New ASA Course on Dinghies & Outboards, and Learning to Look at the Sun and the Stars

[NavyDave_andMe]

Last night I participated in an ASA webinar, and the instructor mentioned a new ASA course that will soon be offered focusing on the safe use of dinghies. The book to accompany the course is titled "Going Ashore Made Easy: the Essential Dinghy and Outboard Manual", written by Lisa and Andy Batcheldor. It's due to come out in September, and for anyone who's interested, you can save $10 by ordering the book now through the website. Even though the webpage says "through May 31", the discounted price was still good as of this morning.

https://asa.com/going-ashore-made-easy/

When I took my ASA courses last summer, instructors assumed we students were all familiar with the operation of dinghies and outboards, so I'm glad to see an official course has been developed.

As an aside, the webinar was "Intro to Celestial Navigation", instructed by Elbert Ashbaugh. The webinar ran over two hours, and it was an interesting mix of lore and science. Excellent precursor to ASA 117 (official name: Basic Celestial), but Ash called it "Emergency Celestial", which makes sense for sailors who find themselves without GPS far from shore. ASA 107 is the more in-depth course that is mandatory for the offshore passagemaking course. Didn't know if I'd like celestial navigation, but the math doesn't seem too cumbersome, and now I'm looking forward to learning more.

--Cheryl