ASA 101 - Part 2
21 May 2017
Second day of classes started in the morning with a lesson on knot tying. I remembered most of them from my old boy scout days, and it’s amazing how readily that knowledge comes back to you even after all these years. Clove hitches, square knots and two-turns with two-half hitches were practiced, along with the bowline (rabbit runs out of the hole, around the tree, and back in the hole). The bowline took a try or two to get it down right again, but the others I could tie without even thinking about it. I learned those about 25 years ago!!!
Today was a very different day from yesterday. First, we started off less a crewmember, as one of the guys from the first day didn’t make it back. That’s expected, it’s a tough course and not for everyone. Second, instead of the chilly winds of yesterday, today was bright, sunny, and clear. I made sure I had plenty of sunscreen and a hat, and still wore my light jacket as it was sunny but not necessarily hot.
After the knots and a quick review of regulations, we went right back on the water! We practiced a few more tacks, came about, and then we prepared to learn to jibe. Jibing is basically the opposite of tacking – instead of passing your bow through the wind, you pass the stern through. This is a bit riskier of a maneuver- if you don’t control it properly you can swing the boom hard from one side to the other. This can damage the boat of course, and if you aren’t looking out it can crash hard into your head. This is serious stuff, as a blow to the head from a free-swinging boom caught in the wind can easily be fatal. The captain explained that in an uncontrolled jibe his boom can swing with 1200 pounds of force. That is enough to kill for sure, but his setup was such a way that the boom was high enough to pass well overhead. Even still, 1200 pounds of force is more than enough to cause significant and expensive damage. Long story short – this is an important maneuver to get right. The boom was brought tight to the center, “Jibe-ho!” was called, and the boom was held secure as we passed through the wind. As you saw the wind catch the sail from one side to the other, you let the boom out to swing across the deck. Nerve-wracking for the first time, but a few practice runs with the experienced captain guiding us and we were just fine!
We lost another crewmember over lunch break, as he was struggling physically to pull the ropes and manage the sails. Down to just three, we sailed north of the Ben Franklin Bridge to get out of the higher traffic lanes as there was much activity on the water today. Commercial tug boats were running barges through the shipping lanes, sailboats were out catching the wind, and quite a few powerboats flew up and down the river. Once we had a good bit of room, we began the “man overboard recovery” procedure. This taught us how to figure-8 back to recover someone who fell overboard, while completely under sail and utilizing a path that would make use of tacking rather than jibing. We threw over a seat cushion and had to command the crew from the helm to tack the sails as you turned the 36 foot boat, and guide the ship with tight accuracy to get close enough to recover the overboard man without running him over. Again, important stuff! After this drill, we checked the time and headed back to the dock to take our test.
I am a very good learner, and I learn very well by actually doing more than studying. I am not a very good test taker however, even though I may be very comfortable with what I learned. So I was a bit nervous as we headed back. We had a quick review then got the 100 question test. Despite the nerves, I scored 99/100! I knew the answer for the one I got wrong, but didn’t follow every teacher’s advice to read all the answers first in a multiple choice. I got tricked by the answer with the right words but in the wrong order! Oh well, I took my 99% score home proudly and hopefully will build off this for future adventures!
It was tough work, a good bit of studying, and lots of fun time on the water. I had a blast! So, what’s next? SailTime offers a program called CrewTime, where I could join up a few sails as a crewmember to gain further experience and put my knowledge to use. Practice makes perfect, right? Beyond that is ASA 103 (they skipped 102 for some reason), then onward to ASA 104. There are more optional classes beyond that which get into more specific subjects such as celestial navigation or offshore passagemaking. These are helpful to hone your skills and develop a great resume. But the focus now is passing these next two, and that would give me freedom to charter a boat nearly anywhere in the world!
And what would be a better way to face new horizons than on a live-aboard sailboat?!?!?
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