A Pirate's Life for Me

This past week at school I had the coolest opportunity to go sailing with a small group of students! It wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. I mean, after growing up in Annapolis I’d say I’m fairly familiar with sailboats. I thought we’d be enjoying a nice leisurely afternoon sitting on the deck of a fancy sail boat while the kids learned the basic mechanics of how it worked.

How wrong I was. 

Yes, all those little boats fit into this truck. The boat I imagined was BIGGER than this truck!

Our little sailors and their instructor

The sailboats that the students learned how to sail were only big enough for about two students to fit inside at one time. They had to learn how to maintain their balance so that the little boats were not tipping too far in one direction.

We learned all about the three different parts to these little boats. There’s the rudder, which is used for steering, the centerboard which keeps it upright and straight in the water and the boom. The boom happens to be my personal favorite. It’s the long horizontal pole that the sail is attached to that shifts whenever the wind blows. Sometimes people aren’t expecting it and then BOOM! They’re hit in the head. That’s why it’s called the boom.

There weren’t enough of the small sailboats for Brooke and I so we got to ride on the raft with the instructor. It was a lot of fun watching as the kids got used to steering and the adjusting of the sails so that they could turn. One of my favorite parts was seeing how excited they were when we rode by in the motorized raft and made waves for them. They loved rocking the boat.

 At the very end of the day our instructor, Paul, brought out the water guns he’d been stashing away in his raft the entire time. He tossed one out to each of the tiny sail boats and we got to weave in and out of them as the kids tried to hit us with water. This was the point at which I decided it might be best if I put my camera away. Some of those kids have pretty good aim. I got a mouthful quite a few times. I would have been soaked if it hadn't been for my awesome sailing jacket. 

We had to reel them all back in at the end of the day!

It was so fun and I loved it! I wish we did more things like that in the states! The funny thing is that it also made me realize how much I’m going to miss my class. I went with a different class because not very many students from my class opted to go. Right before we left I couldn’t believe how much I actually wanted to skip the field trip and stay with my students. I even surprised myself. I think it’s really just getting to me that I’ve only got one more week with them and that’s it. It’s all gone by incredibly fast.