Passage
On summer evenings a dozen small sailboats fan out across the city lake. They belong to a community sailing program that teaches beginners for a small fee. The old boathouse1 which had sat empty for years now buzzes with people rigging sails and tying knots. The program’s instructors, most of them longtime sailors, volunteer their evenings.
The lake is calm and shallow, a good place to learn. On a calm evening there are 2 less capsizes than on a windy one. The fleet of small boats 3 belong to the program. Each student learns to raise the sail, read the wind, and 4 steering a straight line.
The first lesson happens on the dock. An instructor divides the knots and the tasks 5 between the four beginners. The 6 students hands are clumsy at first with the stiff rope. By the end of the hour, most can tie a firm bowline. 7
By the second week the beginners are eager 8 for leaving the dock. The wind does most of the 9 work, the sailor only has to guide it. A light boat responds to the smallest shift of weight. The trick is to relax and let the breeze do its part.
Every student finds courage at a different pace. 10 Therefore, one girl who had clung to the shore all morning was steering for the middle by dusk. Most 11 have never held a tiller before they signed up. Gliding across the water, 12 the wind fills the sail and the boat leans.
By late summer the beginners race one another around the buoys. A trimmed sail 13 moves the light boat across the flat water. Parents watch from the dock, and the instructors call out tips from a motorboat. 14 What was once an empty boathouse has become the busiest corner of the lake. 15
