Sounds like good fun coming your way, Whiskey.
I learned sailing as a young teen. You need to have a license here for larger boats (> 10 meters I think) on lakes and within the 3-mile.
First summer was about smaller boats, 1-man and then 3-men.
The final test was a regatta on the Flensburg Fjord.
Around 100 boats were participating, ranging from ~10 year olds in small 1-mans to ~16 year olds on 3-men.
Around the midpoint the weather turned nasty. And I mean really nasty. Windforce around 8, rain and a drop in temperature.
The waves grew up to 1.5 meters.
It was not just uncomfortable, it was scary.
Around a third of the boats hauled in the sails, sitting it out.
Another third (all of the faster 1-mans called "Piraten") capsized and had to rescued.
I was in a 3-man crew and we were lucky we only had around 1/4th of the way left which we made.
The second summer was for the >10 meters-license.
1 week of studying the theoreticals and then 2 weeks of sailing on an old 20 meter boat with two masts.
We were around 20 young teens on that boat. Was a great time. Unfortunately we had hardly any wind for the whole turn.
And in the third summer my father was able to persuade a friend of his to lend him a 25-meter with three masts.
We made a 3 weeks-turn in the Aegaeis, just my parents, my brother and me.
It was quite cool except for one evening when the weather turned bad and the waves got really high, around 3 meters.
The wind wasn't even blowing heavily at that moment but we wanted to get to a safe harbour fast. So we set the spinaker as we were running before the wind. And then, around 20 minutes later the wind came up to sick speeds.
I remember my father playing it cool while the three of us got more and more nervous
.
Some time later the wind had gotten so bad, we had to haul in the spinacker. That turned out to be horribly complicated and dangerous with almost no ability to maneuver because of the waves.
At one point my mother no longer was able to hold on to the sheet she had to control and it slipt through her fingers. That left a nasty burn all over them.
We arrived in the harbour when it was already dark night.
Yeah, have fun Whiskey
in a freak wave encounter.
The hum is the motor being run to charge batteries, needed to keep the beer & wine chilled.