fandomhigh | Maritime Safety, [Monday, Period Three]

Bond had *handwavily* informed his class to meet him at the docks, where he waited for them to arrive by a motorboat.

"Good morning," he greeted when they'd all arrived. "This is Maritime Safety, so if that's not the class you signed up for, you're in the wrong place. For those of you who haven't taken one of my classes before, I'm Professor Bond, and your TAs for this class are Kyle and Rose, I trust them implicitly and so should you." High praise that.

"The purpose of this class to teach you all something about how to handle yourself out on the open water," Bond explained. "But today we'll just be starting off with introductions and some basics of safety and boat handling. I want each of you to tell me and the rest of the class your names, if you can swim, what you already know about open water sailing, and something interesting about yourself. You start."

After the class had finished, he picked up a bright yellow and red vest, and continued. "Two things you should know. One, this is a personal floatation device, also known as a life jacket," he said, demonstrating the proper technique for donning one. "If you fall into the water, it will keep you afloat long enough for us to fish you out. We won't necessarily be using them every class, but we will today. Please put them on before we get in the boat."

He kept talking as they dressed in the vests. "Two, since you'll all actually get a chance to pilot the boat today, left is port, right is starboard." He held up the relevant hand for each. "The front or fore of a ship is the bow, and the rear or aft of one is the stern.Remember that, as I will be using that terminology. Now if you're all in your vests, into the boat."

[ooc: ~~wait for~~ ocd up!]

[Class Roster|Class Rules]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Bond took the boat out from the island (but not too far), then handed the tiller over to each of the students in turn.

He kept control of the throttle though.

"Well," Hiccup said as he eyed the very unfamilar controls. "At least it doesn't have a mast."

But it did have the thing at the back making the boat go, which was fascinating, and he craned his head around to stare at it, trying to work out what it was, how it worked, and if he could take it apart.

Which, what with the not looking where he was going and the leaning, wasn't doing much for his ability to actually steer the boat.

"Turning port might be an idea, Hiccup," Bond remarked.

"What? Oh, right, port!" He whipped his head around, facing forward, and steered as directed. "How does it work?" He took one hand off the tiller to wave at the back of the boat. "I mean, what makes it go? And so fast?"

And Bond might be getting an inkling of exactly how Stoick the Vast's boat had ended up minus a mast.

He was indeed.

Luckily, Bond had known sailors like him before. "It's a bit complicated to explain right now," he said. "There's a junkyard in town, I believe the man running it might be able to explain it to your liking."

Which, given Hiccup's long experience of 'getting distracted by things he wasn't supposed to be paying attention to' often with a side order of 'disastrous results', he parsed into, 'Pay attention. Now.', but he filed the information away.

"I'll go and see him as soon as I can," he said, and made himself focus, steering carefully and paying attention, despite the distracting sound of the-- No, he was paying attention. "Is this okay?" When he concentrated, he was actually quite capable.

Bond nodded. "It's quite good for your first time in this kind of boat."

Hiccup smiled, still not entirely used to praise handed out so readily. "I guess a boat's a boat when you come right down to it," he said, gesturing expansively...

...and knocking the boat hard to starboard. He winced. "Sorry about that," he said sheepishly.

"Just keep trying, Hiccup, just keep trying."

"Left goes left, right goes right?" Kyle asked, feeling uncomfortable being so out in the open.

Bond nodded. "I'll let you know beforehand if we use anything with a different system."

Kyle nodded and guided the boat to the left and then to the right with a steady hand. "This is pretty easy."

This was the hard part, as Robin needed to stand on something in order to not have to reach over his head. As it was he wrapped both tiny arms around the tiller to move it.

Oh, sure. Hand the overexcited, hapless teenager the reins. Tiller. Whatever.

Ariel got a grin on her face that might have been accompanied with a manacle chuckle, and she got ready to really explore how this baby could move. Port! Then starboard! Port again! Starboard!

She was on a boat!

....a motorboat. With not exactly the smoothest, quickly handling features. But for Ariel? It was insane and she thought she was doing quite well, all things considered.

Maritime Safety, [Monday, Period Three]

Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]

Re: Pilot the Boat! - MS [01]