Let's go Sailing⛵!!

There is a cloak of mystery that surrounds sailing. You might be on a picturesque beach and you see a sailboat off in the distance and you notice how the wind gently moves a schooner across the water. It makes you wonder...

🎶 I am sailing.. 'Cross the sea I am sailing stormy waters to be near you.. To be free... ▶ Rod Stewart

How to sail a boat?

Sailing a boat is part art and part skill but few activities offer such a variety of pleasures as sailing. Something special occurs when you cast off the lines and leave your cares at the dock.
While technology dictates so much of our lives these days, sailing is still fundamentally the same as it always has been. You, the sailor, relying on your feel and mother nature helping you along with wind and water. Sailing a boat is easier than you think.

And what is actually happening...

The sail creates a low pressure zone in front of the sail and a high pressure zone behind the sail. The boat moves into the low pressure zone and is sucked forward. ... Below the level of the water on the boat, the sailboat's shape helps force the boat to go straight forward as opposed to in the direction of the wind..

The language of sailors

Sailing is like an art and as we're talking about it, it's good to give a little introduction of the specific terms they use.

Port: Facing forward, this is anything to the left of the boat.
Starboard: Facing forward, this is anything to the right of the boat.
Helm: Where you steer the boat.
Keel: The keel is a long, heavy fin on the bottom of the boat that sticks down into the water. It provides stability and is the reason why modern sailboats are nearly impossible to capsize.
Tack: This term has two distinct meanings, both of them very important. As a verb, to tack is to change direction by turning the bow of the boat through the wind. As a noun, your tack is the course you are on relative to the wind. For example, if the wind is blowing over the port side, you are on a port tack. If it’s blowing over the starboard side, you’re on a…you guessed it…starboard tack.
Jibe: jibe is another way of changing direction, in which you bring the stern of the boat through the wind. Whether you choose to tack or jibe entirely depends on the situation–what’s around you, and the direction of the wind.
Windward: The side of the boat closest to the wind. When heeling over, this will always be the high side.
Leeward: The side of the boat furthest from the wind. When heeling over, this will always be the low side.
Lines: On board a boat, this is what you say instead of “ropes.”
Mainsail: The big triangular sail just aft of the sailboat’s mast. As the name suggests, this is the boat’s largest and most important sail. Running along its bottom edge, the mainsail has a thick pole called the boom.
Jib: The next most common sail on any boat. The jib can always be found forward of the mast, and unlike the mainsail, does not have a boom.