What a great day! The wind was a little light but we had the sails up most of the day anyway, and everyone left with a little more knowledge and experience than when they arrived, amongst lots of laughter and new friendships made. Everyone came with different expectations of what they wanted to work on and we were able to touch base on most of the day’s checklist. Crew recovery and docking was high on the list so we spent considerable time on those with everyone taking time at the helm to do traditional figure-8 recovery as well as in-a-hurry with the engine on technique, and several types of docking situations and how to feather the engine to control the boat speed. We spent some time getting the sails up and down safely, some basic sail trim (when the breeze picked up) and some knots for securing the boat at the dock. A mother orca and her son were in the deep cove area when we were hove to for lunch, we didn’t get close enough to see them but the blue light boat was keeping the paparazzo in check. Just a wonderful day for everyone!
A heartfelt thank you to Darry for his clear and supportive coaching, and to Sharon for so generously hosting the crew aboard Puffin. It’s always such a gift when members share their boats and experience to help build skills and confidence in others.
