Because the Atlantic embraces East Cooper, our young adventures do not end at the shore. Hobcaw Yacht Club is preparing to launch another summer of youth sailing camps and classes from its60-year-old base on the Wando River. Three generations of sailors have first laid hands on a tiller and sheet from their docks now. In that time, we've gone from AM Radios to texting.

The river has changed too, now scarred with the State Ports Authority's massive container terminal. Sailing there, however, remains a wonderful thing for kids. This year, there is a new program for high dchool students that will have them sailing the 420's in a week.

My son Jackson took his first course there in 2005, learning to sail the square bowed Opti under the supervision of Cyrus Buffum, now Charleston's Waterkeeper. Jackson spent four years in the Hobcaw program and Wando sailing, growing up to pilot the swift Club 420. Jackson began sailing in the warm water of July. Before he was done, the frigid waters of January, in the appropriate gear were just as fun. When time came for college, he wouldn't consider a place to learn where he couldn't get to a boat on the sea

I learned to sail at Hobcaw in 1972. The Oday Widgeons I steered have gone to landfill. The sails I tightened against the breeze probably lay in tatters somewhere, keeping firewood dry. Nixon, Vietnam and cheap gas are gone. However the wind still pushes in from the ocean to the Wando River about 10 a.m. in the morning. Even when I am wearing a suit, downtown, walking to court, I check for the moment in the day when the ocean sends her breath to lift the stillness of morning. A sailor is someone always mindful of wind and tide, out of which the going elsewhere can be pulled.

Our children now live in a world of synthetic imagination. They Facebook and Xbox in virtual worlds too close to refrigerator and sofa. Their adventures are downloaded, paused and superficially shared. These do not exercise a soul. It makes us weak. It teaches things which are untrue about life and the world. Instead of being makers, it molds us into victims of things made.

Something better is taught on the Wando River in the summers at Hobcaw. The river's complex winds and currents are fickle playmates. They demand attention. You cannot round the point below Molasses Creek on the incoming tide in time, if you are distracted by what your friends may be text messaging each other from their bedrooms around Mount Pleasant. To sail, a skipper must be where he or she is.

East Cooper has sailors. Brad Van Liew is crossing the Atlantic now, sailing a once unimaginable 30 knots, leading his solo third race around the planet, possibly on his way to his second victorious circumnavigation. Stephen Colbert, our internationally famous put-on political satirist, is helping race a boat the 777 miles to Bermuda. The crew of the Schooner, Sprit of South Carolina, have put her in order at Hobcaw Shipyard for a season of training young people.

At Hobcaw Yacht Club, they have written the winter checks for shrouds, sails and hardware. They have sent last summer's beaten boats to the yard for repair. A new chase boat has been readied. Over 100 young people are already signed up. As the last days of school countdown, a wetter, windy school readies to open. Its classroom has blue sky and clouds for its ceiling. The air conditioning runs at 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon. The floor never needs mopping because it's always wet, washed by six feet of tide, twice a day.

The lessons taught at Hobcaw are intense ones. The wind never stops paying attention. If you do not sail the boat, you will end up swimming around it. Inches, degrees and balance matter. You have to think about everything, but much needs to be decided before you've had time to wonder about it. Halo 3 may be intense, but a 420 snapping around a buoy requires a level of commitment to the controls the Xbox can't duplicate.

A young person does something when they sit in front of a flat screen pushing pixels around with a joy stick. They become something when they push a boat around the Wando River. After two hours on the water, on a sailboat, kids come back tired, and wet and smiling. What they grab hold of with a sailboat on the Wando is theirs for the rest of their lives. On bad days, when the wind and the tide are against them, when they pick out that thin line of possibility that moves them towards the mark, they will use something that only wind and water can teach.

I hope our town and community have not forgotten the commitment made to a Youth Sailing center at the mouth of Shem Creek which was promised to our young people when five million dollars was spent to purchase the land and docks for the new park there. Sailing for young people should go on year round East of the Cooper. The location on Shem creek is perfect for that purpose. Our new #401 East Cooper Connector bus connects the entire community to it. My son, who was promised such a place by this town in 2009, shall leave to sail the Puget Sound and the Pacific before such it exists. Let us hope that after millions have been spent, that our children have not been forgotten for the third time.

Until then, let's hope every slot in the Hobcaw program is full this summer, including the many new ones for kids in High School. Full details can be found on the website: www.hobcawyachtclub.org/sailing.php online.

(William Hamilton (www.wjhamilton.com) is an attorney who lives in I'On Village.