The Family Sail

Mike's uncle has a huge, lovely sailboat. Once a year, he tries to organize a family sail day. We've opted out the last few years (pregnancy, very young child, pregnancy again) but were on board for it this year. After Dylan thoroughly enjoyed playing on the sailboats when we saw the Tall Ships and liked playing on our town beach, we had these recent experiences to really talk up the upcoming family sail. We were all excited!

It just so happened that the long planned date (about a month ago now) provided us with perfect weather for a day on the boat and beach. The morning of, we got up, ready, packed for the day and made the drive up to Gloucester harbor.

By around 11am, all 21 of us were loaded onto the boat. The gang consisted of Captain Bob and First Mate Nancy, Mike and myself with kiddos Dylan and Cade, Jamie, Erik and Jessie with their kids Justin and Ryan, Maureen and Joe with kids Patrick and Emily, Kristina and Jim with kids Corwin and Jacob and Mike's parents who are known to the grandkids and Nana and Bumpa. And it wasn't even crowded. Yup, it's a big boat!

Dylan wasn't quite comfortable with this new setting just yet and Cade was safer in the cockpit out of the sun, so we hung out there for most of the first half of the trip. The sails were actually kept down for the day and the motor was used. We traveled through Gloucester Harbor, up the Annisquam River (that seperates Cape Ann from mainland Ma) and over to Cranes Beach in Ipswich.

Me and My Super Cool Travel Buddy

Cade Wore His Nautical Outfit

Captain Bob!

Mike, Erik, Patrick, Maureen and Joe
You can see one of 2 drawbridges we traveled through in the background.
We had fun waving to the folks standing by the bridge as we passed by.

Emily and Cool Dylan

Patrick and Kristina

Cade and Emily

Justin, Ryan and Erik

Dylan and Mike

Me, My Boys and Emily

Once at Crane's Beach, Captain Bob shuttled all of us and belongings to the shore in the dingy. With so many of us and so much stuff, it was no small feat. We all set up camp and began the beach fun.

As I think I've mentioned before, Dylan has a bit of an obsession with skeletons. His cousin, Emily, found him a dead crab which, of course, has an exterior skeleton and Dylan loved it. Later, his Nana asked if he wanted to walk on the beach to look for shells and Dylan said "no, I want to look for more crab skelechickens." I joined them for that walk, as did Maureen and Emily and we saw some super cool stuff. In addition to shells and seaweed, we saw a couple of dead horseshoe crabs (skeletons) and a huge fish head skeleton. Dylan was pumped! For us that enjoy non dead things, we were excited to see some sand pipers running about followed by some babies. They were really stinkin' cute. The ranger on his atv stopped to chat with us and informed us that they were 10 days old! Cool!

While our camera didn't make it on shore, Maureen's did. So, thank you to her for providing the following pictures from the day.

Dylan Burying Emily

Patrick and Mike Playing on the Beach

Betsy and Joe

Kristina and First Mate Nancy

Finding Dead Crabs

Cuteness

More Cuteness

Cuteness Dipping His Feet in the Water

Nana and Cuteness

Me with Both of My Cuties

Fish Head Skeleton

Jacob
(He and Corwin were in the water ALL day so not many
pictures of those 2 on the beach.)

Emily Showing Off Her Awesome Gymnastic Skills

Tom, Joe and Kristina

In the late afternoon, it was time to head back. We loaded up many trips on the dingy and some of the crowd entertained themselves by diving off the boat while we got everyone back on. We almost didn't leave "on time"....the boat was starting to bottom out! Any longer anchored where we were, some of the divers might have had to start digging out the hull.

Crane's Beach

The Last of Our Crew Loading Into the Dingy

With a long exciting day without naps, Cade was content to snooze on me and Dylan and I snuggled to stay warm on the trip back. Surrounded by cuteness...I was pretty ok with that.

Snuggly Boys
Dylan used a towel as a blanket and I kept Cade warm while he napped.

Cousin Jamie stated it right when he told me I was surrounded by a serious amount of cuteness!

Even though I didn't get to thoroughly enjoy all parts of the day (I never even had a chance to get my bathing suit on), that is the plight of being a mother. It wasn't about me, it was about my kids having a good time. They did so I did too.