route

Our route today (on Trip30)

I slept in a little longer than planned and had to and make a mad rush in a cab to Target for a bathing suit. I forgot mine at the boat, but there was a promise of a hot tub halfway through our cruise, and I really didn’t want to have to skip it! I think I looked a little silly with my gigantic duffle bag in the cart looking for a bathing suit, which are all on clearance because it is so late in the season here! I did find one though, although it is separates, and they don’t match. Oh well. I called the same cabby to pick me up again, and made it just in time for our 12pm check in at the marina. 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 seams pretty healthy and really high quality. Well, except for the two bags of chocolate chip cookies….but a sailor can’t live without chocolate.

aft cabins

a view of the aft cabins and the galley

loading

loading a week’s worth of provisions onto Sundance

Lisa

our beautiful instructor Lisa dinghying us to shore

Sucia

Sucia

sunset