Sailing at Courageous!

Memories from the sailing center.

As we come closer and closer to the end of August, some program sites are beginning to close. For instance, Courageous Sailing Center's programming ended this Friday. A few of the Save the Harbor staff came to Charleston, and they invited us to sail with some of the kids. This is something I have never done before. For starters, it was not just your average, relaxing sailing trip. We were in a massive race with over 30 boats, and small winds. My team had three youngsters, one expert, and myself, a newcomer to sailing. They gave me one starting tip, watch out for my head. You really had to pay close attention or else you'd get hit in the head really hard. Also, some boats began to capsize, and people liked to do that for fun so they can dip into the water. Though I wanted to get wet, we took the time to prepare for the race.

I'm going to miss these kids!

I learned some things in the race. I learned what irons were, tacking, and switching jets. I was mainly switching jets as we sailed because it is very easy to do. I talked to them about marine life, and taught them about invasive species. The kids knew about this however because they've taken science classes at Courageous. They made me the student and taught me how to steer the boat. I stopped because I crashed into another boat, but it is nothing new apparently, they said it happened all the time. I am going to miss the kids at Courageous, and the studies, but it was a very fun time learning how to sail, and actually going sailing for the first time!

Talk to you later!

Qalid Hassan :) 

Can I see some I.D.

Our first week at Pier's Park in East Boston was a blast! Between sailing, kayaking, fishing, and trapping we did it all, even in the rain! I think it is pretty amazing that even though this week was short it provided every child and staff member to do something they have never done before (myself included)! Some of us have never fished, caught a sea creature, kayaked or even been on a boat. I never thought I would commute to work by boat, but I did this week! Among all of the accomplishments that were made we caught many sea creatures. We put these creatures into touch tanks on the pier so that our campers could experience them in a smaller habitat up close. They were able to handle things such as common spider crabs, mussels, and tunicates. Fortunately, we could identify all but one.

Dee and Imani's descriptions

Kamal's description 

We caught a small fish about 4-5 inches long, it was banded, and was two different shades of brown. From the pictures I took it appears to have one long/connected dorsal fin and two pectoral fins. My team wrote and sketched descriptions of the fish in an attempt to gather information and begin our research. After thoroughly searching Massachusetts' fish and looking at many species my hypothesis for this fish's species is a Cunner. A Cunner is also referred to as a Sea Perch and is a close relative of the Tautog. Cunners can be found on the Atlantic Ocean coast from Newfoundland to New Jersey. The color of a Cunner can vary depending where it lives, those living in deep waters can be as red as a rosefish while those living in a muddy rocky shoreline have more of a deep sepia, brown, or rusty color. They are most likely to camouflage with the bottom of the ocean floor in which they are living. I hope you enjoy learning about the Cunner as much as I have!


Until next time!

Briana

                             

Actual picture of our catch

Another picture to show the pattern on our fish

Ray's description and sketch