So, when you sell everything and decide you want to buy a boat and sail around the world - how do you start? We decided to take some classes from an instructor with the American Sailing Association (ASA). I had done some homework before we left New Mexico, and found a place called 'Learn to Sail Texas'. It looked promising, so I signed up online for their ASA101 class. There was only one opening on the one I signed up for (August 12-14), so I signed Michael and Bean up for one a month later in September.
Usually, they will mail you the book (which you are supposed to read in advance), but since I was leaving for Texas in a couple days, I asked him to hold them and I would come pick them up. So, once we got settled into the hotel, I reached out to see when he would be available. I was able to pick up the book Thursday night (July 28), so I promptly got started studying and reading my little heart out, trying to learn as much as I could before I showed up for three days of sailing :-)
At the beginning of class, I met my classmates - a young couple name Russ and Katherine, and an even younger guy named Noah. Russ and Noah are in the oil and gas industry and got moved to Corpus for their jobs. Everyone at work told them sailing is the thing to do in Corpus Christi, so they decided to take sailing lessons! Everyone was very friendly, and brand new. I had 'the most' experience with my two years of crewing on lake Michigan so many years ago. The other three had never stepped foot on a sailboat.
I can't say enough great things about Captain Chris! He is your quintessential old salt. An amazing sailor, with more knowledge that anyone I have met before or since. He loves to see the light in people's eyes as they find their love of sailing. He loves to teach, and he is good at it. He allows you to make mistakes and learn from them, but is always watching and will step in and/or yell as needed to make sure no one is hurt and the boat is not sunk.
He generally starts each day in the classroom, teaching important points and covering the information we will be doing practically on the boat in the afternoon. It was an amazing time, and really re-kindled my love of sailing - I had forgotten just how amazing it is to be out on the water, with the sails up, enjoying the peace and watching dolphins! (And you know, steering, tacking, that other stuff too ;-p)
Unfortunately, our class happened to be the weekend that a tropical depression was coming in.... but we still managed to make it work - some days we ended up going on the water first, some days class first. Usually, the three day class allows the third day to be totally on the water, having the students plot a course and take the captain somewhere - kind of a taste of what is to come if you take ASA 103/104. In our case, the third day ended up being just taking the test - the weather was terrible, rainy, winds too high, just not good for beginning students to go out, however, since we were all local (people often fly in to take classes here), the captain decided we could do a 'makeup' sail day - so we scheduled that for Friday, September 2, and all went on our way. I'm looking forward to it!
We did all get our certifications though! We managed to get enough classroom time and time on the water in the first two days to complete the class, we just missed the bonus day due to the weather. So, I am now officially certified basic keelboat.
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