As the next stage of our learning process, we took the ASA 104 class on Lake Superior. The boat was 35', so a decent step up from the 23' boat we used for 101/103.
We arrived late on a Tuesday, and settled onto the boat for an overnight sleep, with the lessons to start the next day.
After a quick breakfast on Wednesday, we went over the systems on the boat, discussed procedures for leaving the dock, and covered some basic navigation to plan where we were going. We spent the first hour or so doing basic maneuver-under-motor drills, such as turning in place, and man overboard. Eventually we raised the sails and got to sail.
Midway through the day, the wind started to die, and by mid-afternoon had stopped. So we just dropped the sails and motored to our anchorage. Anchoring out was simple. We dropped a second anchor just for the practice of doing it and to use the dinghy.
Thursday, we did all our stuff in reverse. We practiced docking at Madeline Island, then got out sailing again. By early afternoon, the wind started really picking up and we had a much rougher sail. We tried a different man overboard technique, and it proved very difficult in the high winds.
Overall, it was a great two days of sailing, and left me hungry for the next phases our of (possible) transition from land to water.
