HS Macau Sailing

MONDAY: Learning the basics!

Today students spent the morning learning to set-up the various rigs that they will be using over the week. Then they learnt how to use some of the equipment on the beach before heading out onto the water after lunch. The weather was perfect, with enough wind to fill their sails and warm temperatures all day long. Tomorrow the students will be learning some geology and the origins of Hac Sa beach's black sand. 

TUESDAY Rocks!

Today the students hit the water nice and early in the morning; Stand-up paddle boarding, sailing on a catamaran and wind surfing. After a morning full of fun on the water, students learnt some geology foundations, learning how to use geology equipment and how to determine the compositions of rocks and sand. Tomorrow they will be continuing their learning journey by hiking up the mountain at Hac Sa beach and learning more about land formations.

WEDNESDAY: Hiking in Hac Sa

Today the students started the morning with a hike in Hac Sa, looking at the rock formations and exploring the landscape with a geology expert. They used tools like a geology compass to check the joints in the rock formations in the mountains and coast of Hac Sa. After lunch, the students took to the water again, trying a different activity from the carousel of sailing activities planned by the club. Luckily, the rain was not too harsh and there was a good, strong breeze, perfect for sailing. 

THURSDAY: 

We were blessed with good weather today! After three days of practice, our students got to select which activity they'd like to do today. They all chose to paddle board and our students worked out their arms as they were challenged to paddle board races out into the ocean. A few students were committed to developing the skill of paddle boarding while standing up, where one found it efficient but slow as he didn't quite win any races. They also learned how to tie rope and for the science experiment today, they analyzed the pH and salinity of water in different areas along the beach. They were surprised to find that ocean water was more basic than expected and they were also surprised to find that the ocean was not as salty as they thought, at 3.5% percent compared to their 20% prediction.  

FRIDAY:

We started the morning off upbeat and excited to perform a special PH water experiment that continued our exploration of water testing that began yesterday. Although we had collected some samples yesterday, including some samples from home, we started the morning by collecting even more samples from the beach, rivers, taps, and bottled sources. A short pleasant walk around the beach by the seaside as we took the time to scoop up our water samples. After we had all our samples collected, including through the use of a contraption that sunk into the bottom of the deep sea, we returned to doing the experiment. Using 2 titration set-ups consisting of stunning chemistry equipment that had everyone wowing! -notably with a reported worth of 10,000 dollars!- we were ready to start. Through every trial, we took turns dropping small increments of hydrochloric acid into our magnetically stirred samples producing a graph that displayed that acid-base property of our samples! We all learned so much more about the hidden yet important chemical property of the water all around us and perhaps also more appreciation of the steps taken to process the water we use. Unfortunately a black monsoon warning cut our plans for a sailing afternoon. But not to be denied a fitting ending to our experience week, we headed back to school for some board game fun!

(Thank you to our students on Experience Week for writing today's daily brief!)