Melissa doesn't seem to like my sailing instruction. She prefers to lounge around when I'm there to operate the boat. So I decided to treat her to some professional lessons (not against her will, if you were wondering...). So today was her first lesson towards American Sailing Association certification.

Leslie has sailed around the world twice and has taught sailing for many years. The last couple of years she taught at a school specializing in teaching women to sail. She had Melissa start off with some docking practice, which went really well. I decided to stay ashore so I won't be in the way or try to inadvertently help. I also wanted to get some pictures.

The picture is of Melissa and Leslie motor sailing the boat out of the Marina and into San Diego Bay.

Once they were out in the bay they went over right of way or the boating "rules of the road". Melissa came up with a good way to remember one of the primary rules. If the wind is coming over the right side of the boat, you have the right of way. If two sailboat are on the same tack (both have the wind coming over the same side of the boat), the boat down wind has the right of way. They did some man overboard drills and practiced stopping the boat using a tactic call heaving to. Heaving to is basically setting both of your sails and your rudder in such a way that they all fight each other and cancel out each others ability to move the boat. If properly executed, a boat hove to should tend itself and make very minimal headway. They also went over tacking, jibing, and sail trim.

Melissa came back with a big smile and really enjoyed the day. She even taught me a few tricks about using the traveler and boom vang while going down wind. Those are mechanical devices that are used to fine tune the main sails shape. Leslie was a great teacher and Melissa is looking forward to their next lesson.