Children Drowning. For today I thought I'd do a quick looksie . .
Did you know that Drowning is the leading cause of death for infants and young children in 18 states? Drowning ranks only 2nd to automible accidents nationally! Did you know 58 percent of parents do not consider drowning a threat to their children? Yeah I know our first thought is well look at all the pools and lakes and parks! That's probably the biggest part of it! Well there is or was my first mistake. Instead of realizing a very valid threat my mind promptly came up with reasons OTHER than my boat as to why one of my children may drown. Yep. I literally thought to myself POOLS. Did not even consider my boats. Guess that is where a lot of folks would fail. Anytime your child or anychild you are responsible for is on your boat or on the dock, make them wear a life jacket! Remember, YOU are the captain of your boat. All parties are YOUR responsibility.
As you all know, I take lots of people in my boats. My number one rule:
Anyone under 18 wears a life jacket on deck and cockpit. The only out for that person is to swim around my boat once completely in the waters we sail in and I will relax my rule. It is not easy to swim around a 40' boat in waters 48-55 degrees! It is a great deterent. However each of my children had to do it to be allowed to walk the decks on nice days without a life jacket. In their own time they each finally did it. Had one guest child promptly remove his life jacket while his parents were looking. The parents did not force the issue. I took the kid in full view of his parents and sternly told him if he did not put the life jacket back on, I would immediately take him and his parents to the nearest dock and set them all off the boat. The parents watched wide eyed as their child submitted and put the life jacket back on. The child from that point forward followed my every request, became extremely pleasant and was a joy to have aboard.
Why his parents did nothing initially I'll never know.
For those interested I pulled the drowning statistical info from "The National Drowning Statistics" reported here:
http://www.infantswim.com/assets/docs/I ... cs2009.pdf
Question for today
Please match the following descriptions with the words:
1) Schooner
2) Yawl
3) Ketch
4) Cutter
A) A two-masted sailing vessel, rigged fore-and-aft, with a large mainmast and a small mizzenmast stepped aft of the rudderpost
B) A two-masted sailing vessel, fore-and-aft rigged, with a tall mainmast and a mizzen stepped forward of the rudderpost
C) A fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel having at least two masts, with a foremast that is usually smaller than the other masts
D) A single-masted, fore-and-aft-rigged sailing vessel with two or more headsails and a mast set somewhat farther aft than that of a sloop
If you can answer these and recognize each rig on the water from a distance you can indeed impress your friends. I can see you now . . . . . pointing off into the distance at that beautiful sailboat and anouncing " Look at that beautiful schooner". Your friends look at you in awe and admire your seafairing knowledge!!!
Yea, I said it. 
