Training & Learning

We decided to do our day skipper tickets as a family. We came up with this thought for two reasons. Firstly, there was not much we could do for a holiday as it was mid-COVID. Then, more realistically, we needed to see if hubby and I could function in a tiny space with nowhere to escape to when we started getting on each other's nerves — "probably not a bad idea before we go ahead and make this huge investment." Then, of course, we did need some basics on how a boat actually functions.

So we headed off to Marbella, Spain in June 2020, mid-COVID, to get ourselves some qualifications. This actually turned out to be a wonderful way to spend our time: In the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea, sun, dolphins, and let's not forget, the education part.

Training lasted three weeks in total, two weeks on the boat and one week in the classroom. "The classroom part drove me off my head, as I have not studied in 30 years. Little did I know there would be more to come, in the not so distant future.

We were lucky enough to have a really great skipper and teacher with us by the name of Charlie, we all developed a really great relationship with him over the 3 week period, learnt an unbelievable amount, from learning how to tie knots to plotting a course on a chart. (not a map we learnt, not allowed to use that word in sailing).

Another little detail to keep in mind is that we have never actually sailed ourselves, we had done a few charters, all with skipper and stewardess, so the reality is between Eric and I, we had pretty much zero knowledge so it was all from scratch. Saw some Mediterranean dolphins close up, what a magnificent site and incredibly beautiful.

The son that has done 2 atlantic crossings in his gap year. Not too often in life that your son knows more than you do.

About halfway through the training we realised just how much we were enjoying it, so we signed the final contract with Robinson and Caine for our Leopard 50 and off the email went. After 3 weeks we were qualified day skippers…."oh my, oh my if only we knew then just how green we were."

After getting our Day Skipper qualification and thinking we were ready to conquer the world, we took delivery of our boat in June 2022 only to find out that with our qualification we could only Day Sail and could not do any night passage. (Not that many sailors have any qualifications) however we like to be prepared. Off we went to Sweden to get our coastal qualifications.

We needed to gain the skills for coastal navigation so we could actually sail up to 40Nm off the coast and navigate through a night passage!

Fortunately we found a sailing school in Sweden, Sjösportskolan - Swedish Maritime Academy, where we could get a private tutor and in English. After writing the final exam which we both passed we were now qualified "Yachtmasters Coastal Skippers" and we could take our own vessel up to Port Owen which is a 109Nm sail (about 22 hours).

Night Navigation Training

What we did decide to do once we got our Yachtmaster Coastal, was to do some "Night Navigation", this was a super exciting to do at this stage. What we did not realise when the teacher said "Would you like to do practical training to navigate with radar only" and we responded "Yes that would be helpful", is that when we got to the boat that this was not a small motor boat that does 5-6kn, this boat is probably what the military use and could run at 25-30kn and he wanted me to navigate, I realised, under a blanket without any vision, just my radar through the Archipelago of Stockholm.

But wait, there is more! He is not guiding us, Tracy has to look on a chart and guide me, but please note:

• First time seeing the area we will navigate
• Working with a chart in complete darkness
• She wears glasses for reading
• Tracy is also night blind and she only has a red light to give her some vision
• She has to guide me through a route that he has given her; so she has to give me commands like 280 degrees, now 10 degrees
• All this at a minimum speed of 20kn
• She must keep track of outside clues to know where we are on the chart

Based on what she says, I have to move to Port (Left) or Starboard (Right) understanding the 360 degrees of navigation. I also have to look at my radar and try to avoid what looks like red aliens attacking me from all directions... and Tracy has to keep track of what I am doing to avoid aliens and keep track of the chart and where we actually are while giving me the next direction. Remember things are moving fast at 20kn - I mean who wants to go at 5kn where you have time to make a decision, when you can do 20kn), but with great proudness, 45 minutes later we had gotten back to the docking station without hitting anything!

Go Team Tracy and Eric!

I have to admit it was the fun part of the training and I can honestly say it was great learning experience. Thank you Sjösportskolan!!

Next step was first aid in case of a medical emergency we needed to be sure that we both knew the basics. We decided to do this close to where we had the boat berthed at Port Owen Marina. We registered at St Helena Bay who offered the required course needed for sailing, Sea Safety Training Group SSTG.

For some reason Tracy was super excited about this course thinking she could learn to amputate a limb?! I was a little concerned about her excitement about this part of the course, off we went and did our week worth of training and got our certification, no amputations... phew

An intense week of learning about medical situations, practicals and then also written exams to get our final certificate.

I decided to go one step further and qualify for my Yachtmaster Offshore, allowing me to captain my own vessel across any ocean instead of having to employ a Captain (Again many sailors do not have those qualifications).

I went back to the same training school in Sweden where we did our Coastal Training and booked a private tutor to take me through the requirements to qualify for an offshore certificate, which was done by Pär a Swedish Naval Officer, he was an exceptional tutor and mentor. I can proudly say I am a qualified Yacht Master - Offshore.

What is next? Putting everything we have learnt to practice and crossing our first ocean, to begin our journey of exploring the world while navigating this magnificent pond.