Sailing Skool 2002

Colin and Chris Tucker in the front - left to right Capt. Darrell Naquin our ASA instructor and sea chef extrodinaire, Jim Talbert from New Hampshire and James Thorbourne hailing out of Tuktoyaktuk Northwest Territories rumored to have something to do with the whole Santa thing up there. In the background is Dave, owner of Blue Water Sailing School getting ready (with hammer) to fix all the things we broke on our week on his boat. Dave actually owned the 1980 39 Oday we sailed.While we were a little put off at first not being put on a new Beneteau like the one next to us there - we learned to love the Oday and literally could sail circles around that boat ! You can tell who is leaving and who is staying by the length of their pants :-)

I decided that it might be a good idea to get some real instruction on big boat handling and enrolled Colin and I in the Blue Water Sailing School live aboard program called A+ which combines a week of sailing and living aboard a yacht with ASA 101,103 and 104 certifications. We went the week after Christmas. Ft Lauderdale is BWSS winter stateside headquarters side by side with Fun in the Sun charters at a convenient private marina on 20th Street. It was a very busy week for the school with several classes out including Catamaran A+ , Several folks were bareboat chartering as well. I think there were about 6-8 boats out in all. We sailed from Ft Lauderdale to Miami in the Atlantic. Then from Miami across all of Biscayne Bay and on the inside of the beginning of the keys through Card Sound, Barnes Sound and Blackwater Sound. It was easy to see that a 10 day cruise from Miami to Key West would be rushing !

 

We entirely lucked out with weather. The first day was coolish but from then on it was in the high 70's to low 80's with a fresh breeze blowing in whichever direction we wanted to go except for one day.

I can't say enough great thing about the school. It is run very professionally with safety first. If you are looking for a liesurely vacation however, this it is not. We were up early every morning and to bed early every night with on water practice all day interspersed with three written tests. It helped to generally have an idea of what was being taught. But still, it definately was information overlaod, Other class mates had taken courses at other schools where it was classroom with an afternoon of sailing. This was a lot of sailing with classroom on the water !

I think what Jim from New Hampshire just said was " Are we having fun yet ? "

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The red line generally shows our route to and from Ft Lauderdale and Gilberts Marina on Jewfish Creek at Key Largo