We flew into California's San Diego International Airport on April 6th rather early in the day, around 9:30 AM and contacted Nick via cell phone. He picked us up quickly and efficiently and took us to Shelter Island, and the Kona Kai Marina where we were introduced to the Karina Del Mar, a thirty foot Catalina Sloop. We were introduced to Mike as well a bit later, before he ran off to accomplish his chores for the Sunday. Shortly thereafter we were whisked away to the grocery store, dropped off for our provisioning. Being new at provisioning a boat wasn't as daunting as one might think. We'd raised five children over the years and had them move back in with us on and off, along with grand children. Being a large family my wife is more than adept at meeting any sort of food challenge, and she proved herself to be both expert at provisioning a boat for a few days and feeding us both very well. We bought a couple of bottles of wine and plenty of cheese, two things I like well enough. Later that afternoon we reported back to the boat and settled in, were given our lessons for the next day and told to relax. We read our books and relaxed. The next morning Mike showed up precisely on time as he'd stated and went right into lessons. The first thing he did was walk through the boat and look around.  Karina Del Mar as Mike found it - clean "Where's your stuff?" he queried. We smiled and looked at each other. "What stuff?" I asked. "No bags? No clothing? No suitcase?" he looked confused. "We are wearing everything we need," JoAnne said playfully. "Really?" "Really!" I said confidently. He wrinkled his nose. I couldn't keep a straight face. "Ok, all of our things are stowed away already, and we're pretty much ready for class," I smiled. He grinned. "Show me...." he ordered. So we showed him we'd put all our clothing away, stowed our tiny suitcase into a locker, put all our food away and he found that he didn't like where we'd stored some sodas so we had to move them. Otherwise, we were pretty squared away, according to him. The first thing we did was go over deck hand stuff, removing lines, tying lines, getting to know where the through hulls were, and a few other things. Basically he went over quickly what we already mostly knew. "Well, JoAnne, take her out and we'll go for a sail," he smiled. "Me?" she said, daunted by the size of the boat. She had some experience driving boats before, power boats specifically as a child, but she admitted it was a long time ago. Over the course of the day she learned to start the engine, drive the boat, take us out while Mike "showed me the ropes". All in all, we had a very interesting day, and even learned to heave-to later in the morning. I was terrified of the huge ships at first and Mike could sense this. I think he called me a Sissy more than once under his breath, but not really loudly enough for me to hear him. Ok, he might have thought it. At some point my wife and I both gave away our normal tactics - yelling instructions to one another. Because, frankly, that's what we do, how we do it, and how we've always done it. Of course, we also don't have to speak and have plenty of non-verbal communications for things like "You dumbass", "You idiot" and "Why don't you jump off the end of the pier?" We don't have to voice those of course, but Mike neither knew that, nor was he sure what we were doing when communicating frantically with frowns and grimaces at one another. For the next few days we were learning "hands on", something we're both very, very good at, me having spent most of my adult life in the military and my wife, well, having raised all those kids without one diploma or college degree on "raising kids". Hands on, we're good at. Mike didn't think so, at least so voiced that I was stupid more than once. Ok, well, he didn't USE the word stupid. Ok, maybe once. As we were leaving the dock, headed through the crowded marina, with JoAnne driving and me standing on the port side of the boat being Look Out, Mike reached down and killed the engine. JoAnne's eyes got rather large and he looked at me.... "Ok, we have an emergency. What would you do?" I looked around quickly to make sure nothing was coming and having listened to his previous lessons about "being prepared" and "having the sails ready" I confidently stated, and quite clearly too, "I think I'd raise the sails!" "And I think that is about as stupid a suggestion as I ever heard," Mike let the wind out of sails quickly. "JoAnne?" "I'd try to restart the engine," she smiled. I frowned. I hadn't thought of THAT. "Very good! But, unfortunately, it won't start and you're starting to slow down and loose steerage in here, it's crowded and there are some big, expensive boats here..." he cautioned. "I... I... would try to dock I guess," she said, now not so confident. "GOOD!" Mike said loudly. I rolled my eyes. Like I hadn't already thought of THAT stupid idea. There was no where to dock, and the Marina was full of expensive yachts, DUH! "If it were me," Mike said now taking the wheel, "I'd probably raft up to that ship right there temporarily since the fenders are over there, your look out is there and he should be able to tie off to the boat until we can figure out what to do!" and he directed the Karina Del Mar in the direction of the big boat. Then he reached down and restarted the engine. "Yep, that's what I'd do," he smiled giving the wheel back over to JoAnne and giving her directions to take us out to our staging area. Boy, he showed me. I was stupid as a rock. But, he had taught me a lesson. I already knew I didn't KNOW it all, in fact, I didn't know enough. In fact, I wasn't happy with not actually being able to run the ropes and get the hang of the boat. So, we went out for a bit longer and I continued doing my deck hand stuff which, apparently I was getting rather good at. He did complement me on getting the hang of that part quickly and doing it well. He even, at one point suggested if I was interested there were jobs doing just that sort of thing that paid pretty well in the area. I wasn't moving to San Diego just yet though. Houses like my little place were going for a quarter million dollars. No thanks. All in all we had done well. Mike was going to turn the boat over to us a day early, after grading the rest of our tests. He met with us that evening for a couple of minutes and JoAnne and I had conspired against him, little did he know. "Mike, we need to talk," I said. "Sure, what's up?" "I am not happy. I was a teacher for a long time myself and while I don't have a problem with your instruction or style, I don't think I got out of this what I came for. The confidence to run the ropes for instance," I said. He nodded. "Right," JoAnne said, "We'd like for you to come back in the morning and just... basically go over a few things. I'll drive, Rick will run the lines and you kind of direct, but let us do everything." "I can do that. I'll grade your paperwork in the morning and we'll head out and do that," he said. Next morning, true to his word, we headed out, he graded our tests which we both did well on, and then we sailed around inside the protected harbor away from big ships and little kids for about an hour, tacking and doing at least one jibe, dropping anchor and recovering it. Mike pronounced us "ready" for our bare boat "test". We were to go sailing in the harbor for a few hours and head back in, anchor out and spend a nice, quiet evening alone at the anchorage. On Saturday we were to spend the day sailing and come back in if we were tired or anchor out again. Sunday morning we were to come in with the holding tanks pumped, fill the water, clean the boat and prepare to turn it over. The afternoon was supposed to be nice and light winds, but we reefed the sails anyway, just in case. The boat was a tall rig. We were ready to sail 'solo' - kinda....  Ship Shape - mostly. Not perfect, but for noobs good enough! |
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Winds of Time Join Rick and JoAnne as we prepare and count down the days to retirement, and to the purchase of our cruising boat. We're still learning and will share as much of the experience as we can with others in the hope that our plans and dreams can be realized by others as well. We welcome email, see the contact page. We want to help others to do the same - and will gladly give whatever information we ourselves have learned. So, sit back and read, and enjoy the site. Rick and JoAnne |