More interst in the Key West Race

Last evening I met with two of my former students, Pete and Don.  They’re graduates of my six day ASA 101 - 104 program.  I remember them both as good students and sailors, as well as fun guys to sail with.  Oddly, they are ex-brothers-in law who remained like brothers beyond the tenure of their marriages. 

They'd come to St Petersburg to meet with me and to talk about the possibility of getting involved in either the annual regatta from here to Isla Mujeres Mexico at the end of April, or the regatta to Key West in mid-May.  As I posted earlier, I've already got another group of former students who have committed to the Key West Race on the Jeanneau 50 with me as their skipper.  If not for that prior commitment, I'm confident that Pete and Don would commit to the event with me as their skipper.  Instead, they are now contemplating doing the race on a smaller boat along with two friends and fellow sailors.  My former students may well become fellow competitors.     

 I hope they pull it together to do the race.  It would be very gratifying for me to see former students take on the challenge, have that experience and boost in their confidence.  Beyond that, there's a selfish reason I hope they do it.  You see, Don lived in Key West for many years and worked there as a bar tender.  He was Bar Tender of the Year there once, and in Key West, that's saying something!  Don has offered that if we wind up in Key West together, he will be my guide to the local insider’s haunts of Key West, which promises to be insanely fun. He's also promised that since he still knows all the cops in Key West, he'll be able to keep us from getting arrested.   

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.              

Going to Key West!

Yesterday I sent out email to some former advanced sailing students.  I was curious if any of them might be interested in chartering a boat with which to participate in this year’s Bone Island Regatta.  That’s the annual race in May that starts near St Petersburg and finishes in Key West, about 220 nautical miles away.

There were some quick responses to my email, followed by a couple of phone conversations.  I was amazed and delighted that within just a few hours I’d pulled it together.  I have an entry in the event.  Former students of mine will charter one of our new boats – a Jeanneau 50DS – for a week long adventure:  participate in the race to Key West (and with that boat we’d better finish well up I the standings!), enjoy the post-race festivities, then cruise on back to St Petersburg.  How can that not be fun?

Now I wonder – might I also be able to pull together a crew to participate in a two week adventure? - the annual race to Isla Mujeres, Mexico at the end of April?    

Down time.

One more day off before beginning a six day cycle of instructing ASA classes.  Teaching is what I now do most.  I also skipper boats on day charters and term charters.  I do yacht deliveries and private coaching with new yacht owners.  But the bulk of my work is teaching. 

When I first came to St Petersburg more than two years ago and went around looking for work with my Coast Guard license and sailing resume in hand, teaching ASA curriculum was not the first occupation I would have chosen.  I’d done some teaching back in the Pacific Northwest - in Portland and in the San Juan Islands - but I hadn’t done enough to feel entirely competent or very comfortable doing so.  But in St Petersburg, I realized that to get a foothold doing skipper’s work here, I’d have to be ready to do lots of teaching.  I committed to reviewing ASA curriculum and developing class outlines.  I spent a solid week at that before my first teaching assignment.  Student feedback from those first classes I taught was good, but over time and with more and more experience teaching and working with a variety of students, I’ve gotten much better.  Now I enjoy teaching.  I walk to the marina and to the boat that will be the classroom for the day, meet my two or three or four students, introduce myself and begin a conversation.  I am always curious to know where my students come from, what they do, what if any background they have in sailing, and what their sailing ambitions might be.  Some merely want to qualify to charter here in Florida or in the Virgin Islands.  Others have retirement in mind and cruising the Caribbean as live aboard sailors.  Whatever their goals, I am happy to be supportive.  My unique experience - long service in the charter boat business in the Virgin Islands and cruising the Caribbean from the Bahamas to South America - enables me to offer guidance and advice with authority.  I can field nearly any question.  I add context to my teaching with stories from my own experiences.  Students seem to love that.  I enjoy sharing them.  What I also enjoy is the process my students go through as they learn the skills and knowledge I share.  I am privileged to observe them go from fumbling to competency.      

But today I have the day to myself.  I savor the notion, the freedom to spend the day as I like.  A walk along the St Petersburg waterfront.  Reading from the backlog I have in a stack.  Correspondence.  Keeping company with our cats. 

Tomorrow and the five days following will be days full of teaching on a variety of boats: Hunter 31, Beneteau 37, and finally the thoroughbred – the Jeanneau 53.

New Year's Eve

I spent much of the afternoon and evening out on the Leopard 44 catamaran with two different charter parties. Winds were very light, but it was warm and sunny on Tampa Bay that afternoon. We saw several dolphins. My guests enjoyed watching pelicans diving for fish and rarely miss. Later, as the sun was setting I positioned the boat so that the St Petersburg skyline was between us and the sunset. Later still, I anchored near the breakwater park for the fireworks.

Back to blogging with a ringing endorsement.

I've been off the air for several months for reasons too complex and lenghy to eplain now.  But with the New Year and refocused priorities, I'm back.

I'll start by sharing an email written by a recent student of mine. 
 

Capt. Dave Amann, President
Sailing Florida Charters & Sailing School
Dear Capt. Dave,
On Dec 10 & 11, 2012, my friend Ed and I joined Capt. Roy and a
young man in your employ whose name I forget for a two day, one night
course on cruising fundamentals (ASA 104). For me it was an outstanding
learning experience, largely due to Capt. Roy's excellent technical
expertise, his careful, articulate and complete explanations about the
various systems on the boat. His vast sailing experience gave him
anecdotal examples of how systems fail and how to respond to trouble.
He was very caring and kind, treating us as friends and colleagues,
rather than students, willing to go the extra mile to make sure we
understood. Conditions were less than ideal, with 25 knot wind, a
broken main clew attachment, and soaking rain and darkness. At all
times, his calmness was infectious and lent confidence to us.
I am a retired physician, and have had many good and not so good
instructors. Capt. Roy Rogers is right up there with the best. I would
recommend him and your school to anybody who asks.

Something new

Back in April one of the birthday gifts Cathy gave me was a gift certificate
for an introductory helicopter lessen. Until recently I'd been too busy to
collect on it, but finally this week, I went and gave it a whirl. It was
very fun!

The lesson entailed half an hour in a flight simulator and half an hour in
the real thing - a Robinson R-22. I found that the controls for a
helicopter are not intuitive. It takes time to get the hang of it and even
longer for it to become second nature. That doesn't happen in an hour.

When time came to get into the real thing I realized how tiny the machine
was - just enough room for the two of us. Obese people need not apply. The
instructor performed a quick pre-flight, then started the little
horizontally opposed flat four cylinder engine and warmed it up. He lifted
us just a few feet off the ground, flew slowly along the taxi way, then
turned, accelerated and climbed out and up over the runway. The view was
spectacular. He flew us out over Clearwater and north along the Gulf shore.
It was a view of boats in the Intracoastal Waterway, marinas and people on
the beach like I've never seen before.

Returning to the airstrip, before setting down, the instructor had me try
the controls. I found them to be even more sensitive than was the
simulator. In my inexperienced hands the machine would soon develop a
rotation or bank in a way that I struggled to control. If left to me, we
surely would have crashed. I asked how many hours of flight training it
took to become certified. Fifty. Fifty hours at $280 per hour. By
comparison, racing my R6 motorcycle is a huge bargain. I enjoyed the
helicopter experience, but I'll stick with flying on my race bike.

Letter to former students and friends.

Hey you guys!  Hope you’re both well, and that you’re enjoying a summer with many opportunities to get out on Long Island Sound. 

 

Here in St Petersburg we’re in the heart of summer heat, humidity and the daily threat of afternoon storms.  That doesn’t stop us from doing what we do.  Business activity has dropped off, but not as much as anticipated.  We’re still pushing off bareboat charters, doing day sails, sunset sails, and I’m still doing lots of teaching.  We work harder at hoping for winds which generally are light this time of year, and then late in the day keep a sharp eye out for storm cell development.

 

Cathy and I are now well settled in our condo, which is just three blocks from the marina.  It’s great being right down town again.  Walking to restaurants and entertainment.  This year’s hurricane season get-away is a trip to Europe.  We fly to Brussels on Sept 1 to visit a friend who is doing graduate work there.  We’ll travel by train to the north of Germany to visit an old friend of mine from my days knocking around in the Islands.   Another train ride down to Berlin where we have another set of friends.  We’ll travel by car with them for a visit to Paris, Versailles and then a week long B&B tour of Burgundy.  We fly home from Paris on the 24^th. 

 

I expect this coming season with Sailing Florida will be even more busy than the last.  For one thing, we’ll have even more nice new boats.  We’ll soon take delivery of a new Hunter 50, soon after that,  a new Jeaneau 53, then sometime later another new Hunter 50.  I’m hoping that before my life is again dominated by the demands of more charterers and students at the dock, that I’ll get time this fall to get away to play on my R6 race bike.  I’ve ridden the three road race courses here in Florida (and look forward to doing so again) but there are a couple world class tracks in nearby states that are on my bucket list: Barber, near Birmingham AL, and Road Atlanta in GA.        

 

Look forward to hearing from you.  Be well.