We are sailors now

The past week we have been in Santa Barbara learning to sail, in preparation of returning to our boat in a few months and doing just that. Even though I felt confident in my knowledge of the mechanics of a sailboat before the week, Kerri did not share my confidence (either in my ability or her own). The sailing lessons would also [mostly] appease our insurance company in our abilities enough to cover our vessel when we go sailing on our own. Being covered by the policy was paramount to Kerri (I’m much more the risk taker).

The first half of the week we were in the 101 course. Just the two of us and our instructor, which was nice considering the “starter boat” was pretty small. Even though we spent the weeks leading up to the class reading the books provided by the American Sailing Association we were unprepared for our first day on the water – no really. The first day turned out to be foul weather and heavier seas then any beginner would hope for but we decided to go out on the water anyway. The angle of heel in those heavier winds caught us both off guard. We were both certain the boat was in the process of flipping over but our instructor said otherwise. In the end I suppose he was right since we never did end up flipping over. The following couple days were made that much easier because of the initial day, and by the third day we were out on the water by ourselves and feeling much more confident.

That isn’t to say we didn’t make mistakes – boy did we make some mistakes, including four (four!!!) occasions of tangling our own lines (or kelp) in the outboard motor’s propeller. Four times doesn’t sound so bad over the week right? Ah, but let me tell you that three of the four came back to back – only seconds apart – and while trying to raise the main sail in the marina… right in front of everyone (ugh). You’d think we learn after the first or second, or third? No. The the fourth time was only another 30 minutes later. At least we did learn after that one… we hope. Even though we made the mistakes we were quickly able to diagnose and resolve the problem (repeatedly) on our own, further building our confidence in the end.

By the fourth day we had graduated our Sailing 101 and moved on to Sailing 103 (102 does not exist) and to the larger 32 foot boat. We were very much looking forward to sailing something closer to our own sized boat (ours is 35 feet). The large boat immediately felt better to us. Not only did it have a wheel instead of a tiller (something Kerri found particularly difficult as the controls are reversed using a tiller) but the extra weight of a 32 foot boat meant that things happen at a slower pace; it didn’t heel over as far and it didn’t rotate as quickly. With that said, we found that agility of the larger boat to be astounding – they can rotate in it’s own footprint using the right techniques. We actually spent half of one day just spinning donuts in the marina waters. You should have seen the looks from the locals as I raised my hat to the air and I screamed out, “Yee-haw!” with a 32 foot sailboat spinning in place.

A couple days spent learning how to maneuver the larger boat meant all the difference, and by the end of the six days of lessons we were pretty comfortable piloting her. We spent our last day on the water in the 32 foot boat all on our own – without the instructor or extra classmate. Again, we made our fair share of mistakes out there, but not only did we recognize they were mistakes, we know what we need to do to resolve them for the future. In the end we both passed the Sailing 103 course and feel extremely confident that we can bring our own boat out to sail – safely – when we return to it. We won’t be perfect at it right away but we can do it, and refine our skills over time. Personally I’m looking forward to spinning some donuts in our own boat… next time, topless.