Learning dinghy sailing at Wildwind Mauritius
Ahoy there, mateys! Gather round for this is the tale of our daring journey on the turquoise waters of Mauritius, where we braved the mild wind, the tiny waves, and did not even a capsize once as we learned to sail a dinghy at Wildwind!
Sailing? But why? Isn't it wet?
The feeling of gliding on the water powered only by the wind is something amazing. After a couple of sailing adventures as passengers in Croatia and Ibiza in May 2022, we knew we wanted to learn how to sail.
Yes sailing is wet. Yes, it is also an expensive hobby ("Why did the sailor sell his boat? He wanted to upgrade to a bigger money pit!"). And yes, sailing is hard work and requires a lot of dedication and practice. Many people learn when they are children, unfortunately neither J. nor I did and none of us have sea legs. But, what can we say, we are hooked into sailing. So we decided it was not too late to at least try to learn!
Mauritius is not an ideal location for sailboats because of its shallow waters inside the reef. Indeed, sailboats have deep keels that prevent them from going to more shallow sites. Mauritius is however a great spot to learn dinghy sailing! Lagoons are sheltered from big waves, sea has a turquoise color and the water is between 24°C and 29°C year-round.
Windwind in Trou aux Biches is the only RYA-recognized sailing training centre in the Indian Ocean. After a couple of exchanges over email with Klaus, the owner of Wildwind Mauritius, we enrolled to the RYA Dinghy Level 1 training. 10 sessions of 90 minutes each for Rs17,000 MUR per person (which is about 350 euros). This is the resident price, price for tourists is likely more expensive.
Dinghy training with the RYA
For those like us that are unfamiliar with sailing, the Royal Yachting Association, is the UK's national governing body for all forms of boating. It provides a range of widely recognized certification programs for anything boating.
The dinghy curriculum at RYA encompasses 3 levels, with options to then join the racing curriculum or hop on the sailboat cruising track.
Level 1 is all about the basics of sailing. At the end of the course, we should be able to:
- steer the dinghy using the tiller and the sails,
- sail in all directions under light winds,
- know the basics of launching a dinghy safely and recovering it back to the shore,
- know the basics of preparing the boat for sailing (rigging the boat),
- know the basics rules of sailing and how to avoid collisions with other boats,
- know basic emergency procedures, such as recovering from capsizing or avoiding losing control of the boat.
First 5 sessions: a whole new world
Our adventure began on a hot and sunny day in August 2022, which is actually the middle of Winter for Mauritius. We met our instructor, Kumar, and set sail on a Laser 2000. We were like a sad pair of landlubbers, but Kumar showed us the ropes (pun intended 😉), teaching us how to steer using the tiller and how to use our body as counterweight. We had a great 90 minutes and were thrilled to be out on the water!
For the next session, Jordan took over as our instructor and showed us how to rig the laser for sailing. We learned to tack (i.e. changing direction by steering into the wind). Wind gusts made it a challenge for us newbies, and we had more than a few oopsie moments. I was surprised by how much we needed to pull and release the sheet ("work the sheet"), but it was a lot of fun! We sailed for more than an hour in the lagoon of Mon Choisy and saw many hobie cats (small racing catamarans) from Club Med.
Our third sailing lesson was an adventure in itself. The weather was great but windy, with gusts up to 24 knots. We learned how to sail singlehandedly by holding the main sheet in one hand and the tiller in the other. However, we realized we needed a tad more practice with just the wheel while the other person does the sheet. We both had trouble doing a perfect tack, and the gusty winds didn't help. We didn't capsize, but there were a fair share of close calls 😂. We were mentally exhausted at the end of this session.
Next, Kumar went through the 5 important topics to keep in mind while sailing:
- balance: keep the boat as horizontal as possible for maximum speed and comfort,
- trim: have a good handle of the sheets,
- sail setting: have the sails make the correct angle with the wind,
- centerboard (the removable keel of the boat): make sure it is all the way down, except when going down wind where you can help it a bit up for faster speeds... or when coming back ashore so that we don't bump on rocks at the bottom,
- and passage made good: decide where you want to go and know how you will get there.
On the next two sessions, we put everything we had learnt into practice. We rigged the sails ourselves, still with some help from the instructors. We finally were able to manage both the tiller and the main sheet at the same time! It was both scary and exhilarating.
Now on our own, a different game altogether!
Now, our 6th session is where the real stuff began.
We were surprised to find out that Kumar wouldn't be sailing with us that day. We would be on our own! Before leaving the shore, we practiced recovering from capsizing (just in case), and then off we went!
We sailed up and down for an hour and it was exhilarating! When we returned to shore safe and sound, J. and I were absolutely thrilled. We wouldn't stop talking about how it was the best day ever 🤩.
As we continued practicing we started feeling more and more confident about our sailing skills. There was (and still is) a ton to learn and practice to be had, but it's crazy how quickly you can learn a new skill when you really enjoy doing something.
During our last session, we learned how to gybe, which is changing course while going downwind (the opposite as tacking). Gybing can be dangerous when done wrong as the boom can swing across in an instant and you don't want your head to be on the way. J. was a natural at gybing, while I struggled a bit and definitely need to practice more.
But in the end, we both earned our Level 1 certificates! We were so excited that we forgot to take pictures that day. Oops!
Sailing Laser Picos
After getting our certificate, Giovanni, the manager of Wildwind, kindly offered us a free session to try out Laser Picos. Picos are very small dinghies that you sail on your own. It was a lot of fun!
Well, except when I wasn't able to make passage good and bumped into a boat at anchor on the way out (sorry). Or when J. realized that the tiller was broken and had to be rescued and brought back to shore to exchange her boat with another one 😂
More than ever, we're totally hooked on sailing. We are now planning to learning how to sail a proper (bigger) boat and probably look at buying one in 2023!.
Last updated: February 18th, 2023