First Sail of the 2012 Season

This sailing season, which opened May 1^st, Ramon and I joined The Boston Harbor Sailing Club. We were sorry to leave Piers Park Sailing Center behind, but knew it was time to venture out on larger boats that we could sleep aboard.

Our instructor, Vern

We began the season with BHSC’s Coastal Navigation course on May 12^th. We were to meet our instructor at the launch at 9am. Vern was easy to spot with his black captain’s cap atop his curly salt and pepper hair and his matching beard; Herman Melville himself, could not have conjured up a more fitting sailor. 

We boarded Speedy Gonzales, one of BHSC’s Albin 28s, with Vern and fellow students, James and Jim. First stop was the fueling dock where we learned how to empty
waste from the boat and refill the boat’s water.
From there, we practiced anchoring off of Spectacle Island, then plotted our trip to Cohasset with the following markers, “15” Nixes Mate, “3” George’s Island, “3” Pt Allerton, “1HL”, and “3” Chittenden Rock. The bearings we plotted on the chart matched well with the actual bearings read at each mark. Success!

We docked in Cohasset Harbor just long enough to jump off and stretch our legs. We followed our marks in reverse order back home again to Boston Harbor, arriving just after 8:00pm.

                                                                   Ready to Set Sail