My girlfriend and I found that taking the lessons was very informative, I needed to use the skills i learned the very first time out on our own, The course most likely saved the two of our lives. Having no idea at first what to have on board as of safety gear, Not taking the course would've led to serious injury and or death. Our first time out on our newly purchased second hand boat started off fun and exciting. 2 hours into our fishing trip i noticed we were quite far from shore and i had asked her if we should start up and get a little closer, unknown to the both of us our boat was very second hand and were a drift in the water and couldn't get out outboard started. We stayed calm and went over what we had learned, We both knew that when we left our campsite we had an arranged check in time and had left a general direction of our trip. I secured the anchor to the bow {i only bought the anchor that morning} placed the anchor in to the water the way i seen in the lessons, 50 foot rope in 10 water, It grabbed the bottom and faced the waves and stopped us very nicely and smoothly. put on some sunscreen, stayed hydrated and just kept fishing...we knew our check in time was approaching quickly and we were safely anchored and not floating anywhere dangerous. 15 minutes after our check in time we had some neighbors find us in the direction we had told., towed us home and we are fine..and it was still a very fun trip because we took the course. I really believe it could a been a lot worse, feel free to share my story