Chapter 2: Sunday

After breakfast, everyone was kitted out with a lifejacket and then they walked down to the beach which was only 100 metres from the villa along a tree-lined path in the grounds. The private sandy beach was quite wide with steep cliffs either side so that the only access was via the villa. There was a small wooden jetty where the larger training dinghies were moored, with the smaller dinghies, windsurfers and canoes pulled up onto the beach.

When everyone had arrived, Mark assigned the students to their instructor. Nathan was with a senior instructor, Tina, together with Larissa and a boy called Jose. Tina explained that Nathan would be doing the instructing as he was training to be an instructor and that she would just monitor him and stop him from drowning them. On the way to their dinghy, Nathan asked which language they preferred. Having lived in Mallorca most of his life, he was fluent in Spanish and the local Catalan language as well as English.

“I’m originally from Madrid” replied Jose “so I would prefer Spanish.”

“Russian please” replied Larissa with a grin.

“You got me there” laughed Nathan “can you manage Spanish? Or I could repeat stuff in English”.

“Spanish is fine” replied Larissa with a smile

Down on the jetty, Nathan explained the main parts of the boat before they clambered on board. After hoisting the sails, they set off with Nathan on the helm and a light offshore breeze. He started off by asking Larissa and Jose to point where the wind was coming from. They were both pretty close, so he continued manoeuvring the boat to show them the different points of sail, depending on where the wind was coming from. This was obviously a repeat of the previous evenings video but made much more sense in real life.

Jose seemed a bit nervous so Nathan asked Larissa to take over the helm first. She was a bit apprehensive too, but determined to impress Nathan. He talked her through the basic manoeuvres and she soon got the hang of it. She even managed a little smile as she began to relax and enjoy herself. Nathan was very encouraging and received a little pout when he asked her to hand over the helm for Jose’s turn. He was quick to learn too and Nathan was relieved that his students would not be too much of a challenge for his first time as an instructor and his assessment.

Nathan took over the helm and they returned to the jetty, dropped the sails and then went back to the villa for lunch. Tina was complementary about Nathan’s instructing before heading off to meet her boyfriend, one of the other instructors. Jose went off to find his friends.

“Can I eat lunch with you please Nat?” Larissa asked.

“Of course, but don’t you have any friends from school here that you would rather hang out with?”

“Only a couple of ex-friends” she replied sadly.

“Well, I don’t think I have anyone here I know apart from Maria and Tom who seem to be in a threesome with Francesca, so I guess you are stuck with me.”

“I don’t mind if you don’t” she replied shyly.

“Not at all, I’m getting to like you a lot more now that I know you can smile. My challenge for the week is to get you laughing so hard you...”

Her eyes went wide with a big grin, but they were just joining the lunch queue, so he did not finish the sentence.

After lunch they met up with the rest of their crew and Nathan asked Jose and Larissa to hoist the sails, then Jose managed the tricky job of sailing the boat off of the jetty. Jose and Larissa took turns helming the boat and crewing. Crewing basically involved trimming the foresail and leaning out in the gusts to balance the boat. Later in the afternoon the wind picked up and they were soon having fun and obviously enjoying themselves.

All too soon it was time to head back. Nathan asked Larissa to sail the boat back up to the jetty which was a very tricky manoeuvre under sail. She gave him a dirty look causing him to laugh but she followed his instructions and didn’t hit the jetty too hard. As they were leaving the beach, Tina pulled Nathan aside while the others continued up to the villa for showers.