third time's not a charm (Sunday's sailing lesson)
Well, we got out for our third lesson this past Sunday and unfortunately it was a bit of a dud. Enough that we cancelled our fourth lesson which was supposed to be Sunday afternoon.
Why? For starters there was a strong wind (for the size of boat that we're sailing) and stronger gusts - it was averaging around 12kts and at the CWB they actually close the livery and stop renting boats when it stays at that range. Sailing lessons do continue to go out - just with the mainsail reefed. I don't think our instructor was super comfortable with the boat in that wind. Or maybe he just wasn't comfortable / confident that we were confident enough at that wind - either way it was a bit of a vicious cycle because it made us less comfortable and I think that made him less comfortable. You see where this is going. I don't think we helped this by starting the lesson saying that we weren't super comfortable on the water yet and making comments about the wind strength. Did we learn anything? A few things - when you get the gust, turn into the wind and it'll right the boat. Or, during the gust let the sails a bit loose so they just run out and the boat doesn't heel too much. Also, tack at all times instead of jibing when the wind is strong.
In hindsight I think both of us think that we probably made a mistake in cancelling the second lesson. One reason is that we would have had a different instructor which may or may not have helped. More importantly in my mind is that if you're out sailing for the day and the wind picks up then you need to know what to do - even if it's only used long enough to get you back to the dock...
Oh well, just things to think about until our next lesson later this week.