June 11th, 1894 — Ladies' Sailing Lessons, Sanditon

"I've assigned you partners for today," Alfred announced as the group of young women coalesced into a critical mass on the beach. He typically didn't; the sailboats at the Sanditon were light enough that they could be sailed by one person with the right skills, so putting a pair in them — any pair — was generally fine. They were hard to tip by virtue of their design, and it was difficult to run them aground by virtue of the beach's design, so the only danger one could really be in was causing a collision or in simply falling off the side — both of which did happen with some regularity during sailing lessons and which were typically not disastrous. Last week, though, Alfred had encountered a young woman who might very well take the title of Worst Sailing Attempt Of All Time, which was what had inspired him to craft the pairings for today. If he didn't pair her up with someone more experienced and skilled, this very well might be the first year someone drowned during a sailing lesson. Or maybe she would catch the dock on fire. The possibilities were endless, really.

"The boats are ready to go. I expect everyone remembers what we learned last week about getting them underway, but if you need a refresher let me know. The skill we're focusing on today is tacking. It means to turn your boat in towards the wind so that the sail fills and propels you forward. You'll be expecting your boats to move in a zigzag line, like this," he said, using a small bit of wandless magic to draw the a lone crooked line in the sand. "As once the sail fills you'll start turning back. Why do we think it might be important to do this, rather than just staying straight on with the wind behind you?"

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Open to multiple debutantes. Two days/two posts - feel free to tag Alfred or @ me on Discord if you want Alfred to respond to something sooner

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

It had appealed to Alcyones sense of adventure to partake in these sailing lessons. She had taken them before, here at the Sanditon. It appeared the instructor was the same man as well. She remembered him as being kind and being very good at teaching. Alcyone had not seen an issue in getting a refresher course before the summer began. She smiled at Miss [Name], whom she had been paired up with as Mister Darrow issued his instructions.

  

After a year of being stuck at Pendergast Ani was desperate to get out into the social world again. She helped less with her father and now spent as much of her time out and being seen. She could not afford to have another misstep of any time, and she desperately did not wish to have one that she hadn't even been at fault for. So here she was.

She smiled in return at Miss Slughorn who she recognized as a student a few years behind her. Hadn't she just seen that the young lady had debuted only a few weeks ago?

While she hadn't taken lessons before she was eager for the new knowledge and at the prompted question proposed the answer to Mister Darrow, "To control the speed of the boat?""

  

It wasn't the first time Jessamine had sailing lessons, but it had been awhile since then and so these lessons would serve well as refresher courses, and, she wasn't opposed to assisting her fellow ladies if they needed more help on figuring out how to do things properly; normally she wasn't so altruistic, but there was something about the ocean breeze that put her in a good mood and who didn't like to show off a little? She glanced over at the other ladies, Miss Slughorn the most familiar as she had just graduated with her, and while her and her partner were answering Mr. Darrow's question, she turned to look over at her own partner, “Have you done much sailing before this? Or is this your first time?”

  

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Quite frankly, Daesyn felt very uncomfortable, if she was walking about town she would be caught in men's trousers and a waistcoat, everybody knew that of her. But not today, not at Sanditon, say in a boat, surrounded by water she wore a modest, but still very feminine, day dress. "If I have to go in I'm going to look like a jellyfish with all these layers" she joked to herself as she checked some of the sail lines with her back to her sailing partner. She turned and sat on the bench and adjusted the neck line of her dress that had become crooked.

She looked at Jessamine Parkinson with a smile, she vaguely remembered her from school but they had been in different houses and a few of years apart so never had the chance to properly aquaint. She had heard her name mentioned a few times by friends of hers in the latest batch of graduates, but Daesyn wasnt in to all that gossip and tattle tale. "I have, dad is in the Blackwatch and I travel a lot for work. Never a boat as well polished as this one though. You?" she grinned and raised her eyebrows, the Sanditon stock was much more well maintained she was used to.

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"Not a bad guess, Miss Pomfrey," Alfred said. Technically any changing of the sail could be used to control speed, though in most cases tacking was used to go faster, not slower.

"If you're relying on the wind alone, then you're stuck going the direction of the wind," he explained. He drew another line in the sand to illustrate, starting at the same point as the zigzag line but then continuing on an unbroken diagonal until it ended up several feet to the right. "Which is fine for casual leisure sailing, but if you want to get somewhere specific — coming back to dock, maybe, or if you're running a racing course," he glanced up at the crowd with a significant raise of this eyebrow, as if to say so pay attention, "Then this is the fastest way to do it."

He gestured the young women to follow him down the dock and climbed into one of the boats to demonstrate the technique. That completed, he announced, "Anyone with questions can stay back and ask; the rest of you can get underway, one pair at a time. The goal will be to tack your way around each of these four orange buoys."

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The following 2 users Like J. Alfred Darrow's post:2 users Like J. Alfred Darrow's post
   Daesyn Mackenzie, Jessamine Parkinson

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Miss Pomfrey had made a valiant attempt at an answer. She watched the man as he continued his instruction before following him down to the dock. "You ready, Miss Pomfrey?" She asked jovially as Miss Pomfrey, glad she had not been left with someone terrible for a partner. She got onto the boat and held her hand out to help her fellow debutante onto it.

  

Darrow offered the ladies a chance to tarry before entering the course, Daesyn saw no reason that she and the girl opposite should not proceed so off they went. Daesyn might have begged to get our of this dress before having to begin her sailing, but it was fairly low intensity, a light breeze and a small predetermined course around some bouys. The other woman seemed to not be entirely novice either so they would quite easily find their sea legs and as the sail snapped full of wind the boat accelerated out into the open water. The wind was on their side for the moment so they didn't need to tack right away, there was always the temptation of course to skip tacking altogether and use magic, but this was a sailing lesson, not a conjuration lesson. As boat continued to pick up speed and Dae felt the wind on her face, she smiled.

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-J. Alfred Darrow Alcyone Slughorn Jessamine Parkinson Ani Pomfrey-

  

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"Indeed." Ani agreed, taking Miss Slughorn's hand and stepping into the boat. It rocked under her, not uncomfortably so, and took her a moment to steady herself. "Have you done this before?" In theory it didn't seem too difficult but Ani suspected it would be harder than it looked and she had no desire to look a fool as she figured it out.

  

As Miss Pomfrey got into the boat, she settled herself on her side of it so that it would stay balanced. "I took lessons here last year and have since sailed a couple of times in Padmore but nothing extensive." There had not been many chances to utilize what she had learned last year but it had been fun. Hence the repeat lessons. Besides, her previous lessons had been ones designed for children and not young women.