Sailing with Fair Isle: Our Competent Crew Adventure in Croatia
A week of sailing, learning, filming, laughter, near-misses, great instruction, and many stories that never made it into the final film.
One of the joys of learning to sail later in life is that every course becomes much more than just a certificate. It becomes a story.
Our RYA Competent Crew course in Croatia was certainly that.
We sailed for a week with the Sailing Fair Isle crew — Steve and Judy — along with their friends Jane and Barry. On our boat were Ros and me, together with John and Emily, who were undertaking their Day Skipper course. Guiding us through it all was our instructor, Tadek, who was only 20 at the time and turned 21 the day after the course finished.
That sounds impossibly young when you are a 65+ learner still occasionally wondering which rope does what, but Tadek was excellent: calm, clear, patient, and quietly confident. Exactly what you need when a boat full of adults is trying to look competent while not always being quite as competent as hoped.
The Sailing Fair Isle Film
Steve and Judy have now produced a video of the course, and it is wonderful to see the week from another perspective.
Watch the Sailing Fair Isle video here:
[Insert Sailing Fair Isle YouTube link]
Their film captures the spirit of the week: the Croatian coastline, the boats, the training, the manoeuvres, the laughter, and the shared experience of learning afloat.
Of course, as always with sailing, the film only tells part of the story.
Behind every smooth-looking clip there were missed lines, forgotten instructions, unexpected wind shifts, confused looks, and at least one person trying to work out whether they were meant to be pulling, easing, coiling, fending off, or simply getting out of the way.
Our Own Croatia Sailing Blog Series
I have been writing the full diary of the trip on PMR Sailing, covering not just the course, but the whole adventure: the travel, the preparation, the first impressions of Croatia, the boat handling, the scenery, the mistakes, the meals, the filming, and all the little moments that make a sailing course memorable.
You can follow the Croatia series here: I am still writing it all
PMR Sailing:
https://pmrsailing.uk
- Day 1 – Travelling to Croatia
- Day 2 – Exploring Before the Course
- Day 3 – Arrival at Sunsail
- Day 4 – We Get Underway
- Day 5 – Learning to Steer with Confidence
- Day 6 – The Vineyard
- Day 7 - The Submarine Pen
- Day 8 - Strong Winds and heeling
- Day 9 - A trip to the Blue lagoon
- Day 10 - The Fort at Klis
- Day 11 - Agana again and A Roman City
- Day 12 - Omis -The beach then home
- Behind the Edit: Building the Competent Crew Film
Two Boats, Two Stories
One of the most interesting parts of the week was that it was not just one course on one boat.
We had our monohull experience, while Steve and Judy were also looking at the world of cruising from the perspective of people used to sailing and filming their own adventures. There was also the wider comparison between different boats, different crews, and different expectations.
It made the whole week feel less like a course and more like a floating documentary project.
There were cameras everywhere. Steve and Judy were filming. I was filming. Judy was often filming from angles that made things look far more elegant than they felt at the time. I was also trying to capture enough footage for the PMR Sailing channel, while simultaneously remembering what Tadek had just said.
This is harder than it sounds.
A sailing course requires concentration. Filming a sailing course requires another brain entirely. Unfortunately, I had only brought the usual one.
Learning with John and Emily
John and Emily were doing their Day Skipper course, which added another layer to the week.
While we were learning the practical skills of competent crew work — sail handling, knots, lines, fenders, lookout duties, steering, safety routines and general usefulness — John and Emily were dealing with passage planning, pilotage, navigation, decision-making and boat handling at a higher level.
It was fascinating to see the two courses running alongside each other.
The Competent Crew course teaches you how to be useful on board.
The Day Skipper course teaches you how to become responsible for the boat.
Those are very different things.
It also made me realise how much there is to learn. Every time I thought I had understood one part of sailing, another three parts appeared just over the horizon.
Tadek: The 20-Year-Old Instructor
It would be easy to underestimate an instructor who was only 20.
That would have been a mistake.
Tadek was excellent. He was patient without being vague, clear without being bossy, and confident without showing off. He knew when to demonstrate, when to explain, when to let us try, and when to step in before we did something memorable for the wrong reasons.
The fact that he turned 21 the day after the course made the whole thing even more impressive.
At 20, I was not teaching adults to sail yachts around Croatia. I was probably still trying to work out how to reverse a trailer without making it a public entertainment event.
What the Film Shows — and What It Cannot Show
The Sailing Fair Isle film gives a lovely overview of the week, but there were many more adventures than could possibly fit into one video.
There were moments of concentration, confusion, quiet achievement, and mild panic. There were beautiful anchorages, harbour manoeuvres, fenders everywhere, ropes being thrown, ropes being missed, and ropes being coiled with varying degrees of artistic interpretation.
There were also the little human moments:
- early mornings on deck
- the strange luxury of a proper shore facility
- shared breakfasts
- shopping for boat supplies
- laughing about mistakes
- watching other crews
- trying to look relaxed when approaching a harbour wall
- discovering that wind noise can ruin otherwise perfect video footage
These are the details that make the blog series worth writing.
A film can show the sailing.
A blog can tell the story behind the sailing.
From River Sailing to Croatia
For me, much of my sailing has been on the River Thames at Upper Thames Sailing Club.
Croatia was very different.
The river teaches precision. You are always aware of banks, trees, moorings, gusts, shadows, stream, and very limited space.
The sea gives you more room, but also asks different questions. You think more about weather, distance, navigation, harbours, anchorages, and how the day fits together as a passage.
Some skills transferred well. Looking around, balancing the boat, listening to instructions, and staying calm all mattered.
Other things felt completely new.
A yacht is not a dinghy. A harbour wall is not a Thames mooring. And a 47-foot boat does not stop just because you have suddenly decided that stopping would now be convenient.
Why This Week Matters
The course was not just about gaining a qualification.
It was about confidence.
It was about understanding what happens on a cruising yacht.
It was about learning how to be useful rather than decorative.
It was about seeing how filming, sailing, teaching and storytelling can all come together.
It was also part of a much bigger PMR Sailing journey: learning to sail later in life, recording the process honestly, and hopefully encouraging others to have a go.
You do not need to be young to learn something new.
You do not need to know everything before you start.
You do, however, need a good instructor, a sense of humour, and ideally a camera that is not pointing at your feet during the best part of the manoeuvre.
Watch the Film, Then Read the Story
Steve and Judy’s Sailing Fair Isle video is a wonderful record of the week.
My blogs add the diary, the details, the mistakes, the reflections, and the bits that happened just outside the camera frame.
Together, they tell the story of a remarkable week in Croatia: two courses, several crews, many cameras, one excellent young instructor, and a great deal of learning.
Watch the Sailing Fair Isle video:
https://youtu.be/8Zo-0eIWnIA?si=MA4a_-SlOFYvaQOw
Read the full PMR Sailing Croatia series:
https://pmrsailing.uk
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