Team Paradise Youth Sailing Programs focus is to introduce kids ages 10 -14-years old to sailing. Most of the kids have little, or no prior sailing experience. Many have never been on Biscayne Bay and some can’t swim. How do we do it?
Give Miami Day Instagram Posts
Give Miami Day 2020 IS NOVEMBER 19th!
We are so thankful for the support we receive each year. Your generous donations help us build on our existing infrastructure of diversity, equity and inclusion in the sport of sailing. We recognize that part of our role as a community sailing organization is to lift up all voices in the sport and provide a welcome and inclusive environment for all.
The Opportunity of a Lifetime
We couldn’t be more excited about the challenges ahead and the increasing opportunities to help others and do better. With the support of our community, Team Paradise has managed to deliver on its mission for the past 15 years, having proven itself many times over. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
Boaters Beware!
Something very unusual happened to me last week while on a Sailing Excursion with my new friends from Chicago. We were sailing along the shore between markers Red 4 and Green 3 just NE of Mercy Hospital. It was high tide and we were on familiar waters when all of a sudden we hit something very hard. I was stunned at first thinking, “What the heck was that?” Then we hit a second time! At first I thought that I had veered off course, but no, we were in the middle of the channel. It must have been a sunken boat but how could that be? This is where boats from Grove Isle come and go and someone else would likely have run into it before us. It was mind-boggling! We quickly checked the bilge and verified that no water was coming in then continued our sail, eventually making it back to port. I couldn’t wait to lift the boat and check out the damage.
Whatever we hit caused damage to the bow at the water line and the leading edge of the keel about 2′ up from the bottom.
This is when the Canadian coach, Larry Lemieux, offered to take me back to where the incident took place to see what we could find. We hopped in his coach boat and off we went. It was about sunset and it was cloudy, which are bad conditions for finding something submerged. We looked and looked, but there was nothing that we could find. What could it have been?
We had just about given up when I decided to show my friend the Viscaya Harbor. He’s been sailing in Miami since the seventies but has never been to this part of the Bay. The harbor can best be described as a driveway with an island in the middle.
I immediately spotted a black concrete piling floating in the water, hung up on a couple of wood pilings by the island. The piling was about 16″ in diameter and 20′ long, covered with a black rubber-like material that had barnacles growing on it. The damage to the boat was consistent with hitting an object of this configuration, which lead me to conclude that this was without a doubt what we had run into earlier in the day.
The incident was reported to the US Coast Guard and I sure hope they located and removed it. If a power boat would have hit this piling at high speed, it could have been fatal.
The lesson learned for me is to be more aware of what might be in front of my vessel as I navigate the Bay, especially when on a powerboat. I sure hope that you do the same.
Let’s go sailing again soon!
Magnus | Team Paradise Executive Director
About our local weather
Have you ever heard our local weather forecast talk about small craft advisory, scattered showers, a chance of thunderstorms and that the bay water will be choppy? For us living in South Florida, we know how local and scattered the weather conditions usually are. It may rain in one block while it’s dry in the next. It’s very local. Inland towards the Everglades usually gets more rain and storms while further east, like Key Biscayne stays dry and sunny more often. Just because there is bad weather in one neighborhood it doesn’t mean that it will be bad where we sail on Biscayne Bay.
The wind direction is never constant. It may oscillate 5-15 degrees throughout the day, or have persistent shifts of any seize at any time. Be prepared for windspeed that far exceed what was expected when leaving the dock.
Most sailors usually have favorite wind and wave conditions until they realize the need to be prepared for anything and everything that nature has to offer. The weather is fascinating and it’s amazing in how it all works and how much info there is available for us to absorb.
It’s common knowledge that it is better to keep a positive attitude because it is easier to succeed when doing something that you really like. Sailing is no different. To do well, you have to be able do it all, at least when it comes to racing. I have learned not to look at the weather forecast too far in advance and get excited about what I might see. Instead, I monitor the forecast days in advance and note how the predictions for my specific date of interest likely will change.
Let’s not cancel unless we really have to!
Despite a pretty windy period over the last couple of weeks, we have managed to run our program as normal. Canceling program when conditions are not safe could sometimes be the right move, especially when there is thunder and lighting. But to cancel just because it’s windy is not good. To me, that’s an indication that either staff is not skilled enough, or the equipment is not good enough, or that there is not enough of a safety plan established. Canceling is an easy way out and if that is put in place as a go-to option, something is very wrong.
On Wednesday of last week, the wind was “honking” all day. I was thinking about cancelling the day first thing in the morning, but the information I had called for the wind to drop around the time kids would arrive and then pick back up around sunset. We had a breezy sail and everyone got soaked, but we made it back safe, just in time before the breeze picked back up to 30 kts.
The following day was Veterans Sailing and again, it was pretty windy. I asked myself, should I cancel, or not? Most program would have, but not us. Again, the forecast was for the wind to drop around Noon and it did. We went sailing and had a great time!
My favorite weather apps
My favorite wind app is Sailflow, which I find to be spot on accurate 5-days a week. It has great detail, especially when subscribing to the PRO version. My favorite weather app is NBC 6 Local First Alert weather, which has the most awesome radar.
Let’s go sailing soon,
Magnus | Team Paradise Executive Director
Too windy for sailing
Sometimes the risk outweighs the reward. When it’s too windy for sailing, when do we cancel? What is our plan B? Thanks to the latest boat donation to Team Paradise, our community sailing program now has another option on what to do!
The 21’ Jet Tender is what every community sailing program should have. It’s made by Castoldi, an Italian boat builder specializing in mega yacht tender boats powered by inboard diesel jet engines and papered by the Castoldi water jet drive. It’s a boat like no other.
It had been a very windy week with gusts up to 30 knots for days in a row. By the time the kids from Shenandoah Park arrived the US Sailing Center it had dropped a bit. But why take the risk of potentially scaring these kids when time is very limited (about 1.5 hours) and they are not prepared for a windy sailing experience? Nothing good will likely come out of that!
Instead, all twelve of us boarded the Castoldi for a shore line excursion, visiting land marks such as Viscaya and the Marine Stadium. It’s amazing how much distance that can be covered in a power boat compared to a sail boat. On our way back, we stopped at the Viscaya Sand Bar, where we anchored and most of everyone got in the water.
These kids where back in the bus promptly at 5.30PM. They had a BLAST!
Unplug from electronics and tune in to nature! Team Paradise Sailing offers youth from Miami-Dade County access to the sport of sailing on Biscayne Bay. Read more about our community sailing.