Date: 07/11/2011
Location: Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Weather: Sunny and Hot
Title: Day 1 of Megayacht Deck Course

International Yacht Training (IYT) is only a 10 minute walk from where my crew house is. I arrived early this morning so I got to meet Kathy, one of the administrative assistants. There are only three of us in this class and I am by far the most experienced of the three.

I'm also old enough to be their father. Our instructor's name is Lou, and today we covered basic knots, nautical terminology, weather and basic navigation. It was all review for me and I was wondering why they were calling this a "Megayacht" Deck Course because

very little of this information is specific to megayachts. I was looking for training specific to huge yachts, like mooring techniques.

After class I took a walk across the street and found a little annex off 17th st. with a laundry mat, a couple of pubs, and several crew agencies. One crew agency was called Crew's Unlimited. The place was closed but there was a lady outside working just outside. Turns out she was the owner of the place so I talked to her for a while and she encouraged me to stop by during my stay and sign up with them.