After spending two full days aboard with our instructor Dan, we began to realise just how much knowledge is required to go sailing in the UK. I grew up sailing small dingies all summer long at our beach hose on the Mornington Peninsula, just outside Melbourne in Australia. However I really had no concept of navigation, passage planning, entering unfamiliar ports, tidal flows. On top of all that learning to respect the weather and knowing your and your boats limitations. The English Channel can be vicious at times and a certain amount of respect is required to keep out of any trouble and go sailing safely. So study was the order of the day. I decided to forego the expensive and time-consuming RYA’s ‘Day Skipper’ course for some home study and practice every time we went out of port. We had undertaken a basic passage plan to an unfamiliar tidal port with our instructor so it wasn’t too daunting to get out the some of the other local ports around Brighton. Thus, for the remainder of the 2004 season when we ventured out it was predominantly for a day sail without going too far out of our comfort zones. When we thought about our plans to sail to the Med, it was an overwhelming prospect. Crossing the Channel was a frightening prospect. We desperately needed some confidence building miles before endeavoring to undertake such a journey. So what better way to do that than join the local cruising club run through the Brighton Marina Yacht Club.
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