My mother, Jean, was a sailor when she was young. She would tell me all about how down on the Shark River in Belmar, New Jersey, she would launch her Sunfish early in the morning, sailing away for hours on the river. Every time she described those experiences, a unique enthusiasm overtook her. She stopped sailing after she had my sister and me, but I know deep inside she should have been sailing, because she spoke about it so often.

This past year, after moving my family down to South Carolina, my neuro-diverse daughter decided that she wanted to try sailing on the school sailing team. We were told no experience was necessary, and it was fine that she had no time on the water whatsoever. Our first day, I let the coach know about my child’s learning differences and was told that was perfectly fine too, which was pretty exciting for me as a mom of a kid with symptoms of autism. In fact, I was ecstatic. Sailing was a way for her to be paying attention to something other than her anxiety as well as learn a skill I think she would use for a lifetime.

But that’s not actually what happened.

Let me start by saying that many people offer their help with strategies for my daughter and I appreciate every single one of them. This is an inspirational post and I’m not angry at the fact that they asked my kid to leave the team. It’s fine. It was nice when that sailing mom called as a courtesy to tell me why (Heather seems to be afraid of the water) or when she told me exactly what she thought Heather should do (she should try horseback riding), and all the other stuff she must have said after I shut my brain off. Actually, I didn’t shut it off. I just stopped listening because my kid wants to sail and although she was nice about it, she didn’t have the answer I needed at the moment. At the end of the call, I was thankful to her for the information.

I believe Heather can do anything, and she loved sailing, and I loved her taking part in it. I asked her later (after she stopped crying - disappointment is hard when you’re a 16 YO girl) about what she thought might have happened. She agreed she needed a little more practice to be on the sailing team, so I set out how to get her some lessons.

Right after I hung up with the sailing mom, I scoured the internet. There must be camp or class available to teach a kid like mine to learn to sail. I mean, she can ride a freaking bike, so she must be able to sail, right?

Later on, I asked Heather’s sailing team coach the question of how to get Heather back on the team. Could she take one of his camps next summer? No, he immediately stated matter-of-factly, making my right eyebrow go up. Hmmm… apparently the coach didn’t have the right answer, either. He explained that one of his kids was like Heather, and his kid couldn’t sail. That statement didn’t make any sense to me, but I just said thank you again and went off to find my answer.

So I scoured the internet again and this time, the Lord sent me the answer: Spectrum Sailing.

Spectrum Sailing will teach your neuro-diverse kid how to sail.

Scott Herman, the director and creator of the program, wanted his kid to take part in a sailing camp but couldn’t find one to accommodate him, so he created one himself. He conducts sailing camps all over the country and when I came upon them, there were two weeks until the final camp of the year in Charleston, SC. After contacting Scott, and going through an admissions lottery, God (and Scott) gave us the go-ahead, and we were in.

Then Heather had to make a hard choice. The weekend of the camp was the same weekend as homecoming at her school. Yikes. I honestly didn’t know how this was going to go.

In the end, Heather chose the sailing camp, because she really wanted to learn to sail. So we set off early on a Friday morning in the fall, making sure to get there on time so she could attend the afternoon camp. There are two sessions each day—morning and afternoon.

The three-hour camp was located in Mt. Pleasant, at a marina which sits almost under the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier. I could tell Heather was pretty nervous (one of her challenges is social anxiety) so she held my arm as we walked on a long dock to the sailing center. I met Scott and some other volunteers (thank God for these people!) and I left her there with about ten other kids and went to look for a coffee at one of the marina hotels. After a while, I wandered back out onto the pier to see if I could see anything.

And there they all were, sailing out in the busy Charleston bay!

For the next two days, Heather sailed out on the Charleston Bay, and by the end of the camp, was so confident in herself that she was helping steer the boat (by herself) and assisting some of the younger participants if they were anxious. She made friends with the college volunteers, the kids, and the organizers and was completely free from anxiety by the end of the weekend. The whole thing was a wonderful experience, and we were grateful and lucky to be there.

The Lowdown on Spectrum Sailing:

• Spectrum Sailing is offering eleven camps across the country in 2024.

• It is free for participants and runs on 100% donations.

• Check out the website (https://spectrumsailing.org) for all the information about how your kid can take part.

• Spectrum Sailing runs on donations from people like you! Won’t you consider helping send a kid to camp?

  DONATE HERE!

*Side Note: You might wonder why Heather wasn’t doing her own research on this. I consider myself a personal assistant to both of my children. While they are learning to be adults, I like to pick up the slack and then show them what I did so they can do it themselves. I think I’m doing the right thing - at least for my older kid. My younger kid doesn’t need me as much and hates it when I interfere, so I don’t.

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