Sailing Experience #1

So, on Sunday May 3rd, with the help of a very patient friend with lots of boating experience, and two less experienced crew, I took out MY boat for the very first time. Margie I met through OWSA, and she's a sweetheart - so enthusiastic and willing to just head out anytime! Kevin I've know forever, and he's just enthusiastic, if inexperienced. Dan I've know for a few years and have been a passenger on his boat. I may have been sailing on it once, but more recent trips have involved the motor, and generally rain. Funny how opening day does that to you.

But, my experience. Despite forecasts of 50% rain, and some torrential downpours the day before (that would have been Opening Day...), we left the dock with some beautiful blue skies. Casting off went relatively smoothly - Dan walked it back, I was on the tiller trying not to screw things up, and away we went. Heartpounding. We hung out a little bit - never actually going out to the river, and got a feel for how much power was needed to overcome the current, how quickly she would turn (in comparison to the Catalina 25 we used for docking practice, I thought the Cascade could turn very quickly).

Dan then had me scootch up to the PYC dock that is across from all of their slips and practice side slip docking - just doing a touch & go. That was very effective, though the first time I managed to flip all the fenders onto the dock and scuff the boat. At least I wasn't going fast enough to do real damage. The next several went much better.

Lesson #1: do not aim for the corner of the dock. You'll flip your fenders onto the dock.

Margie took a turn at the tiller, and Kevin basked in the sunshine on the bow and pointed out items of possible concern in the water. "boat". "buoy". "log". "ducklings". A most attentive watchman.

Getting the boat back into the slip was a lot harder. The row entrance seemed absolutely tiny, and so the first pass I actually bailed and didn't go in, I was too freaked. The second I went in, keeping more upstream, and then Dan told me when to swing the bow. Which would have been effective if I had actually been able to believe it was OK to swing it, and then completely forgotten which way to move the tiller in my anxiety. We got it docked, and there may have been some added scuff marks on the boat, but again, no big damage.

My knees were weak.

Oh, and Kim - the woman who owns the boat next door? Also got to witness it. But we didn't hit her boat, so all's good.

Tomorrow, I will go again. Not chickening out yet, as much as I would like to.