Finally Learned how to sail

I haven't blogged in a while, We have been in the BVI's for about three weeks and we didn't really have internet access over there. At least not enough to do a blog. So please excuses my tardiness for not blogging.
During that time in the BVI's I think I finally learned how to sail. For most of the two years we have been on our boat we mostly motor sailed. You have the sails up but you also have the engines on. For the most part we would average about 5 knots. That was in most points of sail. Sometimes we would do a little more but never over 8 knots.
For the last two mouths I have been doing alot more pure sailing. Most of the time I'm on a beam or broad reach and  doing 6.5 to 7.5 knots with just the sails up. I don't really know what I'm doing different but I seem to be able to adjust the sails so much quicker. I have also found that just a half turn on the winch can make a huge difference in speed. I don't think my boat will ever sail fast on a close reach. Catamarans are known not to sail well into the wind and I think that is definitely the case for our cat. But I have also found some techniques to help with that. Pulling in the sail from the windward side sometimes, which I just learned how to do, and it really helps with speed. I can also get the head sail up alot closer to the wind.
I don't know if I ever will be a great sailor. I think I would have to crew on a race boat to really dial in the sails. But I do think I'm at the point were I can sail to most places and leave the engines off.