Imagine setting out to learn to sail and then less than two years later, you’re gearing up to sail solo in the Florida 120 aboard a 14’ open boat! That’s exactly what Darren, aka Skipper D of Skipper D Adventures, has set out to do! In this episode, we travel back in time to September 2024 when Skipper D embarks upon a course of study with the American Sailing Association and he shares how he discovered an amazing and supportive sailing community. With 261 hours of sail time, a total of 835 nm sailed (with 436 of those being coastal and ocean nm), with five American Sailing Association certifications as well as an ASA docking endorsement, Skipper D has built up a substantial sailing resume in less than two years time after setting out to learn to sail. Skipper D has enjoyed sailing on both larger and smaller vessels and when it came time to find his match for sharing adventures out on the water, he surprised himself by deciding to purchase a 14’ Com-Pac Picnic Cat boat. The Com-Pac Picnic Cat boat is gaff-rigged and though perhaps small, the boat is built with big adventures in mind! Skipper D has been documenting his journey with his incredible YouTube channel called Skipper D Adventures — be sure to check it out as well as his website, www. skipperd.com.

PLEASE BE KIND - I'm no expert - I'm just a regular gal learning as I go! Also, I don't have a huge budget dedicated to equipment and/or other resources for recording audio -- but, I put lots of love and time into creating these podcasts in the hopes that sharing what I learn might help you!

Did you know that I blog regularly/create videos about adventures out on the water and other life-happenings? Come raft up with me at https://passagesfromtheheart.wordpress.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@passagesfromtheheart

LINKS:

Skipper D Adventures Website | https://www.skipperd.com

Skipper D Adventures on YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@SkipperDAdventures

Restro Thunder Road | https://www.youtube.com/@restrothunderroad

Ziggy Lavengood | https://www.youtube.com/@ZiggyLavengood

Roger Barnes | https://www.youtube.com/@RogerRoving

American Sailing Association | https://americansailing.com/

Com-Pac Picnic Cat | https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/picnic-cat-com-pac/

CPYOA Forum | https://cpyoa.com/forum/

Picnic Cat PDF Capsize thread (read reply #1) | https://cpyoa.com/forum/index.php?topic=12942.0

MUSIC CREDITS:

Intro theme by Anthony Cuozzo of Double Down Sailing: / @quazzo

Music used for welcome sequence in video is ‘Love in Mexico’ by Carmen María and Edu Espinal.

Music used for outro in video is 'Silver Waves' by TrackTribe.