Post Lessons

So I returned last night, ASA certified to skipper up to 30' auxillary powered sail boats. The next step is a two-day bareboat course that certify up to 50' with inboard diesel engines. Hopefully I can take that in early September.

I learned a couple of things. First, I HAVE to get to the gym and build up some upper-body strength. Working on the deck to raise and lower the sails and dealing with the anchor kicked my ass. Second, while the basic skills for sailing a bigger boat are the same, things happen slower and take a lot more energy to do. There is also a lot more momentum to take into account when tacking and gybing so it took a little while to not over steer. Third, my ass is going to get seasick down below on rougher days. There are some pretty cool devices that apparently work very well to counter seasickness that I am going to start looking into. I will not let my old foe keep me from sailing. Forth, there aren't too many knots that you need to know but you do need to know them. I must practice.

My instructor was a up to 50 ton coast guard certified captain who was career Navy and spent most of his time on subs. He was great! I learned quite a bit from him and a lot of tricks.

All in all, it was a very good experience and I am anxious to charter this month sometime hopefully. Need to get some experience under by belt.