Call me a sailor!
I spent the past weekend at the Irish National Sailing School learning how to sail a dinghy sailboat which culminated in me earning my Level 1 Royal Yachting Association Certification!The Irish National Sailing School is located in Dun Loaghaire which is a small, suburban seaside town from the 1820's. It was of great importance to the British as a port and was named Kingstown when Irish culture was oppressed. The port is especially known for its two piers, each with a lighthouse on the end. What I find interesting is that there is a green lighthouse and a red lighthouse and in sailing, green represents starboard (or the right) and red represents port (or the left). Sure enough, the lighthouses are on the correct sides!
The weekend started with assembling our boats. We used Laser Pico boats which are about 7 feet long and made of plastic. They are the perfect boat for beginners (or so claims our instructors). We then quickly learned how to "tack" on land. Tacking is a way to turn the sailboat by pushing the tiller (the thing used for steering) away from you. Tacking is the slower of the two ways to turn a sailboat with the other way being called a "gybe" which involves pulling the tiller towards your self.
The sun shone brightly, but there was barely any wind. This meant that we were not cold but we were not moving very quickly either... After lunch, however, that was another story. The rain clouds came out (of course, this is Ireland after all) and we all got to enjoy a cold, wet, rainy, slightly windy afternoon on the sailboats. Personally, I felt pretty hardcore in this weather and found that so long as I was moving around in the boat, I didn't freeze. Since the wind died down, our instructors (who were in safety boats) had to tow us back into the harbor at which points everyone looked into the water and found hundreds of jellyfish!! This was quite a motivating factor for not capsizing the next day....
On day two, the forecast predicted 80% chance of rain all day long, so I wore a warmer shirt under my wetsuit and put a rain jacket over my wetsuit, and of course, it did not rain. This is Ireland, after all, and that means the weather changes on a whim. Again, the wind was very soft but would come in strongly for about 10 minutes at a time, so I did get to experience some upwind speed which was probably my favorite part of the whole experience!
I am 100% glad I chose to take this course and I have decided to register for the Level 2 course in July! I look forward to using my new sailing abilities in Florida... Maybe I won't be wearing 3 layers of clothing, but I'm sure the feeling will be quite the same.
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| Dun Laoghaire Harbour |
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| Me with my Level 1 Certification at the end of the weekend. |
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| Another view of the harbour. It was raining 2 minutes this photo was taken, so I was surprised to see the blue sky! |
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