April 2022: While Neil had a bit of sailing experience, Sarah was a newbie when she stepped onto a small keel boat in San Diego harbor. What followed was a quick introduction to sailing, bur after two days we graduated to a catamaran and set off on a four day sail to, and around, Catalina Island. Trip highlights included the company of scores of dolphins on day 1, and later two whales. Thanks to West Coast Multihull’s great captains and a bunch of hard work, we walked away a week later with four American Sailing Association certificates each (ASA 101, 103, 104, 114). Charter-catamaran.com

February 2023: The absolute best training experience we had was a 10 day sail on SV Moana with her captain Mareike Guhr. We sailed from the Bahamas to Cuba gaining experience with overnight watches, provisioning, downwind sailing, navigation, and the logistics of entering a country under politically tricky circumstances. It was a fun and multicultural group on board too. We sailed with a Turkish couple who live in Germany, a British man who lives in Italy, and Mareike who is German but truly a citizen of the world. www.magsail.de

March 2024: Our final formal training before moving aboard Arcadia, was a Safety at Sea course put on by US Sailing. Once again we found ourselves in San Diego’s Mission Bay. At times we were literally in the Bay, as the course involved going into the water to get experience with our safety gear; this included learning to climb into a life raft from the chilly ocean while fully clothed. www.usasailing.org