Sailing Trip Part 5

After breakfast, the instructor had us see what is involved in a 'pump out', which is where you hook up a vaccuum cleaner like hose to the bathroom holding tanks and pump out the contents to a big holding tank at the marina. Pretty gross - we used lots of chlorox bleach hand wipes I'll tell you. Then we got to practice docking the 40 footer in an empty slip at the marina. Very daring of him to let a bunch of rookies steer the boat into a narrow slip bounded by wooden pilings. I will brag and say that I didn't hit one piling coming in or out of the slip. This was most likely due to two things: it is my job here at home to bring our sailboat into our slip, and I tended to ignore the instructor's directions and just did what I felt was best, which was go slow and pretend I don't have a reverse gear. Mary bashed into several pilings pretty hard but luckily Andrew, Arlin and I were stationed around the boat ready to fend off, so no damage was done to the boat. Next it was a quick sail to Ingram's Bayou where we dropped anchor and went below to take the 2 hour written test. Time flew by and then it was time to mark our tests. We all passed (Arlin just barely!) and then it was off back to Perdido Bay for, you guessed it, more tacking, jibing, heave-to, and man-over-board drills. The wind was pretty good that day and we were really heeled over. I was navigator/galley duty that day and Andrew was helm duty, so I got to navigate for Andrew which was fun. I shot a short video of the navigator's view from down below. We learned a new man-over-board method called the 'Quick Stop', which is basically stopping the boat quickly by turning up into the wind, then sailing a slow circle back to the victim in the water (we used a lifejacket as the victim). This is a good method for a 2 person boat since the helmsman can keep the victim in sight at all times. Andrew tried doing the whole thing by himself, steering and working the lines, which simulates me having fallen in and Andrew having to rescue me. The first time he bashed the lifejacket on the head but he got a good pickup the second time. In the photos you can see Mary at the helm and me acting as her spotter and linesman. We then sailed over to Robert's Bayou to drop anchor for the night. Andrew was helmsman so he had to follow the anchor instructions from Arlin. There was a pub nearby so we all rode over in the dinghy (Mary drove) for a bushwacker (a rum and milkshake type drink, Andrew liked it, too sweet for me). Then we cooked up spicy chicken breasts on the BBQ with spanish rice and caesar salad for sides. A very nice meal - wine and beer for beverages, and chocolate for dessert. After dishes were done we were sitting in the cockpit outside in the darkness and could hear the "puff" of dolphins coming up to breathe in the still water. Neat. Then we started coming up with name suggestions for Lanier's next boat. Their current boats are named with an 'adventure' theme: Endless Adventure and Splendid Adventure (our boat). I came up with "Carefree Adventure", and based on our first experience this morning, Arlin came up with "The 'I'm not touching that' Adventure", and then Mary cracked me up so bad with her suggestion "Final Adventure". By this time we'd all had a few too many beers and wines and it was time to hit the bunks - we didn't want to be too hungover for our Gulf sail the next day.