For a chunk of last year I had to dust off my single mom parenting skills, as Tom traveled extensively for work and kicked butt all along the way. Customers and internal employees alike sang his praises, and rightfully so. His employer (now mine too, though totally different departments!) rewarded our family with a hefty bonus around Christmas. We jointly decided to aim for experience over tangible possessions, which found us on the rented sailboat Ibis in Victoria, British Columbia over the holiday weekend.

All future family trips must now reach this super high set bar! Last year’s trip to Legoland was really for the kid; it was fun, but the entire point of that trip was a happy kid. This trip was for all of us (plus the friends that officially witnessed our wedding!) I can’t recommend the ship or her Captain highly enough (Blackfish Sailing Adventures for those of you interested!)

Captain Gary is first and foremost an educator, so we spent the day actually sailing ourselves around under his close eye and detailed stories. We started the day in the thick of the start of a long running yacht race, complete with Canadian Navy cannons booming the start to each heat. The rest of the day was spent between 5-30 degrees tilt, tacking hither and yawn, steering around massive container ships, watching the tale tells on the sails, eating a delicious lunch with Timbits and Nanaimo bars at anchor, and unable wipe the grins off our faces for days.

Tom wants to buy a ship of his own now! I told him he should probably really learn to sail first, maybe? Oh, and there’s this pesky thing called a house we’re buying currently, plus I dream of a truck and trailer of my own someday. Suffice to say, there will be more sailing in our future!

That’s the Captain holding onto our kid, you can tell he’s done this for a long time!

We did more things in Victoria, we were there for four days (one day on the water) but the sailing was unquestionably the high point! There’s something in being subject to sea and the winds, working with your ship, the physicality and focus required which is similar in many ways to endurance. The horses will always be my first love, but for a shared family activity I’m not sure much could beat a clear day on the water.