Cruising Instructor
Well as you can see it's been some time since my last post. I have been fairly busy over the last few months. Since completing my Yachtmaster I have been away sailing in Turkey for a week with friends, which was awesome. I also took the plunge and decided to complete what I had set out to do a year ago and take my Cruising Instructor Exam. I am delighted to say that last month I passed so now I am a fully qualified Cruising Instructor. So the reason for my post is that a few weeks ago I took my first course out on the water.
I was asked by Hamble School of Yachting to teach a Start Yachting course from Friday to Sunday for people that have never been on a yacht before. Being my first course it was quite daunting but at least it didn't seem to show to the clients! I had 3 students who were very keen so on Friday evening I motored them over to Cowes.
Leaving the Hamble the weather was great; it was warm and the sea was nice and calm. This was going to be a great introduction to being out at night on a boat, I though. Well halfway over to Cowes the wind picked up to a force 7 and the sea state changed for the worse; we had waves breaking over the bow of the boat and soaking the person at the helm (me!) After about 2 hours we arrive at the Folly Inn - just in time for last orders, which the students were very pleased about. That evening the wind continued to strengthen and was gusting down the river making it a very choppy night. The next morning we spent a fair bit of time in the river getting them used to getting on and off the boat, even letting one of them come alongside. We then headed out for what turned out to be a fantastic sail; we had a little of everything out there, from force 7 to force 4, rain clouds and sun. We spent 6 hours sailing and learning various things about rules of the road and basic points of sail. We spent that evening in Haslar marina, where we found a nice quite little bar. The following day we headed back towards the hamble, again a wonderful sail it was a nice force 5 out there - lots of boats and things going on. We arrived back at the Mercury Marine at 15:00 and cleaned the boat. On saying goodbye to the students I was made aware that they had had a wonderful weekend, they even mentioned coming back for another course, but only if I would be their instructor! So for my first weekend had finished on a complete high. So much so that I'm going to do it again next week.