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"Sail
Training In Paradise" by Lorry Levine
(Article From Latitude 38 - Aug 2000) |
Building Skills and Changing Lives
As an avid Latitude 38 reader, I've found that I have gained
great insights and knowledge about sailing through other people's
experiences that I've read about in the magazine. Now it's my
turn to share an experience I recently enjoyed with John
Connolly of Modern Sailing Academy (MSA) in French Polynesia.
I learned to sail 10 years ago on the Bay when a job transfer
brought me to San Francisco. I took lessons, joined a sailing
club, chartered on weekends and worked my way up through ASA's
coastal navigation certification. But I yearned for more. On
coastlines, any coastline, I'd look seaward, wondering what
it was like to be offshore, away from the sight of land and
to be totally alone with the ocean and
the sky.
The opportunity arose when I heard about MSA's trips to French
Polynesia, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. The courses
are designed to develop advanced on-the-water skills, learn
in real life sailing situations, cultivate navigational confidence
and pursue higher level ASA certifications. Eager to gain Advanced
Coastal Cruising knowledge, Ocean Pas-sage Making experience
and grasp a fundamental understanding of celestial navigation
to determine latitude and longitude using a sextant, I signed
up for a 12-day trip from Raiatea in the Society Islands to
Rangiroa in the Tuomotus in French Polynesia, to be run in early
May.
In preparation, I reviewed my prior ASA coursework, then sat
down and read The Annapolis Book of Seamanship as well as Tom
Cunliffe's Guide to Celestial Navigation. Needless to say, I
had a healthy dose of anxiety about finally realizing a dream
and wondering if I had the base knowledge to pursue higher learning.
I wondered if I would get seasick? If I would find that I didn't
like offshore sailing? If the other students would know much
more than I do? If John would be a good instructor? I
turned up in Raiatea on the day before our planned sailing departure
and met John and the other five students. We were a mixed
lot, ranging in age from mid-30s to mid-50s. That afternoon,
our charter company, Sun Yacht charters, allowed us to board
early as accomodations on the island were booked due to the
an-nual tattoo festival. We became ac-quainted with the 52-ft
Beneteau which would be our classroom home for the next 12 days,
ate dinner ashore, had our first orientation from John
and settled in with each other.
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