# First time you were on a boat **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 19, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774 "2014-05-19T21:51:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/1 "2014-05-19T21:51:55Z")
This weekend I took a ferry across the Puget Sound (Kingston-Edmunds, for northwesterners) and back to see friends. I’m 38, and amazingly enough this is the first time I’ve ever been on a boat. I just don’t travel much outside my area, and when I do it’s usually to see family in the dry areas east of the Cascades. So what’s the first time you went on a boat, and how old were you? ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/2 "2014-05-19T21:57:12Z")
My grandparents had a cabin on the Magothy River between Baltimore and Annapolis. They had a small motorboat. I was probably a year old the first time I went out in the boat. My daughter as not quite 3 months old when we moved aboard our sailboat and lived there for just over a year. She got her sea legs quite young. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/3 "2014-05-19T22:02:49Z")
Less than a year old, can’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/4 "2014-05-19T22:29:06Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > This weekend I took a ferry across the Puget Sound (Kingston-Edmunds, for northwesterners) and back to see friends. I’m 38, and amazingly enough this is the first time I’ve ever been on a boat. I just don’t travel much outside my area, and when I do it’s usually to see family in the dry areas east of the Cascades. So what’s the first time you went on a boat, and how old were you? The first time I remember being on a boat was a foot ferry between Bremerton and Port Orchard. I was about 3. The engine was seperated from the passengers by a rope. The whole thing carried about 25 people. It was barely above the water level. I would sit in the open doorway and drag my hand in Puget Sound. As long as I didn’t cross the rope, no one paid the slightest attention. Probably the only reason I didn’t go overboard, was The water was really cold, so I was careful. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/5 "2014-05-19T22:30:26Z")
We’ve been going to the lake since before I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/6 "2014-05-19T22:32:47Z")
I think I was five when I took a ferry from Scotland to Ireland. Parents may have been involved somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/7 "2014-05-19T22:37:23Z")
My grandparents on my mom’s side _always_ had boats. They raced them up and down the shore of Wisconsin, they spent as much times as they could out on the water. My Grandfather is (was) Member #1 at the Milwaukee Yacht Club\*. Even as he got older and really couldn’t do as much boating he still kept his slip there since the wait list is years out and he still owned a boat, even if it wasn’t in the water. He’d rather pay the rent on an empty slip than get the boat bug and not have a place to put it. Anyways, while I didn’t spend a lot of time on boats, I did go out on my Grandpa’s boat at least once a year from the time I was 5 until probably 15 or so. After that, I think he sold, without rebuying, his last boat. \*His Member Number was 1, but do to a disagreement over who was actually the first member, the other person got Member Number 0. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/8 "2014-05-19T22:46:29Z")
I grew up inland and we didn’t have much money, so boats, and trips on them, were mostly an unaffordable luxury. First boat of any kind was a canoe at my local boy scout camp, and I would have been 11 or so. First powerboat, a little outboard runabout that belonged to a friend’s family who had a cottage at Indian Lake (Somerset County, PA). I was 18 or so. First seagoing vessel: the Cape May - Lewes (Del) ferry, at age 20 or so. Things picked up a bit when I started working in the oil industry and for a number of years spent weeks at a time on offshore drilling rigs. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/9 "2014-05-19T22:49:30Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > I think I was five when I took a ferry from Scotland to Ireland. Parents may have been involved somehow. I was three. Same ferry. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/10 "2014-05-19T23:24:57Z")
I may have been on a smaller boat earlier although I don’t recall. My father was into boats and I am named after one. (Not Mary.) In 1963 my family travelled on the [Queen Mary](http://www.queenmary.com/history/timeline/) between the UK and NYC. I was five. I remember being violently sea sick, but also befriending workers in the kitchen and having a generally marvelous time during the crossing. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/11 "2014-05-20T00:23:55Z")
Sometime during elementary school when I went fishing with my best friend. His father had a bass boat. I was maybe 8 years old. Next time was a small sailing dingy when I was at college. I ended up teaching sailing a few years later. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/12 "2014-05-20T00:35:55Z")
I remember riding on a ferry that took cars (which I found very exciting) when I was four years old and we lived in London. I’m not sure which ferry that would have been. I loved paddling a one-person kayak on vacations when I was a child (maybe 9 or 10 years old). I also remember riding in a rowboat at a very young age. Not sure how old I was when I first took a cruise on the [Red and White Fleet](http://www.redandwhite.com/), but it was definitely under age 11. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/13 "2014-05-20T00:46:59Z")
My aunt and uncle who lived on Lake Tahoe had an old (1950-something) Chris Craft, and used to take us out on it every summer when we would visit. I couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 the first time, and might have been several years younger. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/14 "2014-05-20T00:54:56Z")
Some time between the age of 5 and 9, I went on the Goodtime II (now the [Goodtime III](http://goodtimeiii.com/site/)) on a class trip. Or maybe Girl Scouts? I suspect most schoolchildren within a half hour of the 9th Street Pier had the same experience. My brother got a captain’s hat, because he was rad. And obsessed with _The Love Boat_. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/15 "2014-05-20T00:56:40Z")
Too young to remember. There are pictures of a trip to Victoria, BC when I was under 3. We took the ferry. From the age of 3 to around 8, my grandparents lived in the Bay Area and had a house on a marina with a boat ramp. My grandfather would take us out. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/16 "2014-05-20T02:03:15Z")
The family took a day cruise to the Bahamas when I was in elementary school. That might have been the first time for me. So, OP…did you enjoy it? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/17 "2014-05-20T02:17:41Z")
That I remember? Either a Circle Line tour boat or a NYFD fire boat around age 12. My Boy Scout troop took a day trip to Manhattan and got a tour of a fire boat; only time I ever got seasick. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/18 "2014-05-20T02:23:17Z")
1955, Cyprus Gardens FL. Glass-bottom boat. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/19 "2014-05-20T02:28:52Z")
When I was 4, my mother and older brother and I went to Miami to visit my grandparents. One day we took a trip on a glass-bottomed boat. I remember being amazed that we could look down and see what was under the boat. There was a diver who brought up an octopus that he had killed. He slit it open, and a lot of babies came out. My brother wanted to buy one, but my mother vetoed that idea. Overall, it was fun, and I didn’t get sea-sick. I don’t think I was on another boat until, as an adult, I took the Staten-Island Ferry and the Circle Line. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774/20 "2014-05-20T03:08:48Z")
When I was in 4th grade, my class rode an old canal boat during a field trip. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-time-you-were-on-a-boat/688774.md?page=2)