USVI-On-Line

Hi everyone, I just got home today from a fantastic week of learning to sail (on a catamaran) in the vi's and bvi's. Wow, what an incredible experience! The seas were ferocious; tropical storm conditions for most of the week. It was unbelievably wonderful but much harder than I expected and a whole lot to learn in a very short amount of time (keeping in mind that I have absolutely no sailing experience other than parking my butt on a catamaran for a day sail and induling in the rum punch and laying on the tramp to catch the rays.) This was definitely not a vacation by any means, but I have to say that I loved the whole experience, have no regrets and would do it all over again. The most free time we had was about 2 hours in Tortola one day and I managed to get in a couple snorkels during the week. We did get to Willy-T's another night and had a great time dancing the night away and went to Sydney's on Jost for dinner another night. So, am I an accomplished sailor; no (but I did pass the first 2 tests - yeah!). Do I think I can become one; yes (with a whole lot more practice). Did I mention that we spent our first night on a mooring ball in Francis Bay, chosen as a safe bay to hide in from the storm. It is so beautiful to wake up and just be right there on the water. Okay, well I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and is fairing well from the recent storms and fairs well in the upcoming storms in the forecast (supposed to be starting here some time after midnight and through the day tomorrow). Be safe, be warm, be happy and happy holidays to all! Ali~

We'll be there in March - can't wait!! Which charter company did you use? We're chartering a 42' cat with the Catamaran Co. out of Nanny Cay. I'm not the captain (thank goodness) - just a lowly crew member along for the ride. It is a lot of work though; it's hard enough just trying to stay out of the way. Did I say I can't wait?

Cool Ali..........sounds like a lot of work but fun and something that you can use.
I would love to learn to sail..........

Welcome back!! I know you had a blast, although I know that it is hard work to sail a ship. I would like to learn one day.

I bet waking up on a boat and looking into Francis Bay was Awesome!! When we were there, I so envied the people coming in from their boats on their dinghies.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

Congratulations on passing your tests. You probably learned so much more than you realize with the rough seas.

What outfit did you go through?

Welcome back -

"There is nothing absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as messing about in boats"

Welcome to the crazy world of boats. Glad you had fun, the weather was probably a mixed blessing. It tends accelerate the learning curve.

Jay

Welcome Back Ali! Im glad you made it safe and sound. Congratulations on passing those tests, Im sure there is so much to learn. What an amazing place to learn to sail!!!

Congrats on completing the course and welcome to our world, but fair warned... it is addictive, I can see you have the bug already by your description of waking up in Francis Bay.

Ali, very cool. I hope to do the keel boat cert in the Chesapeake in the summer and do the bareboat charter training in Spring 2009. I'm afraid to try and do both at the same time. We have a couple of places to do small boat sailing in the Potomac that are convenient.

I'd love to hear some details and reflections on how well the process went. How big a factor was the weather in making this so much work? How much book cramming did you have to do? Did you do a day without the instructor? (I'll stop there, I have thousands of questions!)

Ooooh, you get to lay on the tramp? I always get spoken to sternly when I try. I'll guess I'll have to continue being the tramp rather than an enjoying one.

Cheers, RickG

sailorgirl wrote:Congrats on completing the course and welcome to our world, but fair warned... it is addictive, I can see you have the bug already by your description of waking up in Francis Bay.

Yep more addictive than crack and twice as expensive.

Rick and or anyone else interested. The Annapolis Book of Seamanship is basically the textbook for alot of Sailing Courses. Also Chapmans Piloting & Seamanship is the bible for boating and the book used for most captains courses.

Jay

[quote="captainjay/quote]

Yep more addictive than crack and twice as expensive.


Jay[/quote]

And as far as I know.. there aren't any 12 step programs for this addiction.. " Hi my name is ( fill in the blank) and I own a hole in the water which I throw $$$ into"

sailorgirl wrote: " Hi my name is ( fill in the blank) and I own a hole in the water which I throw $$$ into"

Hmmmm.... sounds vaguely like owning a villa on STJ! LMAO!

B-AS-U-R, like RickG, I have many questions too. I am trying to talk DH into a sailing school this spring. Would like to know which company you used. Would you recommend it? Etc. Etc.

I was a little surprised / disappointed to read so little free time; the itinary I saw on-line talked about lots of beach and snorkel time.

Please provide more details.

California Girl wrote:

sailorgirl wrote: " Hi my name is ( fill in the blank) and I own a hole in the water which I throw $$$ into"

Hmmmm.... sounds vaguely like owning a villa on STJ! LMAO!

That, I can't comment upon, but its a problem I'd like to tackle