We got up at 8am to head over to Santa Cruz for the first half of a class on Intermediate Coastal Cruising from Pacific Yachting and Sailing aboard the Pacific Spirit. Our instructor was an old salty guy named Steve, and I really liked him. The instruction was very precise, he made sure everyone did every part of what was needed. He also gave us some really great pointers for a weekend trip from Santa Cruz to Monterey. He said that it is good to Monterey around 11, and that calling a week or so in advance to get a slip is a good plan. If you call in advance you can see where you are going to need to go in the harbor and not have to randomly sail around looking for the slip number. He had us plot a course for Monterey on one of the nautical charts they have as part of the class, which was rather nice. For coming back from Monterey it is good to get going by 10, and motor for the first hour out to where you can pick up the winds that are coming around the point. The winds there start picking up around 10:30 and it is good to have the whole morning to head back to Santa Cruz.
During the first half of the day we just talked about navigation and did some quick chart exercises. Afterwards we got lunch at the local minimart. After lunch we did one parking exercise each, and took the ship out onto the bay. Once we got underway it was a little much, and we did some heaving to exercises, during which we took in a reef of the main. We then did some precision sailing in figure 8’s around two ships at anchorage near the Santa Cruz Pier. We went out by the 1-mile buoy, did a “tactical jibe,” which is also known as the “chicken jibe.” This is a maneuver where you do a 270 degree tak, instead of trying a jibe in heavy winds. There was a ship that passed us near the 1-mile buoy that had a really pretty spinnaker out, as well as a kevlar main sail. I really enjoyed Steve as an instructor. We were joined by a woman named Ashley.
It's an Exciting World 
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