AshoreSchool.com Presents: A Teachable Moment
We all have experiences in life, and sailing is no exception. Ashoreschool.com is fortunate to share the experience of Suzanne Giesemann, an author and avid sailor. Suzanne is a U.S. Coast Guard licensed Captain and a former Navy Commander who has served as a Commanding Officer and was the aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon on 9/11. She served as a Boat of the Year judge for Cruising World magazine and now writes a monthly column for Blue Water Sailing magazine entitled "Giesemann Onboard." Author of a number of books including It's Your Boat Too and Living A Dream: A Journey from Aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9/11 to Full-Time Cruiser, Cmdr. Giesemann's books are informative, clearly written and highly recommended reading.
This 'Teachable Moment' is from: It's Your Boat Too: A Woman's Guide to Greater Enjoyment on the Water
We all have experiences in life, and sailing is no exception. Ashoreschool.com is fortunate to share the experience of Suzanne Giesemann, an author and avid sailor. Suzanne is a U.S. Coast Guard licensed Captain and a former Navy Commander who has served as a Commanding Officer and was the aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon on 9/11. She served as a Boat of the Year judge for Cruising World magazine and now writes a monthly column for Blue Water Sailing magazine entitled "Giesemann Onboard." Author of a number of books including It's Your Boat Too and Living A Dream: A Journey from Aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9/11 to Full-Time Cruiser, Cmdr. Giesemann's books are informative, clearly written and highly recommended reading.
This 'Teachable Moment' is from: It's Your Boat Too: A Woman's Guide to Greater Enjoyment on the Water
ALWAYS KEEP A WEATHER EYE
I'd only been married one week when I learned how quickly weather can change for the worse. I was assigned to supervise a crew of midshipmen on one of the U.S. Naval Academy's 44-foot sloops. We were sailing from Annapolis, Maryland to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and back. We'd gone less than twenty miles on the 2,000-mile voyage when a sudden squall snuck up behind us, grabbed our boom, and slammed it from one side of the boat to the other with frightening force. It was a classic unintentional jibe.
The preventer, a block and tackle device designed to keep the boom from doing exactly what it had just done, blew apart in the strong wind, sending bits of hardware flying in all directions. The force of the boom's slamming across the boat was so strong that the ropes from the preventer fused together around the lifelines and bent one of the boat's stanchions over 45 degrees.
I instructed the midshipman at the helm to steer the boat into the wind, thus relieving the pressure on the mainsail and boom. We straightened out the mess and jury-rigged a new preventer. Not twenty minutes after the potentially life-threatening incident, we were back on track under the same blue skies as we'd started out in. The squall had passed, and everything was back to normal.
Everything, that is, except me. All I wanted to do was go home and curl up next to my new husband. Instead, I had to press on, shaking and shaken, having learned just how powerful Mother Nature can be.
Thoughts on avoiding the situation
That squall scared the devil out of me, but it taught me a very important lesson that boaters can either learn the hard way, as I did, or read about in a book. I'm going to save you the trauma and let you learn the lesson here. It's quite simple: always keep a weather eye.
That squall didn't just sneak up on us. It blew in on the same winds that had been giving us a great sail until that moment. If we'd turned around and kept watch on the sky, we would have seen the telltale wall of black clouds in time to shorten our sails or take them down altogether.
Forecasts are important, but they can be wrong. The sky, however, doesn't lie. "Keeping a weather eye" means that you constantly have your body's internal radar on, scanning the horizon to watch for anything that foretells a change in the condi tions. You pay particular attention to the area upwind. In other words, if the wind is out of the north, watch the sky to the north of you. If the wind is from the east, watch the eastern sky, and so forth. Like a cowboy in a black hat, bad weather rides in on the wind; it doesn't usually go against it.
Thoughts on dealing with the situation better
Knowing what I do now, it's hard to believe that none of us on that 44-footer saw the squall coming. In their defense, the midshipmen were there to learn, and I obviously hadn't learned the lesson yet. None of us noticed the black clouds, or the ripples on the water that foretell approaching wind. Learn from my lesson: watch the sky and the wave tops for changes. No matter what kind of weather is forecast, what you see is what you're going to get. Don't rely on someone else aboard your boat to watch the weather. It's your boat too.
I'd only been married one week when I learned how quickly weather can change for the worse. I was assigned to supervise a crew of midshipmen on one of the U.S. Naval Academy's 44-foot sloops. We were sailing from Annapolis, Maryland to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and back. We'd gone less than twenty miles on the 2,000-mile voyage when a sudden squall snuck up behind us, grabbed our boom, and slammed it from one side of the boat to the other with frightening force. It was a classic unintentional jibe.
The preventer, a block and tackle device designed to keep the boom from doing exactly what it had just done, blew apart in the strong wind, sending bits of hardware flying in all directions. The force of the boom's slamming across the boat was so strong that the ropes from the preventer fused together around the lifelines and bent one of the boat's stanchions over 45 degrees.
I instructed the midshipman at the helm to steer the boat into the wind, thus relieving the pressure on the mainsail and boom. We straightened out the mess and jury-rigged a new preventer. Not twenty minutes after the potentially life-threatening incident, we were back on track under the same blue skies as we'd started out in. The squall had passed, and everything was back to normal.
Everything, that is, except me. All I wanted to do was go home and curl up next to my new husband. Instead, I had to press on, shaking and shaken, having learned just how powerful Mother Nature can be.
Thoughts on avoiding the situation
That squall scared the devil out of me, but it taught me a very important lesson that boaters can either learn the hard way, as I did, or read about in a book. I'm going to save you the trauma and let you learn the lesson here. It's quite simple: always keep a weather eye.
That squall didn't just sneak up on us. It blew in on the same winds that had been giving us a great sail until that moment. If we'd turned around and kept watch on the sky, we would have seen the telltale wall of black clouds in time to shorten our sails or take them down altogether.
Forecasts are important, but they can be wrong. The sky, however, doesn't lie. "Keeping a weather eye" means that you constantly have your body's internal radar on, scanning the horizon to watch for anything that foretells a change in the condi tions. You pay particular attention to the area upwind. In other words, if the wind is out of the north, watch the sky to the north of you. If the wind is from the east, watch the eastern sky, and so forth. Like a cowboy in a black hat, bad weather rides in on the wind; it doesn't usually go against it.
Thoughts on dealing with the situation better
Knowing what I do now, it's hard to believe that none of us on that 44-footer saw the squall coming. In their defense, the midshipmen were there to learn, and I obviously hadn't learned the lesson yet. None of us noticed the black clouds, or the ripples on the water that foretell approaching wind. Learn from my lesson: watch the sky and the wave tops for changes. No matter what kind of weather is forecast, what you see is what you're going to get. Don't rely on someone else aboard your boat to watch the weather. It's your boat too.
LEARN: Free interactive sailing lessons will take you from an absolute beginner to a confident sailing student who can communicate well with your instructor and classmates.
READ: The electronic version of
L&A's Seafaring, Latitude 38, Carolina Currents,48 Degrees North, Points East, Great Lakes Scuttbutt, Southwinds, Caribbean Compass, Spinsheet, and Ocean Navigator.
DEFINE: Understand the definitions of common nautical words and phrases
CHECK: Five ready-to-use Day Sail checklists that
can be viewed for FREE on your iPhone or any
other Web - Enabled - Device
EXPERIENCE is a great teacher, and this is a
excellent place to start. In this section we bring you the experiences of thousands of miles of sailing, without leaving your seat.
CHART: 1018 NOAA charts over Google Maps, with US Coast Guard Navigation Aids and NOAA Chart 1
Symbols. Makes it the perfect tool for students exploring any US coastline
WATCH: Expanded section includes dozens of excellent videos involving sailing training,
knot tying, racing, bloopers, and fun commentary presented in High Definition.
UNDERSTAND: Our Points of Sail lesson clearly illustrates not only the Point of Sail and the Mainsail position, it also includes the tack, the wind angle,
and the masthead wind direction.
PLAN: Where do you go once you have learned
sail? These great websites will help
you plan you future behind the helm.
PREDICT: These excellent weather related resources were collected and contributed by Bill Biewenga.
All the resources you need to keep an eye
on the weather
SEE: Increase your comfort level and confidence
with sailboat images identifying key areas of a sailboat.
SAY: We welcome your comments and ideas. If something needs to be
clarified, or you think it's great,
just drop us a note and tell us...
MAIN: Return to Port