Jump, jibe and jib!

I’m a water girl… always have been and always will be.  I grew up living near a lake and going to the ocean in Maine and I spent a lot of time on a boat (including the summer when I had chicken pox in second grade and my 8 year old crush spent time with me on our boat at the beach because he had already had them too, natch).  One thing that has always fascinated me is sailing.  I’ve been on sail boats, sure, and I know the difference between port and starboard, but I had never played in integral role in hoisting sails and I had no idea what a jib was or what the difference was between jibe and tacking.  However, when I booked my trip for Bimini, my friend Kat immediately offered to teach me what sailing is like on her very own sail boat.  Fantastic.
 

After our epic ravioli making night, we packed up the next morning and headed to her house… I mean, boat… and headed off on our adventure!
 

So here’s the rundown of our ALL FEMALE crew that day.
 

Now, not only was my Captain named Kat, but her First Mate’s name is also Kat, a mutual friend of all of ours (I might really confuse everyone if I try and explain so you’ll just have to trust me on this one) but I’ll call her Katherine for the sake of this post.  Kat and I met while doing research together back in ’04 and she has been a SCUBA nomad ever since, working on boats and islands throughout the Caribbean and culminating with purchasing her own sailboat that she has been living on for the past year.  Katherine is from Maine and worked on sailboats for years so the two of them together made for the best teaching team I could imagine so by nature, Katherine clearly qualified as First Mate.  I was, for all intents and purposes, crew.  But let’s be honest… probably more of a wench.  And then Kel… well, she was our Goddess, helping us out as needed but ultimately enjoying a day off on the boat vicariously through my list.
 

I had an amazing time and although I won’t be able to remember ALL the terms and idiosyncrasies of the sailing world, I wouldn’t be completely useless if I find myself on a sailboat again.  All in all, perhaps I shouldn’t have listed this as “Learn to Sail” but more like, “Go Sailing and Play and Integral Role” which, I think at least, I certainly did.
 

Captain Kat.

 

First Mate Katherine.

 

Your faithful crew… Me!

 

And Goddess Kel… not to be confused with Charlie Sheen’s Goddesses.

 

Rigging up the sails.

 

Learning how quickly real sailors must acquire blisters.

 

This is where I wished I had a wench – I mean winch – of my own.

 

Checking out our point of sail.

 

Beautiful day with great winds.

 

My amazing (and patient) teachers and their ‘not so green anymore’ student.

 

I can not thank Kat enough for offering up her boat for a silly little list like mine and for her and Katherine for taking the time to teach me the ropes… pun intended.  And Kel, thanks for looking beautiful while we were underway.

 

1. Learn to sail

 

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.  ~Louisa May Alcott