Sailing Life
-
Charter successes
The last post I talked a bit about how it was confidence building to get the sails up and sail on our own. But the whole trip was really a confidence booster. We had opportunities, even though we didn’t sail much, to practice a lot of other skills and really show ourselves that we can Continue reading
-
Wind (?) on the open water
We got to the spend the week on a sailboat in the Pacific Northwest. I’m pretty deliberate about saying we spent a week on a sailboat, because to say we sailed for a week would be a bit of an overstatement! In typical Lever fashion….we were lacking wind or when we had it, it was Continue reading
-
Certified…or Certifiable Sailors!
We wrapped up our American Sailing Association 101 and 103 courses, with the Victoria Sailing School, a couple of weeks ago. What this entailed was taking our last practical lesson, which was on a J/30, so it was about eight feet longer than the other boats we’ve been on and taking our two tests. First Continue reading
-
Money is a renewable resource…Time is not — Ben from Sailing Nahoa
I’ve actually tried about five different versions of this post. It’s about money. One of the more common questions I get is, “How can you afford to live like that?” I understand at the heart of the question is, how can you afford not to work. As I’ve written the previous versions of this, I Continue reading
-
Moving On!
We have finished our practical lessons on the J/22. Our last lesson in the basic keelboat and coastal cruising line will be on a J/30. It’s made by the same company, but is about 8’ longer. There are also some other differences, including the sail set up as well as steering and anchoring. I’m looking Continue reading
-
Trade Offs
Last week we transitioned from the Basic Keelboat practical lessons to the Basic Coastal cruising lessons. So we’ve moved on from, how does a boat work to, if your sailing here’s some more advanced techniques you need to be aware of to operate a boat safely. It was an interesting transition. We know the points Continue reading
-
We had wind!
We’ve had a few sailing lessons now, the first one did not have any wind, so it was more of an exercise in learning the parts of the boat, running the motor, when there was wind, trying to figure out where it was coming from. The next two lessons had wind! So, we could sail! Continue reading
-
First Scuba Experience
It wasn’t the tropics, it wasn’t a beautiful reef with all kinds of colorful coral and fish, or sharks. It was just a swimming pool that was only four feet deep. But it was our first scuba experience. It was pretty cool. Sandy and Kenneth has done Snuba before, but no one had ever done Continue reading
-
Knots…and a little more
The past few weeks have been a series of first steps in our sailing journey. Step 1: Know Your Knots! Step 2: Our first practical sailing lesson. Step 3: Our first introduction to scuba diving. Step 4: Booking a trip to Florida to look at boats. Sometimes the newness and excitement of it all is Continue reading
-
Nine to 5
BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ! Get up. Go to the gym. Come home. Shower. Go to work. Come home. Cook dinner. Eat. Go for a walk. Clean the kitchen. Homework. Look at the phone. Watch TV. Go to bed. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Oh yeah, and on the weekend, we spice things up! Laundry. Meal planning. Grocery shopping. Continue reading
The Great Wander 