Mast in place we rowed out into the bay - an autumn breeze in our faces. In the bay, with elbow room in which to work, we hoisted the foresail. Yippy we did it! Slowly, with a mild breeze we slowly moved across the water, we nearly made it to the mouth of the Puyallup River! Well, okay, maybe we were sort of close by a fathom. It was there we dropped the sail, took the clew off the hook, dipped the lug and hoisted the foresail back up. On the way back we practiced the slalom course between the buoys and crab pot floats. Kuddos to the coxes this day - Voski and Leslie. They earned their keep.
Here are a few words/phrases we probably should learn...
even though thingamajiggy, whatchamacallit, and rope are descriptive too.
bear away
to steer the boat away from the wind.
broach
turn sideways to wind and the surf.
buoy
floating navigational marker.
clew
aft bottom corner of a sail, where the foot and
leech meet.
come about
to change course so as to be sailing at the same angle
but with the wind on the other side.
halyard line used for hoisting sails.
jibing
changing direction with the wind aft; to change
from one tack to another by turning the stern
through the wind; also spelled gybing.
luff
to get so close to the wind that the sail flaps;
also the forward edge of a sail.
mast
vertical spar to which the sails and rigging are
attached.
mizzen
the shorter, after-mast on a ketch or yawl.
reef
reduce the sail area by folding or rolling
surplus material on the boom or forestay.
sheet
line that controls a sail or the movement of a boom.
step
a recess into which the fell of the mast is
placed.
trim
to adjust the angle of the sails.
Check out the new page (under the header) on Atlantic Challenge - see the section on gigs for a great description of how the boat works. There's also a video with the Irish Atlantic Challenge crew. We are two peas in a pod - like book ends in time.
