Never Have I Ever series

Setting sail on a new experience

Posted

Part three in a series.

The Herald continues its summer intern series, “Never Have I Ever,” this week with 20-year-old Taylor Zambrano taking a sailing lesson in Port Washington. Zambrano is a rising junior at Ithaca College.


“Ready to tack?” I asked the fledgling sailors on my boat, unsure whether I was even ready. This was my first time sailing, and I had to tack the boat, which is a basic maneuver to turn the bow, or the boat’s front, into the wind.

`I have never loved the ocean. I actually find it terrifying. The few boats that I have been on were large and motorized. Recently, however, I overcame my fear and went sailing on the Queen Liz, a 23-foot Sonar, a popular, high-performance sailboat designed for racing.

I had about a week to prepare mentally for the experience. After I arrived at the Port Sailing School in Port Washington on Aug. 2, I became less intimidated once I realized the team of instructors was friendly and would answer all my questions. I was scheduled to join a sailing group with two other students, Anthony DiMatteo and Jason Thomas, and my instructor, Eric Wolf.

Waiting for wind

The lesson was originally scheduled for 9:30 a.m., but because the boats require wind to move — and there was none at the time — we were unable to sail for about an hour. In the meantime, Wolf had us practice tying knots, so we wasted no time.

Around 10:30 a.m., it was time to hit the water. Unfortunately, the wind still didn’t want to cooperate, so we ended up waiting another half hour for it to kick in, and it started to heat up as the sun neared its peak. But Wolf continued to teach and work with everyone on the boat by reviewing sailing terms that I was unfamiliar with, such as leeward (downwind), port (left), jibing (turning the stern, or back of the boat, into the wind) and the aforementioned tacking. I had a lot to learn.

All hands on deck


Once the wind finally hit, it was all hands on deck, and I even got a chance to try tacking and jibing. “Ready to tack?” we’d ask our crewmates. “Ready,” they’d reply. And then we’d respond with an exuberant “tacking!” as we switched to the other side of the boat to spin it around.

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