5/13-6/13/2023 This post is about my experiences in formally learning to sail.

In the past, I've had lots of informal practice on the Columbia river in the San Juan 21 and Catalina 22 sailboats that M used to own. That was back when we were still married and living on the floating home.

Those experiences were definitely fun and occasionally challenging, but didn't really inspire me to continue at the time. There is a lot of maintenance and other overhead involved. Also the boat is where it is, which may not be where you want to sail at the moment. Transporting it is a lot of effort, time and expense.

More recently, friends invited me to sail on a chartered Beneteau 31 out of Long Beach (see page 1 of this blog section). The charter aspect appealed to me. Just use the boat where and when you want, then walk away.

That experience, combined with all my recent travels, gave rise to a new perspective - while I had taken my kayak to Norway, and rented a kayak in Australia, it would be cool to be able to charter a boat in some select places. Like Greece and/or Croatia, which are on the list. Norwegian fjords via sailboat ought to be interesting too.

Fortunately the American Sailing Association (ASA) has a formal multi-level training/certification program. You do have to book well in advance (I reserved my June class back in December), and the cost for the levels I cover in this post is about $2K, but the hope is that it will be worth it. Passion Yachts in Portland is the school I went through. There are others.

The program is in several parts. The 101 course, Basic Keelboat Sailing, is a two-day combination of classroom and on-water training, departing from Hayden Island on the Columbia river. There is also a test. Days 1 and 2 below cover that.

The 103/104 courses (there is no 102) that cover Coastal Cruising and Bareboat Charter, are offered as a combined five-day liveaboard experience. There are several options, I chose the one departing from Anacortes in Washingon, sailing around the San Juan islands. See Day 3-7 entries below.

Day 1 - ASA101 classroom and on-water intro - Full day link

Day 2 - ASA101 written test and on-water training - Full day link

Day 3 - ASA103 on-water intro - Full day link

Day 4 - ASA103 on-water and written test - Full day link

Day 5 - ASA104 on-water - Full day link

Day 6 - ASA104 on-water and written test Full day link

Day 7 - ASA104 on-water final day - Full day link

In all, a very fun and valuable experience. It answered many of the questions that had arisen in my informal DIY sailing days, and gave me additional confidence. Along with a new awareness of the challenges and my own limitations. Now I can start planning ways to incorporate this into future adventures. Also need to still take the 105 course, Coastal Navigation, to better understand the details of how that works.