Junior Summer Week 3 Recap
We have officially reached the halfway point of our camp this summer! This past week, July 15th-July 19th, marked the third week of the Junior Summer Program. The Marine Education team explored our third Ocean Principal: Weather and Climate Change - the ocean is a major influence on weather and climate. Youth Sailors used the wind to their advantage and had some great days on the water!
Marine Explorers
Bay Buccaneers
The Bay Buccaneers learned about inclement weather and different weather systems! They made their hurricanes in a bottle and built houses to see if they’d withstand an earthquake! Later in the week, they learned about the water cycle and created cloud art!
Bay Buccaneers with their instructor Jenna
First Mates
First Mates learned about volcanoes and proceeded to make their own. They learned about sea slugs, the weather, played bingo, and created clouds/slime and windmills. All First Mates were super creative and enjoyed their time on and off the water
First Mates holding up their names written with the Nautical Alphabet
Sound Swashbucklers
Sound Swash learned about seahorses, dredged one up on the Ida May, and made some out of origami. They paddled on the Mothership and jumped off. They learned about natural disasters and created skyscrapers out of toothpicks that had to survive the earthquake shake table!
A Sound Swashbucklers camper teaching his peers about hurricanes
Skippers
The Skippers had a great time learning about our oceans and the different ways they support our lives and the lives of all other creatures on Earth, as well as how we can protect them. They met some of the other creatures the ocean supports and made sure to spend some extra time near the water.
Skippers learning about sponges and the effect of humans on the ocean
Catch of the Week!
When dredging off the IDA MAY, the educators pulled up a seahorse!
Skippers went fishing off the dock and caught two fluke!
Youth Sailing
Lil’ Puffs
This week the Lil’ Puffs went out on a great adventure. To get to know each other, the Lil’ Puffs played name games, park ranger, and red light green light. After heading down to the docks, and rigging up the sonars, they would set sail into the bay. While sailing, the kids learned the parts of the boat and the instructors answered any sailing questions. The kids took turns sailing and once back at the dock, would help derig the boat.
Lil’ Puffs Group heading out on a Sonar
Opti Beginners
The Beginner Optis learned how to steer and control the boat, understand all the points of sail, and reinforced these skills through triangle mark rounding and windward-leeward mark rounding drills. They also learned how to properly stay out of irons (the no-go zone). All of the kids greatly improved, and along with their sailing they also had lots of fun playing tennis ball tag and swimming in the bay.
Opti Beginners out on the water!
Opti Race Team
Our Opti Team this week practiced upwind and downwind sailing. The kids learned and put to use their tell tails while following the leader. They finished off the week by playing 21 and racing.
Opti Race sailor
C420 Intermediate
With an experienced group these intermediate sailors got to improve some of their racing skills. They practiced their boat handling by learning how to heal the boat to help steer, as well as roll tacking to improve speed through their tacks. They completed practice starts and races, while learning how to analyze their surrounding. Understanding the wind is the key to sailing and they spent quite a lot of time learning about how the wind affects their sails.
C420 Intermediates out on the water
Adventure Sailing
Our Adventure Sailing group gained more confidence with our Hobies this week. They were able to rig the sailboat using team effort and with an instructor helping them along. The kids pushed the boat into the water themselves and worked together to make sure everyone got on safely!
Adventure Sailing on our Hobie
Opti Intermediate
The Intermediate Optis joined the Opti Race Team and had an excellent week. They began most days with a quick card game and then they went out onto the water to refine our sailing skills. The kids learned how to effectively sail their boats on all the points of sail and had a fun time doing it!
Opti Intermediate Group
C420 Beginner
This week, the 420 beginner class was introduced to the basic sailing concepts of steering with a tiller, tacking, jibing, and points of sail. The class quickly mastered these concepts and moved on to more advanced concepts such as upwind sailing. The students participated in drills such as tack on the whistle and the figure eight drill. They ended the week with a fun session of racing that required them to apply the skills they learned earlier in the week.
C420 Beginners rigging their boat
C420 Race Team
This week, instructor Robbie hopped into the sailboat with the racers! We worked on rabbit starts and wind sprints. Rabbit starts is when one boat ducks the other boat, and they tack a way to line up your boat to be very fast while racing. The Race Team also learned different spinnaker techniques and are progressing on boat speed rapidly!
The C420 Race Team with their instructor Robbie
