We arrived at berth A50 of Palma Mariner to board what would become our home for the next two weeks.  “Claudi” was a 46ft Bavaria sailing yacht without air conditioning, something that would become noteworthy in the coming weeks, as the Mediterranean was about to be hit by successive heatwaves Cerberus and Charon.  The RYA trainer that had the unenviable task of getting us through the day skipper qualification was an Italian called Piero and after brief introductions from ourselves and the other crew members (Andrea and Howard) we started boat familiarization.  This covered all aspects of safety, including what handles not to turn, what switches not to press and what holes not to put certain liquids into. We also discussed our experience, suffice to say not something he was over impressed with.  

The real work started the next day with some maneuvers in the harbour area including going astern, a key skill when berthing in a Mediterranean marina. We also had to avoid hitting ferries, containers ships, large commercial vessels and Jeff Bezos in his boat Koru. It’s safe to say that after a couple of hours none of us felt a five-day course was going to be sufficient to entrust us alone with a yacht the cost of a small house. After Piero’s nerves had finally had enough we left for the comparative safety of open water to get to grips with the art of sailing. This was actually the one area we found relatively easy. We all sort of knew what we were doing, despite unnecessary overuse of the word “disaster” by our instructor. We also learnt to anchor at Las Lletis bay where we had lunch before our return to Palma. Howard drew the short straw and was first to squeeze us back into berth, quite finely it must be said.

So we thought the first day was full-on but it was a doddle compared to the second. It had a different feel from the start. We were told to divide the day into three parts and select a skipper for each. Fran was volunteered 😊to take the first part. She had to give the safety briefing remembering everything she’d been told the previous day and take us away from our berth. But not before having to quickly draft a detailed passage plan involving charts bearings. We had done one the night before and it had taken us over an hour but it wasn’t good enough. Fran had to revise it………quickly. Its safe to say she found that quite challenging. We sailed to the port of Andratx but not before a rather stressful lunchtime anchor at Camp de Mar.  The approach was crowded and getting into position was difficult with slightly vague and ever-changing advice from our instructor. The fun really started when we departed, as only we could create a situation that the instructor said he’s never seen before. The anchor and its chain bounced out of the bow roller, which meant having to lift the anchor by hand……..and it was heavy. Stuart then took the helm to sail us to Andratx,  which was his first entry into port but it went smoothly, unlike the yacht that came alongside us later with a professional skipper. Let’s just say that after taking a chunk out of us he’ll be losing his no claims.

The third day found us departing Andratx and headed out into the bay to do some man overboard drills, including heaving to. These were incredibly fast paced with Piero shouting at us all the time. We thought this was just him being Italian but he insists it was to put us under stress…….it worked !!!!! On the fourth day we were told that Piero would make his mind up about whether we would pass our day skipper course.  The plan? To get back to home port and not need his assistance from. The Gods favoured us with hardly any mistakes, despite a really tricky anchor in a crowded bay with a significant swell. The sailing was quite rough and Fran was taught a lesson on prior planning. She was the skipper for our approach and entry into Palma but we hadn’t detailed this sufficiently in our pilotage plan so she was sent below decks to calculate bearings, course etc. In the heavy conditions she lasted 10 minutes before she returned from below a slightly greener version than she went in.