Sailing Lessons!

Matt & Me celebrating our first sailing class at Johnny's in the Santa Cruz Harbor!

We did it! We started taking our sailing lessons! Some things we did already know but some things I thought I knew but were wrong. For example, I've been thinking that what I thought were halyards were really shrouds. A halyard is what pulls the mainsail up & shrouds are what helps hold the mast up. So much to learn! We have learned to rig the boats. So that is pretty cool. These boats are called dinghies & they are about 15 feet long & very tippy. That took some getting used to because catamarans are very stable. Matt & I have had to learn how to balance our weight so we don't tip over.

Speaking of tipping over, we went through what it was like to capsize yesterday. I have capsized 2 times in my life. Both times we in a somewhat small catamaran & in warm water. This time the water was NOT warm! -Probably about 50 degrees! At least the weather was unusually hot for Santa Cruz; 90 degrees, so when we got out of the water we were quick to warm up.

The wind was hardly existent yesterday, when we finally got to start sailing the boats. And when it was existent it kept changing every five minutes which was challenging. But it was a start. So we'll just build on from there. I've got to get the hang of moving the rudder, paying attention to the wind direction & holding the main-sheet all at the same time. I have a new appreciation for skippers. Hopefully in time it will be just like driving a stick shift. -I've never had an automatic car. Practice, practice, practice should get us there.

I did have a video of me & my excitement before our first class but it's not wanting to download. Maybe I'll get it up in the blog later on. At least I have it for when we are actually sailing around the world 5 years from now. It will be fun to look back on.

I do have to admit that I am struggling a little bit today to have faith in the fact that we will be sailing around the world eventually. I know I'm an impatient person though & if I don't see proof of things to come then I start to get doubtful. I guess that is normal. Trying to push those thoughts away. As I need to be here in the now & if everything were revealed to me this far ahead of time I would just be counting down the days & not appreciating the journey & enjoying that. I mean I've been neglecting financial reports for our Airbnb business because I've been immersing myself in sailing videos & looking at boats for sail. This is where I'd insert a crying/laughing emoji if I knew how to do that on this page. So yeah, need to work on my patience. Baby steps.... baby steps...