After the excitement of receiving my U.S. Coast Guard Master’s License in early February, I haven’t had a lot of new news to report lately.

I’ve been working at OCSC Sailing as much as possible, enjoying the diverse challenges of winter sailing: from constant rain to sudden squalls, from 180-degree wind shifts to no wind whatsoever. It’s kept my students and me on our toes, for sure.

Off the water, I’ve been trying to manage my accommodation expenses by rotating evenings on sailboats, hotels, and friends’ houses. I’m staying on my budget, but with no extended travel on the horizon, the benefits of being a vagabond are dwindling.

Recall, one of the major benefits of my living situation is that when I travel abroad for an extended period of time, I am not burdened by rent payments back home in the San Francisco Bay Area. I just pay for local hotels or apartments while traveling - and usually my travel destinations have very inexpensive housing. The trade off is that I have to find hotels in the expensive Bay Area when I am home. So the more time I spend in the Bay Area, the less favorable my living situation becomes. More on this in a later post.

The month of March did bring two newsworthy events.

First, after a lot of studying as well as on-the-water practice, I took the U.S. Sailing Cruising Instructor evaluation… and passed! The intensive course involved a 3-day, 2-night passage around the San Francisco Bay, with 3 other candidates and 1 instructor. We sailed day and night, we anchored and moored, we cooked and cleaned, and we executed close-quarter and crew-overboard maneuvers. It was a challenging course, but well worth it. Earning the certification now enables me to broaden my teaching curriculum – I can now teach on the bigger 36+ foot cruising boats. The syllabus includes boat systems, anchoring, mooring, etc.

The timing is perfect, because as March comes to an end, we approach the beginning of the sailing season on the San Francisco Bay. I look forward to a full spring, summer, and fall of teaching classes! I may sneak away for a few short adventures abroad - so stay tuned. Otherwise, I’ll be on “cruise control” working at OCSC Sailing with my expanded scope.

And the second newsworthy event? I turned 50. Enough said. :-)