I am a
newbie to sailing so be kind please. Yesterday I went for a solo excursion for a few hours. I was pleased that I had a decent 10-15 kt
wind mostly broad reach for the outbound trip. After a couple of hours out my morning coffee was ready to escape and I wanted to go below to relieve myself but the waves had picked up but I found a good
weather course and lashed the
wheel to do my business. Shortly after going below the nose went off the set course and I was soon bashing about in the
head along with all the other items in the
cabin that were not properly stowed.
All this commotion made me realize I better learn to heave to if I am to solo sail this
boat. Now I was never able to successfully heave to my
Columbia 26 which I felt might be partly due to the short deep
keel, and of course my lack of skill. My
current HR 35 has a long shallow
keel and as I was heading back to port I decided to turn to windward, backwind the
genoa and keep the
helm pointed to windward. This resulted in an immediate calming effect on the boat's motion and I was able to remain fairly motionless in a choppy sea for about 15 minutes. More than enough time to relieve myself of past coffees and even put on a fresh pot should I be so inclined.
My point of this post is that even though I have been sailing for a couple of years there is still so much I have to learn.
As I eventually want to go off shore, what would be a good course of
training for me to learn these fundamental skills that I now realize I lack?