Our last class of the year happened to be on the craziest wildest wind storm we’ve seen around here in a while. Waves were crashing up in the commons at NWMC at a very high tide. It was a great opportunity for learning about wind observation and practicing our Beaufort Scale skills to estimate wind speed. From the visible signs observed from the pilothouse students estimated it was Force 10 winds (48-55 knots.) Wow! We were grateful that NWMC still had power and we could be inside having a holiday celebration and fun nautical skills relay.

The team did a fantastic job putting the skills they learned thus far to the test as they did a nautical challenge course set up in the Maritime Meeting rooms. First we did some stretching to get ourselves ready. Then the students were ready to demonstrate the following skills: putting on exposure suits, knot tying, cart backing, dock line throwing and gasket coiling. After this we had a tasty potluck of treats and shared our hopes and intentions for 2019. We also said thank you and farewell to Janet Lozano, our fearless OCEAN teacher who has been filling in for Daniel Molotsky who will be back with us in January. Janet has been such a wonderful presence and role model within our team. We will be back in action again January 10 when we are planning to haul out the Longboat Townshend and spend a few weeks maintaining her. Happy Holidays to all our followers!