Echo 2018 Adventures Day 6: Leadership Roles Onboad

written by Echo student, Adrian Debrah
June 3, 2018

Our day started off med-anchored at Little Harbour on Peter Island, where rays and turtles graced us with their presence frequently. As our day progressed, we attempted our first up-anchoring of the program and it went smoothly with our student skipper-of-the-day at the helm.

After motoring out o the harbor, Captain Arter put us through a rigorous tacking and jibing routine where we all got familiar with what each position required, each student rotating through all the roles. Communication was essential on this drill for a multitude of things could have gone wrong from the jib being caught in the spreaders to the mainsail not being perfectly trimmed. With some new sailing instructions in mind, our skipper lead us through these drills with Arter in support and we all worked together to get our sails down and the boat ready to dock.

The whole crew did a great job of getting the boat safely secured in our slip with our team spotting and announcing any and all potential hazards during our approach.

After a debrief of the days’ sailing activities, we were given time to study up on our ASA 103 books before Arter tought a lesson over the material which included sail trim, docking, safety, weather helm/lee helm, and many more topics. It was obvious throughout the day the crew was starting to take more control over Moselle and truly getting to know the ropes (lines) and understand how the vessel worked and operated.

Overall, it was a great day with a lot of people stepping up and taking more of a leadership role onboard, with sailing and house-keeping. All in all, it was a very productive day where we all learned from our mistakes and became better sailors.