In the beginning of June, a day after we finally put the boat into the sea and parked it at the harbour, we sailed with “Olympia” the organization´s sailing yacht to the close island Oinousses. It was the first sailing trip this year and furthermore for some of us the first sailing experience ever.
In this first experience the volunteers already have the opportunity to take active part, learn how to steer the boat and how to make a maneuver like tagging, as well as how to leave and enter a harbour.
After the ropes have been set in place on both ends of one side of the ship and the balloons, which protect the ship from being damaged by the concrete or crashing with other ships, are hung up on the same side, the ropes are thrown and tied to the habour.
In order to sail with the power of the wind, you also have to tag, which means that the sail has to be fixed from one side to the other. For this one person has to loose the fixed rope and another has to pull the rope of the other side. At the same time the passengers, who sit on the opposite side of where the sail is fixed, have to change place and the captain has to keep course according to the wind. It´s very important that all of this happens in compliance of each other!
We also eventually take a break to cool down from the heat by swimming in the blue Aegean Sea.
In the next sailing excursions the volunteers can gain further sailing skills, might visit other islands or caves close to Chios or even take part in sailing race.
