Advertisement
Day 5 Jackie & I were first up as usual, so we got to see the beautiful sunrise over Deep Bay. In fact after discussion we realised we had shared quite a few romantic moments together, in between showers on the transom together, sunrises and sunsets! My husband will be very jealous! After saying goodbye to Lily Maid we sailed out towards Sandy Island. We then experienced the best moment of our trip - 2 Dolphins joined us for a few minutes, they were swimming under the bow of the boat, we were all so excited, (unfortunately the photos didn’t come out well). Back to reality, we short tacked around Sandy Island, Heidi then set a challenge for the 3 novices – a figure of 8 course. We worked together each taking turns at the helm and the others controlling the main and Genoa sheets. Heidi and Natalie kept completely quiet and we had to do it all ourselves! It was quite tricky but afterwards Heidi said we did really well. Over the week when we were near or passed another vessel, Heidi explained the “rules of the road” so today we were tested on that also. We anchored for lunch at Five Islands Harbour, lunch was a mixture of everything we had leftover in the fridge! Heidi went through our log books in turn and signed it all off, she had a chat with each of us individually which was a really nice touch. The best news of all was that we had all passed our RYA Competent Crew Course, Yippee! We all felt very proud and really chuffed with ourselves, we were also pleased for Natalie as she had passed her RYA Day Skipper Course. We sailed off anchor again, and then took turns at the helm doing little courses around the buoys outside Jolly Harbour. We then had to head back to the dock at Miramar Sailing HQ, our week was sadly over. We cleaned and emptied the boat and went inside, we were presented with our certificates from the Principal of the Sailing School – Brian. We had a mini photo shoot with our certificates – all proud as punch. A final glass of wine with Brian and Pippa and we all said our good-byes. However, being on a boat together for five days does form good friendships so we knew we would meet again sometime on the high seas or in Antigua.
Conclusion It was so pleasant that we 5 girls all got on so well, we worked well as a team, we all had such good fun, many laughs and learnt a huge amount in the process. So my previous concerns: Seasickness – well that wasn’t a problem for anyone on the boat, we felt fine all the time. Technology: we were able to log-on to the internet when we were near the harbours so could check and upload all important updates on Facebook! Knots: There were a total of 8 to learn over the week, Heidi got us doing them in the first couple of days so that we could practice them, the most problematic for all of us was the Bowline (a very useful and important one!). Heidi showed us the visual way with a little story to go with it - the rabbit goes up the hole round the tree and down the hole, then the girls started to get it easier, however I still struggled with that for a day, then Heidi showed me the the tactile way – I picked it up straight away! I then named it the “Heidi method”, but apparently that is the way they do it in the British Navy! Anyway I prefer the “Heidi method”.
I’m sure some of the ladies reading this would be alarmed at the number of carbs we ate – practically every lunchtime and evening. However sailing is a sport where you are continuously burning calories, we came back fitter and thinner! So there is another reason for ladies to take up this great sport!
In addition, I would highly recommend taking a course with Miramar Sailing School. The yacht was well kept, well maintained and very clean, it was an ideal size for 5 women (we were on Miramar). The concept of the Ladies only courses is just brilliant; they have 2 female instructors, Heidi and also the Chief Instructor Pippa, who co-owns the company with Brian. We all said we felt much more comfortable that there were no men on board. The school offers a full selection of RYA Training courses throughout the year, but also “learn for fun courses” (where you don’t have to live on board) and just fun day sails on their day charter boat, Hawnalea, where ladies can get together for a sailing version of “ladies that do lunch”.
I hope my little diary inspires some of you ladies to take up sailing, Denise x
Contacts for the School:
Tel: +1 268 7213456
info@miramarsailing.com www.miramarsailing.com www.miramarsailingschool.com They also have a great Facebook with interesting updates!
www.facebook.com/miramarsailing
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0454s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb