Boat Information:

Rowing Skills:

You have to row to get out of a marina or when there's no wind because we had to keep moving to get somewhere. Sometimes we had to go against the current. Rowing is hard, even though mostly we rowed with the current. We had to row together to go fast-in sync. The oars were very heavy and the heat would get to you. Sometimes the oar you got was crooked. Sometimes we would do power strokes if we didn't want the current to take us, or to get into a marina. And we had to follow the orders of the captain, who would tell us how to row using this vocabulary:

Rowing vocabulary:
"Select oars" means pick an oar that you want to use.
"Toss oars" means you hold your oar standing up with the blade at the top and the handle on the deck.
"Stow oars" means to put it with the other oars and lash (or tie) them down
"Unship oarlocks" means to remove the oar locks out of the oarlock sockets
"Come to oars" means the ready position before you start to row.
"Give way" means to start rowing together
"Back water" means to row the opposite way to go backwards
"Hold water" is when you put the oar blades in the water so the boat can stop moving, or slow down.
"Bench oars" is when you put the oar handles under the kingplank to rest but stay alert
"Cross oars" means you put the oar handles across to the other side of the boat when you're sailing if the wind is not constant you can have them out in case you need to power sail
"Power sailing" is when you're rowing with the sails out.

Sailing skills:
Sailing is when you take out the main sail (the big sail that gets most of the wind) and the jib (the secondary sail) when it's windy. There's 2 main kinds of sailing-down wind and up wind. Down wind is when you're going with the wind and the center board (the third sail that helps the boat not move sideways-it's at the bottom of the boat like a fish fin) is up, and the sails are out. To turn the boat going down wind you have to gybe (when the sails go to the opposite side of the boat). That's when you say "gybe ho." Sailing up wind is going against the wind with the center board down. The sail sheets (the ropes that hold the sail) are cleated (tied down) close in and tightly and this is called tacking. Before tacking the tiller person says "ready about" and the crew says "ready" and the tiller says "hard to lee" and pushes the tiller leeward and they change the sails from one side to the other. To prevent the sail from luffing (or flapping) when you go into the no-fly zone (the area close to the wind where the boat stops moving) you have to steer the boat away from the wind. If you stear straight into the wind the boat stops or slows down and that's called being in irons. Some of the jobs when you're sailing are: one person is on the tiller (the person who steers the boat), two people hold the jib sheets (one on starboard or right side, and one on port or the left side), one person is on bow watch (to watch out for shallow depths, rocks, anything floating or other boats), one person goes on the main sail.

Other boat vocabulary:
fender: a rubber ball that prevents the boat from hitting the dock or another boat
bitter end: the last part of a rope
bow: the forward part of a boat
capsize: to turn over
draft: the depth of a boat in the water
ease: to slacken or relieve tension on a line
head: a marine toilet (the bucket)
knot: a measure of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour
leeward: the direction away from the wind
running lights: the lights required to be shown on a boat under way after sunset (the Onrust didn't have running lights so we didn't move when it was dark)
tiller: in the stern the wooden handle used to steer the boat
windward: the direction towards the wind