Life Experience

Men Only 10 Day Amsterdam Adventure

Friday 1900 to Sunday 1500

Price: £975 (includes:all tuition, boat costs, breakfast, lunch and four evening meals.

Onboard Frangi

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Frangi is an RYA/MCA yacht, coded to carry up to 8 passengers. She is a 50ft Hallberg Rassey sloop and has sailed the Mediterranean and the Caribbean and circumnavigated Britain & Ireland during the past four years.

Day 1

We meet Friday evening between 1800 & 1900 (nautical time) for a boat briefing, course outline and sharing of aims and objectives. Supper is prepared onboard (all clients share in the cooking rota) and then time for our first exercise of the course which usually involves a walk over the world's most famous bridge, Tower Bridge.

Day 2

Planning is the theme of the day. Amsterdam is our goal. We need a plan.

Boats in St Katharine Docks enter the Thames through a lock and times need to fit around High Water. Our lock time could vary between 0600 and 1200. Prior to departing, we need to complete safety checks and organise a rota. Breakfast may be early!

Most of the day we will be heading east towards the mouth of the river, passing through the City, the Thames Barrier and Tilbury Docks.

You will be taught sailing skills throughout the course. At least one of the crew will be a RYA (Royal Yachting Association) Yachtmaster Instructor who will introduce much of the RYA Competent Crew and Day Skipper Syllabus during the 10 days.

We need to consider weather, tides, the moon and its affect on tides (how did lunatic get its name?) and build a plan.

Life needs a plan, otherwise you are carried by the wind and tides of others.

The evening may be spent at anchor or, depending upon tides, in Ramsgate.

Day 3

Navigation is the theme of the day. We need to cross the world's busiest shipping lanes and there is little room for error. Fast track everything today as we will probably be sailing through the night. Sleeping (or trying to) in mid-channel is an experience rarely forgotten. Sunset, sunrise and the rest.

However we will also use this time looking at how we, as men, navigate our way through childhood, adolescence, parenthood and the rest.

Day 4

Survival is the theme of the day, bearing in mind the day starts after midnight and we will be out of sight of land.

On our North Sea crossing in July 2008 we had a force 9 gale, a leaking bilge pump, a faulty gas alarm and a mixture of seasick and worried crew. How does one react and manage this situation as skipper so as not to alarm, give confidence and take control until safely alongside the dock?

How often in everyday life do complications arise? How do you manage these situations to give the most rewarding outcome?

We arrive on the coast of Holland in time to recover, sleep and relax. We discuss the crossing and plan our entry into the canal system, still with Amsterdam as our goal.

Day 5

Today's theme is sex. After all we are approaching the sex capital of the world.

Did you know that 3000 years ago men (called Kings) were sacrificed (used, abused and burned) to women, to recognise the magical powers that women - who were considered goddesses - held over all existence?

We discuss the history of sex, its abuse by religion, politics and those seeking to control. Power and control through inducing guilt, shame and the rest.

We have a relaxing evening in the Red Light District.

Day 6

Understanding the cause and nature of stress, stress busting tips and long-term strategies is today's theme.

“I was fine as we heeled and water came over the deck and up to my knees, infact I joked about it as I put the spinnaker away. After all we were in mid Atlantic and only 1700 miles from St Lucia.  Later that night I started shaking and truly ‘lost it’” (Colin Lambert, mid -Atlantic 1999) 

Sounds like a typical day at work, yet these hurdles have to be overcome. Short term fixes put in place often rely on reactive management when proactive solutions are required.

How do you relax when all around, your crew are loosing their cool?  Same way as navigating in thick fog.

We all have stress, overload, too much work, too little work. All play and no work is equally destructive. Even in a City like Amsterdam, balance is the key to a healthy lifestyle.

Tonight is free time.

Day 7

Today's theme is leadership and management. How do we get the boat safely back to England when the skipper decides to go deaf and dumb (well pretends)? Who will take charge and who will have the skills? It looks like a long day and possibly even night, as we are back at sea.

We all have a different style of leadership and we all respond in different ways to being given instructions. You will both lead and follow.

Plenty of time to reflect on our time in Holland.

Day 8

Today is all about building on (and rotating) our leadership and management skills. We have on past trips landed on the English coast as far north as Lowestoff and as far south as Ramsgate. Today will require negotiation of wind and tide to enter the Thames Estuary and find a secure landfall or anchorage.

Day 9

Timing is the key to today. Do we get lucky or make our luck? As the former Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly once said, "The harder we try the luckier we get". Miss the tide and we get home late or spend a night rolling around (its horrible!), tied to a buoy and miss the last night ashore.

Indeed, we would miss even more as we hit the London nightlife, as a meditation of course.

Day 10

Today's theme is cleaning. The boat by now will be a mess in a safe sort of way.

A summary of skills learned, both sailing and life skills. A final group sharing over lunch on clearing out unwanted mess in our life before clearing out the mess of ten days onboard.

The course ends by 1500 hours on Sunday.

Check calendar for dates and availability.

To book and for further information

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