When Aniyah first joined Sail Nauticus for the promise of a homework pass, she was just testing the waters. What began as a casual “yes” to an afterschool program became a journey of steering through tough questions until she could bring her whole self aboard.
https://nauticus.org/sail-nauticus/youth-programs/sail-nauticus-academy/
https://elizabethrivertrail.org/
https://www.nps.gov/locations/chesapeakebaywatershed/index.htm
https://virginiahumanities.org/
(Sounds of water lapping on a boat)
Aniyah: My name is Aniyah. Yeah, I went to Blair, all of middle school.
(Moody music underscores the following narration)
Nichole Hill: Between the “okays” (say as lull) and the “greats” (say with brief excitement)… sits a teenage girl with toilet-shaped earrings, honey-gold skin, and curls that don’t ask for permission. She’s part shrug, part spark, and all story. This? This is how her story begins..
(Sounds of a school bell and school hallway underscore the following)
Aniyah: Everyone had the opportunity to do Sail Nauticus, but I, I kind of got, not necessarily tricked into it, but my science teacher posted this boat poster on her door. And I would go to her class and she would be like, "Hey Aniyah, have you heard of this new program called Sail Nauticus? We need a certain amount of people to do it."
And I was like, "Okay, whatever."
And so I went about my day, next day when I had her class. She was like, "So are you gonna do it? I'll give you free homework pass."
(Bell chimes)
And she was like, "Okay, great. You'll do it." And she didn't tell me anything about it.
She was just like, "You sail, it's fun STEM, I guess." I was like, "Okay, sure. I'll sail." (laughs) That doesn't sound too hard. Right?
(School Bell)
Nichole Hill: A poster, persistence, and the promise of a homework pass steered Anyia into a four-year maritime science and sailing program that blends STEM, teamwork, and leadership for Norfolk’s youth, starting as early as fifth grade.
It sounds like smooth sailing, but getting on board isn’t always so simple.
Aniyah: I'm just doing my homework and my mom comes home, I'm like, “Hey mom, my teacher just introduced me to Sail Nauticus, can I do it?”
“What's that?”
And I'm like, "well we sail at Nauticus."
And she's like, "Okay. I guess? Whatever. Sure. You can do it. Does it cost money?"
"No."
"Okay. Then go ahead."
And so one day I come home with this permission slip and I'm like, it's, it's a big packet. It's like five pages, maybe. And she's like. "I gotta fill this out. No, you go do it. Tell me where my signature is needed." And so I go to my room and I fill it out.
And I remember I stumbled across, across this weird question, And so I read it and I was like, “Mom, why? Why did they ask this question? They, they asked my race. What's the point? What do I pick?"
Because I'm black, Hispanic, and like, partially Indian 'cause of my Dad. And so I was like, okay, what do I choose? I don't know what to do here.
Nichole Hill: Paperwork has a way of asking questions too big for small boxes. Sail Nauticus is intentional about removing barriers so that any Norfolk students can participate. But sometimes, that same intention lands like a pop quiz on identity. And for Aniyah, one question brought everything to a pause.
Aniyah: It tripped me up just because I was like, what's the, what's the importance of this question? We're sailing, why does it matter? And I thought it was really stupid, so, and she's like, "I don't know.
I don't know why they asked that, and I don't know why. Like, I remember it. I don't think I was ever asked that question, especially going to like, like public schools, like, Coleman Place and, Blair, there was a big Black and Hispanic population, so I was like, okay, this is normal.
It was very weird that I had to choose, 'cause I was like. I don't know how to separate that from who I am.
It was a select one. You couldn't like choose two or like put down exactly what it was. Just you have to choose. And I was like, oh, this is really weird.
So I was kind of like, so I didn't know, why are they asking me this? This is weird. It was the first time that I ever had to answer it, and it, it was so weird. I was, I sat there for like five minutes staring at it.
(Sound of a clock slowly ticking)
She was just like “Hispanic, I guess.”
I don't think we ever talked about it. And we went about our day.
Nichole Hill: Or so it seemed to Aniyah. Sometimes, saying yes to opportunity means quietly solving something few people understand or see. While Aniyah was stuck on questions like “What box do I check?” Her mom, like most working parents, was solving a different challenge: “How do I make this happen?”
Aniyah: So at one point, she was like, well, how are you gonna get home?
Because I always got home riding the HRT bus and I was like, well, they have transportation. Like they'll. take me to Nauticus and then they'll bring me right back home, drop, drop me off right outside the door. My mom worked out in Chesapeake, and she was like, "I can't come take you to that program and then bring you back home.
I have to work. You can't if, if that's how it's gonna be, you can't do it." And when I told her like There's a bus, she was like, "Amazing, and I don't have to pick you up and I can just go home."
(Sound of bus pulling away)
Even though I went to the same school as these kids, I only knew one of them because she went to my elementary school. And so I was like, okay, all these strangers, this is great. And we had like a little day of like what sailing is, looking at the boats. It was really boring. I did not wanna do it. And I was like, when are we gonna get on these boats?
We, we learned parts of the boat and like what they would do and how we would use them in sailing. And then they taught us like simple knots like cleat hitches, which tie the boat to the dock so it doesn't float away when we're done.
So we went through a lot of safety, classes, before we could finally get out on the boats.
(Sounds of indoor rec pool)
Nichole Hill: And not only safety classes, but also swim lessons, which she had…feelings about.
Aniyah: In seventh grade, they took us to the YMCA and it was mandatory that we learned how to swim, and I already knew how to swim and so did my friend Luella.
But if you came to the program, then you had to be in the pool--
And I remember I hated that for like two weeks because I had gotten my hair straightened. And my mom was like, "You better not get your hair wet."
So I was in the pool up to like my elbows because I was like, I can't get my hair wet. And I had a shower cap on and it was so boring and I hated it.
And I was so happy when we finally got back out on the water like a month later.
(Sound of getting a boat rigged, and the water)
Aniyah: We had to get on life jackets, and the instructor was like, "Okay, so this is what you do and this is what you do."
Nichole Hill: MMMMMhm. Got it. Sounds simple. But how long did it take?
Aniyah: And it took me a good three years to figure out how to rig a boat completely. And. So we finally start sailing. It's great, and well, it's mostly great. I thought it was almost kind of boring because we, since there were like four of us on a boat, not including the instructor, we kind of just sat there.
'Cause there's only three jobs to do. One of my closest friends was Aaron and we used to sail together all the time with like, we had a specific crew, we had a specific boat and everything.
It was wonderful. And it was, it was a lot of fun. I mean, it was hot sometimes, though.
Nichole Hill: At first, sailing felt like standing still, with too many kids, too few jobs, and way too much sun. But then, a crew forms. Familiar faces, inside jokes. A rhythm. And somewhere between “this is boring” and “this is mine,” Aniyah finds her groove.
Aniyah: I kept coming back every week and it was basically the same until I learned how to skipper...
(Sound of a sail boat moving through the water)
So I, since I never really, like in the beginning, I never really enjoyed it. Aaron was like, okay, well then you're gonna steer the boat. That's basically what skippering is. You drive the boat, you, you're basically like the captain on these little boats. And I, I think, I love that because I love telling people what to do. (laughs)
And so I got on the tiller, which is, it's basically the wheel of the boat, but it's a stick. And she taught me the basics.
She is like, If you want to go here, or like just simple things.
She would be like, "Okay, if you point the tiller to the sail, the big sail, the main sail, then you would tack and the sail would go to the opposite side of the boat. But if you hold it away from the sail, the main sail, then that's called a jibe and you'll go in a different direction."
I dunno how to explain that. You just, you just kinda go. And sometimes we would use motors too. I loved using motors 'cause we could go so fast.
Nichole Hill: It takes some magic… and maybe a little madness… to keep a girl with a love of speed, and no patience for boredom coming back to the dock week after week, especially when the crew includes a rotating cast of preteens, middle school moods, and just enough sunburn risk to make someone swear off outdoor learning forever.
But Sail Nauticus pulled it off.
(Triumphant music underscores the following)
And one of my favorite things on that boat was I made this really good friend who I still talk to, her name's Luella.
And she was so afraid of the boat capsizing, which it couldn't do, it had a keel under it, which like, it's so heavy. It's like a few tons, I think. But she would be like, "Okay please keep the boat flat."
And I was like, "I'm not gonna do that." So I would go really fast and I would make sure that we'd have a good heel, which is like one side of the boat is lower to the water than the other side, which tends to be the lower side of the boat, which is the same side that the sail is on.
I think that was my favorite thing. I think that's what made me start loving it. Plus, I really liked water.
Nichole Hill: With hours on the water, lessons in the classroom, and a whole lot of trust in the chaos, every kid earns more than just their sea legs… they have the opportunity to earn a small craft license before their drivers license.
And for Aniyah, the moment she leaned into the wind, tipped that boat just enough to make her friend scream, and realized, “Wait. I love this?” That was the spark. That was the start.
From there, she didn’t just sail. She soared.
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This series was written by Jackie Glass and Hannah Sobol, edited and hosted by me, Nichole Hill, Sound Design by Trendel Lightburn, and our work has been supported by the Elizabeth River Trail Foundation through a National Park Service Chesapeake Gateways Grant. Follow our work by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. We couldn’t do this without people brave enough to share their experiences, so thank you Aniyah, and the team at Sail Nauticus!