Sailing Trip Part 2

Sunday morning we woke up and drove to the end of Pensacola Beach just to look around, and then we made our way back across the 2 bridges to downtown Pensacola and found the Seville Harbor Marina. We had brunch at the Fish House restaurant on the left of this picture. I had a nice eggs benedict with spinach and artichoke - very fancy and delicious!
We all met up at the boat around 2:00pm and got introduced to each other. Our instructor was Ron. He is a retired telephone company worker now well into his second career as a sailing instructor. He tells us that you don't make any money being a sailing instructor but it is fantastic to be out on the water almost everyday. He is very grateful that his wife has a good paying job as a physical therapist so they can pay the bills. Our crew mates were Arlin and Mary. Arlin is about 38 years old and he works on satellite systems as an Air Force officer. He is also a low carb dieter and lost about 60 pounds over the last year and is now fanatical about jogging everyday. We never did learn that much about Mary except that she is a retired school teacher. She is very soft spoken and very private and mysterious. We got the feeling she knew a lot more about sailing than she was letting on. Finally she opened up a little during our last night together and told us she had crossed the Atlantic on a 35 foot boat. She has also owned her own 35 footer and sailed on the Chesapeake Bay for several years. The reason she was taking this class is that it is required so she can participate in some group charter trips via the sailing school. We really liked Mary and I kinda felt that she was secretly telling the instructor to stuff it half the time which made me laugh. The boat is a 393 Benneteau (just short of 40 feet long), with 3 cabins and 2 bathrooms. Andrew and I got the v-berth cabin at the front of the boat that had its own bathroom. Mary and Arlin each got their own cabin and the instructor slept outside in the cockpit or pulled out the salon cushions to make a queen size bed. So the sleeping and bathroom situation was great. There is a nice kitchen with a stove and fridge. We had to get used to stowing things in small spaces which means that anytime you want to get something, you have to move a hundred things out of the way first, grab what you want, and then put everything back again. Kinda a hassle but we got used to it. One of the first things we did as a group was setup the duty roster. Each of us students had a specific thing that we were responsible for each day: Helm and Safety, Anchor and Lines, Dinghy and Lines, and Navigation and Galley. Of course each day we all got turns at the helm and working the lines. We all went for dinner to an irish restaurant called McGuire's that has over 1/4 million dollar bills hanging from the ceiling. No kidding. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I don't have a shot of it. Pretty neat though. We all slept on the boat that night. It was pretty squishy since I am now used to a king size bed that I can hang my feet over the end of. Also a crazy mockingbird kept singing all through the night - over and over with his whole repertoire of songs. Drove us nuts!