Life On Sail

Happy New Year 2025 everyone! Wishing you health, that's the most important.  If you have health, then your job for the rest of the year is to make yourself and the ones you love happy.  With happiness comes success and prosperity.  Exciting news: Exactly four weeks after passing our driving license exam, we've received our actual driving licenses today! Hooray! Our next steps VHF exam We are now in the countryside, far away from Paris.  We have to take our VHF exam in Toulouse. And we haven't prepared much for that.  I found out there was a class online through our Paris Nautique registration for the boat driving license.  But better, the ANFR provides a comprehensive booklet with all the necessary information You can download it here But once again, I haven't read that book, Nico is.  I'm learning by answering questions on the  Loisirs-Nautic.fr  online tests. This method works better for me. I screenshot the wrong answers to study from the...

We're taking the theory exam for the boat driving license this morning. I have to admit I was feeling a bit anxious. Nico was reviewing the lessons right up until the last minute. You just need to book an exam center close to you. For this session, there were only three of us: the two of us for the boat test and one person for the road test. How does it work? There are 40 questions, and you can only make up to 5 mistakes. Unlike the road theory test, they don't inform you if there are multiple correct answers (a maximum of 2). It also lasts longer than the road exam. You sit in front of an iPad with headphones. Then you get started. You'll have about 2 questions to test the sound and the answering process. You find out if you've passed or not 40 minutes after finishing. You'll receive an email detailing the number of mistakes you made. And yes, I passed! I only made 1 mistake. I expected to make more, but I nailed it. Nico made 3 mistakes. After receiving the...

We're approaching things a bit backwards, as we took our boat driving course before even passing the theory exam! And we did this practical course the very next day after our theory class... It’s quite unconventional. The usual process is to first attend the theory class, then take and the theory exam. Once you pass, you proceed to the driving practical class. After completing and passing the driving course, the instructor automatically submits your documents to the administration to process your final boat driving license. The reason for our approach was simply that there was only one available slot at that time.  We booked last minute, so we couldn’t be picky with the dates. Since we’re on a sabbatical, timing isn’t a concern for us. So, here we are on a chilly Friday morning in December 2024, standing on the banks of the Seine River, ready to learn how to pilot a boat. Naturally, we arrived somewhat unprepared. Any tips? Bring your candidate book for the instructor to fill ...