Mom's In School... Sailing School

This past week I had my friend Jessica, from Utah onboard.  We also had Molly, a sailing instructor from St. Croix, who was tasked with teaching Jessica and I all she could in a six-day period.  Let me tell you, she did not disappoint.  The way this all came about is I had wanted to bring someone aboard to help me get more comfortable maneuvering the boat.  Jessica had taken a captain chartered sailing trip last year and fell in love with life on a boat.  Through conversation, I found she planned to get certified so in the future she could charter a boat and one day own her own boat and sail off into the sunset.  I got to thinking how fun it would be to have a buddy to go through the certification process with.  Jessica was all in!  We found and chose Molly over other instructors who had responded to our inquiries as she was a woman and, thus, there would be no issues with communication styles.

I couldn't wait for Jessica to arrive.  She and I are kindred spirits and it was great to spend time with her again.  She came with her ukulele in hand and her up-for-anything attitude.  MJ especially loved the ukulele and spent a lot of time strumming and making up her own songs.  We had some very, very hard days.  Right out of the chute we were given our first test.  We both had purchased the four required sailing books prior to class and had been given the assignment to have them all read before Molly arrived.  Jess and I would bemoan receiving each test.  We felt we did horrible only to find we missed very few, with passing scores way above the required percentage. 

Molly is a wealth of information.  She absolutely knows her way around boats.  Each morning we would have instruction on something different.  The afternoon was spent maneuvering the boat through different points of sail, getting sails up and down, trimming, easing, tacking, controlled jibes, and MOB (man overboard) drills.  I’m happy to report we did not have one accidental jibe.  The evenings were all about charting the next day’s route.  We would figure the degree at which to sail based on wind direction and would come up with an estimated time of arrival.  We did all of our work the old school way, no electronics, lots of brain work.  By the end of the day, we were absolutely spent.

One of the challenges was having the girls on board.  Steve did a fantastic job keeping them busy, but it took me a while to trust he was keeping an eye on them so my attention was split a few times.  By mid-week, I think I was able to focus more of my attention to Molly, but by this time the girls were starting to miss mommy and I was missing our time also.  They started to surface and hang out a little more.  I’m sure that it was difficult for Jessica and Molly as well, having disruptions while in the middle of explaining and understanding what’s being explained.   By the end of the week, MJ decided she was going to join lessons so I didn’t have to be alone and took the helm a couple of times.

Have I mentioned how hard of a week it was?  It was a very hard week.  We were maneuvering a 45-foot, 16-ton, twin screw, three-bedroom apartment.  That’s no easy task no matter how good you are!  I compare our week to learning how to drive a tractor trailer rather than a Toyota Corolla in driver’s ed.  There were tears shed and moments of celebration.  I am more confident in my abilities to maneuver this boat of ours.  Jessica is still excited about one day owning her own boat.  I would call that a successful week.  Both Jessica and I earned our ASA101/103/104 and 114 certifications.

We did have some breaks along the way.  After a trip to the beach, the girls discovered skinny dipping.  At first they weren't quite sure about stripping off their swimsuits and jumping in the ocean, but once they did, Oh, the freedom!  Kids are a great reminder of how much joy is found in simple things.  They were all giggles as they wiggled the sand off their bodies.  Those photos will be saved for a more appropriate time to share with, say, a special boyfriend later in life.  Steve was able to get some fishing in.  He caught a couple mackerel and a barracuda.  We turned the mackerel into sushi and tossed the barracuda back in so he could terrorize little swimmers later.  We stopped at Flo's for a delicious family-style dinner.  We left our mark and made new friends, Kera and Shugavo, which I'm sure I'm butchering the spelling.  MJ called him "Chicago" and had Kera wrapped around her finger in seconds flat.  At the end of our week, we docked at a marina with a pool and the girls wasted no time getting ready and taking a dip the evening we pulled in as well as the next morning before we pulled out.

I have never been so happy to see the end of a week, yet it felt like it came too quickly.  Sunday morning I was an emotional basket case.  I had not slept well the previous night as I kept going over and over my first docking attempt, which had not gone so well.  I was coming in at a great angle to the dock, everything seemed to be going nearly perfect.  There was a beautiful, large boat at the dock that I would be pulling in behind, but I was feeling very good about my approach, so wasn’t feeling nervous about it being there.  Next thing I knew, everything was going very wrong and I was hitting reverse and hitting the dock – BAM!  Too much forward momentum along with a fairly strong current we were pushed into the dock with too much speed.  One of the fenders got caught behind a pylon, which then took out a metal stanchion as the fender was pulled along the side of the boat while we continued in our forward motion.  This was upsetting for everyone and Molly repeatedly apologized for misguidance.  In an attempt to shake it off, I got back on the horse, circled around and took a second attempt, only this time I did more of a drive-by and stayed clear of the dock.  I called it a day.

From one stress filled event to the next, it was now time to dock for the night.  Docking the boat is always a little tense whether you’re crew or helmsman and the slip we were assigned was in very tight quarters with wind and the same strong current in front of the restaurant full of people of course.  Molly's wise words rang through, "Always be prepared to provide entertainment."  The marina was full of boats, but one large yacht and one fishing boat combined together made the space we had to move around in much smaller than it would be on other days.  By the time we got tied off to the dock, I had reached my anxiety threshold.  I was so nervous about leaving our space the next morning, but Steve carefully studied the wind and current condition and made a plan.  He did an excellent job of maneuvering the boat out of that tight spot.  I was beyond thankful for how smooth we left the marina.  I was a tearful mess.  We said goodbye to Molly and Jessica and took leave of Nassau once again.  Once under way, I took a nice long nap and woke up a new person with a much brighter outlook.

We have about three weeks left before our season on the boat is over.  We’re going to take it slow and don’t have a set plan of which direction we’ll go.  For now, we’re anchored at Great Harbour Cay, part of the Berry Islands, resting and relaxing.