In response to Pamela F's review, I was on board that week, and wish to set straight the record of…read morewhat happened, and more importantly, why.
Yes, the weather (for sailing) was terrible. Little to no wind, but this is not the fault of anyone at San Juan Sailing nor Capt. Margaret nor anyone on board. We motored most of the week, and didn't get wind until the last day.
Yes, the boat encountered mechanical issues, and San Juan Sailing made sure their mechanic was available as soon as we made port. Since we were not able to charge our batteries via the engine, power conservation was critical.
And yes, our instructor, Capt. Margaret did suffer an illness that put her life in danger, and required we students to take extreme measures to get her to medical treatment.
All of these things are 100% true.
but, as Paul Harvey would say.. "and now... the rest of the story..."
There were 4 students aboard. Pam, a nice German gentleman named Christian, myself, and my wife. My wife Suzie and I had just purchased a larger sailboat, and had some experience sailing. Personally, I've been around boats all my life. Neither Pam nor Christian had any experience to speak of, but both seemed at the outset to be eager to learn. In Pam's case, this was not to be.
Pam expressed a disdain for everything nautical, eschewing the traditions and questioning the name/nomenclature of everything aboard. "Why is it named X? I think it should be called Y. Lets all call it Y!". She was more interested in her vape pen and outfit changes than in sailing/motoring the boat, and, despite Capt. Margarets' instruction not to use the autopilot, insisted on using each time she was at the helm.
On the day that Capt. Margaret took it, we had anchored at a state park and came ashore via the dingy - part of the curriculum. We had a portable VHF and instructions to radio in with status update at 7:00 pm. We had great fun exploring the island, Pam & Christian covering more ground than my wife and I. At 7:00 my wife and I returned to the dock and radio'd in. Capt. Margaret told me that she was not well, that we needed to get back to the boat quick as we could, and make for emergency care. I asked her symptoms and from what she described, appendicitis was my "battlefield" diagnosis. (side note, I'm a veteran. that'll become evident in a moment). I prepped the dinghy for a fast departure, laying out the life jackets so we could just grab one and go, and waited for the rest of the crew to return. Once they were back, I explained the situation and, since my duties that day had me as captain, laid out our plan and how we were going to handle this potentially life threatening situation. "Grab a life jacket, it doesn't matter which", I said. Pam wanted to go through each to find "hers". We finally get in the dink and cast off (the training said we were to all take turns at the outboard, but, situation as it was, we did not do this). As we returned to the boat, I laid out the plan. Christian was our navigator that day, and I directed him to plot us a course as soon as he was aboard. To Pam and Suzie, I laid out our plan of securing the outboard, the dink, and getting the anchor up and the boat underway. Pam was more concerned with her water bottle and changing outfits than getting the boat secured. I would estimate it was 8:30 pm before we were under way, we were losing daylight fast and had a fair distance to get to port. I directed (I wasn't asking, a life was at stake) that Pam and Suzie go forward with lights and watch for logs/kelp/marine animals that we didn't want to hit. Yes, it was cold. we were all cold, hungry too. Once Christian had a course for me, I sent him forward to relieve Pam & Suzie so they could change, and then to get some snacks for us. As soon as we were within range, we were on the VHF with the captain of another San Juan Sailing boat, giving him and update on Capt. Margaret's condition, what the layout of the port was like, etc. At this point we are sailing in pitch black (Sorry, SJS, I know we broke that rule), running the engine harder than SJS allowed. (Sorry SJS, broke that one too). We made it into port - the education Capt. Margaret provided about channel markers and night navigation were put to the test, and as a crew, we succeeded. We got into port, and the only open dock was the US Customs dock. As we got close, Capt Margaret did manage to make it up topsides. As soon as we docked (the crew from the other SJS boat were there to catch lines), Capt. Margaret was rushed off to medical care, leaving us to secure the boat.
We learned that shore power was not an option (we were a 30 amp boat, all the power pylons were 50 amp, and we learned from another boater that 30 to 50 amp adapters had been known to trip the breakers, which would have left every boat on the dock without shore power. So, we stayed on battery power for the night. Once the ship was secure, I invited everyone to come ashore to find hot food (continued)
