give the impression she was that fickle. __________________ Boaty junk clogging up your shed or lockers? Chuck it in Marinaskip Maybe it's just me, maybe it's just me being paranoid, but once education for profit, as in sail training schools, rears it's not so good looking little head, (note I didn't say ugly) . I just get a wee bit suspicious of motives. I have no doubt whatsoever that perfectly honourable and decent training companies exist and do their job admirably...........Still............ I tend to subscribe to the idea that a couple of months of diddling around in their spare time, in a small yacht/dayboat/ dinghy in a relatively safe estuarial environment, or the like, will teach the novice more about sailing than a week with a sailing school. If they have a few folk around, say knowledgeable Yacht Club membership or relative, then that process is made easier. I go back to my previous comments about experience, you can attend all the courses you want, but experience only comes with time on the water. Somebody earlier made the comment that the marlinspike side of seamanship is now pretty much a separate subject of itself. I really hope that is not the case, because there is a whole lot more to seamanship than being able to helm a boat safely from one place to another, if things go tits up, knowing how to splice ropes and use the correct knots etc.could well save yours and your crews bacon. Having a good