Why haven't I been blogging more?

I logged into blogger today on a whim, and rediscovered my old sailing blog! I can't describe the satisfaction of reading my thoughts from last year when I first got my hands on tiller and sheet. My only regret is that I didn't stick to making journal entries. I'm not trying to write my own "... Before the Mast," but I do enjoy looking back and reminiscing on those prior experiences.

Since I didn't keep it up, here's a quick summary of my sailing career since the last post:

• Met Rachel - She's a great person and holds a mid-range membership at the club
• Many days spent on J/24's - due to the above bullet, I spent a great number of days sailing with Rachel on the J (or the Olson 25s.) So many great experiences that I can't possibly summarize here. Everything from lazy sailing to force 5 nail biters were seen during the balance of the open season. Next season I've got to test up into the Mid-Range class, but my real goal is to be a Cruising 30 member (with night privileges) by July 1.
• To get my experience built up, I decided to crew on a frostbite boat for the balance of the winter. Got a 1/2 share on Darren's crew, and spent every other weekend freezing my a$$ off in a J/24! Ok, so there were a few nice, unseasonably warm days, but I can also remember more than one nasty day out there too!

The 2010 season starts this upcoming Monday, May 3rd. My work schedule doesn't allow for any sailing on opening day, but I'm eyeing an afternoon slot on Tuesday and perhaps taking off all day Wednesday to get out there as captain again! I really enjoyed being crew and not having responsibility for the boat, but it's time to get back in the captain mindset and really work on my skills. I do plan on keeping the blog up-to-date this season, so if you like to read someone else's sailing ramblings, keep checking in.

Fair winds to all,

Michael

8/9: Rhonda meet the Soling

Wanting to keep the flow going on my seamanship skills, and to give Rhonda a first taste of life with the tiller we headed out Sunday morning to get assigned a self-tacking Soling for a daysail in beautiful conditions. The winds in the innner harbor were a nice consistent 5-10 out of the south, and Rhonda really learned what the term heeling means! She's just a bit over 5' and there is little room for error when the Soling really lifts up. A few times she found herself suddenly sitting on the cockpit floor! We made a nice loop out through the small boat channel and back. Shot the mooring on one try this time, and started feeling better about my boat handling skills.

Evening of 8/7: Rhonda's first sail

As a freshly minted skipper, the first thing I wanted to do is get my wife out on the boat. So as soon as I paid for my membership, I requested a boat. Since there were Sonars available, I decided we'd go for that. My classmates were assembling over at the Boston Sail Loft for some apres-sail, but I figured I could catch up with them after a little sail. After a short ride from the launch, we're aboard Scoundrel and I'm running her through the parts of the boat and how you rig the sails. As my foredeck person, I also teach her the ropes when it comes to handling the jib sheets. It doesn't take long, and we're under way plying through Boston Harbor. The only drama on this trip was when we came back to shoot the ball. My first mooring experience as skipper went as smoothly as most first-time skippers, which is to say it was a complete disaster! It took 5 tries to finally catch the ball and get her secured. In the aborted attempts I had many near-disasters: drifting back into the Boston Yacht Haven with it's multi-million dollar mega-yachts, coming into the mooring too hot, etc. I'm sure the staff posted up on the pier are having a laugh at my expense. On the fifth try we nail it, and I couldn't be happier. This first mooring experience totally shot my nerves. I need a drink. Boston Sail Loft here we come ...

8/7: BSC to George's Island

Today's sail was a full-day affair out to an island that sits 10nm from Boston. We assembled promptly @ 10AM, and soon after set out aboard a Sonar bound for our destination. We were blessed with a fresh NNW wind, and decided to fly the chute on our way out. About 2nm from the sailing center our vessel caught a wave at just the right time, and to our surprise the forestay popped right out of the mast! When it occured I thought we had lost our jib halyard, but a quick second look and I realized what had really happened - our mast's only support toward the bow was being provided by the full spinnaker! Here again, I'm glad an emergency situation such as this cropped up while the instructor was on board. He knew just what to do - rig a new forestay. This started by retrieving the jib out of the harbor, and attaching its halyard to the bow cleat. That makes for one temporary forestay. Just to improve our safety margins, after getting our first temp forestay in place we doused the spinnaker and used its halyard as a second temporary forestay. After about 20 minutes of sailing with just the main, a Mako from BSC showed up and started to tow our crippled vessel back in the harbor. It was a 15 minute ride to a J-24 that they had prepped and were bringing out to meet us. I was VERY excited at the chance to step up and get some time on the bigger sailboat. We pulled out the spinnaker on this boat, and put it in the air. The sail area difference between the J-24 and Sonar is amazing. I could run the sheets on a Sonar's chute all day. After 30 minutes on the J's chute, my arms were toast! Now I know why Popeye had huge arms, and I didn't have a damn thing to do with spinach!

With all the shenanigans on the way out to island, we were the last crew to land. If we'd been in a Sonar, it would've been a "hey, here's the island and now we turn for home!" On the J we walked around, enjoyed a fantastic picnic lunch on the west side of the island, and finally decided with 1.5 hours left before our return time that we should head for home. On the trip back, I got in a good amount of time at the helm, and I was amazed at the sensitivity of the J boats. A number of times I happened to start sightseeing, and before I knew the Genoa was moving over to the new side and I was accidentally tacking! Another note on the J-24, just because it's got wide beam doesn't mean it won't heel over. There were a number of times where the wind would counter-clock and knock us right over. I can remember two distinct times where the leeward rail was really buried in the sea. One of my fellow students on the boat accused me of trying to give him a heart attack. Another important lesson today: You are not ready for the midrange sailboats yet, padawan!

At 3:45 (15 minutes early!) we arrived back at the sailing center for graduation ceremonies. I received my learn-to-sail certification, and promptly started a daysailing membership. My first order of business was to get my wife on a boat. If you want to hear how that went, read the next post.

Learn to Sail: 8/3/09 - 8/7/09

Let me be completely honest here. Before my Learn to Sail course at Boston Sailing Center I had never even set foot on a sail-powered vessel. I would watch longingly from the harbor's edge as the boats would cut about the incessent traffic between my vantage point and Logan Airport. BSC's LtS is a great course. If you're thinking about doing it yourself, by all means please do! I chose to take the "vacation week" option which stacks all your training into 5 back-to-back days. Monday thru Thursday you do 2 hours each day of classroom training followed by 3 hours of on-water instruction. Friday is a full 6.5 hours of sailing to one of the islands in Boston's outer harbor. I found that like snowboarding, your sailing skills benefit the most from consecutive days on-water. On Monday I was a real donkey - I couldn't steer a true course, and the instructor had to manage all the sail trim. Tacking and Jibing (Gybing for the UK folks) were as foreign to me as reading or speaking Telegu. So many things to think about, and we're moving at less than 5mph!

Tuesday was a much better day on the water, but still I struggled. Tiller steering was still occupying far too many of my brain's available cycles, but the footwork and coordination for proper tacking and jibing was starting to come together. Like the geek I am, I came home and ran through the process a number of times to try to cement the steps in my head. I did start managing the tiller and mainsheet on this day of sailing, but I certainly have a very long way to come.

Wednesday had very high winds. Let me repeat that, Wednesday's winds averaged 15kts and were gusting regularly to 25! It was one of those day where you really tested how far a Soling will heel up. I really hoped that we'd get some experience in heavier conditions with an instructor onboard, and it was this day that my wish was fulfilled. I really learned alot this day. It seems that as the maxim states, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I'm no doubt a stronger sailor because of this experience!

Thursday was exciting for the greenhorns, as we had our final hours of classroom training. The biggest excitement for me was really feeling like I don't have to think through the tiller anymore, and I'm finally feel things being to slow down on the boat. I recognized my situational awareness is greatly enhanced by not having to think about every little thing. Maybe I will learn to sail in one week!

Friday deserves it's own post, so I'm going to do just that. Pick me up on the next entry to read about our nav-sail to George's Island. As a teaser, I'll let you know that we faced a rare, but critical failure on our boat.

Initial Post - Back logging my experiences

Hello all,

I'm putting this blog together to act as a more permananent recollection of all my experiences onboard sailing vessels. Call it a "sail log," and something I plan to use very similar to the way a pilot uses his flight log. The only difference here is that I will add far more details of the journeys than you would in a flight log.

-Michael