we went. We had a two hour lesson on the water which was designed to give us enough information to safely take a small boat out and, hopefully, come back in one piece :) After lunch the four of us took the boat out on our own. Jack and Ed, our sailing partners, were nice people and we all worked together maneuvering the boat....taking turns at the tiller, the mainsail, and the two jib lines (that's sailor talk :) So, will we do it again? Yes! We'll rent a boat a few times and see if we like it enough to pay the pricey rental fees or perhaps buy a small used sailboat. A little more practice and we can take you out on the lake when you come to visit!
