Lesson No. 1 Learned the Hard Way

I have a lot of these. I am putting them on the blog at the risk of looking very, very dumb. Nevertheless, exposing my bonehead mistakes is about all I have to offer to the art of sailing at the moment.

Lesson 1: When you buy a new boat, have the seller explain in detail how to rig the boat. Take an inventory of everything on the boat. If you don't know what something is or how it works, ask.

Price for learning it: Aggravation and wounded ego.

How I learned it: I was so confident that Bliss was a great deal that we bought her without ever having sailed her. The seller offered to take me for a sail and show me how everything works. I called him when I was ready to sail the boat, but I couldn't get him on the phone. So we struck out on our own on the Mississippi Sound.

The water was fairly rough, and winds were 10-15 knots. I motored out past the last buoys, pointed the boat into the wind, and told Principessa to hold her on that heading.

I did not even have the headsail out of the bag, and I was trying to hank on the headsail in a heavy chop. Tish and Matthew were excited because a pod of dolphins was swimming around us.

When I looked up the first time, I was looking out to sea. Then, I was looking at the harbor. Then out to see. Then looking at the harbor. Yup, we were going around in circles, not holding the heading. Every time the bow passed through the wind, I was getting clobbered by a fluttering sail. And I was getting tossed about rather nicely on the bow.

To those in the harbor, we must have looked like complete idiots. I know I felt like one.

When I finally hauled the foresail up, I had not properly routed the jib sheet through the shrouds. The good news is that we were at least sailing on the foresail by that time. I was able to re-route the downwind sheet, tack, then re-route the other.

Raising the main was even more difficult. The slugs upon which the mainsail slides up the mast would not slide for love nor money. I had not figured out how to use the autopilot, so Principessa was weaving here, there and yonder. I was again getting clobbered by a fluttering sail each time we changed course.

By this time, all that I learned from my Dale Carnegie course was out the window. I was not being very nice to Principessa.

One of the old salts at the harbor later told me to get some silicone dry lube and spray the slugs before I leave. That would have helped.

Now, I hank on the foresail, attach the halyard, thread the jib sheets, and route the halyard back to the cockpit (I don't even think my previous owner knew that he could do this) before we cast off.

The upside: Some of the other sailors on our pier took pity on us. They offered us some pointers and encouragement.