Charleston Sailing School (ASA) - May 2007

May 18, 2007

We drove down to Charleston from our home in Efland, NC. It was about a 5 hour drive, and was uneventful. After checking in at the Holiday Inn Express, we drove over to the Charleston City Marina to make sure we could find it in the morning when our class started. Finding the marina, which is HUGE, was no problem, but finding the school's boats proved to be more difficult. We knew they were at Dock Z, but we could not find any indications as to which dock was which. 

After wandering around for about a half hour, we finally went to the marina office, where we asked the office worker where dock Z was.  She didn't know, but showed us a map and told us how to get to it. Turns out she was wrong, as we wandered around some more. Finally a dock worker asked if we wanted a ride (he was in a golf cart).  I guess we looked like real sailors and he figured we were headed out to our boat. After telling him where we wanted to go, he said Dock Z was way at the other end, so we ended up walking there after all. I'd guess we walked over 3 miles total before finding the school's boats. 

The Island Packet 44 Second Wind had just pulled into the slip after a day of class, while the catamaran we had been on in Miami was not far behind. We got re-acquainted with the school's instructors, and even got a tour of instructor Dave's Island Packet 37. After having a beer and chatting a while, we headed back to the hotel. We got takeout from the restaurant next door, and ate in the room.

May 19, 2007

In the morning, after the usual HIX breakfast, we checked out and headed to the marina. We lugged our dufflebags over to the IP44 which would be our home during the class. We then took the ASA 105 class exam (Coastal Navigation) on the catamaran since it had a nice big table. Unfortunately there was only enough room for one to work at it, so I let Emily have it. I ended up standing up for the whole 3 hour test, using the top of the refrigerator/freezer as my 'nav table'. The test was not too bad, as we had studied a ton for it. After they graded the tests, we learned that Emily had beat me for the first time on one of the sailing tests. I blamed it on the inferior nav table I had, however I was proud of her, as she really struggled during the early weeks of study for the course. She came on string at the end and is now an excellent navigator.

After the exam we ate lunch and then headed out for a sail on the IP44. Although we had sailed smaller monohull boats many times before, we had never sailed on any bigger than 26 feet long, so the 44 foot length of the IP would be a new sailing challenge. Will was our instructor, who is in his mid-20's and very easy-going, and we found him to be a excellent instructor. Our instructor in Miami (Montie), was a bit gruff at times, and didn't always do things by the book, so Will was a pleasant change. We headed out to the Charleston harbor under power, as the winds were quite light. In fact, for the most part, we had the lightest winds we've ever had sailing during the two days we were in Charleston. We have usually had 10-20 knot winds, and sometimes even higher during our brief sailing career, but in Charleston we had 5-10 at best most of the time, except when the sea breeze kicked up in the late afternoon. Being the weekend, we also had plenty of boat traffic to deal with, most of which were powerboaters.

We did put the sails up and sailed at 2-4 knots speed over ground.  We sailed past Fort Sumter, and headed out into the Atlantic. This was our first sailing in the ocean, as all other times we were in more protected bays/sounds. Once we got out to the Atlantic, the winds picked up and we cruised along at 5-7 knots at times. We sailed along the coast for several miles. 

Charleston waterfront

Fort Sumter

Captain Will

As we got closer to the marina I started feeling better and was able to assist Will with lowering the sails and docking duties. Will then left for the night, leaving us on the boat to fend for ourselves. We walked to a nearby restaurant where we had a great meal.

Charleston Bridge

Both Emily and I started feeling a little queasy since we hadn't sailed for a while, and thus hadn't gotten our 'sea legs' yet. We ate some crackers and we even took some Bonine seasickness pills. We both started feeling better, but when we changed course and got a different wave pattern and boat motion, I started feeling poorly again. I was even at the helm, which usually helps with any seasickness problems, but this time nothing helped, as I had to give up the helm to Emily and made a quick dash to the leeward side of the boat to relieve my stomach of its contents. Although that helped some, I continued to feel poorly and we ended up heading back to the marina. This caused us to not be able to complete the ASA 106 requirements of doing a nighttime sail, but at that point all I wanted to do was get on land. There were even times when I thought I wouldn't want to sail the next day, but fortunately those crazy thoughts soon subsided. 

Here are a few photos of the Island Packet's roomy interior.  Very comfortable, homey boat!

May 20, 2007

Sunday we woke up to another awesome day (in fact all time we were in Charleston we didn't see a single cloud, and temps were in the low 80's). After grabbing some breakfast foods at the local convenience store, we came back and ate in the cockpit. All food tastes great on a boat! I also took Bonine plenty early this day to prevent any reoccurance of the previous day's seasickness.

Will eventually showed up around 10AM and we headed out for a sail. Winds were even lighter this day (less than 5 knots), and at times we were moving at less than 1 knot over ground. We sailed past the Tall Ship exhibit on the harbor, seeing many of the old-style sailing ships. Tiring of the incredibly slow speed we were traveling at, we eventually fired up the engine and motorsailed over to the Cooper River. We got to see the Naval Base, with all the extremely large ships at dock. Check it out at: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/charleston.htm

The tall ships were in town!

As we turned around to head back, the sea breeze kicked up and all of a sudden we had 10-15 knot winds. Once we hit the harbor we really got to do some sailing. We were tacking back and forth, dodging numerous boats as we made our way back to the marina. The traffic heading for the marina and the Ashley River was more than anything we had dealt with in our sailing career, but we handled it like old salts. We then headed to the anchorage, as we had told Will we wanted to practice anchoring. The Ashley River anchorage is fairly crowded, but we found a decent spot to make our attempt. Emily was at the helm, while I was at the bow working the anchor windlass under the watchful eye of Will. This was our first attempt at anchoring where there was both wind and current to deal with. It took 3 tries to get the hook to grab, so we got so excellent practice.

Next we headed over to the fuel dock to practice docking. The fuel dock was situated so that we had current pushing us backwards, and a stiff crosswind, blowing us away from the dock. Emily was at the helm for the first attempt (and I might add, her first docking attempt ever!), and the pressure was on considering the conditions. I'm proud to say that she docked that boat like she had been doing it all her life. Will and I got the lines tied off and we were successfully docked. I was up next, and I had a bit more difficulty, but eventually got it docked. It was good experience in those less than ideal docking conditions.

After returning to the slip we got our gear together and headed back to our car and drove over to the nearby Holiday Inn Riverview, which was right on the Ashley River and overlooked the marina. We had wanted to stay there our first night in Charleston but it all booked when we were planning our trip. Our room was on the 12th floor and we had a nice view of the river, anchorage, and marina. That night we drove into downtown Charleston and had a great dinner.

May 21, 2007

Monday we ate at the HI buffet breakfast, then drove into downtown to do some sightseeing. We had not been to Charleston in 20 years, so we remembered little from our previous visits. We walked everywhere, and had a great time. That night we ate a a wonderful restaurant - the Coast. We sat outside in the 'alley' where they had three tables set up. As we were celebrating our 22nd anniversary a few days early, we went all out, with appetizers, plenty of mojitos, and some delicious seafood entrees. We also had some fabulous desserts, which were on the house due to it being our anniversary dinner celebration. It was one of the best meals we've ever had.