“We have been sailing on the Lake Constance (Bodensee) and in the Mediterranean for over two decades.

At boot Düsseldorf, we heard Leon’t talk about sailing the Galician (Spanish) and Portuguese Atlantic coast, which encouraged us to try to sail in tidal waters. Our goal was to fresh up our limited experience in tidal sailing and to learn some more while sailing on Regina Laska. Unfortunately, we had to postpone our intended cruise with Regina Laska, but not so regarding the theory course in Malta in January 2024!

We all gathered in a great hotel - a bit outside but still in the middle of one of the great sailing centers in the world ;-) We were eleven different personalities with very varying sailing backgrounds, but all were quite experienced.

After six intense days I can confirm that the group worked together in an excellent way. All knew what we were about to achieve and how we could get there as a team in the best of ways.

The days in classroom were intense - to say the least. But, at the same time, highly interesting! During the evenings we enjoyed great food in different excellent restaurants continuing our fun discussions and dreams about boats and sailing. What a treat!!

A lot of sharing thoughts and experiences gave a wonderful mosaic which we will look back to for a long time and in fond memories. This theory course felt like sailing together with friends!

Yes, there were also tests and assessments. That’s how it is when sailing. Having fun is helping a lot when it comes to taking it seriously, while passing the tests with a smile on your face. It’s like entering a challenging harbour after an intense sailing day and then let the evening pass in joy in a great pub.

That’s why we passed also the last and big assessment on passage planning with a smile and were laughing along with our fellow friends with great food in the Royal Malta Yacht Club! We had all done it!

Leon was impressive how he was organising it all, how he was able to support each individual person, allowing each participant to feel that they had great capabilities to pass even the most challenging seamanship and navigational exercises.

See you in Düsseldorf or on Regina Laska or at another place on or by the sea!”