The more we do it, the better we get! Today was the second of eight lessons in our fall session of Youth Sailing. Each Saturday will look the same. We are divided into two groups: the beginner sailors, ages 9-12, who attend our STEM class, the SYSTEM, and the intermediate sailors, ages 12-17, who attend our NEXT LEVEL program. Both groups began at 10 AM and finished at 3 PM. The SYSTEM classroom is indoors, and the NEXT LEVEL meets in the second-floor breezeway. The SYSTEM is based on REACH (US Sailing's STEM education series), while the NEXT LEVEL is based on US Sailing's Intermediate curriculum.
The weather in Miami, and many other places, follows a pattern: one day looks like the next. The weatherman calls for southeasterly winds of 5-10 knots, but it's calm in the morning. Then, as it gets warmer throughout the day, the land heats up, and the sea breeze kicks in. The wind on the water is affected by local topography, where land, buildings, and other structures block the wind and create turbulence. Also, there is usually a big difference between the highest and lowest wind speeds. We refer to this as puff and lull. Today, the puffs (gusts) were much stronger than 10 knots. In reality, after the fact, when we all know what happened,….
Today was a big Fleet Week celebration next door at the Coral Reef Yacht Club (CRYC). Hundreds of young sailors were invited for fishing, sailing, and boating. The first busload showed up at 0645 hours for a lovely breakfast buffet. As luck has it, the day coincided with our regular Thursday Veterans Sailing. Two uniquely named veterans, who had never sailed with us, arrived at about 1000 hours. The weather and wind were perfect for sailing across the Bay and joining the festivities at Stiltsviille. We tied the boat next to an anchored sailboat in what can best be described as a small lagoon behind the building. The CRYC dockmaster was on hand to ferry us to the lapidated building. We mingled with the sailors for a while and had some snacks and refreshments before heading back to the US Sailing Center. We had to leave before the current started ripping. The sail home was smooth and very relaxing. It was …
Perhaps I might be getting forgetful, but today felt like the best Veterans Sail ever! We had two boats, six veterans, one veteran family member, plus me. Two of the veterans had never sailed with us before. Today was a perfect day on the Bay. The weather conditions were ideal, with just the "right" amount of wind speed. We aimed for the Biscayne Bay channel as we left the Seaplane channel behind, spotting some Dolphins along the way, then tacking through Stiltsville, we turned around and headed back home with the flooding tide pushing us along Bill Baggs State Park, Nixons Beach,..,
Old friends meet new friends. Today, a young man who had just returned from active duty in Syria was visiting. It was super rewarding to offer him and his significant other a soothing and relaxing experience sailing on Biscayne Bay. As always, thank you guys for serving our country.
Today was a great day for sailing. The breeze was up, partly cloudy, a couple of nice Sonar sailboats with nothing but wonderful people aboard. Captain Bob, our senior sailing instructor, gave lessons to a couple of veterans and a first responder. The other boat had a veteran, a veteran’s family member, and yours truly aboard as a coach and navigator.
We observed how the current flows around fixed objects in the water. Then we wanted to prove that the earth is round. The kids were asked if they could see Soldiers Key, which is the first island south of Key Biscayne. The water was flat so we aimed south for about 20-minutes. Sure enough, the island popped up and we hung around for a while catching up on knot-making. Everyone was signed on the important Bowline and Square knots.
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.
Some say that rowing is impossible without oars and others say that sailing can’t happen without wind! But that’s not true and we set out to prove it. Check out the video above and see for yourself. By fanning the sail and rolling the boat while using the rudder in a specific way, it is most definitely possible to sail without wind.
Kids from Breakthrough Miami and CARE Elementary joined in with our regular group today for a sail across the bay. Just like in the morning we sailed one long port tack to the West Point of Key Biscayne. Indifference to the morning, we anchored up and had some in-the-water fun! The weather was threatening all along. After a quick weather check with the office, we lifted anchor and reached back to port while being chased by a big black cloud. There was no lightning, but we needed to get back quickly.
For the first time since its inception in 2000, nominations for the Magnus Liljedahl Sportsmanship Award were submitted electronically. Anyone can nominate a sailor for sportsmanship-like behavior. Parents/guardians, race committee, judges, and fellow competitors may nominate a competitor from any of the sailing classes, Traditionally, nominations were submitted on a piece of paper which oftentimes were challenging to interpret. The online process is a lot more streamlined and it makes perfect sense in these Covid times.
Yes, today was the final Siebel Sailors Program day of 2021! Kids from Breakthrough Miami joined our weekly-attending youth sailors, with most of these Breakthrough kids returning to us on a near-weekly basis. It’s encouraging to see how their young lives are impacted by learning to sail on any given weekend. Biscayne Bay has so much to offer!
Today we had kids from the Camillus House come for their final sail of 2021. It was nice to also welcome kids from Breakthrough Miami who had parents/guardians bring them to us. Some of them are actually returning on a near-weekly basis and it is encouraging to see how their young lives is impacted by a real change in what’s available for them to do on any given weekend.
Biscayne Bay,, Wednesday, December 8th, 2021. Today was the final episode of the year for the US Sailing Center - City of Miami Parks Department Sailing. It was a make-up session for Coral Gate Park Two, their 2nd visit for the year. This program will be greatly missed until October when it starts back up again.
Nice to have our regular Veterans Sailing Program back up and running again! Nine Veterans, two Veteran’s family members, and three fantastic volunteers participated. One of the volunteers is a ret. Coastguard Captain and also our senior sailing instructor. Do you know who that is? Anyway, he was busy giving the final on-the-water test for the sailing instructor certification course. The student is one of our local Veterans!
The week of November 16, 2021, was not just another week that just blew by for Team Paradise. While it did "blow-by" both figuratively and actual, it also put exclamation points behind our programming. It was a week when all the training and diligent work produced results, a week when preparations met the opportunity. It was a significant success for us!
Wednesday, November 17, 2021. This time we had 7-kids from Curtis Park visiting the US Sailing Center to go sailing. The program is offered by the US Sailing Center and we commonly refer to it as “City Sailing”. Team Paradise facilitates the sailing portion of the program. It is a lot of fun and kids love it!
The bus carrying the children arrived at the Sailing Center at 3.49 PM. The sails were being hoisted as the kids approached the docks. We had four awesome youth sailors show up to command the two RS Feva sailboats. Basically, we had the skippers and the crews! I’m glad we did because it was a windy afternoon with a median velocity of about 15 kts, gusting up to 25 kts, from ENE.
Out of the seven kids, there were 4 boys (3 siblings and a cousin). The youngest one was only five-years-old. The 3 girls were a bit older ranging from 10-14 years of age. It was a disappointment to see that none of the kids were dressed properly to go sailing. Nevertheless, they were excited to head out on the bay for a sail.
Yours truly was driving the coach-boat, taking pictures and cheering them on. We intended to reach the Sister Banks, but the boys were shivering by now and we had to cut the sail short and head back to shore. Boats were tied up at about 5.10 PM.
Thank you US Sailing Center for trusting in us to carry out your program!
Check out the video and the pictures below. Let’s go sailing again, soon!
Wednesday, November 10, 2021. Another 10-kids from Peacock Park arrived at the Sailing Center at 3.55 PM. This was the first City Sail with the clock dial back one-hour. Boats were ready to go. We had three awesome youth sailors show up to lead the way on the water. I didn’t think we would be able to reach the Sister Banks (a.k.a. Viscaya Sandbar), but we did. Some of the kids took the opportunity to go for a swim.
It rained north and south of us, but we were rather lucky to avoid it all. We sailed back and docked the boats at 5.30 PM sharp. I was pleasantly surprised by how far we sailed and the amount of fun we had in such a short time.
Thank you everyone for participating!
There was another beautiful late afternoon on Biscayne Bay on October 20th, 2021. This time we had kids from Coral Gate Park visiting. Two RS Venture sailboats and a coach boat were launched, rigged, and ready to sail. We had three coaches lined up and ready to serve as the kids arrived. I must admit that we were a bit disappointed when only four kids plus a counselor showed up! Especially, since we can handle 12-14 kids, and considering the existing huge need for an after-school sailing program for the children of Miami, it’s a head-scratcher! We take out kids on a regular basis and there are always a few who really love it (sailing/swimming) and want to return for more fun and play on the Bay.
