Feb 25, 2019
Back in January if you were chatting with me at the Toronto Boat Show, I told you how much I was looking forward to a month of teaching in the British Virgin Islands. The lineup was to be an Intermediate/ICC course first and then three Basic Cruising courses to follow. All of this in the beautiful BVIs on a Beneteau 41 called Jinty Binty.
Well the BVIs and my students from Advantage Boating really lived up to my expectations! We had four weeks of tacking, gybing, crew overboard drills, tests, turtles, snorkeling at the Indians, wandering through the Baths and fantastic dinners with wonderful people. The BVIs may have been devastated by hurricane Irma and Maria, but they are really starting to thrive again!
Not only did the teaching live up to my hopes and dreams, but the winds were outstanding! The BVIs are famous for consistent Easterly tradewinds of 15-20 knots at this time of the year. The first week was perfect, just as the brochure promised. The second week was a little light in the winds but we did all the training and still got to our anchorages on time each night to have some fun. The last two weeks however really packed a punch! The average winds were 20 knots. For most, this is the limit for a Basic Cruising course. We managed with a reefed main just fine. Then the last week was full of 20-25 knots and gushy punches of rain really living up to the tradewind daytime squalls. All managed with 2 reefs in the main and a partially furled jib.
Thanks to all my wonderful students for such a great experience and thanks to Advantage Boating in Ottawa for giving me the opportunity!
Diane
March 7th, 2019 at 2:22 am
Hey Diane,
Thanks for all the great instruction on the Intermediate Crusing course. I really enjoy everything I learned and relearned (you don’t have to be pointed upwind to raise and lower the main – the boom-thingy moves – 8th time is a charm 😉 . Hope the remainder of the time was great. Fair winds and all the best. Drina