Readers may remember my post about the Roseway’s Fundraising Auction, at which Mary Ann bought a boat. And in the weeks that have passed since her acquisition, she has purchased lines and anchors and floats and fenders and various pieces of expensive hardware to complete her investment. She has also taken the knot-tying course at the St. Croix Yacht Club. Now….to learn to sail….

Michael has wanted to take a sailing course since before we sold our little Victoria 18. And, although I’ve taken the Yacht Club’s certification course, it has been many years and I wanted a refresher. Michael has been trying to schedule us and the sailing instructor to no avail. Finally, he was able to get Vice Commodore and former fleet captain, Allan Mallory to teach us on Sunday morning.

We started with about an hour and a half of classroom work, learning the terminology, the points of sail and directions. Then we headed out to the Rhodes 19 called “Yellow Bird”. It’s a white boat with a red bottom. Oh well….

We rigged the mainsail and learned the names of the various cleats and pulleys (blocks), the halyards and sheets were pointed out and other doodads received proper names. Then Allan released the dockline and we were off….Michael was at the helm and we were on a “beam reach“. We headed toward the reef as I adjusted the main sheet and Michael steered. We tacked back toward the YC and I took the helm. Historically, this has been my most uncomfortable position on any boat. I can climb up on the deck and raise or lower the main or jib, but driving a boat has never been my favorite thing. After a while, though, I became more comfortable. Not at ease by any stretch, but it didn’t feel like root canal surgery.

We sailed out to the reef again and back toward the dock. After my second tack, Mary Ann took the helm. She did great for not having ever been in that position. Then we headed farther into the wind and did a few more tacks and jibes. Michael and I each got a bit of a burn from not letting go of the main sheet during the jibes, but otherwise, we all survived.

After a couple of hours on the water, we were ready to come in for lunch. Allan wouldn’t let us feed him, but we chowed and and chatted until it was time for us to get Mary Ann’s boat stuff together and secure it under her spiffy new custom-made cover by Wesco Awning. I carried a load of oars and rudder parts out and waited while M & M went back to the car for more. At that time, I saw Llewellyn at the bar and went over to give him a hug. He’s looking great and asked me when he’d get his massage. I told him as soon as he calls me…It was such a thrill to see him out and about. And I ate a couple of his french fries to save his heart from those nasty fat calories (the sacrifices we make for our friends!)

Our next (and maybe final) lesson on the Rhodes is in a week and a half. Let’s hope we can transfer our knowledge to Mary Ann’s very special vessel and sail her properly. Ahoy Mateys !

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm and is filed under St. Croix, Terry Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.