When we arrived back home from Key West on Sunday night Karen was dog tired from all the revelry at the wedding in Colorado Springs and was very much looking forward to a long lie in the next morning. Just as we are going to bed Karen is given a book called “Basic Keel Boat Sailing”. Karen looks somewhat confused by this – Mark explains this is an early birthday present and in fact we will be taking sailing lessons for the next three days. No lie in – we have to report for duty at 9:00am the next morning.
We arrived at the dock promptly at 8:30am – Karen ,thinking we’d be sailing on a dinghy, was most surprised to find
that what we’d actually be learning on was 34ft Catalina. Our skipper for the 3 day course was Bruce – a wonderful man who probably was not quite sure where he was letting himself in for. We were soon out on the water learning the basics of sailing and getting used to all the nautical terms like halyard, main sheet and transom. The best thing about this course was that all four of us were learning so we all got turns handling the sails and steering the yacht.End of day one we were all exhausted, especially from having
spent so long winding in winches and letting out the sails. We had a wonderful time and the conditions for sailing were wonderful.Day two and the adults were particularly stiff from the previous day’s exertions. The wind had really picked up and we had to reef the sails in
even so we spent most of the day listing at 30 degree angle to the water. It was tremendous fun and it was amazing how fast the boat was silently ploughing through the white horses – the only noise to be heard was chattering children and the occasional flapping of the sails in the wind. We also chanced upon the occasional sea turtle as we silently crept up on them.Day three was similar to day 2 except we learnt a few new skills including how to drop the anchor and also we did some man-over-board rescues (the water was cold – relatively for the Gulf of Mexico) so we used a cushion rather than throw Jack and Emily into the water.
At the end of the day we took our exam and all passed – so beware when you see a sail boat coming towards you- it may be the Hobbs!!!
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