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October 2011, saw a busy Complete Day Skipper Course with Mark, David, Trevor and Tim enjoying 4 days in the classroom before putting it all into practise out on Osprey.
Armed with tidal calculations, estimated positions and course to steer knowledge we were off to the likes of Vilamoura, Portimao, Praia de Rocha, Lagos and back to Albufeira. As the picture shows, healthy eating was the order of the day and the weather for late summer/autumn was gorgeous - sunshine all the way and perfect saiing breezes.
The night sail was brilliant as we set out in a clear nigt sky and south easterly breeze. This made finding the "sea mount" particularly challenging as the usual back bearing off the breakwaters couldn't be used. So we had to sail over to the beacon of Olhos de Agua and sail down that as a back bearing (only they forgot to switch it on on this occasion - typical!) So we used Vilamoura instead and.................. we found it, bang on.
Tim ran the boat from Vilamoura to Portimao, lovely long leg and we missed the "magnetic" wreck off Praia de Rocha, well done Tim.
Other highlights of the course was a large pod of dolphins in our approach to Portimao, they were big lads/lasses too as they swam under the boat, being 6 - 8 feet long some of them.
After all that excitement we had a great sail up the Arade river with lots of tacking to keep the winches red hot as the echo sounder dropped to "exciting" levels. The beer that evening was well earned.
The next day we sailed to Lagos, David running the boat and dodging the wrecks that make the approaches interesting, then it was off to Albufeira on a screaming beam reach with the wind up from the south.
Great course and all had a sun tan at the end too
Me now, i'm off to see my little mate who is meant to keep the lights burning out here, can we have our beacon back on please.
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