I randomly got assigned to presenting my 20-minute thesis presentation on my birthday! So, I had to do something in New York, and in the morning.
So, I landed on sailing!
I showed up and called the office to make sure I was in the correct spot, and when I met up with Jonathan, my instructor, he said the office had warned him that I sounded really cool and fun, so I loved that.
We laughed a lot and had a great time throughout the day. Basically, we started a picnic table. He drew some pictures of how wind works and how boats turn. And then he told me about the Windex – a thing at the top of the boat that we look to, to know the shape of the wind.
Once I had a small intro, we got in a small boat which took us out to the sailboat, and we sailed on out to the Hudson River!
We could see the Statue of Liberty, which was cool. And there was Jersey across the way!
I got to be the helmslady, and move the tiller to steer. You steer backwards from how you want the boat to go. (So if you want it to turn away from you, you turn the tiller toward you.)
He told me about luffing – which is watching the sail itself kind of getting all weak and wonky and not fully and beautiful if you’re not using the wind correctly.
We did this thing called “tacking” where you change the direction of the sail. And then we laughed when I was trying to just keep up with the call and response and said I was ready when I wasn’t really, but he waited until I actually had a rope in my hand for us to tack.
We rode around for a while, and had a relaxed time. We came back to the dock, and that was that.
A nice little overview of how to sail. A beautiful day on the water. And then it was off to my mini thesis presentation (which went fine, thanks)!