This is a guest post by Diane Seltzer. Diane is an avid boater, marketing director for SureShade sunshade systems, founder of BoaterLifeOnline.com and author of the children’s book The Amazing Adventures of Boat Girl. We are reposting it from the Boating blog from discoverboating.com
These days busy families are always looking for ways to connect more… to slow things down and share those special moments together as a family. And that’s one of the reasons why our boat has become such an important part of our lives.
Fifteen years ago my husband and I discovered boating together and enjoyed carefree weekends boating as a couple on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Some speculated we may give up boating when kids came along, but introducing our kids to the boating lifestyle we’ve come to love so much only ignited our passion for it even more.
Today we have two beautiful girls – now seven and three – and we enjoy every weekend together from May through October on our boat Seltzer Water.
As summer babies, both of our girls were fortunate to experience their first trip to our boat when they were each only 2 weeks old. I remember them learning to take some of their first steps in our cockpit. They enjoy connecting with nature, learning about tidal changes and calling out red buoy or green buoy as we cruise.
Our oldest daughter loves to swim when we are anchored out and helping her dad collect clams from the bottom of the river.
Our little one is still getting her sea legs and is most impressed by ducks swimming around our boat or watching ospreys perched high up in their nests over the water.
They love the boat so much that they have become self-proclaimed “boat girls”.
In fact, our little boat girls were the inspiration for my new children’s book called The Amazing Adventures of Boat Girl. In the story, Boat Girl gets a “magical jacket” which helps her gain confidence on a boat and experience how amazing boating can be. The book captures all those little special moments that being on a boat creates for kids – and even includes a personal log at the end for kids to write in their own amazing adventures.
The joy we experience as boaters gets even stronger when we see it through the eyes of our kids (or grandkids). And the simple, yet memorable, experiences that our time on the boat brings us as a family is really what it’s all about.
Our days on our boat truly are amazing family memories to treasure.
