What a week a difference makes

That was different. A week of holiday? In a manner of speaking yes. All our boys went to scout camp, Saturday to Saturday. And, in place of a holiday, or carrying on regardless, we decided to spend a week on an RYA Day Skipper practical course.

We looked around for availability and price about six weeks ago and, following a trail of good feedback and confidence building chats with possible course providers we picked Broadreach Sailing in Gosport, run by Simon. They were offering the practical course running 5 days, Sunday evening to Friday evening, which was just perfect for the time we had available.

The details of the course are not very interesting, so I won't bore with a journal of the whole thing, but just mention a few highlights. First I'll mention that the course was a fantastic learning experience, and the week's tutor was called Nick. Nick is a superb sailor and he has his own way of doing things. Almost all the other ways of doing these things are wrong! The boat was a very neat Jeanneau 36 foot yacht, about two years old and just cleaned below the water line.

We left Gosport on Sunday night and circulated between there, Cowes and Hamble. It is, partly, essential to revisit places on the course since part of the practical is to plan and execute a passage plan in familiar waters. It is also essential to gain four hours of experience on watch during a night passage. In order to make my life interesting, these two aspects of the course were combined, so my first ever passage plan and skippering were at night on a route I had seen once, from the opposite direction, during the day. We didn't hit anything we had planned to miss, so that went alright.

There was a good focus on practicing approaching and leaving the quay in various conditions of tide and wind. As a slightly unexpected bonus, with the weather on our side, we also had some huge fun sailing. Top speed through the water was about 7.5 knots and we managed to heel to about 30 degrees a few times.

Everyone, including the boys, survived their week, but I have to say the house has been a little subdued since then. The washing machine has been working the hardest I think.