BECOMING MASTER OF THE SEAS
“It would be thousands of coastal and ocean miles before I was ready for the big one: Yachtmaster Offshore certification”
The Rival 34 was an old fashioned, long-keeled yacht, with inherent quirks, yet to pass my Yachtmaster exam I'd have to master all of them. Years before, I'd sailed one around the Solent in England during a cold wintry week in November and recalled a tense tacking manoeuvre up Wootton Creek on the Isle of Wight and putting her hard aground. These are heavy boats that carry a lot of momentum, so I wedged most of her 34 feet deep in the creek mud — I then had to work her off. Another challenge was the dual high tides in the Solent and various contrary inshore currents.
Grasping these anomalies and other antics was part of an exam for my RYA Coastal Skipper’s ticket. It was done with the sailing school that was run by the legendary John Goode. The ex-merchant mariner’s writings on navigation and boat handling I'd followed for many years as a ticket-less wannabe sailor. It would be thousands of coastal and ocean miles before I was ready for the big one: Yachtmaster Offshore certification.
By then, I was living in the south
