Sunsail is a boat chartering company that also offers sailing instruction in some very scenic parts of the world. They teach the approved British RYA curriculum. Brett and I took their most basic course out of Phuket, Thailand. We had a 39 foot boat with 4 people on it—one other student, Melcier, who was taking an advanced course (he’d grown up with a sail boat, been out on his own and taken navigation classes). It was a nice situation where we had two people to learn from. We slept on the boat and cooked about half our meals on board. The school part was hard work because the sails were pretty big; my hands are still losing their calluses from pulling the ropes. 

We sailed in some really beautiful areas. Most people who go to Phuket end up taking at least a day to go on a giant motorboat to one of the smaller islands to snorkel or scuba or kayak to see the rock formations. So sailing was the perfect way to visit the islands because we had a great view of them as we passed by slowly (never more than 7 knots) and we took the dinghy in to visit a couple of them or swam ashore. We usually anchored the boat for lunch and for the evening and had the opportunity to swim behind the boat. The ocean in this area is about 84 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was very comfortable swimming, but we threw a rope out to guard against the strong current. One night after some night sailing, which was very beautiful, we anchored the boat for the first time in the dark. You could see the phosphorescence of the sea plankton wherever you disturbed the water while swimming. We ran around barefoot all the time on the deck, since this is a tropical climate, but the heat was also a hazard. 

I got seasick on the third day, but it was hard to tell how much of it was brought on by sun/heat and dehydration/not eating because of my cold. After that I took seasickness pills in the morning. 

Brett at the helm, Garreth, our instructor on the left

Catherine at the helm

View from the dingy as we explored one of the islands