All Sailing Programs Completed!

The holiday season is here and it’s a welcomed break for us. We performed 137 program days for 1,115 people this year. We sailed in a variety of conditions, sometimes with winds above 30 knots and we drifted when it was completely calm. New for the year was that swimming and getting soaked was encouraged. Kids love the water and I venture to say that 80% of all the youth loved their sail with us and they would love to return for more fun and bay play.

Sailing with Breakthrough Miami

Breakthrough Miami returned to sail with us on Saturday 12/14. This time it was a group of 5th-grade Scholars from Gulliver we had the pleasure to serve. It was a beautiful morning! I began launching boats at 5:23 AM and it was dead calm and dark. As the sun rose, the cloud formations were awesome. There was a red sky in the morning and we all know what that means!

The bus transporting the kids arrived promptly at 10 AM. We gathered on the 2nd-floor breezeway for introductions, briefings and team assignments. The conditions were still calm and there was no rush to head out early. There were sixteen kids total, with four kids per team for our two Sonar and two RS Venture sailboats.

The breeze began to fill in as we fitted the life jackets. Sails were up and boats ready for the departure. There was an onboard briefing by each captain before leaving the dock and with the US Sailing Center being as busy as it is this time of the year, the runway for departure can change pretty quickly. It’s important to have enough volunteers to help fend off, hold the boat and assist with safe boarding. This particular morning had ideal conditions with the wind out of SW, but when there is a strong easterly flow, boats can get pushed into the dock pretty hard.

The breeze picked up very quickly so jibs were not hoisted on our keelboats. We had a couple of safety boats following us wherever we sailed. The wind increased as the day progressed and it was comforting to have two safety boats following us wherever we sailed. The clouds were growing darker and the wind stronger. We decided to return to port a bit earlier than planned. Better safe than sorry.

Special thanks to our volunteers for making this day happen. They are very special people, Jonah, Bob, David, John, Richard, Peter and Moises. Also, a BIG thank you to Pat and his brother for helping out at the dock and for lending us the USSC coach boat.

Veterans Sailing

Our Veterans (and me) are lucky to have Bob Hurst as a friend. His background as a Coast Guard Captain and certified Sailing Instructor Trainer make him very valuable for our program.

Veterans Sailing on Thursday 12/12 started out in the classroom with Bob teaching Julio a Basic Keelboat certification lesson. Duane and Ericka joined in and they all went sailing.

The normal pizza order which delivers at 2.30 PM was replaced with a take-out order from the Coral Reef Yacht Club. It was about time to try something new:)

City Sailing

Wednesday 12/13 was the last day of City Sailing. Again, it was Little Haiti Soccer who came to visit. It wasn’t the same kids as last time, but they were just as nice and entertaining. Thanks to having a safety boat on hand, we were towed out and back. In between that, we sailed a little bit, just enough to get the kids excited. We hung at #Paradiseisland305 for a while. The air was a bit cold to go swimming even if I did to take a picture. That was a special moment!

Sailing School

Sunday 12/15 was the time to bring some new friends out sailing. It was Charles, a veteran that we met during the recent Veterans event at Opa Locka Airport. Then there was Erbil who had just moved down from Connecticut and Brother Moises who has volunteered with us a couple of times. I gave them a sneak preview of what our sailing school is like. They all had a go at the helm, taking and gybing, moving from side-to-side. Sailing different points of sail, learning how to control the boat. They did very well and I hope that they all stick to sailing and become certified!

Sailing Excursion

On Monday 12/16 I took Cliff and Ann from Chicago out sailing on a Biscayne Bay Excursion. We took the scenic route, clockwise around the Bay. We sailed close to shore, passed Grove Isle and Mercy Hospital, through the Viscaya harbor, then across to Key Biscayne West Point, Nixon’s Beach and around Marker “B” and then back to port. The trip took about 2-1/2 hours to complete.

As we passed Mercy Hospital, we hit an object in the water that made a lot of noise and caused a fair amount of damages to the boat. I will describe the incident in more detail in my next Blog.

Let’s Go Sailing Soon,

Magnus Liljedahl | Team Paradise SailingExecutive Director

Sailing with the Siebel Sailors

Pictured above: Blair Overman, John Pearce, Chris Childers, Janel Zarkowsky, Meredith Dart, flanked by Magnus Liljedahl (selfie) and Bob Hurst on the left and Steve Schwartz on the far right.

South Florida is becoming increasingly busy as winter solstice nears. This is when sailboat racers from around the world come to visit and have another season of training and competing on Biscayne Bay. No wonder it’s so popular! It’s the warmest metropolitan area within the continental United States.

US Sailing just had a bunch of meetings down here, one of which was the National Coaching Symposium. Among those in attendance were the coaching staff from the new Siebel Sailors Program, which is a new initiative from US Sailing. I realized what great opportunity this was for Team Paradise when the Siebel Sailors Program Manager, Blair Overman, asked if they could test sail our RS Venture.

The following day was Thursday, when we usually have Veterans Sailing, which means that our senior sailing instructor and retired Coast Guard Captain, Bob Hurst, was present. The 4Helm-360 adaptive steering station was installed in one of the boats and we were ready to go when Blair and her team showed up. After a rather short land demonstration we launched the boats and off they went. Bob, Steve Schwartz and I followed in our Castoldi Water Jet safety boat. (BTW Steve is an awesome volunteer who also sails a Laser).

I sure hope that everyone had a good time. It should be noted that had they worn the trapeze harness it would have enabled them to keep the boat flatter and also would have made sitting in the test seat more comfortable. The RS Venture with the weighted center board is great boat for a sailing center. It’s utility friendly and easy to adapt. Come and experience it for yourself!

City Sailing with Little Haiti Soccer

City Sailing continued on Wednesday with 7 kids from Little Haiti Soccersailing with us. Captain Bob Hurst brought the boys out and Liv Keefe, our fabulous U of M student volunteer, had the girls in her boat. It was light, almost calm and the bay was flat. We could follow both boats from shore, so we didn’t find it necessary to use the safety boat. Luckily, they had just enough breeze to return to port.

I always ask the kids if they would like to come back and sail more. If we had the resources needed, we could get the majority of the kids to return. There is a huge supply of kids in Miami-Dade County and we know how to reach them. Keeping them happy is easy! Who wouldn’t want to play on the Bay?

Let’s go sailing soon,

Magnus| Executive Director Team Paradise Sailing

Youth Sailing with Breakthrough Miami

Team Paradise Community Youth Sailing planned on taking 28 precious 5th graders from Break Through Miami sailing on Saturday 11/23. The 4-hour visit was carefully mapped out. There would be two departures using two Sonar and two RS Venture. The group left on shore would attend a S.T.E.M. class and then swap out with the other group and go sailing. 

Team Paradise was stacked with talented sailing volunteers for the occasion. We usually have excellent help, but this time was extra special. The level of help that we had was second to none! All amazing friends with extensive sailing experience, stacked with knowledge, certifications and licenses. How about Nikki Barnes, Team USA 470 sailor and Olympic hopeful? From Ransom Everglades sailing program came Capt. Joseph Joe Logan III (physical education teacher and sailing coach) and Marc Buller (Waterfront Coordinator, USCG  OUPV licensed). Then there was Captain Jennifer Wirth, an ASA instructor with Blue Water Sailing School and also a USCG 100 ton Master Captain’s license holder. There was Cathy Buller,  a PRO Race Committee person and a heck of a sailor. There was David Moore, our own Basic Keelboat instructor (ASA Basic Keelboat certified and US Keelboat Certified). Others were: John de Olazarra, driving the safety boat; Steve Schwartz, Laser sailor; Raul Figueroa, a Blue-water sailor) and last but not least, educator David Furer teaching the S.T.E.M. class (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

The S.T.E.M. Lesson

Only 12 of the expected 28 kids came to play. Disappointing yes, but as it turned out it was our lucky day. There was no wind in the morning, so we were not able to go sailing as scheduled. Instead, we brought everyone in to the class room for a short presentation by yours truly, followed by the S.T.E.M. lesson by David Furer. Everyone agreed that David did an awesome job. You can tell by the pictures he had everyone engaged!  He performed a series of experiments with air pressure, blowing up plastic bottles and aluminum cans. He even fired of rockets powered by pressurized air. I was concerned that the loud noise of the explosions would draw attention from our neighbors. But as it turned out, the laughter that followed the experiments was enough for them to understand that we were just having fun while learning.

The Sailing

By the time we were done with the experiments, the wind had picked up enough for us all to go sailing. It took a while for everyone to line up, mostly because the students were helming for more of a hands on experience. I’m not sure who had more fun, the girls on-board with Nikki, or one of the other teams? The volunteers certainly had fun and so did yours truly.

Our youth sailing experience was delivered in 3-1/2 hours, as planned. Everyone was back on the bus in time for their departure. I give our performance high marks, much because of the outstanding people involved, both volunteers and students. 

BTW Our next event with Breakthrough Miami is on December 14th.

Let’s go sailing soon,

Magnus | Executive Director Team Paradise Sailing

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

City Sailing with Jose Marti Park

City Sailing on October 23rd was a lot of fun! It was another group of kids from City of Miami’s Jose Marti Park. It was a bit too windy for the previous group and they did not get to sail. This day had perfect conditions for what we wanted to accomplish, a nice mellow breeze of 4-6 Kt from the east.

I recruited Charles Nethersole to drive one of the RS Ventures, while I drove the other (RS Venture). The four girls plus another staff member went sailing with Charles and the three boys came sailing with me. The safety boat was ready to go, sitting at the dock.

We sailed upwind towards Key Biscayne, making several tacks, moving our human ballast from side-to-side, roll-tacking and working the jib. Then, we turned around and set the gennaker. One of the boys steered most of the way and did a great job. These boys were special, they had a touch for water and wind and they learned very quickly.  I asked if they wanted to come back sail with Team Paradise? They all said YES!

Everyone wanted to swim, so we stopped by paradiseisland305 on our way back to port. Most of us hopped into the water, holding on to the boats instead of anchoring. Everyone had their life jackets on. The kids performed a swim-test, swimming around the boat. They all seemed to thrive in the water and they sure looked like swimmers to me.

Thank You!

Our community Youth Sailing Program (City Sailing) is 100% free for the kids. Team Paradise raises funds to cover the expenses. We could not offer this type of program without your help. No amount is too small, or too large. Please click button below for payment options, thank you so much!

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.

After school sailing with City of Miami Parks & Rec

The days are getting shorter and the record high temperatures are giving in to more pleasant conditions. Summer is turning into Fall and before we know it, the Holiday season will be upon us.

Another sign of Fall is when kids from City of Miami Parks & Rec’s after school program come and sail with us on Wednesdays. The program spans ten weeks and the kids come from ten different parks located within the City of Miami. It’s the sixth year that Team Paradise has the honor of serving this very precious population.

Wednesday was particularly fun because the weather was super nice and the kids were exceptional. The experience that we have gained through our Summer Camp with the Bay-Play curriculum makes us very confident taking kids out sailing.

On this particular day, I asked the kids as usual: how many of you can swim if you can’t touch bottom? All seven kids said that they were swimmers. Five kids teamed up with me in the RS Venture while the remaining two kids went Sonar sailing with our ace volunteer skipper, Charles Nethersole and two counselors from the Park.

We sailed across the Bay to the west point of Key Biscayne, my favorite spot in Biscayne Bay. I’m not sure who had more fun, the kids or me. The journey was documented along the way and the video that was made gives you an idea of the fun we had. The sail back to port was fantastic. A prefect reach with gennaker and plenty of apparent wind made us all smile.

Out of the seven kids, all of them would like to come back and sail with us again. How can we make it possible? Please know that we receive no income from this program. There is no fee charged for providing this transformative and awesome experience. It’s only made possible through your generosity.

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. 

Bart’s Bash 2019

Team Paradise hosted Bart’s Bash on September 15th. Bart’s Bash, the largest sailing race in the World! Youth programs from neighboring yacht clubs and private schools were invited. Team Paradise entered two teams for the event, both with kids form the FOCAL program in Moore Park. These were some of the kids from our summer camp who came back for more fun on the water.

I tapped our board of directors to run the race. We had great help from other volunteers as well. We settled for one start with all boat classes on the line at the same time (Optis, 420, Laser, 29er and RS Venture). There were 55 boats and 72 participants in total. The black flag was in effect right away. The course was a triangle with the leeward mark below the starting line and the finish on the starboard side if the Race Committee boat. The course was 1.06 Nautical Miles. Judging from smiles, cheers and laughter, it seemed like everyone had a great time as the weather cooperated nicely. Next years event takes place on September 13th and we sure look forward to that.

Bart’s Bash is a global sailing race taking place at 100’s of venues, with 1000’s of sailors in 100’s of different classes of boat around the world. Founded in 2014, the event was verified by Guinness World Records as ‘The Largest Sailing Race in the World’.  How about that?

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. 

Sailing practice with FOCAL kids

We had scheduled for two training sessions before the Bart’s Bash, but had to settle for one Practice day only.(September 8th). It was certainly great to see the familiar faces from Summer Camp again. Three girls and four boys sited along with the FOCAL Program founder, Mrs. Barbara Hardemon.

We had planned on using two RS Venture boats, but as it turned out, our practice switched from Saturday to Sunday and we lost some valuable volunteers to help us. Instead, we took our Castoldi Jet-tender and one RS Venture only. Half of the crew boarded the Castoldi and we met up at the Viscaya sandbar. We switched the crew and everyone got some practice. Mission accomplished!

2019 Inclusive Summer Camp

This year we invited campers who are able to swim, or at the very least would pass a float test. Being on the water is sure a lot more fun for those that swim. We used our Inclusive Summer Camp as a motivator to encourage the kids to learn how to swim. Our “Bay-Play” curriculum uses Biscayne Bay as a unique classroom while exploring several fun destinations around the Bay. Our Inclusive Summer Camp was funded by donations and was 100% free for the campers. We served 212 kids in total and everyone had a fantastic time.

The FOCAL Program

Team Paradise Sailing welcomed 20 kids each day from the City of Miami’s Moore Park FOCAL Program to sail with us during the period July 1st through the 19th. FOCAL’s Barbara Hardemon commented that the parents were calling her, praising our program and how much fun the kids had on the water! 

Breakthrough Miami

It was a memorable day when forty (40) 5-graders from Miami Breakthrough came to sailed with us! We divided the group in two and while one group went sailing, the other group had class room activities such as S.T.E.M. education in the class room. The lab for the day was air pressure and how it also correlates to sailing. Kids also learned how to tie some of the most common knots.

By the time the first group returned to shore, the second group were finished in the class room and were ready to go sailing. We switched and repeated our tasks. Fun, fun, fun!

Down Syndrome Association of Miami

Other summer campers visiting during July were a couple of groups with special needs kids along with their parents from. The Miami Down Syndrome Association was one of the groups visiting. The other group were friends with special needs kids that really enjoyed a day on the water. Let’s go sailing again, soon!

About our Community Sailing

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.