For as long as I can remember I have loved the sea.

As a child I went boating with my family every summer. Still, it wasn’t until I set foot on a sailboat for the first time, that I discovered what my true passion was. The stillness of the world as the engine was turned off, and then the wind filling the sails, the boat gliding effortlessly over the stretch of water – it was an exhilarating feeling.

Oh, to be able to have my own sailboat! But with my tiny income I could only dream of it, and jump at every chance I got to crew on other people’s boats. For my 30th birthday I decided to treat myself to a proper sailing course. I wanted to really understand sailing, not just pull the lines I was told to pull without really knowing why, and I wanted to overcome the nervousness I still felt when the boat heeled a lot or when the wind and waves started to pick up.

That sailing course turned out to be a real stroke of luck.

One of the instructors was planning a summer cruise to England and back, and still had a vacancy in the return crew. It didn’t take me long to decide whether or not to go!

At the end of that two week trip down the river Thames, across the North Sea and the Baltic, I was no longer frightened of the big waves, or the blinking lights in the darkness, or the moving dots on the radar screen. Excited, yes, but never scared. I never once felt seasick. I was constantly smiling, because I felt so happy the whole time. I had never been so happy for so long at a time, and it really made me believe I was on to something wonderful.

After that I had plenty of opportunities to crew on different boats, on shorter cruises, round-the-buoys races, even rent a small sailboat with a couple of friends and be the skipper. The following summer I sailed on, this time to participate in the first ever international flotilla to sail around the largest lake of Europe, the Ladoga in Carelia, Russia. And that’s where I met my husband – he was a crew member of a Search and Rescue boat safeguarding our convoy.

And then – what? Did we buy a boat together, did we sail into the sunset? Nope. There were other dreams to fulfill, and boy, did we have many of them. A life in the country, real down-to-earth, boots-in-the-mud dream, with an old house to renovate and horses in the backyard. Happy times, but also times of extreme toil.

At first we still went boating every now and then. We would put up a tent on some pretty little island and spend a weekend there. But it became more and more difficult to find the time. My husband would sometimes join his mates for a fishing trip, but for many years the biggest body of water I ever saw was in my horse’s drinking bucket.

But then something began to change. Very gradually, as changes sometimes begin. You don’t even know your mind is up to something until it’s been doing it for quite a while. It’s like grass that dries slowly, until it takes just a little spark to set it on fire. For us that spark was a holiday trip to Croatia. As the plane wound its way down towards the Mediterranean shoreline, we couldn’t help but gasp at the sight of the crystal clear water of the most incredible turquoise colour. We saw hundreds of islands scattered along the coast with white fringes around them, like smiling faces.

That week we spent bathing, swimming, diving and floating in the warm, salty water. We felt like we could never get enough of it. We rented a small boat, the only one we could get without a license, and enjoyed the freedom to our heart’s content.

That’s when the dream was born.

We will buy a sailboat and sail to southern latitudes. Somehow we will find a way to get there and stay there. Many people have done it, so why can’t we?

But my past sailing adventures now seemed very distant, like they belonged to another lifetime. I was worried that I had become afraid of the sea, and forgotten how to sail. That’s probably why a plan started to develop in my mind. I didn’t talk about my plan nor about my worries to my husband, but when he was away visiting his home shire, I took a little detour on my way home from work and went to see a boat that was for sale.

It was small, especially on the inside, but it looked like a real sailboat. You could see it had beautiful lines and despite it’s age it seemed well looked after. Besides, it’s price tag equalled roughly that of a two week bareboat charter in Croatia – provisioning excluded – so this funny little idea of mine wouldn’t even break the bank. When my husband came home I told him what I had done and that I was only waiting for his “thumbs up” to complete my purchase. And that’s what he gave me. He first saw the boat as we drove down to sign the papers!

Now, after sailing just one season on our little boat and eagerly waiting for the second one, I can say it was a very good decision to get a small boat to practice on. There’s no better way to get to know the elements than to just get out there, to learn what you like and don’t like, to expand your skills and knowledge – and more than anything, your comfort zone!

Our little boat has brought our dream much closer, more real.

Sailing to distant shores used to feel about as realistic as riding a unicorn – now I’m certain it can be done. All we have to do now is to figure out when and how – but we know we will get there.

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