Floating 101

Pablo practices doing a cleat hitch while we float lazily around the bay; the NCC student is a hospitality and management major who took sailing for the extra credits and the chance to get out on the best kind of classroom - the water!!

The heat on Friday meant one things for the beginner sailors of Nassau Community College: two solid hours of floating instead of sailing. The college offers a Learn to Sail class for its students, giving them the opportunity to get out of the classroom and into a boat as a way to earn physical education credits. I headed out in one of the Sonars to document the sailors’ third voyage, but soon we were caught in the doldrums of Oyster Bay, wishing we had more water, personal air conditioning, and maybe a little bit of breeze. As we roasted beneath the hot sun that felt almost tropical, the only thing we could wish for was enough breeze to push us back to the mooring so we wouldn’t have to paddle! Despite our wind dance, prayers to the wind gods, and other attempts to get going, the wind never came. The waters of the bay remained glassy, and Instead we tacked and gybed lazily, picking up trash in the bay that seemed to be debris from the thunderstorms Thursday night. Even if we didn’t get the best sailing practice, at least we did our part for the bay!

 

Michael steers us slowly around the bay, practicing the basics of sailing. Too bad a key component was missing: the wind!

Pablo and Michael were my fellow sailors for the morning, and despite the heat they were ready to take the helm and practice knots, steering, and sailor jargon. Pablo, a hospitality and management major, and Michael, a criminal justice major who aspires to be in the police force, both championed the rising temperatures and lethargic wind with minimal complaints, and we had a great time just floating around the bay and practicing the many components of sailing that don’t require wind. By the end of the session, they were pros at knots and were throwing around terms, even if our tacks remained pretty slow!