Check-out Ride in Sausalito

Well, my first sailing experience of the year 2008 was a check-out ride with Modern Sailing in Sausalito. Because I hadn't taken any classes from them, they required me to perform standard bareboat requirements before I could charter boats from them. I'd been waiting about a month to get enough wind on a day that's not raining, and the day finally came yesterday... a beautiful sunny day with about 10 knots of wind.

I was allowed to bring one crew person, so I brought my friend Norbert, and we took out a 39' Beneteau that was very similar to the 40' Beneteau I sailed in the BVIs last month. It was a great boat, and I felt very comfortable on it.


JT, my evaluator, had me get the boat ready, asked me a bunch of questions, and then had me start the engine. I had to back out of the slip (which was very tight for such a large boat) and drive it out of the very narrow fairway opening, turn around, bring it back in, and dock it. Then I had to back it out again, drive it out of the fairway, and then we were off.

Once out of the marina, we set the sails, and I sailed over toward Belvedere. I basically spent the next hour or so tacking, gybing, performing a man overboard drill (figure 8), and answering every question in the book... literally! I passed with flying colors. Then Norbert took the wheel, so I could show JT that I could tie some knots.

We returned to the marina, and I docked the boat for the last time, tied up, cleaned it up, put all the covers on, and went off to take a quick look at the Bay Model next door with Norbert just before they closed. Although it was a very short sail and we didn't really go anywhere or see anything new, I was very happy to pass this milestone. Now we can charter up in the north bay anytime we want. Yeah!!!