Schooner Sailing First Mate

In the summer of 2021, I spent a few weeks over the course of the summer working as a first mate on an around 60 foot long schooner, operating the sails and occasionally steering as the captain and I led half day and full day trips. We led these trips out of Martha's Vineyard and Cuttyhunk, sometimes sailing over to Cape Cod for lunch.

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I had a little bit of sailing experience from my childhood on small sailing boats, like Sunfish and Lasers, so operating this boat, with three sails, gave me a much better understanding of sailing and the process of taking care of such a large boat, as our off days were spent doing maintenance like oiling the gunwales, the bowsprit, and the bumpkin. Additionally, since my previous sailing experience had been on lakes, operating this boat also gave me a much better understanding of nautical navigation and how to communicate with other boats on the water.