My friend and I hatched a plan to get our ASA
certification while on vacation. We searched for
school which had combined overnight sailing and ASA
certification classes, and emailed several of them
throughout the world (focusing on Mexico, and a bit in
Europe).
Dave at San Carlos Sailing School was
the most responsive and worked with us to find a date
that would fit into our vacation schedules, and also
their training schedule. After settling on the date
of the trip, Dave also tried to help us find a place
to stay in San Carlos while we were not on the boat.
In short he was very helpful from the beginning.
After a brief chat on the phone and settling on the
details of the trip, we booked flights and were set to
drive from Phoenix to San Carlos for our three-day
(two night) sailing trip.
As it turned out, Dave offered us the boat to sleep on
the night before and the night after our sailing trip,
so we only needed to find a hotel in San Carlos for
one night which we did when we drove down. Looking
back, it may have been best to book a hotel room for
the first night before getting there, since it was a
bit tough to track one down when we arrived (since all
we wanted to do was drink beer after our drive).
We met Dave the next day, while he was cleaning up the
boat to prepare for our trip. He was totally
cool, he stopped what he was doing, showed us around
the boat and answered all of our questions. He was
especially clear to point out the safety features he
had on the boat, and that safety was his top priority
(having a good time being a close second). I must
admit, that even though we had emailed Dave a bunch,
and I even spoke to him on the phone, we have a few
reservations about the trip. I mostly attribute this
to all the bad press about internet and email
scams we're now pre-wired to think that if you set
something up over the internet, you are bound to be
ripped off. Our concern mostly turned into a concern
about safety: i.e., was the boat seaworthy, was Dave
a skilled sailor, etc. (my buddys wife, and a
friend of mine were also going on the boat with us, so
we wanted to make sure they were safe also).
Immediately after we met Dave and chatted with him for
a bit, we knew there was no reason to be concerned.
This was the beginning of a perfect sailing trip we
crashed on the boat that night, made dinner and drank
a few beers. The following morning, we woke up early,
had some breakfast and started our sailing lesson. As
laid back as Dave is, he has a clear plan on how to
teach people how to sail.
-First, we got a feel for the boat in and around the
marina. We each took the helm and took the boat out
of the slip, and also steered it back into the slip
and tied it off.
-Second, we took the boat out to a more open portion
of the marina and did several drills turning around
different buoys, stopping as if we were going to tie
off to a mooring, etc.
The few hours we spend doing this made us both
confident at the helm.
After getting used to the boat a bit, we motored out
of the marina and went through the process of putting
up sails. Dave made sure we did each task twice
(e.g., I put up/took down the sails the first day
while my buddy was at the helm, and we swapped places
the second day) so that each of us would have hands-on
experience doing everything
After putting the sails up, we quickly started getting
into sailing maneuvers, all while Dave, white-board in
hand, was drawing pictures of where we were with
respect to the wind, what it means to tack, go on a
broad reach, turn-up, turn-away, and all the other
boat terminology. We each tacked several
times swapping places between the helm and sheeting
in the Genoa. We were heading to a nice anchorage a
bit up the coast, and made it there by around 3pm that
day. After discussing where (in terms of protection
from the wind) and how to anchor, Dave walked us
through the process when we arrived at our
destination. During the whole trip, Dave was just
explained how to do things, but let us do everything.
And if we wanted to repeat something for practice, he
encouraged us.
The second and third day went similar. The second day
we kept beating the wind going up the coast to a
second anchorage. We also did several man-overboard
maneuvers, and learned how to hove-to. By the time we
set the anchor, it was around 4pm, and we took a swim
and did some snorkeling before dinner (we shared all
cooking duties for each meal, which were all really
good.) We took the first written-test that night.
The final day, we headed down wind back toward the
marina we both took the helm and learned how to
jibe, and also did some more man-overboard drills to
make sure we had them down. We also did a bit of
navigation (even though it is not part of the
curriculum for our course) just to get a taste of what
was to come in future courses. We also came across
seals on our way back into the marina, where we tied
off for our final night on the boat.
As with any good vacation, the only bad part was that
it ended too soon. We are planning to go back and
finish our bareboat certification in San Carlos, and
cannot wait for another few days on the Free Spirit.
If you are looking for a nice sailing adventure, I'd
highly recommend heading down to San Carlos it was
great fun. If you are interested in more info about
the trip, the place, or the skipper, just email me and
I will answer your questions