So, knowing that we liked the thought of living on a sailboat, it's probably time to spend some time on a sailboat and actually learn to sail. We both love a challenge and we are both engineers so figuring our new things, especially thing that involve mechanics, levers and pullers, is second nature.
So, how do we learn to sail?
Fortunately, there are two large Sailing Organizations in the US; the ASA (American Sailing Association) and USSailing. The ASA seems to be more prevalent when it comes to course availability and having sailing certifications from them makes things like chartering and getting insurance a lot easier. We opted to take a "Catamaran +" certification class from Blue Water Sailing School, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. This course is on a 4 cabin sailing catamaran and when successfully completed, students are awarded:
- ASA 101 - Basic Keelboat Sailing
- ASA 103 - Basic Coastal Cruising
- ASA 104 - Bareboat Cruising
- ASA 114 - Cruising Catamaran
We chose Blue Water Sailing School because of their reputation and because of their location, which is an easy flight from Raleigh. The Miami Boat Show was coming up in February 2019 at the time and we were able to find a class that would allow us to fly down for Thursday and Friday of the boat show, then start the weeklong class on Saturday. (Ironically, we later found out that BWSS is the school that the Wynn's used to learn to sail.)
We invited our friends Lisa and Jesse from Annapolis to join us for either or both the sailing school and the boat show. Jesse, having sailed most of his life, couldn't justify the time and expense of the course, but there were both up for going to the boat show with us.
At this point, we just had to wait until January (it was around October when we signed up) and continue our research vis-à-vis, watch Gone with the Wynns and read the textbooks shipped to us for preparation for the ASA courses.
-Mike
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