So you’ve finished your Day Skipper Theory and Day Skipper Practical courses and want to continue to sail and increase your knowledge before progressing on to the next set of courses. You may be a bit nervous of ‘chartering’ or going on flotilla for the first time especially with the added responsibility of looking after the friends and family with you. Perhaps you feel you need just a bit more practice and experience under your belt before going it alone.
We think we can provide just that experience here at Velvet Adventure Sailing. We offer all inclusive sailing holidays for singles or couples aboard our Oyster 55, Velvet Lady. Lin, our skipper, has been an RYA Instructor and Examiner for nearly 20 years and although we do not run formal courses she is entirely at home coaching you along and finding new ways to teach things.
You can book a berth (or two) on board Velvet Lady and put your new found knowledge into practice with no pressure and responsibility. No need to worry about the rest of the crew, we will keep everybody safe and you can enjoy learning more about sailing.
We do not run courses – as we don’t like to constrained by having to keep to a syllabus, we merely go sailing for fun every day. However we are big believers in good practice and passage planning and so every day we are putting into practice all the things you are taught on any of the RYA ‘skippers’ courses.
Every morning we must look up the tides, look at the weather, chose a place to go and get there safely. Why not learn from us by looking over our shoulders day after day. If one day you want a day off to ‘rest’ and bask in the sunshine – no problem. We will still go sailing.
For the winter months of 2012/2013 we are based in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. What better place to build up your experience than in the sunshine. Lanzarote lies in the trade wind belt, with the prevailing wind averaging NE4/5. Lanzarote lies on a NE/SW axis, so we get plenty of opportunity to consolidate the skills of beating up wind and gybing downwind. The wind isn’t always out of the NE so we get our share of beam reaching too.
Whilst on board you can get plenty of practice in navigation, tidal heights, secondary ports, pilotage etc. We carry all of the books and charts necessary for this and more.
As well as the paper stuff we are happy to explain and show you how all of our electronic navigation aids work. We even encourage you to get used to using the AIS and chart plotter.
Our trips are not limited to the Canary Islands and you can join us all year round in various places. Summer 2013 we will be in the Lofoten Islands and that is another great place to practice navigation – lots of rocks and you have to be very precise!
Read more about our different types of trip in Is this trip for me?
Need help in choosing a trip – why not give us a call or text on 07801627660 or e mail voyages@velvetadventuresailing.com