Delta 1 Day 6: Learning to Use Harnesses and Jacklines
June 30, 2016
We awoke to some refreshing morning showers…the kind you get in the Caribbean…85 degree, sunny, then torrential downpour lasting 4 minutes before the sun returns. A minute after the earth has already given all the moisture back to the sky in evaporation. Amazing.
By 8:30a.m., all of our Open water divers were on the dive boat and heading out for a full day – both morning and afternoon dives! The rest prepped the vessel to depart Nanny Cay. De-docking for both Meursault and Montlouis went smoothly with campers at the helm and calling all the shots. We are also lucky to have a lot of returners in our Delta program, so there is no shortage of expertise and advice for new students when it comes to the boats!
Today’s focus for Delta fleet was learning to use harnesses and jacklines….for those of you who have no idea what that means, please let me explain –
Jacklines are narrow diameter lines that are fixed to the boat from the bow to the stern on both Port and Starboard (or to quote out campers “Starbird” and “Portbird”). Crew then adorn a harness with a long “tether” (line attached to the harness). When under sail in less than ideal conditions (rough weather, or limited visibility like heavy rain or nighttime) we clip our tether to the jacklines to move around safely on the boat.
And so, today, we broke out the harnesses and began to build skills doing all the usual things like raising sail, moving forward to the mast, picking up mooring balls…all clipped in. This is, of course, all in preparation for our upcoming overnight passage to St Martin! Much easier to learn the skills in the daylight, and before we need them… Students did GREAT! And had a lot of fun with the challenge, too.
In the afternoon, our Discover Scuba diver students also joined in the diving fun, and headed out on the dive boats. Non-diving students had some time to relax ashore with Alpha and Charlie fleets, along with Poparazzi time, and sailing our smaller boat Opal Bella.
By 6p.m., we were all back together again. With lovely afternoon cloud cover to dampen the heat a little, we enjoyed scrubbing on the stern and a hard earned dinner.
