There Are Good Ships

Author is such a grand title and one for which I do not feel at all worthy. Instead, I would consider myself an adventurer with a pen and notebook. My adventurous spirit started way back when I was just seven years old and found myself plonked on the back of a rather large pony called Dawn. I had pestered my parents for horse-riding lessons, and now I sat shivering with fear and contemplating the sanity of my demands. As a shy, reticent, little girl, I did not have the courage to say ‘actually I do not like this’. So week after week, month after month, little by little, I lost my fear, and an adventurous spirit was born with me. Of course, horse riding has little to do with sailing, but for me, the experience of the former gave me the courage for the latter. Riding an unpredictable, frisky, jumpy mare has many parallels to sailing an unpredictable, frisky, jumpy yacht. Believe me when I tell you a yacht has a mind of its own. Sailing fi rst entered my life in my teens when I had the privilege to crew on the Th ames sailing barge Th alatta. In my twenties, I became a deck monkey on friends’ yachts and enjoyed the thrill of racing in the Solent on the south coast of England. I gained my Competent Crew certifi cate whilst taking part in the Baltic leg of the Tall Ships Race. Working as a secretary for the army at the time, I was invited to join the crew on Sail Training Yacht British Soldier, a magnifi cent 55-foot Camper & Nicholson. I briefl y co-owned a small day-sailor Pindari and cut my teeth on the perils of crossing the busiest shipping lane in the world, the English Channel. Sailing took a back seat in my early forties when I was gripped by the travelling bug. I had Australia in my sights, and I spent many a happy month soaking up the sights, sounds, and sheer vastness of that wonderful continent.I realised then that the world has a lot more to off er me. Yearning for more, I was a great believer in the saying ‘a change is as good as a rest’. I had been a secretary, a personal assistant, a hairdresser, and a professional tennis coach and have recently qualifi ed as an approved driving instructor. I was a highly profi cient horse rider, a crazy snow skier, a scuba-diver, and a tennis player. What more could I possibly achieve? Well, I have just added to that list – a circumnavigator.