It had been an ambition of mine to sail around the world since I can recall, I can still remember the very first day that I went sailing, I was 12 years of age, I had no previous sailing / boating experiences other than the yearly family motorboat holidays on the Norfolk Broads.
Whilst walking around my local harbour I saw an elderly gentleman who was busy working on his vessel, I stopped and began talking to him. He later offered me a Saturday morning job helping him restore his vessel, it was at this time that I noticed a rather neglected dinghy alongside.
I enquired about the dinghy; it turned out he had a mast and sails for it. So off I went to the local library to borrow a book about sailing, the very next weekend I was afloat on the water and sailing, well sort of sailing.
This great success inspired me to take up sailing and so later that year when I started secondary school I quickly enrolled with the school sailing club, throughout the winter I would learn how to strip down, repair the schools Mirror dinghys, then once the sailing season approached we would take these to the dingy park at the Broadstairs sailing club. Every Wednesday I would catch a bus to Broadstairs, rig the dinghys and sail / race around Viking Bay area. Later that year I joined the local Sea Cadet Corp unit, this was a very good decision for not only did I learn the theory of seamanship but also attended nearly every sailing course going for the next five years.
Sailing on a range of vessels form dinghies to Tall Ships and clocking up some 4,500 Nautical miles as well as becoming an RYA dinghy instructor in the process.
Several years later I actually thought the opportunity to achieve my dream of sailing around the world had come to fruition, a Tall Ship visited Ramsgate and was seeking crew, I eagerly signed but alas we only got as far as Weymouth, but thats a another story. Now, many years later I have decided I needed a challenge but what would I do?
Something stimulating, something different, something I have always wanted to do! So it was that I decided to sell up and just go sailing, not any old sailing but to sail the world!