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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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