July 2023 Papoose Article

I come from a long line of sailors. My grandfather and great-grandfather were both captains of their own sailing ships, carrying cargo around Norway and other countries in the North Sea. So, my cousin and I needed to answer when the sea called. The author of The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame, once said, "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." My cousin and I felt an obligation to live by that.

I was ten years old and visiting my grandmother in Norway. She lived in a tiny town on the coast. My cousin happened to be there at the same time, and he decided we needed a sailboat. When all we had was our grandmother's old rowboat that dated back to before World War II. Fortunately we didn't take the complexity of converting a rowboat into a sailboat; in our minds, all we need to do is to add a mast and sail.

Making a mast was easy; all my cousin needed to do was chop down a few small trees and fashion a mast and the two booms needed for the sail, one boom for the top and one for the bottom. My grandmother, amused by the project, provided us with sheets to sew together for the sail.

After a few days of assembly, we installed the rigging in the boat, and out to the fjord we went. We had to use an old oar for the rudder; we found it was rather hard to tack, making going upwind tricky. So, we cheated by using the motor to get upwind, but going downwind was a thrill. We remembered to bring our fishing lines and caught some fish while sailing for dinner! Great fun and great memories!

Ernest Ommundsen