Carien du Plooy's Blog (6)

Well, it has been a LONG winter. With the exception of a lovely sailing holiday in the Grenadines in April 2010, I've not been out on the water all that much. Money seems to be going elsewhere at the moment. I did manage to book my Yacht Master Theory class through an acquintance from my yacht club.

It was to be held at the Barclays building in Canary Wharf (serious banker area). The course was hosted by The London Sailing School and also ran over 2 months of one night a week…

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Well, just before winter fully arrives, I headed off to Chatham to do my Day Skipper Practical course. Again I opted for Elite Sailing School as I found them so good during the theory course with very competitive prices and a good reputation in the London sailing world.

As luck would have it (as with my Competent Crew course) again we were only 2 on the course, being one of the last courses for the season. It was me and a young guy who had just returned from working as an…

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In order to make things sink in for the more longer term, I opted to do my Day Skipper Theory course over a stretch of 2 months (instead of the 5 day or 3 weekends courses available), being one night a week and one weekend at the end. This also falls in nicely with a full time job as you can manage the course content and class attendance without having to add unneccesary stress to an already full schedule.

I did my course through a sailing school, Elite Sailing, based in…

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End of May seems to be when the weather in London has defrosted enough for me to get out onto/into the water. Because I am in London with no coast closer than an hours train ride, I decided to do dinghy sailing to improve my core sailing, my wind awareness and get a feel for how a boat handles when it is very reactive.

I joined the London Corinthian Sailing Club. A magical yacht/dinghy/rowing club on the river Thames, close to Hammersmith bridge. It is the perfect inner city…

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It's Easter 2009 and I've arrived in Jersey City after a quick visit in Atlanta, GA. I'm here visiting my father and also to do my Competent Crew sailing course, so long awaited. I was very lucky as there were only 2 of us on the course, due to the fact that it's so early in the season. Me and a medical doctor from Texas. 3 Lovely days out on the Hudson sailing around and learning the basics. The weather was fantastic (thought the middle day had a bit of rain). Our instructor even made us…

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I'm busy studying the course material that the Offshore Sailing School has sent me. My course is on 22-24 April 2009. The initial basics I found quite easy. However, the further I get through the book, I find myself more and more relieved that I got the study material so long in advance. The detail they go into is extraordinary and I feel confident that I'm going to get the max out of this course and that my choice in sailing school was a very good one. The excitement for the possibilities that… Continue