Cruising World, one of the best-known sailing magazines, recently ran a story we love. A father celebrating his 80th birthday and his daughter celebrating her 50th finally kept a promise from decades earlier: learning to sail together in the British Virgin Islands.
In “Passing the Tiller,” writer Jim Carrier describes the week they spent in a certification course, with Captain Dutch as their instructor during his earlier years teaching at another school. It’s an honest account, full of nerves, early mistakes and laughter, and it shows students who passed their course but still wanted more time before chartering on their own.
What we took from it
- Learning together works. Couples, friends, parents and grown children all do well side by side, and they remember the week long afterward.
- Certification is a starting point. Dutch likens it to a driver’s license: it gets you on the road, and confidence comes from practice.
- Time on the water matters. That’s why our liveaboard courses visit a new anchorage each day, with daily practice in mooring, anchoring, docking and sailing. It’s also why we offer a Refresher Day at the start of your own charter.
Read the full story on Cruising World: “Passing the Tiller”
