Land, Ho!

I had the opportunity to go on a sailing trip with the year 6, 7, and 8s today at Colwill Primary School. A few of the kids pay to learn to sail and Emily and I got to go and help out. Basically we got to go and learn as well, for free. Not only was it for free, but we got to enjoy a day out of our classrooms and taking off from teaching as well. The wind was just perfect today to learn to sail and the sun was shining brightly. We went with a group of 12 kids and had one instructor named Paul. It was fun to be with older kids to change things up a bit. The girls are just the sweetest and just love everything about Emily and I. The kids all loaded up 2 to each little sailboat, leaving us with one slightly different than all the rest. The sail was quite a bit larger and there was no back to the boat like the others; it was almost like a flat boat. We geared up into our rash guards, pullovers, and life vests. As we listened to the instructions we realized that although the kids boats were just about tip proof, ours was not and neither of us had sailed before. We pulled the trailer down to the water after the kids and loaded our sailboat in.

Emily climbed on first and assumed position in the front of the boat. She was wedged just low enough so she could hold the ropes controlling the sail, and the “boom” bar could swing just over her head without hitting her. I climbed in next assuming the position of steerer. I chose this position because I thought it would not be as hard as the sail. I guess I was unaware that steering the boat meant I had a lot of control and I was also responsible for shifting my body weight from side to side to keep us from tipping, while holding the pole that steers to move it from turning to straighten out, and ducking down so the “boom” bar would not wack my head. We struggled a bit to begin with, but finally began to get it. After capsizing we managed to get the hang of it just before lunchtime. All the children had a good laugh at our expense. We struggled to get our boat ride side up because we could not stop from laughing. It was always a huge build up when our sailboat began to tip and we frantically try just about everything with the sail, the steerer, and our weights, and then the boat just topples over anyway. So much fun! The water under the boat was pretty shallow in spots and you could feel the mud under your feet. It was not any sort of mud; this mud was like soggy bread mixed with pudding and quick sand kind of mud. My feet instantly sunk and I had never felt anything so gross in my life. Our boat moved pretty quickly, well in comparison to the kids’ boats. Just before lunch we managed to get ourselves stuck in the bushes in the water, where we were unable to catch any sort of wind or move in any direction. After struggling for a good 15 minutes and no help from the others, we decided to take matters into our own hands. Paul was out in a raft boat and was pulling the kids in for lunch. I stood on the yacht to try to wave him down, but he just ignored us. I guess he wanted all the kids out first then would come get us. I jumped off our small boat and into the ice cold, muggy brown water. It would not have been more than 3 feet deep before you began to hit the mud. I grabbed the rope, screaming my lungs out, while I half swam half run on the mud while trying to pull our boat out. By the time we got out of it I heaved myself back into the boat and we began to sail in. Not more than minutes later was Paul there, to our rescue, just a little too late. 

As soon as we were finished eating we loaded back into the water. This time we were mentally prepared and we knew what was coming. We managed to make it the rest the day without capsizing. We did laps around the kids and sailed all over.

As we saw Paul handing out the super soakers we decided to steer clear of the kids. We stayed far, far away from the water fights, lame I know but we finally warmed up from our swims earlier in the day. We watched at the boat that Kurt was driving both the sail and steering because his partner was Dave, the student who recently moved from Korea and does not speak much English was just enjoying the ride. I saw it moving towards us in the distance, but now that we had control we could keep a safe distance from them at all times and move much quicker than them. After watching them miss out on the big water fight and fail at every attempt to get near us for about 20 minutes I gave in. How could I do this to Dave? Why could I not just let him squirt me? We decided we might as well maneuver close to them and as soon as the squirt we will quickly get away. The first time Dave had some trouble working the super soaker so sad to say we did not get wet. The second time he got close to our boat, but not close enough. The third time we went in for the kill and got directly next to their boat. Meanwhile, a wind was coming in and while moving around my weight to protect from the spray we began to loose balance. Our boat went completely sideways, the sail whipped from one side quickly to the other hitting my large bun on the top of my head. Phew, that was a very close one, but we managed to keep our boat afloat, assume positions and take off out of the wet zone. We managed to park bring our boat all the way back to the ramp and load it up onto it’s trailer. I have become a master sailor! 

We go to ride in Paul's the last ride in Paul's boat. He took Renee and I on a little adventure to see how far back the water goes under the bridge. It went on for a while and was super fun to do some spins on the bought. As we came back in I got a sailing certificate written to Miss Whittaker! The day was a blast!! I somehow scored a seat on the ride home between two of the year 7 boys in the back seat of a mini van! I sure hope schools in the states have trips like this!