Wow! It’s amazing what is possible these days.
I recently watched the documentary of the 14 year old from the Netherlands who solo-circumnavigated.
A 14-Year-Old Girl Sailed Around the World — And She Brought a Camera - https://time.com/894/maidentrip
From 5 yrs old to 7 yrs old I was sailing a heavy, old, cat boat on a 40 acre lake in Michigan, then a friend’s family got a Hobie cat, and he and I were in heaven (except the one day we pitch-poled it!). After that it was endless hours teaching campers to sail on Alcort Sailfish and Sunfish at our family’s day camp. On those summer weekends I would head across the state to Pentwater, Michigan and sail on the 75 ft “Northern Light”, taking tourists out on Lake Michigan for sunset sails.
In 1983 I met two brothers Ed and Dave Minch (Dave was an architect) who had built their own 32 ft double-ended Wessail-style sailboat at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Deltaville, VA. Ed and I sailed it up to St Michaels, MD over three days.
One of my favorite sailing memories was after I was divorced from spouse #1, when she had skipped town for three months, leaving me with our 3yr old and 3 month old.
David (the friend I still help out with crane jobs) and I drove to Michigan with the children. We arrived after dark, put the kids to bed, and we each took a Sunfish out on the lake. Laying with our heads by the mast, feet operating the tiller, and a hand on the sheet I coordinated our traverses of the lake by the stars overhead, calling out ‘come about’ right before hitting the shore in the deep end of the lake, and right before the sand bar near the shallow end of the lake, judging the speed and distance from my many years of sailing the lake. We spent several hours sailing and talking of life, what had been, and what might be…