My Watermark is about Frenchman's Bay in Maine. The reason my family goes to Maine each summer is to visit my grandparents on my mother’s side of our family. Winter Harbor is the name of the town where my grandparents house is. Winter Harbor has a small sailing program that all of my siblings and I have gone through.

The day that I truly started to enjoy sailing happened the year when I was twelve. In fact it was my first day of sailing that year. In Winter Harbor, the wind picks up in the afternoon. Since it had been foggy that morning I didn’t go. But by the afternoon it had cleared up so I went out and did my capsize test. After that, things started to get fun.

I was put in a two-person boat known as a 420. A 420 is greatly affected by weight placement and I was much heavier than my partner. A 420 is also a very fast, agile boat that turns very quickly and heels a lot. It began to get very windy at around one o’clock. The gusts were up to about 27 knots which is around 31 mph or 50 kph.

As we began to head further out the harbor, we gybed but in a weird way. I accidentally let go of the tiller which controls where the boat goes. Since boats enjoy heading into the wind we began to turn very, VERY quickly. With the boat at 90 degrees and about to capsize I leapt completely to the other side of the boat while grabbing the tiller. I then pushed it to the side of the sail to change the direction of the boat.

It was scary at the time, but made me realize how powerful and interesting the waters in that area are. After righting it I began to truly enjoy sailing. I am Ira and this is my watermark.