Big Boy Sailing: Colorado Springs School Day 2

Esperanza, Vieques, Puerto Rico

Taylor H. (‘24), Shively K. (‘22), Finnegan T. (‘22)

Our day began early in the morning, between 10:00 PM (the night before), and 5:40 AM. We were on anchor watch, during which we performed routine boat checks, took bearings, ate snacks, and pumped bilges. On our boat checks, we monitored battery levels and ensured that there wasn’t too much water in the bilges, and made sure the anchor wasn’t dragging. We then used a handheld compass to guarantee our boat hadn’t moved too far off course. Some lucky watch groups also had the privilege of pumping out the bilge (pits where ingressed water is contained), moving water from them back into the great blue Caribbean Sea, but this vital task was only performed when water levels reached a certain threshold. 

Those of us who weren’t already awake were quickly made so by the call of “fo’c’sle dwellers wake up” and the same for the fish hold. We quickly ate our breakfast, which was prepared by our lovely chef Jen, and we then moved on to our morning chores. We scrubbed the soles (floors), cleaned the dishes, washed the heads (bathrooms), and swabbed the deck. Then, around 8:30, we set the sails.

First, we hoisted the mainsail, pulling the whopping 3500 pounds of sail up 30 feet, to the top of the mast. We then did similarly for the foresail, jumbo, and jib. Our captain motored us out from our anchorage, where we then began sailing downwind from St. Croix, to Esperanza Vieques, Puerto Rico. Cruising under sailpower, we went on rotations with our watch group, some active watch, some learning knots and seamanship, and some doing group building activities. On active watch, we performed more boat checks, looked out at the bow of the ship, and steered the boat at the helm. In our knots and seamanship rotation, we learned many knots: the bowline, the figure eight, the reef knot, and the round turn and two half hitches, and basic navigation techniques with a compass and map. Finally, in our group building activity, we made flags representing each watch group, and came up with sick handshakes and signals. 

We made wonderful time on this voyage, cutting three hours off of our planned trip. This allowed us extra swim time, which was also our time to “shower” (soaping up and jumping in the ocean), followed by some free time to journal and reflect. We ended the night with a fun game of Adventure Island, which involved many humorous lies and deception. Thus ended our first day of big boy sailing, and began the next night’s watch…