Last week's teaching gig.

Last week’s six day cycle of instructing ASA 101 through 103 went very well.  My students were three guys from the Orland area who were buddies who had sailed Hobbie catamarans together.  They came to me with a good understanding of nomenclature, points of sail, tacking and gybing already in place.  This made my job easy and allowed us to accelerate the program. 

After just one day sailing the Hunter 31 “Knot Now”, we moved up to the Beneteau 37 “Business II” for close quarters handling, docking, anchoring as well as my standard challenge to find and navigate us into Little Harbor Marina for lunch.  That exercise is one I usually have my students on day four.  These guys were ready to tackle it on day three. 

That allowed us to spend the remaining three days of the program on the Jeanneau 53, which in turn allowed us two overnights on that spacious thoroughbred, and allowed us to expend our range beyond where I typically get in the course of ASA 104.  We had moderate to light wind in sunny warm weather.  We wished for more wind, but managed to see over 8 knots speed over ground with what we had. 

Along with the room and performance that comes with the Jeanneau 53, we also enjoyed the ship’s entertainment system.  It consists of a very large HD TV screen, digital antenna on the masthead, DVD/CD player and radio with Sirius Radio, so we could be tuned into Margaritaville all day long.  But what my students loved best was the “Captain Ron” DVD I’d brought along.  They watched it twice and were then bandying lines from the movie back and forth.  Yes, we had a hoot, and they learned a lot while doing so.  By the last day I was out of decision making process.  They sailed us back to the Vinoy Marina competently and with confidence.