Chips Ahoy

Sailing is wild. 
Mine and I started our second leg of the ASA 101/103 course this last weekend. 

We went from a 25' boat (Time Capsule) to a 35' Beneteau cruiser called Yoda which was a big learning experience. That being said, the real difference between our 101 weekend and 103 was the wind. 

Yoda

When we were on Time Capsule, the wind was max 5 knots with no gusts. 
When we stepped up to Yoda the winds were averaging around 12-14 knots with gust of up to 23 knots.

What we learnt first hand was that the variation between average wind speed and gusts should not be that excessive if you're learning. It was insane. I like to think that I can keep a cool head but being tossed around on a large boat when you're surrounded by other boats and you have a limited idea of what you're doing... well it was intense. I was glad to take the steps we did to make things less crazy. 

pre-pucker sailing

I'll for sure say that sailing is an amazing thing to get into for me. I can romanticize it hard and reflect on the things it teaches me about myself etc etc but it's also practically really interesting and engaging. There's just so much to learn. It's an activity that spans thousands of years and over that time there have been countless new things to learn and tweak. It's one of those things that you can figure out the basics of fairly quickly but can spend the rest of your life honing. 

So I have a memory of what we learnt this weekend; 

Charting a course, basic navigation. 
Sailing in heavy weather
Reefing the sails
Counter steering in swell
Tacking and jibing in stronger winds with bigger boat
Heaving-To
Motoring a boat of that size. 
How to understand the weather and what to watch out for. 

We're done with ASA103 next week but, on the guidance of our sailing instructor Fran, I joined a yacht club that provides access to boats to members. There's a bit of a process as far as getting checked out on a boat and there are levels and tiers that you need to move up through to gain access to more boats but the opportunities are there. It's a not-for-profit club without a club house and with affordable prices, the reason for that is that it's a volunteer powered club. ie: membership is low cost but you pay in time spent helping out on volunteer work days and the like. I love that as I'll get to meet plenty of interesting people and learn from old timers first hand on how to maintain and repair boats. 

One of the most important and most valuable things to me about this whole thing is that Mine and I have finally found something we both enjoy a lot and we are both equal in terms of experience. In fact she probably has more knowledge of boats having spent more time on them in Turkey. 

Really happy that we dived into this world, excited to make sailing a part of our lives.