Sail Training: Day 3

Waking up after our first night aboard was a chilly one… Not exactly what we’d signed up for, given the name of this adventure! Nonetheless, we bundled the kids off with the grandparents and braved the weather for our third day of sail training with Alain. He likes to spend the mornings docking around the marina before motoring out of the channel when the winds pick up; so that’s exactly what we did!

Heading out after lunch we worked on our man-overboard techniques (snapping our new boat hook in the process… Oops!), and playing with the gennaker again, before anchoring in a sandy bay just off the beach of Île de Ré. Not so bad for a Monday, really! This was to be our final handover session, but despite our best efforts and willingness to learn, we all agreed that another half-day of practice and exercises would be beneficial. As Alain noted, three days of training isn’t much for sailing around the world… He may have a point!

So in the early evening sun, after the day’s training was done and before the kids returned, we found a moment to take our dinghy Shelby for a spin around the marina... Grateful for the chance to grab a little bit of relaxation and enjoyment amongst the craziness. And tomorrow, we do it all again!