Early Alpha 2018 Adventures Day 6 – Smooth Student-Directed Docking At Nanny Cay
written by mate, Asha Tanna
June 13, 2018
“Spotter how many boat lengths away is that catamaran?”, called the captain.
One teen swung around and looked perplexed. She was having problem calculating feet.Everyday the students swap roles on the boat so they can experience navigating, being the skipper and working the main sheet, halyard and jib etc. There are so many roles to do and we hope by the end of the two weeks, the students have an deep understanding of how a boat runs.
“Can I use Abbie-Kate’s?” She asked. “That’s my height, I’m five feet.”
After a lot of smirking and laughs it was agreed. For the de-docking at The Bight and docking at Nanny Cay our spotter called out, “Catamaran on starboard side, seven Abbie-Kate’s away.” It’s great to see the kids thinking outside the box.
En route to our next destination, they sat on the windward side with their legs hanging off the boat, enjoying the breeze. They learned about the parts of the sail and some skippers managed to negotiate a tricky manoeuver into the marina with the help of their captains.
Nanny Cay is the first place the kids have been able to get on land since Day 2 to take luxurious fresh water showers, buy treats and use their phones for half an hour. This all came after a deep clean of all boats. Linen was stripped, towels were bagged, rubbish was collected and disposed of and everything was scrubbed spotless. Those doing diving managed to avoid part of this, leaving after lunchtime and returning in time for dinner. After the clean up, the students were allowed downtime onshore to explore the marina.
Staff restocked the boats with fresh fruit, vegetables, yogurts, eggs, bread and all manner of other food and cleaning products for the next eight days.
This evening has been a quiet one. The children were given the chance to go onto other boats to see their friends for an hour before bed. There’s been a lot of excitement and on the whole great engagement and lots of smiles!
