Hi all, it was just over a year ago that I began
posting here and asking rookie questions about
learning to sail and my long sailing term plans. Since then I have done most of the recommendations offered here (short of “buy a boat”). I joined the local
racing club and raced this season on a J24 doing most roles (a
boat I also was able to
skipper with my wife on weekends), I completed the
ASA series up to 104 and then transitioned to RYA, where I completed both the Day and Coastal
Skipper theory and practical courses. This had me sailing in a wide variety of boats for several weeks in Michigan,
Florida and
Antigua.
This year of
learning culminated this December when I chartered a FP Helia 44 cat in the BVIs. It was not only my first time chartering anywhere, but also the first time when I was the only "skipper" on the
boat (aside for the J24) and the most experienced one. I ran the boat with the help of my wife, who had completed
ASA up to 103 and sailed with me on the J24. All in all it went extremely well aside for a couple of silly (and some embarrassing
mistakes - see below).
We documented the entire trip on our blog bluebuddhaadventures.com
This link takes to the day-to-day account of the trip.
A few highlights include
- The mystery clogged
head due to a missing
holding tank (
Day 2)
- The time we
lost steering (
Day 3)
- The time I almost hit a reef with the
dinghy (
Day 5)
- The time the “if you think you need to reef its too late” slogan became reality (
Day 7)
- The time I refused to turn on the engines I made the crew endure 5 hours of 30+ tacks against the
current and
wind (
Day 8)
- And the time I docked the cat at a ridiculously narrow spot (like a boss!;
Day 9)
I hope some of the newbies and old salts enjoy these reports.
2016 will be even better. We are charting a
Bavaria 45 in
Grenada in March, a L400 in BVIs in May, and a L450 in the
BVI in December. I will also be
racing the entire reason in the
Great Lakes and hope to do the Tortola to
Bermuda passage on a ARC-USA boat, which will be my first real ocean
passage experience!
Thank you all for the support during this amazing first year of sailing.
Here is the video of my doing the tricky parking job. The fun starts at 2:10.