Engender

28 Aug. 

As a young kid my Dad continued to teach me to sail on the  24” Kittiwake brand sailboat.  She was a sleek 24” low freeboard, shoal draft solid sailing boat.  Today as we coast slowly away from the massive and incredibly beautiful Blomstrandhamma Glacier in Klongsfjorden Svalbard, we are surrounded by Kittiwakes in the water bathing themselves.  Full circle.

Back then sailing the 24 foot Kittiwake that bore the name “Engender” .  This was the name that my Dad carried on the four sailboats that he sailed over the years.   I do not think that I really ever grasped the full meaning of why my Dad chose that name for his first boat (#100 Interlake - a 18 foot sailboat) and stayed loyal to it for the boats to come...

Back then sailing on the Engender's, My Dad could not get the tiller out of my hand.  Now that I think of it, I don’t think he wanted to take it from me.  He would sit back, beer in hand enjoying the company of his friends, and occasionally toss me a smile and nod as I would sit quietly for hours sailing the Kittiwake named Engender. 

I just looked up the word “Engender” again in the dictionary (on-line dictionary!).  

I think I am beginning to understand my Dad’s purpose and meaning of the name Engender on all of his boats.

Engender

- To make people have a particular feeling or make a situation start to exist

- To make happen, To produce or bring about, To bring into existence, To originate

I used to be resent and be critical of my Dad for not giving me more “life guidance”.  Sadly, I quietly felt this when he died as well.  Why did you not sit me down and talk through life and what I should do, who I should become, How I will get there...... 

I can only laugh now at how silly this was. 

Looking at the  “big picture” of my life so far – I wonder if some how, way back then sailing on the Maumee Bay and Ottawa River that the more he “Engendered” my early passion for sailing the more I would be prepared for a rewarding and fulfilled life of doing what I love.  

I am pretty sure he did, and that all of that “Engender” time helped prepare me for sailing today in this extreme part of the world near the polar ice cap and to be living a life, doing what I love.