Well, at least sailing over the Fleuve St-Laurent, which is, well, kind of blue-ish, in parts. That’s what I was doing last week — I did a very intense four-day course to get my “PCOC” (Pleasure Craft Operator’s Card — this part was relatively easy) and my Basic Cruising Standard from the Canadian Yachting Association (a bit tougher, especially to master it all in a few days). The excellent, challenging course was put on by Ynot Sailing and run out of the Baie d’Urfé Yacht Club.

I survived the course, though one of the four students bailed (so to speak) at the half-way point — it was all just too much for him.

Instructor: “Do it again. You’ve got to be able to gybe correctly.”
Student: “Okay, I’ll try.”
Instructor: “Don’t try. Do it again.” (à la Yoda)
Student: “No, actually, I think I’ve had enough for today.”
Instructor: “I won’t let you quit. Do it again.”
Student: “No, really, I’m done for today.”
Instructor: “If you quit now I don’t want to see you here tomorrow.”
Student: “Fine.”

Ooooops! And so, that was it. The teacher unwittingly gave the insecure student the “out” he was looking for. He later tried to fix it, and even got the student to say he’d come back the next day after all…but he didn’t. That was it. The weirdest part was that he had come with his wife and she continued to come the rest of the week. Must have been frustrating for her, especially since they were evaluating sailing as a “retirement option”!

Anyhow, I passed PCOC, the on-water skills evaluation as well as the 2-hour written exam. I tied many knots (with my eyes closed!), threw a heaving line with precision and recovered a “Crew Overboard” under sail power. Now I just need to find some way I can practice! Turns out this ain’t exactly a cheap or easy hobby for someone with no boat…or car.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 24th, 2006 at 18h00 and is filed under Just...life!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.