Day 4
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| Michelle waiting for the next tack |
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| Robin at the helm |
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| wing on wing |
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| Reid Harbor |
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| dinner in the salon |
April's Adventures in the San Juan Islands - Day 2
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| Our route today (on Trip30) |
We moved aboard our fancy Jeanneau 37, the 3 cabin layout. The boat, Sundance, had two aft cabins, and a V-berth. Its dining table also folds down to make a double berth, although Lisa, our instructor, is sleeping out there and she decided not to go to the trouble of putting it down and is just going to put her sleeping bag on the settee. Lisa thought I should take one of the aft cabins, which was really spacious! It had a double berth and a large locker (closet). Two of the women on our cruise are already friends, so it is assumed that they will bunk in the V-berth together.
Before taking off we had a quick lunch across the street from the marina and got to know each other a little.
Lisa has 25 years of sailing experience, and is a very sweet, welcoming person. I’m already excited to work with her. The other women in the group seem really nice too…It’s a little strange meeting 3 strangers, immediately moving in with each other and planning to live for a week in a very small space! We all have different reasons for taking the class, but they all involved big plans for cruising in the near future.
Because it was the first day we went over the basics of departing with Lisa and checking the bilge, the engine, the oil and diesel, turning on all of the instruments and leaving. Tomorrow, we plan to be more hands on with the handling and will all be assigned crew duties.
We had a 4 hour sail to Sucia and it was a lovely day. We took turns at the helm and went over the basic parts of the boat while we traveled so that we would be prepared to take our ASA 101 test tomorrow morning.
We arrived fairly late with only an hour of daylight left, so after practicing finding a nice anchorage, surveying the anchorage for depth and swing room and properly setting the anchor and checking for drag, we took our first dinghy ride to shore. We took a brief walk to the bay on the other side of the island for a peek at sunset and then we hurried back to our boat for a locally caught salmon dinner. San Juan Sailing has really provided nice food for the voyage! It seems pretty healthy and really high quality. Well, except for the two bags of chocolate chip cookies….but a sailor can’t live without chocolate.
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| a view of the aft cabins and the galley |
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| loading a week's worth of provisions onto Sundance |
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| our beautiful instructor Lisa dinghying us to shore |
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| Sucia |
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April's Adventures in the San Juan Islands - Day 1
I’m off to Bellingham, Washington! I signed up for a learning cruise through San Juan sailing and I feel like I have been waiting forever for the trip to come, and finally here it is. I rented a car to get to the airport so Jacob wouldn’t have to spend 4 hours in the car with the girls, the last two of which would be after bedtime. He protested, but honestly, it sounded pretty nice driving by myself. That doesn’t happen very often.
After living on the boat for nearly a year, I’m still not as confident about handling her as I’d like to be, and it was made very clear during our trip back from Marathon last May. Jacob and I wanted to do an overnight passage from Marathon to No Name Harbor, and I was supposed to take a shift around 2a.m. I was pretty nervous about being on my own with Jacob asleep, and it turned out that Jacob was too nervous for me to be on my own too, and he didn’t even wake me. After that, I knew I needed to build some skill, and I really had my heart set on a women’s only course.
I searched for a course in Florida and found a couple, but they weren’t being offered until after hurricane season and they were all pretty pricey. Then for less money (including airfare) I found San Juan Sailing. I love the Pacific Northwest with a passion. Jacob and I had lots adventures there in our early years together! I found a spot on a women’s only cruise (the last one of the season there), Jacob was able to take off a week of work to care for the girls, and I was off. It was meant to be!
Nothing too exciting today, other than flying alone for the first time since having babies. It is a luxury to read a magazine and nap! I know I will miss those guys like crazy very soon, but I’m also really happy for the ME time.
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| me...alone...waiting to board the plane |
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| running from the big plane in Seattle to the little plane to get me to Bellingham by midnight |
T - a month
This is our last month at Harbortown in Fort Pierce. There are 3 weekends between now and the end of the month. Six days to get things settled here and move elsewhere. I think we can do it. We may end up staying through the next weekend to make it reasonable.
We are due for yet more reduction of stuff. We have a locker full of almost everything we brought from Colorado which we are going to try to get rid of.
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