Lake Cootharaba Sailing

Yay for Summer! I love winter- I'm a snuggly kind of person- but it's so hard trying to keep kids entertained. In Summer though, we're lucky enough to be able to hit the beach/river and just relax while the kids run wild! This weekend marked my sons first trial run of sailing. The price difference between hoity toity Noosa and that of Lake Cootharabas Sailing Club was unbelievable- so we headed up to the big lake (and I'm so glad we did... as you'll read later on!)

First surprise of the morning was catching up with my mothers cousin (who happens to be commodore at LCSC!!) and his son! They come up from Bribie was to sail every weekend, and have promised to take us out on their big yacht when they next bring it up! It was great watching them scoot around in their little boat "Screw Loose" though. It was REALLY windy, so they were really moving! It was so windy though, that they decided not to take the learners out on sail boats today, but piled them into 2 rubber dinghy's and took them out on the lake in them instead. I've mentioned before that Jaxon is a very quiet and introverted young boy, but he's slowly beginning to come out of his shell. Which is why I was so proud when he jumped onto the boat and took off without a second thought!

So off they went, ducking around the sail boats out in the middle of the lake. The guy in charge -Charlie- (big hair and big beard- I'm sure you'll spot him!) taught the group some basic marine rules while they were out there- but it looked like a pretty good learning environment! Meanwhile, we were left to soak up the sunshine (when we could find areas out of the wind!) and build sandcastles, while watching some of the action from the other boats.

They were out there for over an hour before they finally started heading in. The boat Jaxon was in turned around and helped out a fellow who had capsized and was having trouble getting himself up right, but they finally made it back to shore.

I had to laugh when the stopped and everyone jumped out to push the boat in- Jaxon was the smallest there by far- but he jumped out with the rest of them to do his bit! I swear he would have only barely been able to touch bottom! But before I knew what was happening, most of the group was back on shore, Jaxon was back in the boat, in the DRIVERS seat, and was driving the boat back out to the middle of the Lake again...

Going...

 ...Going...

Gone!

They had headed back out to the same fellow they had helped out earlier- he was fairly new to sailing and the winds had picked up pretty bad that they had actually called in all the other boats and stopped sailing for a while. This bloke was having a lot of difficulty trying to get back in! So my Jaxon was in the rescue boat! :) They were out there for another hour or so trying to talk this guy back in! I was worried that Jaxon was going to be bored, and not want to come back again because it was all too much!

Just as we decided to order some food for lunch, the boat came roaring back in at full speed! Jaxon was being cuddled by the woman on the boat, and I thought it was just because he was freezing! But when they jumped out of the boat carrying him, I soon found out it was a little more than that! He had been holding onto the handles on the rubber boat, when the sail boat rammed them (rammed is probably a little too strong... perhaps 'bumped'!) into them, and Jaxons wrist was caught in the crossfire! He was very tough, and I was very proud of him, but he couldn't move his fingers, and there was a bit of worry about broken bones. A quick visit to the hospital, and he was given the ok! Once the shock wore off, the movement in his fingers and wrist came back! My proudest moment? Bundling Jaxon up into the car, and even though he could barely talk, he was nodding furiously that he loved every second of the morning (up until the accident!) and that he would be back next weekend! And now that he's alright, he's still talking about it, and can't wait to go back!

Now earlier I said that I was glad we had chosen  LCSC over Noosa- and to begin with it may have just been because of the price- but the way that every one out there wanted to help Jaxon was amazing. All very friendly and helpful! But the icing on the cake- Charlie (big beard, big hair remember?) went out of his way to find mums phone number to ring us and check up on Jaxon. As it was Jaxons first day, we hadn't signed any paper work or anything, so he had to do some great detective work to find us! We can't wait to go back!