The mad dash acoss the Aegean

[daveg45]

Have you had a dispute with the RYA or something in the past? If so, please don't take it out on me. I was just trying to be helpful.

No Melody I have had no dispute with the RYA. I am a paid up member, so I could renew my ICC. It's just that I can see some similarity between the RYA and PADI in their course structure and pricing.

Doing a 5 day advanced open water course after completing a 5 day open water course (or less with some schools) does not make you an 'advanced open water diver' with a log book that probably lists a massive 10 dives. It is a misrepresentation of skill level that can be dangerous. So when I dive with unknown buddies I am interested in how many dives they have done and where they have done them. If their answer is pushing up towards 3 figures then I think they should be ok. After all I may need to rely on them and I expect them to ask the same questions of me.

Similarly you would have to convince me that doing an RYA yachtmaster makes you master of a yacht.

I haven't had that to much to do with the RYA to be fair. A couple of courses over the years but I was disappointed with the yachtmaster theory course I took with a school in Devon. The content was a bit thin and I felt I had learnt more from Alison Noice and her excellent book and exam test questions. The meteorology section is a joke. No mention of adiabatic and environmental laps rates and how they affect stability for example. Yet this I thought was a high level training program.

Since 2008 I have logged 12000 nautical miles (all as skipper) and skippered my yacht on numerous long trips apart from the half dozen or so channel crossings. 3 days to cross Biscay for example taking the traditional route. Single handed around cape finisterre and two months on my own exploring the Southern Spanish rias and single handed down to Leixoes on the Atlantic Portuguese coast. Skippered with crew of limited experience non stop from Leoxoes to Portimao, from Minorca to Sicily and Malta to Corfu direct nonstop sailing. I am sure you will acknowledge this far exceeds perquisite for yachtmaster yet I still very much consider myself a novice sailor still learning the ropes and doing an RYA course isn't going to change that. It is because of this that I turn to this forum for time to time for balanced measured advice.

But I just know I am going to be shot down for my comments pretty soon.

If I have come over as offensive then I apologise. Please put it down to my frustration at some of the posts. My bark is much worse than my bite. Right it's time to soak my head and shake off this hangover after introducing my son to jäger bombs.

 

[jimbaerselman]

Melody,

Your post about the Aegean and the meltemi completely reflects my experiences of the region - which started in 1978 with a one month charter out of Athens to find suitable bases for bare-boat charter locations. It's continued on and off since then, including four full seasons in my own boat in the east Med, and some Athens to Kos and back deliveries for people who preferred not to do the trip themselves. It is a great location for mileage experience, offering 24 hour windward passages in F5 and F6, great confidence builders.

You will love the Dodecanese, my favourites, especially if you're able to go as far as Lesvos and drop in to Fourni en route. A bit beyond the Dodecanese of course. Should be plenty of thunderstorms in October!

Work does interfere with pleasure at times . . .

 

[Melody]

If I have come over as offensive then I apologise.

Apology accepted.

We rarely teach at YM level. It's mostly Comp Crew and Day Skipper for people who want to charter. And we don't pass people at Day Skipper level unless we believe they are safe and competent to take their family and friends out. The problem is that many of them won't sail for a year and will forget a lot of what they know so, by the time they do their first charter, their competence will be far less than when we passed them.

Can you imagine someone passing a driving test, then not getting into a car for a year, even as a passenger, then hiring a car? The 'bit of paper' is one thing but experience is the most important.

That's one of the reasons we try to encourage people to come on mile-builders to gain more experience of sailing with good skippers. Both our Principal and Chief Instructor have sailed all their lives and in many places in the world, and were also professional seamen. They stress in the student de-briefing at the end of the course that you continue to learn about sailing all your life and having an RYA certificate just gives you a very basic grounding.

The RYA syllabus and training scheme were initially intended for yacht owners or potential yacht owners, who would be sailing regularly around the UK. Also, at one time, most people who started yachting were already competent dinghy sailors. Now we have clients who go out and buy a 50ft yacht with hardly any experience on the water at all. The whole scene has changed and continues to change and perhaps the RYA sail cruising scheme hasn't yet changed sufficiently in response.

But it's still the best of the sailing schemes on offer, in my opinion. My husband taught the ASA syllabus for a season and passing some of their courses was decided by how well you did in a written exam ...

 

[vyv_cox]

We prefer to take our time and get to know places. Ideally I'd choose to go to the Dodecanese for a month or more but at least the way we're doing it in October we'll be able to spend the whole week sailing there rather than a couple of days each way getting there and back.

I feel sure you will enjoy sailing there, although you will be pressed to see it all in a week. Big choice is whether to go north or south from Kos - on balance I think I would go north for a bigger variety of destinations. We should be back in Leros by October, so look out for us!

 

[1bobt]

Bit windy

 

[daveg45]

Where was the picture taken 1bobt?

 

[1bobt]

Where was the picture taken 1bobt?

Naxos channel very near the reef