Cruising Ninja, cruising with babies.

[FamilyVan]

Has anybody else felt their cruising skills improved by having a baby on board? I have 3 examples to illustrate my point.

1) At 3 months old, he redefined single handed docking for me. 25 knot cross wind, I expected a tough docking, so Mom put him in his car seat so she could help me out, no dock attendant. About 70 ft from dock he started to howl, I was through the piers and committed. Mom ran from the foredeck to comfort baby, I became a single handing docking ninja with no notice.

2) At 10 months, we had a hard 3 day beat upwind delivery (of about a 10 day delivery total). I planned ahead. For sailing the boat, I had myself, my brother and his work friend. For child care, my wife and my mom. I knew it would be cold and rough but he boat would be fine. Air temp, about 8 degrees.

About 4 hours into the first day, my wife sent me a text from the V-Birth, send some one down, I need to puke.

I sent my Mom down, 60 seconds later she yells, "my name- I'm going to be sick", so I ran down, grabbed the frying pan on the way past the galley, Mom, tossed in the frying pan which deflected off the Teflon surface all over my shirt.

I sent Mom up on deck to watch the horizon.

So the skipper was below playing with stuffed Giraffes and Care Bears, with the baby while my 4 crew huddled in the cockpit shivering, two of them (wife and mom) puking in 8 Celsius, rain and 8-10' freshwater seas while auto drives. I should note, my brother on watch is a very good sailor with a cruising boat of his own.

Every so often, my bro wood yell down below, "boss, wind is picking up, seas are over two meters now" or something similar, I would poke my head up, shrug and say something like "she's doing fine", then retire to my Carebears and giraffes.

We completed the delivery in good form, all happy with the results, me navigating from the nursery (with skilled look out/sailor/brother on deck).

3) Today. I haven't taken vacation since June, I've been planning the super sail, 5 days at each of two wilderness islands (10 days total), but my little buddy, now at 14 months was tugging on his ear this morning, take him to the doctor, and he has an ear infection! 10 days of anti biotics that, guess what, need to be refridgerated!

Now, 3 days before cast off, I am redesigning the vacation to have shore power every night!

I know there are parents who have much bigger problems than I, but doesn't cruising with a baby add an element of difficulty?