ASA Sailing Course 103

16. Jul. 2014
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Planning the Trip
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1 Comment

Author: Pete

Location: Traverse City, MI
[44° 46′ N, 85° 37′ W]

DAY 3:

After a little breakfast on deck in the morning sun we started class by tearing through the boat in the morning opening all panels and looked at systems. From stem to stern we opened panels, traced wires, discussed potential problems and fixes. Never jammed so many people in such a small space. I think I hear the clown-car music…

Had lunch in the cockpit in the sun at dock. Spent the afternoon working on navigation in the salon. We covered the basics of reading charts, what symbols meant. Practiced plotting courses and the like.

Took the boat out for a sail and polished our navigation. Discussed and demonstrated rules of the road, and honed our crew overboard technique. I thought about suggesting a good pirate mooning pass on the tourist tall ship Manitou, but I decided against it. This isn’t Cartagena after all.

Back in the marina Captain Dan took us aboard several different monos-hulls (regular type sailboats, as opposed to ‘cat’ catamarans) to get the feel for various layouts. Some were geared more towards living comfort, others for better sailing performance. In some I couldn’t tell what the main focus was. I think some boat designers drink too much. It’s been said before, every boat is a compromise.

Cleaned ourselves up in the nice marina showers. My parents came down from Charlevoix, an easy hour drive, and took us out to dinner at the North Peak Brewery. Less sea legs today as the water had been pretty flat. I preventatively had a couple pints to ward off any nausea just to be safe. We all had a good deal of beer, ribs, fish, and fun. Tried to walk off some of dinner on a stroll through busy downtown Traverse. Back on board we had the best sleep yet.

DAY 4:

Started off the day with our ASA 103 test. Gathered in the marina lounge and took it early to get it out of the way. Pulled a 95%, despite our groggy state. I missed the following question:

7) If your boat is taking on water through gaping hole in the hull should you:

a) Issue a Pon-Pon to the coast guard, put crew in lifejackets, turn on bilge pumps, and plug the hole.
b) Keep on sailing. Sinking is for sissies.
c) Run around the deck flailing hands above head as international sign for ‘No Idea What I’m Doing’.
d) Get off the boat immediately. Better to be swimming in the drink than on a boat with some water inside.

Blue skies gradually gave way to gray ceiling. Took the boat out for one last go around to cement our skills. A touch wavy and blustery, and none too warm. But we donned rain jackets for the light spits of rain and we were fine.

On our return we stopped to pump out the holding tanks and refuel. Ah, a glamorous life for sailors.

Said goodbye to the Clara Mae, our trusty 31′ Hunter. Passed it off to Steve and Matt, our sailing compadres, who took it out for charter in the following days.

Played tourist walking around downtown Traverse with my parents for an hour or so and had a celebratory dinner out at a great smokehouse to wrap up our second set of sailing courses. Headed back to crash out aboard our new boat for the 104 course.

ASA Sailing Course 101

12. Jul. 2014
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Planning the Trip
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1 Comment

Author: Pete

Location: Traverse City, MI
[44° 46′ N, 85° 37′ W]

DAY 1:

We drove an hour south to Traverse City in the early morning to start our last round of sailing courses and get officially certified as sailors in the US by the American Sailing Association (ASA). Found Great Lakes Sailing Co., our sail school and our vessel for the ‘keelboat’ course, Clara Mae, a 31’ Hunter. Hunters, from my limited understanding, are basic boats with average sailing capabilities, nice interior looks, and a reasonable price point. Not something we’d be looking for when we go offshore, but fine Michigan bay sailors.

We also met our sailing peers, two hardcore divers, Steve, his son Matt, and a fellow local photographer, Cory. Our fearless Captain Dan, a quintessential sailor archetype with stories from the North Channel to the island of Trinidad.

Captain Dan put threw us into action immediately, showing us the systems on the boat, then walking us through the processes of pulling out of a slip, we motored out of the harbor and into Grand Traverse Bay.

We practiced motoring maneuvers, getting the feel for the (relative to the 15’ Boston Whaler I’m used to) heavy boat’s handling characteristics. Very different driving a heavy, deep boat with keel and rudder, rather than a light, thrust-vectoring jet boat. We managed. Practiced turning, backing up, docking, picking up moorings, etc…

We eventually put the mainsail and then the headsail and cut the diesel. We worked on tacking, and took turns on the jib and main winches and at the helm. We had a decent breeze and even got some heeling in. Under Miranda’s command we got the boat to 6.9 knots, a record that would not be broken for the duration of our course.

In the evening we returned to the McGurn household. Hadn’t seen Nick since the wedding in Cartagena and hadn’t seen Ian or Breanna since last summer! Their adorable daughters were having a sleep over with grandparents, so we didn’t get to see then, but we did get to have a couple of strong mojitos in the back yard.

Walked to restaurant, guffawing at old jokes and new jabs. Really great to see those boys (and Breanna). Had dinner at a fabulous restaurant, ordered a plate of mussels as big as my torso to start and tore through it. Once I was seated and in an enclosed space I started to get pretty wobbly. At first I thought it was the mojito, but it was ‘sea legs’ kicking in. I felt like I was still on the boat. Sort of disconcerting. Fought it off with a couple of pints of good Founders beer.

Ate to our hearts content and then walked home in a little bit of rain. Drove back to the marina in the increasing shower as Cherry Festival fireworks burst hemispherically out of the bottom of the low cloud layer.

Spent our first night on a boat together! We were the only two aboard so it was like having a little cozy cabin. It almost felt like being back in our little Casita in Chile… but with a constant, mild earthquake, and at much lower elevation. And more humid. And with Cherry Festival revelers squawking outside.

Okay, so it was just a small space like we’re used to. The rain on windows and a good deal of fatigue put us to sleep in the ample aft berth. Slept fairly soundly, though to begin with I kept hearing noises and felt odd feeling the movement of the boat.

DAY 2:

Woke to some cloud cover and breakfasted in the cockpit. When our compadres arrived we cast off and motored out of dock and into bay. We unfurled our sails and headed north up to Power Island. Over the hour or so it took to get there the sky cleared and sun came out. We mustered some speed and took turns on the helm. Cutting into the gap between the island and mainland we discussed navigation aids, then practiced anchoring in sandy bottom off of the eastern side of the island.

We worked on tying various knots and covered radio protocol as well. We multitasked and took the ASA 101 test while we at lunch ‘on the hook’. Collectively, Miranda and I got an average score of 98.5 with a standard deviation of 1.5. Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Needed to do some math.

Weighed anchor and set a run for home, working on rules of the road, navigation, and crew overboard drills all the way. Pashouwer took us into dock to wrap up our 101 course.

Barged into Ian’s again as they were making Mediterranean food, homemade palau and nan. With their darling daughters Pash and Doc Brown and I helped put everything together. Had to go outside when room started wobbling until wine kicked in. Yikes. We sat outside in the perfect T.C. evening, enjoying the good food, fine weather, and old friends. That night Miranda and I slept much more soundly the second round on the boat once had gotten used to all the little noises.

Bye-Bye Bubu

01. Jul. 2014
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Planning the Trip, The Boat
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2 Comments

Author: Miranda

Location: Black Creek, WI

We really thought we had her!

We put in our offer. We bit off our fingernails to stubs- well, Pete did anyway. I just drank too much coffee and talked in short, blurting sentences to anyone I knew about “our offer.”

I couldn’t get Pete on the phone fast enough when I read Alexis’s email saying that Dariousz was prepared to accept our offer. All we needed to do was email a formal contract with a few edits to Alexis right away and be prepared to send our 10% deposit to the brokering company’s escrow account on Monday morning. Yes, we can do that. Done. Contract in and money ready to go. To me, this was acceptance of our offer.

I guess I’m naive enough to accept people at their word. To believe that even without seeing a signed contract, getting verbal (well, email) acceptance of our offer was enough. Brokers are masters of the fine print, so I guess writing that he was “prepared to accept our offer,” must not be the same as “I’m accepting your offer.” In addition, it would have been much clearer and honest to say, “the owner is continuing to show the boat and will be accepting offers until a contract is signed.”

Turns out that on Sunday afternoon a different prospect took a look at the boat (while our offer was accepted on Saturday), and told both the owner and the broker that he’d like to make a formal offer. This offer was higher than ours, and we received an email from Alexis stating that Dariousz had accepted this offer instead of ours.

I will be the first person to admit that I am new at this process. That I’ve never bought a house, much less, a boat before. Obviously I know that money talks, and I can see a point of view that says it’s stupid to turn down more money from a higher offer until a contract has been officially signed. But experiencing moments like this, those that make you disappointed in how you were treated by a fellow member of the human race are just kinda sucky. Not the most eloquent way of stating this, but accurate. Life will go on. There are bigger problems in the world. But still- this was kinda sucky.

We went to Florida as a learning experience in what specifics we are looking for in a cruising catamaran and gain knowledge into the boat buying process. We’ve accomplished both of these, and we are really quite pleased with how things went. This last incident just put a momentary hitch in our giddyup. But, such as with all life’s lessons, those that hit hardest are often the most meaningful and long-lasting. We are blessed to have this opportunity to take time off and sail, and we’ll continue to jump any hurdles we need to in order to make it happen.

Our boat is still out there, and we are fully confident that we’ll find her yet!