Master V

SXM day 5 - decent sail!

SXM day 7 - back to base

Viel Meer

SXM day 6

SXM day 4

SXM day 3

SXM day 2

St Martin day 1

New crew mates today (Chris from DE/Iran and Dave? Retired from US) and new instructor (Fabio, from DE/IE/ES). They were doing day skipper. Flat and calm, not much wind. Did close quarters manoeuvring, I showed them what to do. Went out and practiced anchoring, man over board, picking up a buoy (lasso technique is good), then slow sail back. I successfully parked the boat 👍

Not much wind in the morning, took down sails, then up it came all of a sudden to 23 kts. Some tacking practice and reefing. Back to base for battery change. Afternoon wind strengthened, almost too much, skipper was unsure but out we went with 2 reefs, had gusts of up to 27kts. But sea state relatively calm. Went in direction of Duquesa then tacked back, lowered main and came in on headsail. Nicely parked up boat. End of training with Roger Moore!

Flat calm in the morning. Practiced fog navigation. Pretend we can’t see a thing. Navigate towards the coast until you reach the 5m depth contour. Then follow it until you see some lights at the harbour entrance.

Afternoon had the sails up. Practised putting in 1st and 2nd reef. Then did some tacking and heaving to. Nice sail back into the marina where I parked her.

Paul Drake