Outside can be fun

This morning I dressed in bathers, shorts, a polyester shirt, old sneakers without socks, and a support string around my sunglasses*. Obviously I was getting ready for my first sailing lesson.

Despite my long-held beliefs about the dangers of going outside to have fun (which were only proven last Wednesday when I fell off my skateboard and I'm getting way too old/fat to do that), I agreed with my housemate that maybe a five week course in the art of yachting would be a great way to spend some time.

So a bunch of clothes to get wet in, a giant smeer of sunscreen and one bucket-hat later I found myself sitting in the Elwood Sailing Club listening to a charisma void teach some basics about sailing.

Some things I didn't expect:

  1. They (the instructors) called the front of the boat "the front".
  2. Similarly the back was called "the back".
  3. There was no emphasis on what sort of knot to use when.
  4. They felt it important to tell us that ropes weren't called "ropes" but instead needed to be referred to as "sheets" and "halliards".
  5. They still refused to use the words "bow", "stern", "port", and "starboard" which I had spent the previous day cramming into my head.
  6. It's really easy to capsize a boat and almost as easy to get it back up again.
  7. I had a lot of fun and am looking forward to next week.

But don't tell anybody about this last bit or my reputation as a hater of outside will forever be ruined.
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*When the sunglasses hang on the string below your neck and you're wearing a polyester sports-type shirt with a collar, it really makes you look like you know something about sailing.