You can take a free online boating safety course at the BoatU.S. Safety Foundation:
http://www.boatus.or...rse/default.asp
Depending on the state, this course will often meet their requiements. I suggest you see if your home state excepts the course and then the certificate will be good in Virgnina. You can take the Virginia course but it takes a bit of time because the state requires you to spend a certain amount of time on each slide.