ASA 105, Coastal Navigation

Part of the deal for our new sailboat was the dealer threw in a hefty discount for one of their associated school's "Coastal Navigation" course.  At the time we made the deal, the only thing we walked away with was the course materials.  And some materials!  A training chart, parallel rulers, dividers and a very detailed book.  We were encouraged to read up ahead of time and I started working the practice problems in the back of the book.

It turns out coastal navigation is really applied geometry and physics.  I haven't touched this stuff since the days of Mr. Yenser and Mr. Quinn back at LHS.

So after studying, last Saturday morning, we drove down to Riverside, NJ and found that our instructor was Captain Andy again!  Unlike ASA 101 and 103, this was a lecture only course, held in the G. Winter's Sailing center.

The class went from 9:00 AM until 4:30 PM (we got out a little early each day) and included lunch from Panera Bread.

There's really not a whole lot to show... we listened to Capt. Andy and then tried plotting the routes and bearings on the practice charts.  When things got boring, I played around with the new Fuji camera I brought along.

 

Vicky was always checking my chart for the answers!

She was also voted "most stylishly dressed" of the coastal navigators.

 One of our fellow students was an ENT surgeon... you'll have to guess on that.

I took a spare moment to check out the showroom...

... and grabbed a photo of Captain Gary.  He is the head of The Sailing School and will be the instructor/delivery captain on our voyage around NJ.

Finally, after two days of instruction, we took home our exams.  New charts and several hours of work over the next couple of evenings.

Finally, yesterday I packaged it all up and sent it off to Captain Andy.  Now we have to wait...