Russ,

You're very kind and we appreciate it. I don't know about mastering anything...but I'd like to think we're at least good students. The more we're learning, the more we're realizing just how little we know. This is good though, because learning sail craft is exactly what drew us into it. It can be a bit overwhelming at times, but its always exciting and rewarding.

First, the previous owner has been beyond gracious with his time. He's taken us out probably around four times and shown us way more than we can possibly remember about depowering, trimming, and the like. A lot of the terms you put on that list, we've heard of...but may have only a limited understanding...or we may not even be able to point at it, lol. In any event, I'm sure more and more hands on experience along with book studying will hopefully go a long way. We're reading the ASA beginning text book right now. Also, believe it or not, their sailing app for our smart phones have been really useful in learning points of sail, trimming, and the like...and we bought a little Escape Rumba 14.5" to practice sailing strategy on as well.

As far as finding someone to sail with us...wow, that's an awesome offer to help us out. I'm sure we'll take you up on that. We can't believe how great the sailing community has been since we first got into it. We can't thank you enough for even offering. I'll check our calendar and see when we can be down there for a day or evening sail.

Sincerely,

Nate