Hi folks! You didn't really think I'd get lost in the fog, did you? We
may have broken our propellor in the Force 8 (hence no sails up) in a
major shipping lane but that's a long story.

But I got my Competent Crew Certificate and as an unexpected bonus the
instructor/examiner signed off loads of my Day Skipper credits :)

I really discovered the benefit of coming off the Tegretol... The other
two crew were doing Day Skipper certification required to charter a
yacht. Conversation below deck was endlessly about chartwork and
nautical maths and meaning of different buoys and signals so I felt like
I was in the wrong degree course (none of it was in my CC book). I don't
really understand how, but it eventually started to make sense just from
hearing them discussing and working on it (and a bit of pestering from
me). So at the end I also sat the first 1.5 hour paper of *their*
written exam 'to see how much I could do' and got a smugly gobsmacking
percentage. Sadly it's not valid towards certificate as I wasn't even
supposed to be doing it. But if I strengthen my understanding of course-
plotting (in Paper 2) I'll be able to take the Day Skipper theory exams
for real. I then need lots more practical experience on top of that (but
most yachts might seem rather bland compared to the 100,000 UKP racing
team yacht we were on, usually with a crew of 10 people, not just 4).

Sorry if I sound like a boy with his new bicycle, but I only set out to
get Comp.Crew and didn't expect to come away with sooooo much more. Oh,
and an invitation back to a free extended weekend sail in August.

So yes Mary, you're right: there's no fog here - I never dreamed I could
learn so much in such a short time. I hope lots of people here will be
encouraged that I can vouch that memory/learning effects are NOT
permanent, even after thousands of seizures and twenty-eight years on
meds (although your mileage may vary, according to tidal streams,
spring/neap difference, time of day, magnetic variation, compass
deviation, wind speed/direction and inaccuracy of fixes).