Cold and Windy
The weekend was pretty unusual for Miami! The weather forecast for Saturday looked windy and cold. I was concerned that kids would not be able to stay warm unless they brought layers of proper sailing gear. But they did! We communicated well with Parents/Guardians and shared the “What to wear when sailing” blog.
Intermediate Morning Session
There was no way we could have sailed on Saturday morning! The air temperature was in the lower 50’s and it was blowing “the dog of the chain” as they say in the Bahamas. Today’s event was the first of 8-sessions grouped as winter session #2.
The Intermediate sailing class is from 9 am-Noon. There is normally not a lot of time for classroom activities other than rigging the boats and going sailing. We welcomed the extra time for land-based learning today.
First on the agenda was to recap the beginner level curriculum in order to sign off in the Little Red Book.
Afternoon Session for Beginners
Kids from Breakthrough Miami joined in with our regular group today for the first sail of winter session #2. Some new kids joined, and it’s always inspiring to grow the group. In addition, four kids from the intermediate morning session were able to join in.
The breeze was forecast to lay down a bit during the afternoon and that is exactly what happened. It was still too windy and cold for sending the beginners out in our small RS Fevas. Instead, we put five kids in one of our RS Ventures and put the rest of us in the Castoldi Safety boat.
By now the Bay was full of sailboats and it was spectacular! What a day we had! We sailed back and forth near the shore to seek flatter water and less wind. We eventually made it to the Sister Banks just east of Vizcaya. To my surprise, most of the kids hopped in the water and they had a bunch of fun.
We made sure to head back early. Some of the kids were getting cold so we acted and made it back to port with everyone smiling.