Sailing lessons
In late 2019 I took a beginner’s sailing course. The course was designed to teach adults to sail dinghies in pairs by teaching introductory sailing techniques, parts of the boat, ropework, etc.
I have this romantic idea of taking my boat out onto the water and having a relaxing day on the ocean eating a picnic lunch or reading a book etc.
I think in hindsight this is a bit unrealistic; for a start, any keelboat
big enough to have a relatively stable deck seems to require several crew.
Secondly, a sailboat has a lot of moving parts that are complex and require
specific domain knowledge. It’s not like a powerboat where you can just hop
in and push the accelerator to go.
Finally, sailing scales exponentially in price as the boat gets larger,
so I’m not sure I’ll be able to afford it. I’ve heard it said that “a boat
is a hole in the water that you throw money into” and I don’t find that
prospect very appealing.
If I end up living somewhere with a healthy community sailing club, I might pick it up again. I don’t think I’ve retained much from my lessons but the experience was certainly valuable.