Cruising World - May 2016

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cruisingworld.com

ON WATCH

Tessa smiled — and my whole world
instantly relit. I just knew, it was plain as
day: Everything was going to be fi ne. All
my worries about bonding and babies and
braces and boats disappeared in the puf
of that joyous smile. We’d work it out. We
are family.
That was nine months ago. Almost
every weekend now, Roma’s crew invades
Ganesh for a three-day, two-night sleepover.
Sometimes we just hang on the hook at
Changi, other times we head for Lazarus
Island or wherever. Sokù caught a crab last
weekend. Talk about proud! Tessa isn’t
ready to capsize in the Laser like her sis-
ter does, but she loves what we call the
“dunking chair” almost as much. (We put
her in the bosun’s chair hanging from the
end of the spinnaker pole and dip her in
the water.)
Singapore has good doctors. We tossed
away that silly brace long ago. Tessa now
runs like the wind and loves the water. She
swims daily and looks forward to the time
that she can swim entirely around the
boat. That will be the day that I’ll have to
jump overboard with all my clothes on: I
watched with delight as my father did the
same from the transom of our schooner
Elizabeth in the ’50s, when I fi rst circum-
navigated the boat, and I did the same a
few years ago for Sokù.

Roma is a third-generation liveaboard,

so who knows if Sokù or Tessa might

follow the sea? All I know is that they

dearly love Ganesh, and cherish exploring

in the dinghy, cruising, and being pint-size

sea gypsies.

Cruising with kids is, of course, a deli-

cate balance. You want children to enjoy

sailing and yet you want them to be safe.

If there are too many rules and too much

scolding, they don’t enjoy the boat. If

there are none of either, they might end

up in trouble.

We know three liveaboard kids who

have drowned, and each, we believe, was a

direct result of their parents’ negligence.

We never want to live through that, espe-

cially with the two most precious things in

our watery universe.

Yes, the responsibility of having a child

aboard is a weighty one, but so is the joy.

Just as Roma reignited Caribbean cruising

for us by allowing us to see anew through

fresh eyes, so too have Sokù and Tessa

reinvigorated Southeast Asia.

“Grandpa!” Tessa screamed this morn-

ing at dawn. “Tugboat! Tugboat, Grandpa!”

It was indeed a tugboat, and a strong

one at that. It was a tugboat that could

pull really hard on its towrope. But all that

line strain was insignifi cant compared to

the tug I felt on my heartstrings for Tessa

and Sokù, and for their mother as well.

We’ve all bonded — in part, by the

grace of Mother Ocean. Life is capri-

cious and seldom makes sense. Why did

I reject one 2-year-old boy to starboard

while embracing an equally unknown

20-month-old girl to port? Was it solely

because of silly pieces of paper?

I only know what my heart says: Don’t

worry — be happy.

At dusk we were anchored of a long

tropical beach. I took Tessa and Sokù in

my arms in the cockpit and said, “See the

beach? See all those grains of sand? Well,

if you multiplied those grains of sand by

all the stars in the sky, the resulting num-

ber would be tiny compared to how much

I love you both.”

“That’s sweet, Dad,” said Roma, who’d

been told that very same thing in dozens

of countries over dozens of years, from

Bequia to Bora Bora to Brisbane.

“That’s silly-willy,” said Sokù.

“Grandpa, fi shy!” giggled Tessa.

Carolyn looked over at me. She smiled

and tilted her lovely head. “Can I get you

anything?” she asked.

“You already have,” I said.

Cap’n Fatty and Carolyn are currently out-

fi tting Ganesh for an Indian Ocean crossing

later in the year.

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