I remember thinking why didn’t they just use “boat left” or something, but then at the sailing coarse I took, I remember there was a boat heading toward us and

I remember thinking why didn’t they just use “boat left” or something, but then at the sailing coarse I took, I remember there was a boat heading toward us and I was skippering, had to communicate exactly how I wanted to pass the other ship - and saying “to port” was just soo simple and easy - a “to our boats left” would have been way too long and you had to communicate things quite quickly… That’s when it “clicked” how useful this shorthand really was.