preview

Personal Narrative: Camp Lake Hubert

Good Essays
Open Document

Three summers ago I arrived at the sunny shores of Camp Lake Hubert. It was my seventh summer and I was going for the highest award in sailing. Nervous to meet the new sailing director who I would be working closely with over the next eight weeks. I started the long walk with my friends down to the sailing dock. We did not go sailing on the first day. We stayed on shore and went over parts of the boat and played get to know you games. Once the activity was over I went over to her to introduce myself and talk about my award. Her name was Steffyy she was 5”2’ and from Liverpool England. During free swim, we talked about what my award was going to entail and got to know each other. As the session went on I was completing requirements at a quick …show more content…

As we are approaching the shoreline about to beach I try with everything I had to get the boat to tack, and she does. We were now heading back out into the lake, the wind is still increasing now 27 knots gusts of 33. We five 13-year-old girls were trying to hold down a 1,000-pound sailboat with two sails. We know in the back of our heads that capsizing could be in our near future. We ask the safety boat if we can head back to camp knowing that the wind is only going to increase and we cannot hold Sting down much longer. We get the ok from the safety boat and start heading toward our buoy. All five of us are hiking out as hard as we can, both the jib and the mainsails are all the way out to reduce speed and power. We get 50 feet away from our buoy and hit a massive puff, we try so hard to keep the boat from capsizing, but the five of us strictly don't have enough weight. I yell out to my crew that we are capsizing. We get out from underneath the boat and are all in shock. We swim around to the hull and sit on the bilge boards. All of us are freezing cold, the waves were splashing us and the brisk cold air was hitting our faces. All of us are scared and crying. There are several other boats who are capsized or having …show more content…

I continued to apologize and for capsizing, but she continued to tell me that it happens to the best of sailors. And that I did not need to be sorry. She showed me that I can learn from the events of the day and how I could benefit from it, I did not have to be scared or worry about getting in trouble, and that it was part of sailing. After that day, I was a little apprehensive about pushing myself in sailing however Steffyy worked with me closely to make sure I continued to improve. The next time I capsized I was excited that I had pushed myself to the limit. By the end of the first four-week session, I had completed all my requirement and all I had left to was take a written test. I had been studying all session for it but was still nervous after I handed it in. I was going to find out that night at the awards banquet if I got my award. I sat anxiously waiting for Steffyy to start giving out awards. When she was called up all these nervous thoughts started going through my head how I was not good enough and there was no way I passed the test Finally she got to my award she starting talking about I worked really hard and overcame lots of challenges. When she called my name it was so surreal I could not believe that I had just gotten my

Get Access