A Homeric hands-on lesson

Estancia High freshmen set sail in Newport Harbor to better understand “The Odyssey.”NEWPORT BEACH -- In Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey,” the hero Odysseus faces off against a Cyclops, a giant whirlpool and a roomful of suitors eager for his wife. His toughest enemy, though, is the wind -- which blows his sails the wrong way, stops completely at times, and otherwise frustrates his 20-year quest to return home.

When four Estancia High School ninth-graders set sail in Newport Harbor on Sunday, they also came up against a windless afternoon. But they had something Homer’s heroes did not -- adjustable sails and a motor.

The students set sail,” so to speak, with their English teacher, Jane Hartley, to better understand Homer’s epic. By the end of the day, they also learned how much sailing has changed in the last two thousand years.

“Back in the day, they would get lost,” said Maria Gomez, 14, as she steered the cruiser, Blacksilver, around the harbor.

The two-hour voyage, which eventually met with a cooperative breeze, was the capper for Hartley’s lesson on the ancient Greek tale. Over the last few weeks, she invited her students to sign up for a day on the water so they could see how such Homeric terms as “bow,” “stern” and “step the mast” worked in real life.

Fifteen students signed up for the trip, but, perhaps because of the Super Bowl, only four showed.

Still, the handful of crew members -- Maria, Jose Castrejon, Claudia Mena and Sandra Alvarez, all 14 -- said they learned quite a bit from the experience, which was provided by the Bob Koll Sailing Foundation.

“When you put the sails up, it looks so easy, but it’s hard,” Jose said.

Hartley, who is in her second year teaching at Estancia, founded the Koll Foundation in 2003 to teach underprivileged children and other youths boating techniques. She had taken her English students on the water before, but Sunday’s voyage was the first geared to specific subject matter.

“It’s hard for kids to understand ‘The Odyssey,’” Hartley said. “It’s challenging material for a ninth-grader and yet it’s a California state standard. Part of what’s challenging is the vocabulary, and a lot of that is sailing vocabulary that they don’t get.

“For instance, why can’t Odysseus get home? Well, because the gods are against him, but also because he’s got a square-rigged sail and you can only sail downwind on a sail like that.”

All of the students, except Maria, had been aboard boats before, in the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade and elsewhere. Sandra, who took the wheel for part of the trip, said her only experience with navigation had been occasionally driving her mother’s car around the neighborhood.

Accompanying Hartley and the students were several volunteers from the Koll Foundation, including skipper Tim Martin. The night before, Martin had lent the boat to a group of Newport Harbor High School students who took it out on the water as part of their Winter Formal dance. The scuffs from their black dress shoes still lined the white deck.

“We take out cancer patients, disabled people -- you name it,” Martin said. “But 60% to 70% of our service is youth.”

Hartley said she might schedule another boat trip for later in the school year, due to Sunday’s low turnout. The voyage was a rare blessing for some of her students, many of whom are low-income English-learners, she said.

“These are kids for whom Newport Beach seems like another world,” Hartley said. “It’s 10 minutes from Estancia, but it’s across the great divide for a lot of these kids -- to go out on a boat and see these expensive homes. They see themselves as people who could work in those homes rather than live in them.”20060206iu8wmvncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Estancia High School students (l-r) Claudia Mena and Sandra Alvarez steer a boat under the watchful eye of skipper Tim Martin. The students were part of teacher Jane Hartley’s English class which took four ninth-graders on a sailing expedition to gain a more complete understanding of Homer’s “The Odyssey.” 20060206iu8wndncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Estancia English teacher Jane Hartley explains some nautical maps to ninth-graders (l-r) Jose Castrejon, Maria Gomez, Sandra Alvarez, and Claudia Mena. They were on a sailing expedition to better understand Homer’s “The Odyssey,” which they read as part of a class assignment.