Nauticed - Captain Level V - 200 Days on the Water

Today represents the achievement from having spent 200 days on the water beginning with my CYA Basic Cruising course at the beginning of May 2011.

After 5 years, lots of courses, many boats and a lot of terrific sailing experiences with family and sailing friends - I have completed the requirements of NauticEd CAPTAIN Level V.

NauticEd is a terrific on-line education system, and I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants to learn to sail - www.nauticed.org. There are a number of components that are free and is therefore worth the initial time to explore it.

So what I have achieved over those 200 days are:

• ISPA certification for Competent Crew, Day Skipper, Coastal Navigation and Coastal Skipper Advanced Sail.
• RYA certification for Day Skipper, Coastal Skipper and Ocean Yachtmaster (Theory).
• Sail Canada certification for Basic Cruising, Coastal Navigation and Basic Cruising Instructor.

On those 200 days I have sailed on 17 different boats as Skipper and Crew, covering more than 3,500 nm (tidal and non-tidal) as well as clocking 57 night hours while sailing on Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, up and down the Strait of Georgia, Florida and the East Coast of Australia.

The best sailing experiences have been the Family cruising vacations on the BC West Coast.

Thanks to Margot and the Kids for allowing me to do all this.