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Last year, I decided to learn to sail. I’d sailed a bit as a kid, but it’d been a long time (and I never really knew what I was doing then, anyway), so I figured it’d be good to learn for real, in order to start exploring the amazing waterways we have up here in the Puget Sound area.

So I signed up for the [ASA 101](https://asa.com/certifications/asa-101-basic-keelboat-sailing/) course at [Puget Sound Sailing Institute](http://www.pugetsoundsailing.com/), took it over a weekend (after studying for a good two weeks), passed (with a perfect score, woo!) and then joined the Open Boating program at [Sail Sand Point](http://www.sailsandpoint.org/) here on Lake Washington, where I spent the remainder of the summer and early fall practicing on [Lasers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_\(dinghy\)), [FJs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Junior) and [Hobie Waves](https://www.hobie.com/sail/wave/), the latter of which has become a favorite for Sunday afternoons with the wife and kiddos.

This year, it’s more about getting out on the bigger keelboats for me; it’s one thing to zip around on the lake in a dinghy, where the only real risk is the occasional capsize, but it’s another thing entirely to navigate safely under sail around all the ferries and container ships moving about on [Elliott Bay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Bay). So every couple of weeks or so, I’ve been getting out on a great little [Catalina 22](https://www.catalinayachts.com/sport-series/22-sport/) with a few of my fellow Chefs — making mistakes, learning a ton, and gaining the confidence I’ll need to get around here on my own someday, hopefully soon.

Here’s a shot from a recent outing.


Getting Out There


A little vertical-panoramic snapshot from a recent Sunday-morning outing — one of our favorite weekend walks, along the ship canal down in [Fremont](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fremont,+Seattle,+WA/@47.6570239,-122.3636676,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x549015ac65a569d5:0xa2c5a5c295534d98!8m2!3d47.6541773!4d-122.3500004).

Such a great city.
