Off shore - At night - 30 knots of wind!
This has been our mantra since the beginning - if you are going out of sight of your home marina, you run the risk of getting into situations that will test your abilities as a sailor, as a navigator and as a captain.
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It's very easy to "learn to sail" - most people can pick up the basics in an afternoon. However, learning how to sail safely - how to deal with unusual situations, unexpected weather conditions and difficult personnel issues - is something that can take a lifetime.
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We specialize in teaching the lessons that come from decades of cruising. Our instructors teach from their own experience but we also have a MDS-specific set of training manuals that emphasize the "lessons learned" from hundreds of offshore trips and thousands of miles of sailing.
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Not everyone wants to sail across an ocean or into the "high latitudes" but the skills you need to sail those environments will not fail you near-coastal, in the coastal waters and even in the big lakes and bays. If you are thinking of taking your family to the Caribbean, the Mediterranean or the Pacific Islands, you cannot be over-prepared.
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We don't cut corners, we don't just sign you off and we don't do "vacation teaching." We are
- A Serious School for Serious Sailors! -
Student Feedback
Please kindly thank Captain Tursi for me for writing his Celestial Navigation book and Workbook. I have read several books on Celestial Navigation over the years, e.g. ones by Mary Blewitt, and Edward Bergin. None come even close to the way in which Capt Tursi's books bring out the practical use of celestial navigation to actual seafaring.
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I'm just awed by the work and detail he put into the problems and assignments. It's as if he's saying via these books,
Celestial Navigation theory is one thing, but if you're really going to use it at sea, THIS is how it's actually done, step by step. And it is so much appreciated how the homework problems gradually gain in complexity, level by level, as you make your way through them.
Plus the explanations to the problems leave no stone unturned.
I am just truly thankful, so I hope you can pass on my gratitude to Captain Tursi for his having written these two books.
Sincerely,
- Brad Kurlancheek
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