Boat ride - Sarah's take

(See Stephen's last post)



Ever been on a sailboat? You know how they can lean WAY over without tipping over – but sometimes, it goes too far and there is no stopping it. We went to the island of Lamu (on the Kenyan coast) for Stephen’s birthday this year. The evening of his birthday we went on what was supposed to be a “Sunset Cruise”. You hear the word “cruise” you think calm, right? This “cruise” was on one of the traditional wooden sailboats. It’s maybe 20 feet long and there isn’t a horizontal bar on the bottom of the sail. Instead there is a very large plank that gets notched under one lip of the boat and sticks out over the edge of the boat over the water. At certain points during our sail, 3 of the 4 crew members were all sitting on this plank out over the water – acting as a counter weight to the wind. We didn’t tip over – but several times it felt like we were surely going to.

On this cruise, there was the 3 of us plus these 4 sailors. The one in charge was an older man who was actually the others’ teacher. He came on this particular trip for 2 reasons: 1) the high winds the island had been experiencing for the last few days and 2) our baby. I did sense that the whole crew knew what they were doing, but I think they also got a story out of this particular tourist jaunt. Remember this is Africa – safety equipment is in short supply – in other words, no life jackets – for any of us. As we were stepping onto the boat (a feat in itself), I thought “should we be doing this with Lexi?? The grandparents will KILL us when they find out.” The first 30 minutes of the sail were harrowing as the wind tossed us too and fro and the waves crashed in and drenched us. I was trying to figure out what we would do if the boat went over. Would I still be able to hold on to Lexi? Stephen and I could swim well enough, but what would happen to her? I didn’t feel like a very good parent.

I could tell Lexi was also scared. I was holding onto her with one arm and the rope that went up to the sail with the other. She was so incredibly still for the beginning of the trip. She didn’t move around at all like she usually does. Stephen could see her face and said it looked rather blank. When we finally came near the other island, the wind died down and it was a rather pleasant ride. Lexi started looking around like her normal self. The trip back across the channel was much smoother and only took 10 minutes.

We certainly got a story out of it – and saw a nice sunset – but I think if we had been given more information (like what type of boat we would be going out on) – we probably would have thought twice. I certainly feel the crew earned their money for our outing.