There is something truly rewarding seeing the face of someone you share life with just shine with an almost childish delight. The reward comes from knowing that they are chasing their dream and that you have supported them to grasp it. It also comes with a degree of selfish pleasure because you are not only along for the journey but are also reveling in the delight of it too.
That is how I found myself recently at the helm of a 41 foot Beneteau, demonstrating what I hoped was a satisfactory level of skill sufficient to be deemed competent to hold a Day Skipper certification. As terrified as I was being in charge of this vessel in Force 6 winds off the coast of Western Australia, fearing for my life and concerned that boats should not heel like that surely, it was worth it all just to see my partner’s sheer delight at being out there on the water working the ropes.
For the twenty something years I have spent my life with him, sailing has been an ever present shadow, following him around and nagging for attention, whether living and working in the central Australian desert, or in the old world that is London. His dream is to one day step on deck, hoist the sail, and head off on a bearing that will take him towards the sun wherever that may be.
I have happily partnered him in that dreaming; never really believing it could happen. Until, that is, more recently when the dollars in the back pocket have been comfortable and the time has felt right. So I had to ‘bite the bullet’ and step up to the challenge. One thing I knew for sure was that if I was going to sail off with him, I sure as heck needed to know how to sail myself.
So that is how I ended up with a grin a mile wide holding my Day Skipper certification and sharing a glass of a great Western Australian red with my partner who was just itching to find a boat and ‘get going’. His excitement is catching…infectious, but a genuinely wonderful thing to be around!
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