Sailing

Conor has been taking sailing lessons just about the entire time we have been in Barbados.  Sailing camp was one of the first activities we got him into within months of arriving in Barbados, and he continued to take camps at every school break with the same group, lrn2sail.  He is now a level three sailor, which means he is able to sail a larger, more complicated boat, and do more of it alone than ever before, and he is now taking Saturday lessons at the Barbados Yacht Club.  I realized recently that although he has been doing this consistently our entire tour, I haven't really blogged about it yet so yesterday I went out during his lesson and took some pictures to share.  This is a very picture-heavy post, so bear with me!

Lrn2sail runs both a level three class and a level two class on Saturday mornings.  This is a picture of the level two class coming back in after their exercises.

While the level twos were coming in, the two level three boats were still way out at sea running their own exercises.  In this picture you can just make out the two tiny sails way off in the distance. 

The level three boats coming to shore.  On this day Conor was in a Topaz, which is a little larger than the Taz (the boat he usually sails) and they had three kids on each boat when they usually sail with two per boat.  They also sailed with jibs (Conor tells me) because the exercises they were running required lots of turning and the instructors wanted to challenge the kids more.  If you are a sailor you might understand this, I'll just take Conor's word for it!

Their instructor rides in a chase boat during the class so he can keep an eye on everything and yell instructions to the  students.  On this day the instructor identified a "box" with some boueys, and when he held up one flag the boats were required to stay in the box, two flags meant the boats were supposed to get out of the box, and no flag meant they were supposed to race to a given point and back to the box.  They use the rules of the sea, based on right of way, to try to be either the last boat in the correct placement or the first boat to pass the finish line.  Conor assures me this makes more sense if you are actually doing it!  

Conor standing in front to guide the boat to shore.

Getting ready to jump in and pull the boat the last bit.

And he's in.

Back on dry land with the rest of the class!

The boats with the colourful hulls are Echoes.  They are the boats that the level two kids use.  Conor is very happy to have moved into the more advanced boats, the Taz and Topaz.  The biggest difference is that the level three boats are easier to capsize (they're less stable) but they are much easier to uncapsize, because you don't have to bail them out and they are lighter.
This picture shows all of the kids hard at work taking the boats apart and putting them away.  Conor had already taken the dagger board off and was returning it as his team mates were taking off the rudder.

Conor and his friend Alex. 

Conor and Anish taking off the boom.

Conor returning the boom to the shed.

The shed.

The boat parking lot.

Conor and his instructor James.

James and his level three students getting together for their "debrief."  After every lesson they go over the principles covered that day and James gives each student points to work on.

Conor and I went for a quick swim after the lesson.