Yesterday was all about knots! We took a break from the shop and spent some time working on some other maritime skills.

The day started out with a “Knot Tying Frenzy!” in the classroom. We all tried to tie as many of the knots as we could from our checklist. We also noted if we could tie them really well or were just learning. It was a fun round of practice and teaching each other what we know.

Then we were off to visit Emiliano Marino at his shop The Artful Sailor.  Emiliano is a traditional sail maker and is well known for his book, The Sailmaker’s Apprentice. He set out to teach us the classic Turks Head knot. After alot of practice making our key, we set off to tie Turks Head bracelets or anklets onto each other. It was definitely a challenge and we all got to practice fixing our mistakes.

We ended the sunny but cold day by playing a game of Battle Bots out on the compass rose. We worked in teams to lead our blindfolded robot to find the soft ball and throw shoot it at our opponent. The tricky part is that we could only use made up commands- one group could only say marine animal names and another could only say the names of knots. It’s a hilarious way to work on team work and communication.

Overall, this was a day full of fun, challenge, and collaboration.