Worldschooling

TENNIS CAMP IN CROATIA —August 31-September 7—

LEARNING HOW TO SAIL

We went to a camp in Biograd na Moru, Croatia for a specific reason. To play lots of tennis. And we did. But in addition to that, my brother and I got to learn how to sail too. Near Biograd na Moru, there is a beach that you can swim at, and unlike Seattle the water is warm, so it was the perfect place to learn how to sail. Today I’m going to to be telling you what it was like to learn how to sail in the Adriatic Sea.

We learned how to sail in four days. Every day at 2:00PM, we got dropped off in Pakostane at a boat renting place where we met our sailing teacher for private lessons. From 2:00 to 4:00 we were out on the Adriatic.

When we got there, we put our life jackets on, and got the 14 foot catamaran ready to set sail. In order to get a small catamaran prepared, all you have to do is put both sails up, make sure the halyard and the capsize line are tucked away in the pockets on the boat, and prop the boat up on a trailer so that you can roll it into the ocean.

The first day we started off with our sailing teacher on the boat with us. The winds were pretty calm for what we had ahead of us. That day we practiced jibing (turning the boat downwind), and we practiced stopping the boat. Turning the boat downwind means that the wind is pushing the boat from behind when you turn. When stopping the boat, you turn the boat upwind, or to the direction the wind is coming from, so that there is no wind pushing on the sail, causing the boat to stop.

There are two jobs on a small catamaran like the one we were on. The Skipper; who steers the boat and who is in charge of the main sail, and the crew; who is in charge of changing the smaller sail. These jobs are very important when jibing or stopping the boat.

HOW TO JIBE

Step One: The skipper throws the driving stick into the water and starts to turn the boat downwind
Step Two: Both the skipper and the crew get on their knees, ready to move to the other side of the boat when the main sail changes with the wind
Step Three: The main sail changes wind, and both people move to the other side of the boat, opposite the sail, so that there is an even amount of weight on both sides and the boat doesn’t tip over
Step Four: The skipper grabs the driving stick out of the water and continues steering the boat in the right direction
Step Five: The skipper pulls on the main sail in order to get more wind in the sail
Step Six: The crew changes the smaller sail by releasing the rope of the side the sail is on, and pulls on the rope that is already released, making the sail change sides, catching the wind

The second day, Jack and I went sailing on the boat by ourselves. Our sailing teacher went on a motor boat nearby, and watched us. Our dad also got on the boat with him to takes videos of us sailing. We practiced what we had done the first day with our teacher (how to turn and stop the boat), but this time by ourselves. We had two landmarks that we used to sail to and turn around. We used a red pole that stuck out of the water that was specifically meant for boats to use, and the motor boat that my dad and our sailing teacher were on. We sailed across the water toward the red pole, then turned downwind around it, and sailed back across the water going the opposite way we came from, turning downwind around the motorboat. We mostly did this for the whole two hours, every once in a while practicing stopping the boat.

HOW TO STOP THE BOAT

Step One: The skipper releases the main sail
Step Two: The crew releases the smaller sail
Step Three: The skipper turns the boat upwind or in the direction the wind is coming from
Step Four: The main sail will change and both sails will be on opposite sides of each other. Therefore, no wind will be able to push the boat and it will stop

Now, it was day three when things got a little crazy. Our teacher decided it was time for us to go out in stronger winds. Unlike the other days, the wind was 12 knots. He also decided we were ready to try going on the trapeze. When you go on the trapeze, you have to put on a harness that’s sort of like if you were going zip-lining. On the sailboat there are some ropes with metal hooks on them that connect to the hooks on your trapeze harness. When they are connected, you put your feet on the side of the boat and slowly lean out of the boat, into the wind. Some tips that I learned from our sailing teacher: Spread your legs apart, bent, with your feet planted on the side of the boat, and if you want you can also hold on to a rope in case you end up capsizing.

Our parents also decided to come with us in another small catamaran, and our teacher of course was on his motorboat. He lead us out farther into the ocean then we usually would go (we usually stayed close to the shore because it was easier to practice sailing), but this time we were going to practice what we had learned in higher winds. This was a big step up, and Jack and I didn’t know what we were in for.

At the beginning, it was cool. Jack and I took turns. While one person was on the trapeze, the other was steering the boat. When you’re on the trapeze, it kind of feels like your flying with the wind. Then the wind got stronger as we progressed into the sea, and that’s when things got a little bit out of hand. The waves got bigger, especially when we were following our teacher on his motorboat (which created more waves), and things turned from fun, to downright scary. I’m not sure which was scarier; being on the trapeze and not being in control of the boat, meaning feeling kind of weightless, while big waves splashed you from the sea below. Or, being in control of the boat; meaning, it was your job to try to avoid the bigger side waves from the motorboat, and stick to the middle, where there was a lot of strong wind.

I think I got my answer when it was my turn to drive the boat, or I guess in this case, control it. While my brother was yelling at me, and I was trying to avoid big waves, the boat kept on leaning to one side. I guess you could say this was the tipping point of the story, because suddenly the boat tipped over just like that and we capsized. I fell off first because I was closest to the edge, and my brother held on to the trapeze rope (he wasn’t actually on the trapeze) for a whole two seconds before joining me in the warm Croatian water. If this was the Titanic, I wouldn’t have had much luck.

Our sailing teacher came for us in his motorboat, and our parents had watched every second of it from their sailboat. They brought our Go pro to get some clips for our YouTube channel, but sadly didn’t get our capsizing moment. While our sailing teacher worked on getting the sail boat upright, we lifted ourselves up onto the motorboat, shivering slightly. Although the water was warm and we had swam in it on our first sailing class, the wind wasn’t exactly the warmest. Not only that, but the sailboat we were sailing on had a trampoline as the part you sat on, which was pretty cool when you could swim under it and wave to the person sitting above (It was like a bridge). But it also meant that the waves could lap up from under you every once in a while.

The catamaran was fully flipped over. The white bottom of the boat was all that was showing on the surface of the water, and if you looked below the surface, you could see the bright orange sails from above the water. The boat was still floating (thankfully), and our instructor reached toward it, grabbing the nearest sail and pulling it so that the boat now laid on it’s side. He found the end of the tip of the main sail and pushed, using his strength to finally upright the boat. As we climbed back on to it, the sails, the trampoline, everything was wet. Which was fine of course because it was a sailboat, it was meant to be on water. But, not exactly fully submerged in water though.

Jack and I both made mistakes that day. Jack sharply turned the boat once and when I was on the trapeze, I got knocked back onto the boat. And I capsized the boat. Oops. Turns out I had pulled on the main sail too much and since the wind was so strong, the force turned the boat over. It was pretty scary actually because Jack and I aren’t exactly what you would call pro sailors. We’re still pretty inexperienced. Actually, in my opinion I think it was a little too soon. We only had two days of learning how to sail, and then BAM! We were out in our own sailboat, in high winds just like that. It probably would have been a much more enjoyable and way less scarier experience if we had been practicing sailing on our own for longer. My dad has sailed a lot in his life (he used to own a sailboat) and when he was in the sailboat business, he wouldn’t let people rent one of his boats out unless they showed him that they could capsize the boat, and push it back up again.

On the forth day, our sailing instructor pulled us into the back of the room where all the life jackets were kept. There was a small table and chalkboard. On the table was a small wooden model of a sailboat. He took a piece of chalk and drew a large circle with a piece cut out of it on the chalkboard. He explained that the circle was the cake, and that the piece was a slice someone had eaten. The piece of cake was where the wind was coming from, so if we sailed into it, the boat would stop. He took the model of the boat and moved it across the table, showing different angles from which the wind was coming from. We were going to learn how to sail towards the wind—at a slight angle so that the boat wouldn’t stop.

Once we got onto the boat and sailed out a little ways (we stuck close to the shore since we were learning something new), our teacher explained the objective of the day. There were buoys on the water, placed there to tell boats that they were close to the shore, and we were going to practice sailing at an angle in order not to land in the piece of cake. The “piece of cake” was code for stopping the boat, but wasn’t useful if you were trying to actually make the boat move (or in other words sail). I thought of it like this; the piece of cake was the part that was gone and all used up. It wouldn’t make sense to sail into it because there would be nothing left to eat. In order not to land in the piece of cake and be able to get to your destination (which was in this case a floating buoy), you would have to sail in a zig-zag pattern. The way to do this is to sail at a 45 degree angle, then tack, (meaning you turn slightly without jibing) going in the opposite direction at a 45 degree angle and if you keep on doing the same thing, it’s like your zig-zagging across the water.

We practiced this technique of sailing for a while, but after trying two times to sail to a buoy, tack, sail to the next buoy, tack again, and then sail back the way we came, we ended up not fully succeeding at the task, and our teacher gave up on us, so we did something else with our remaining time. Personally, I would have been fine with continuing to practice tacking, I wanted to keep on trying until we did it without any mistakes. It was a bit confusing because when you sail downwind you have to loosen the sail, and then you have to tighten the sail when you tack.

On our last day of sailing, our dad and Jack and I decided to go sailing on our own. We brought the GoPro to take footage and we tacked to a small island. Then we sailed closer to land, and Jack and I jumped into the Adriatic Sea. It was a way calmer two hour period than any of our other sailing lessons.

In the end, it was a pretty cool experience, and now Jack and I can say that we learned how to sail—in Croatia.

• Lily🍦