I think I will go to the sailing lesson…
I think I will go to the sailing lesson!
It took me three times out on our 30 foot Newport with Bill to feel comfortable taking her out as the captain. It will take a life time to learn the art and finer points of sailing. There will always be room for improvement but sometimes it is best to go with good enough!
My first sailing lesson was less than a disaster and quite humbling. There was a morning lecture about the Venturi effect (a boat sails up wind by creating a suction on the front of the sail), tacking (turning left and right going up wind), and jibing (turning left and right going down wind). I remember math being involved. Then we got on the lesson boat and went over the names of the ropes on the lesson boat. This was a different boat from my Newport. Double Trouble was the only sailboat I had ever been on and on which I had been all of four times now. I guess pull the “red rope” or “let out the yellow one” wasn’t going to work today! By the way, there is no rope called “rope” on a sailboat, an interesting fact I think. They are lines: halyards, sheets, furlers, painters each name describing the “job” of each rope. Actually very useful but at this point it was all Greek to me!
Enough talking already, let’s go sailing! We four students climbed on the boat and got settled in while our instructor held us to the dock. Once we said we were good to go we all expected our instructor to step on. Instead, he pushed us off and there we went! Yup! Just we students were aboard. Immediately I was looked up to as being an “expert” having actually sailed by myself twice now. OK, I know how to do this, I reassured myself. Confidence! Woohoo! We caught the wind, took turns with the tiller, and the rope pulling, and then the wind died. No wind, not even a whisper of wind remained. We were far from the dock. I hadn’t really thought that through. Maybe we should have stayed circling in the bay. Likely what our instructor had expected too. No problem, start the motor and drop the sail…..it would not start. This was an outboard motor, I had an inboard motor. Put it in neutral, pull the choke, turn the key, push in the choke, we got motor. Not the case on the lesson boat. We must have looked quite defeated as we literally paddled our sailboat back into the slip on the dock. Still, it was a great day and great learning. I was looking forward to more!
Bill and I sailed and learned together the rest of that season and for two more on Double Trouble. We used the actual sailing terminology and official names of the boat parts when communicating. We became proficient at docking and anchoring. Both of us took turns at the helm and as line and anchor handler. We spent nights anchored out and sailed to different islands and bays around Flathead Lake. We experienced all kinds of weather from sunny with no wind to crazy storms. During this time, we slowly developed our plan of how to become blue water live aboard sailors. We felt we needed to experience different waters (west coast tides and currents, the east coast channels, the island’s coral reefs etc.) so it wouldn’t be a “first” at every turn. We also wanted to try different boats to understand what to look for when we went to buy our next boat. We found out about chartering! Chartering is renting a sailboat somewhere in the world, living on it for a week, and sailing!!! Did I mention ANYWHERE in the whole world? Wow! In order to do that without an instructor/captain, it requires a certificate through the American Sailing Association. We would need to become certified!
