Sailing Story: Nina and Jake

Nina is all about throwing her husband, Jake, head first into new adventures.

“I have never been on a sailboat in my life,” Jake said. “We lived out of a little airplane, a little Cesna, for a while – you know… I had just gotten used to that— and she’s like, ok I think I want to sail around the world now.” 

For Nina, this just seemed like the next logical step in their lifelong adventure.

“All the variety of boats that are available these days and the liveaboards, you really can combine adventure with just… living,” Nina said. “I work remotely since COVID and I really liked the idea of being able to combine enjoyment with regular daily life.”

Jake wasn’t an immediate no — nor was he surprised by her proposal. 

“My wife is forever the adventurer and has gotten into a lot of cool situations and a lot of amazing adventures too and travels so she is always coming up with something new,” he said. 

However, he did tell Nina he thought it would be prudent to take sailing lessons first, as Nina had never sailed before either. 

She took an ASA 101 course in Washington aboard a 24 foot monohull to show Jake she was truly serious about this next life adventure. Then, she booked a weeklong trip with Go Sail Virgin Islands. 

“I had gotten interested in sailing and I was reading a book – then when we got on a boat and the boat took us, I just fell in love. I was really excited. It was really so much fun.”

Jake didn’t share Nina’s enthusiasm as they first stepped aboard the boat. He worried the ASA coursework would make the trip more stressful than fun. 

“If it was just coming out and learning, I would have felt burdened and it wouldn’t have been fun,” he said. “You know, really, we got to get off the boat, we got to go snorkel, we got to walk into town and places we wanted to.”

“You get to eat at different restaurants in different towns and see a different town each night ,” Nina chimed in. 

And the actually ASA sailing courses? They weren’t as bad as Jake thought they might be either!

“All the way around it was a really good time. I did better than I thought I would from zero experience sailing — or being on a sailboat ever,” Jake said. “I could learn the book knowledge of what these words are but then putting them into application, I was worried it was going to make things harder. Once I got to see ‘oh this is this’ and ‘this is that and this is how you use it’ – it started to kind of correlate more and make more sense.”

Nina felt much the same way about everything clicking once she was on the boat. She even found quite a few similarities between sailing and another hobby of hers— flying planes!

“Initially, before I knew anything about sailing or how sailboats sail— I didn’t realize that a sail is an airfoil.I thought the wind could push you, I didn’t realize it could pull you— you could get lift from the airfoil. I never realized that. I mean, that blew my mind.”   

So what’s next for this sailing couple?

“My goal is… I really do want to spend a couple of years doing blue water cruising, getting a boat, and sailing around.”

As for Jake? He’s coming around to the idea.

“When it’s on a catamaran I think it’s really the way to go if she’s thinking about seriously living full time — which means she might meet me in places if she wants to live full-time on a boat. Probably won’t be my thing but we’ll figure that out down the road.”

Fair winds and see you down the road, Jake and Nina!