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The Instructor

Captain Dan was born on the shores of the North Sea in Kircaldy, Scotland. Shortly after emigrating to Canada his parents bought a 12' aluminum runabout with a 7 1/2 horsepower outboard engine, and Danny has spent much of his life on and in the water ever since. In 1998, after stints working on lobster boats, a trawler, and as a commercial diver, he bought his first sailboat - the Tom Saylor - and the whale-watching tour business that went with it. He spent the next 8 years sailing out of Dingwall and Bay St. Lawrence Harbours in Northern Cape Breton introducing landlubbers to the Leviathans of the deep. 

After selling the Tom Saylor in 2010, Dan fell in love with and bought the Eva Jade in Blaine Washington. He spent the next 7 summers sailing many of the breathtakingly beautiful inlets and waterways of Canada's west coast from Vancouver to the Alaska border and Haida-Gwaii.

In 2016 Dan became a certified sailing instructor with the Canadian Recreational Yachting Association and decided to establish a Transport Canada approved "Cruise and Learn" sailing school in Cape Breton.

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       Eva Jade at Kynoch Falls, Fjordland Recreational Area, BC

In addition to the CRYA instructors' certification, Dan has held a Transport Canada 'Limited Masters' certificate (AKA 60-ton ticket) since 1998, an Industry Canada 'Radio Operators' certificate since 2001, and is trained in Marine Emergency Duties and Marine First Aid. 

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