Boat lessons with Dominic

Our first week

We closed on our boat on Wednesday February 18th. However, we couldn’t sleep on the boat in its location as the dock agreement expressly forbade liveaboards. So we knew that we had to move the boat. However, we didn’t have the skills and the boat was in a really tricky location (it was behind someone’s house and they had pillings at each end of their dock area). As a result we decided to get some ‘new owner’ lessons from a company called Premium Captains.

The best instructor

This was hands down the best decision - a) because we really needed to know how to be confident with the boat in small spaces, but more importantly, b) we met Domonic!

Not only is Domonic a great teacher, he is also a really solid person and has helped us to no end. He even hosted S’ 7th birthday party at his house!

Domonic taught us all about our boat systems, how to dock, how to anchor, gave us advice on apps to use, helped us pumpout our boat, organized dockage behind his house. Just a few things :)

First night at anchor

Domonic was also really good at gently pushing us to do things outside of our comfort zone. On one occasion he helped us sail up the Atlantic coast and encouraged us to anchor at lighthouse point. This day was one of the most spectacular - not only did we see flying fish, we dropped the hook for the first time, we saw a turtle!, and we spent our first night at anchor. It was such an amazing day!