Jibs

When I was young (and we will not discuss just how long ago this was), our sailboat had two jibs.  For you non-sailors, the jib is the sail in front of the mainsail.

The main jib was called a "working jib".  I still believe it was yet another nautical term that my Dad had made up. Then there was the genoa, a much larger jib to give the boat some power in light winds.

Off we would go, in light winds with the genoa. Some miles out to sea, the wind often picked up - a lot. The boat would be greatly stressed with such a large jib in heavy winds, so the Skipper's command would be issued: change the jibs.

Are you for real? Heavy winds, heavy seas and I was expected to crawl up on the bow, bouncing about, lower one sail (attached by about a million clips to the "stay", yet another made-up term), toss it below, grab the aforementioned "working" jib, attach its own million clips, raise it and return to the safety of the cockpit.

We did this a lot. Turns out, it builds skills and character.

The Skipper knew what he was doing.