TWO figure eights, not ONE

We had the distinct pleasure of working with Captain Christopher Simpson, a proper Englishman, who tailored a practical training program to our needs.

It quickly became apparent that Joe had to be the captain as we only had four days to become proficient at handling our catamaran. So I became the crew. A crew of ONE. That means handling all of the docking lines and fenders. Those four days of training rivaled every Peloton workout I've ever done. I was exhausted at the end of each day.

This is how a crew of one works. Picture Joe backing onto the dock with a slight wind. I step on with a large rope and do one big turn around the cleat then two figure eights, then walk "smartly" (Captain's English word meaning "move fast") to the bow, pull down that line and do the same thing. Quickly. It's one of the very first skills I learned.

On day three, I was in a hurry so only did one figure eight. As I ran to the bow, I looked back, and our 10 ton home was pulling away from the dock toward another dock. My heart went in my throat. Luckily our Dutch neighbor happened to be there and pulled her in.

There are no short cuts with this job. We check and double check everything every time we do it. Captain Chris emphasized this over and over. In four short days we also learned so much more than sailing, including:

• Performing Man Overboard where we threw two fenders overboard named Bob and rescued "him."

• Plotting a course on a paper chart, even though we have electronic navigation because it could go out.

• Picking up a mooring ball and anchoring which was much easier than docking.

• Motoring at night...

Yes, we went out at night. At first it was quite scary as we couldn't see until our eyes adjusted. The channel was a little bumpy as I took off our lines and put them in our anchor locker that I'm terrified of falling into during the day, let alone at night.

Upon our return back to the dock, Joe and Chris heard it before we saw it. A large container ship that we were looking right at, but didn't see it further away because it was coming out of a busy harbor that had lots of lights. Joe turned to starboard quickly and we were safe, but it emphasized the importance of keeping our eyes and ears open for surprises.

Captain Chris signed off on our skills to send to our insurance company and now we wait in our darling Nanny Cay Marina until we can take Making Connections out on our own. We've had plenty to do all day every day, which we'll tell you about later.

We are only on day 11 and loving every minute of the challenge and experience.

To this day, I still do a figure 8

We found a place for everything - and everything in its place

Nanny Cay sunset

Life IS better on a boat