Day 2 - ASA101 written test and on-water training The day starts with the written test. It's a 100-question multiple choice setup. I don't enjoy taking tests and haven't taken one in years (decades?). Also I didn't study particularly thouroughly, although I did rescan the book last night. I complete the test in half an hour and get 99%. The missed question was due to me marking the dot next to the one I intended - a typo essentially. I still don't enjoy tests. There will be more. With that out of the way we head out again. The wind is stronger and there are whitecaps on the small waves out in the open. A few other boats are out as well. We practice a lot of maneuvers, including Man Over Board (MOB) retrieval where the captain throws a buoy out of the boat and the student at the helm has to respond, sail the appropriate course, and line up the boat so that the buoy can be retrieved. We all take turns until we get it right. I manage it on the first try, as does another student. The others take several attempts but all get it eventually. The wind makes it challenging and we only practice it as a crew, whereas if there were only two people onboard to begin with, the maneuver and retrieval would have to be done by the remaining person solo. Certainly something to practice later on if I want to continue doing this. It is fun to watch other boats out there, including a much larger sailboat - likely similar to what I'll be on for the 103/104 courses in two weeks.
After several hours on the river we come back to the marina to practice docking. The stronger wind and current make it more challenging still. When it's my turn I do OK, but when I later try to assist another student in recovering a docking attempt, I screw up and hit the dock a bit. Not too hard, but a good reminder that when forced to react instead of planning I don't do as well. Practice will help. As will better planning. With the day concluded we tie up and wash down the boat, and get our logbooks and certification. Cool. A great weekend, much learned, and looking forward to the next steps. Having had the informal prior experience definitely helped, as I already had questions that the course answered. Without that it would be harder to see the relevance of what's being taught, and retain the info.
|
