{"id":2791,"date":"2021-11-29T15:43:25","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T23:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/?p=2791"},"modified":"2021-11-29T15:43:28","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T23:43:28","slug":"a-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/general\/a-words\/","title":{"rendered":"A-Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We sailors like our \u201cA-\u201d words. They sound salty. The prefix comes from Greek and means \u201con,\u201d \u201cat,\u201d \u201cor in the state of.\u201d I\u2019m going to assume you know ahoy <\/em>and ahead <\/em>and astern <\/em>and a-lee <\/em>and aboard<\/em> and abeam <\/em>and ashore <\/em>and aground, <\/em>but we can list a whole sailbag full of other ones:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A-weather<\/em>: Towards the wind, just as a-lee<\/em> means away from the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A-hull<\/em>: Sometimes in a storm we may douse all sail and lash the helm to leeward. This is called lying a-hull<\/em>. Similar to \u201cunder bare poles.\u201d It\u2019s a very clever storm tactic when your brains are too bashed in to think of anything else, but what\u2019s even more clever is not to be in that storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A-try<\/em>: Similar to \u00ada-hull<\/em> or hove-to<\/em>. The objective is to get the boat, by whatever sail configuration achieves it, to lie with her bow about six points (67.5 degrees) off the wind so she doesn\u2019t wallow in the trough and capsize. That would wreck your day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Athwart\/athwartships<\/em>: Across the boat, perpendicular to the centerline. \u201cThe traveler runs athwartships.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A-peak<\/em>: When the bow is directly above the anchor, the anchor is a-peak.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A-trip<\/em>: When the anchor breaks free, it is said to be a-trip.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aweigh<\/em>: When the anchor is a-trip<\/em> and no longer on the bottom, it is aweigh <\/em>(not \u201caway\u201d<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aloft<\/em>: Up the mast. Yes, but did you know that alow<\/em> means down on deck? That\u2019s where you drop your wrench. Of course, below<\/em> means belowdecks, but that\u2019s not an A-word, is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adrift<\/em>: This means floating without steerage, guided just by wind and tide. Also, anything aboard is said to have gone adrift<\/em> if it has come loose and is preparing to clobber you in the head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Royalty<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Abroad<\/em>: Spread, as in \u201cShe had all plain sail abroad.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abaft<\/em>: Behind. This is a preposition, a relative term used with a reference point as the object of the preposition, as in \u201cabaft the beam.\u201d <\/em>Its opposite, less commonly heard, is afore<\/em>; before <\/em>is more common.<\/em> Aft <\/em>is an adjective or adverb, as in the aft cabin <\/em>or aft starboard scupper<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awash<\/em>: An object almost submerged is awash.<\/em> The deck, for example, or a rock or shoal that can just be seen above the water level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avast<\/em>: This is an order meaning to stop some nautical procedure, as in \u201cavast hauling!\u201d<\/em>or \u201cavast the Metallica!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aback<\/em>: A sail is aback<\/em> when the wrong side is filled. This occurs when you tack accidentally, which of course would never happen. It can also be done purposefully, as in heaving-to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A<\/em>-choo: There is no evidence that this had its origin in seamanship, but no evidence to the contrary, either. Let\u2019s claim it before the golfers or fishermen do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A-main<\/em>: All of a sudden. \u201cThe squall hit us a-main.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A-hoo<\/em>: I don\u2019t know where I got this but I didn\u2019t make it up. It\u2019s obscure, but distressingly often, I find it useful. It means \u201cmessy,\u201d \u201cdisorganized,\u201d or \u201call screwed up.\u201d \u201cAfter the gale passed, the deck gear was all ahoo.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aloof<\/em>: Yes, this has a nautical origin. In sailing, it originally meant keeping your luff as close to the wind as possible\u2014a-luff<\/em>\u2014and in particular, was used when failing to point high enough would put you on a lee shore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We sailors like our \u201cA-\u201d words. They sound salty. The prefix comes from Greek and means \u201con,\u201d \u201cat,\u201d \u201cor in the state of.\u201d I\u2019m going to assume you know ahoy and ahead and astern and a-lee and aboard and abeam … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2791"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2923,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2791\/revisions\/2923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}