2017.05.31

Today is Wednesday.

The sailboat teacher was a teenager girl, who was older than Jason and a lot taller than Jason. Her name was Pearl. She was born on a sailboat.

After breakfast, Pearl, Amelia and Jason hopped on their bikes and headed to the marina where Pearl docked her boat. The boat was a beauty, built of real wood with shiny brass fittings. Pearl told them the boat had been a wreck when her parents had bought it for her. She managed to fix it up and then she kept it shipshape. If something is shipshape, it looks neat and in good condition. But Amelia wondered what other shape a ship would be. Pearl taught Jason how to hoist the sails. She asked them,"What if you need to go where the wind is blowing from?" Amelia and Jason shrugged. Pearl told them that they could turn toward the wind and adjust the sails to take advantage of it. Sails are simply giant vertical wings, like on an airplane. The force in front of the sail actually drags the boat forward through the water instead of pushing it from behind. Sailing back and forth against the wind is called tacking. If they do it right, they can actually go faster than the wind itself.

That was my question about the sailboat.