“I'm on the Boat...” or your guide to the Nautical Term Jungle

    You get invited to go out on the yacht, you put a lot of effort into looking fabulous and nailing your Nautical look. You make it down to the beautiful marina feeling pretty confident about yourself, and your host says something like: “Board on the Port side. The head is down below, pass the galley next to stateroom at the bow”. “Sounds good” you say, meanwhile thinking to yourself “what the heck did you just say?”

Even though non of us know why the Nautical world has chosen to separate itself from the rest of the world with all the fancy terms, but we all have to pay the price to enter it. Wouldn't you just love to learn some simple and useful terms so you can shine in front of your friends, partner or a cute date?

Here is your Nautical Term 101 lesson.

Port: the left side of a boat looking forward
Starboard: the right side of a boat when looking forward

These two terms are nearly impossible to just memorize, so I have a couple of great cheats for you.
1) There are FOUR letters in the words PORT and LEFT so you can easily remember that the left side of a ship is the port side.
2) And here is my favorite one. Stand on the deck looking forward, imagine the word POST written at the very tip of the nose of the boat facing you. Divide the word in the half PO - ST. PO (on the left) stands for PORT, ST (on the right) stands for STARBOARD. 

Galley: the kitchen area of a boat
Stateroom: a private compartment/ bedroom on a yacht, a captain's or superior officer's room on a ship
Cabin: small bedroom, usually for crew on the larger yachts
Head: a marine toilet, bathroom
Bow: the forward part of a boat
Stern: the after/back part of the boat
Aft: toward the stern/back of the boat
Flybridge: an open deck above the main bridge of a yacht or a cabin cruiser, typically equipped with duplicate controls
Cockpit: a cockpit on a sailboat is where your helm (steering wheel or tiller) is situated. This is a sunken well with seating, recessed into the main deck. A powerboat cockpit is usually an enclosure located aft (rear) part of the yacht used for lounging, dining or fishing.
Deck: a permanent covering over a compartment, hull or any part thereof
Dock: a protected water area in which vessels are moored. The term is often used to denote a pier or a wharf

Have fun showing off:-)
V