Life Beyond the Beaker

Two years ago my friend and mentor Tony died. He had cancer and decided not to take any treatment. My Dad Steve was friends with Tony for years and met through the flying world. When I was about 5, my Dad, Tony, and another family all bought a yacht together so that they could do their sailing qualifications and take family and friends sailing around Brixham and Dartmouth. Tony decided to go sailing around the world 15 years ago, so both families sold their share to Tony. Over the years we managed to sail with Tony. When he died we found out he had left Cariad for me in his will. The crazy chap. Tony is the one on the left, then my Dad, me, my brother Dan and my mum Mary back in 2012 cruising with Tony on Cariad. Tony going around the world! This happened in Nov 2019, so Al and I planned and booked to fly out to the Caribbean where Tony had set up a life for himself and Cariad in March 2020. Yep, you guessed it...COVID hit and we were locked down. We didn't try in 2021 as we knew n...

Relief. It has been an intense 2 years completing my RYA and Trinity House Scholarship but finally, I've come out the other side of it as a commercially endorsed offshore skipper for sail and power. I couldn't have done this without my Dad and Tony teaching me how to sail when I was 12 and then so many others along the way teaching me their tricks. I have been building up to these more advanced courses since I was 15 and completed my competent crew!  They were intense courses. The sail prep week finished with an exam from 2 pm till 2 am where even over dinner I was getting grilled about nav lights and anchoring all whilst in yet another gale!  Information on how you can get your commercial endorsement if you need/want to drive sail/power vessels for work can be found here : https://www.rya.org.uk/training/professional-qualifications/commercial-endorsements So, what does this actually all mean? An RYA Yachtmaster® Offshore is competent to skipper a cruising yacht/vessel on...