Setting Sail

For my free inquiry topic, I was fully ready to do graphic design. I’ve been doing graphic design for a couple of years now as a hobby I started during COVID, and I thought about improving on it. However, a couple of wrenches were thrown into this plan over the last two weeks. First off, the iPad in which I normally use to create my graphics is my parent’s, in which means it is stuck in my hometown and not accessible. Then, about two weeks ago I was with some friends on a Saturday morning having breakfast. As a joke, a friend brought up the fact they were heading to the sailing try outs later that day and I should go as well. A little bit of backstory to this: I had never sailed a sailboat in my entire life at that point. The joke continued, but slowly it turned into more than a joke. Next thing I know, I’m standing knee deep in freezing ocean water staring head on to a 420 sailboat.

If you would have asked me a few weeks ago if I was going to sail, I would have laughed in your face. However, there I was about to not only sail, but try out for the UVic sailing team. After try outs, I thought it would be interesting to discuss this on my free inquiry instead of something I already know how to do, like graphic design.

Sailing is something completely out of my comfort zone, and I can not tell you what was in my water that morning I tried out for the team, and here’s how it went:

I walked into the sailing club area and met a few people who were very passionate about this sport. Then, a coach got up and introduced himself before asking as to stand on the ‘crew’ or ‘skipper’ side. Not only do I not know how to sail, I also don’t know any sailing lingo. I quickly turned to my friends and asked what this meant. A skipper is the person in charge of steering the boat and handling the main sail. A crew is in charge of switching the jib sail, which is the smaller one at the front of the boat. I shuffled to the crew side and was randomly matched up with a skipper and a coach. The coach was to watch your sailing and determine your ability to be on the team. After watching a few rounds of people sailing, my turn came and I jumped into a 420 sailboat, which is commonly used as a two person boat in races. I have never been put in a situation like this before, but there I was holding two ropes and in charge of a whole sailboat with one other person. On top of this, I had a coach watching my every move. Getting into that boat was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done, but it was so worth it. I was sitting there and I looked up to see the beautiful calming ocean welcoming me. As we went, I learned the basic maneuvers, like tacking. Tacking is what occurs when switching directions in the boat, and when a crew has to change the jib to a different side of the boat. After what seemed like 2 minutes on the boat (which was about 30 minutes in reality), we came back to shore and I got to help derig the boat.

Overall, it was the most eye-opening experience and makes me want to try every new thing now. I was nervous, scared, and honestly unprepared, but it was so good for me to step outside my comfort zone. I was also blessed to have amazing mentors surrounding me, like my friends as well as other people on the team and coaches. I received an email later that week extending an invite to allow me to join the team! I can’t wait to pursue this learning and to more adventures out on the sea.

Through this learning journey I hope to be able to answer this question: Will learning how to sail help me feel more open-minded to learn other new things?