Read Online Fight For Your Dream by Elaine Hazel Sharp - Free Book Online

in Milford Haven.
    To pardon the pun I was hooked, line and sinker. Sailing was definitely for me. In fact I found I had quite a strong stomach for life on the ocean waves. If you’ve ever been sea-sick you’ll know exactly what I mean! All we had to do now was find a boat to buy!
    We had very limited resources, though, only one year into marriage. We had ploughed every ounce of cash into building ‘Dobo’, and had nothing left to spare. However, every cloud has a silver lining and, as luck would have it, one of ours did, in the form of a small investment I had being paying into since starting work. It was due to come to fruition, and what better use to put it to than investing in our very first boat? The boating bug had bitten and I was smitten, much to Nigel’s delight.
    Our search ended in the Lake District. She was a basic little sail boat (boats are always female, in case you didn’t know), with a fair bit of work to do on her before she would be sea worthy, known in the trade as an ‘unfinished project’; but she was all we could afford. We were not shy of work, and we were prepared to put in the hard graft to get her up to scratch before we could launch her. As Nigel’s dad would say, ‘You only get out of life what you put into it.’ Crikey, did we work! Every spare minute we had, we spent working on her. Both of us wanted to get out on the water as soon as we could, and the only way to do that was by putting the work in. Every evening after work, every weekend: we were spurred on with the thought that we were nearing the day when she would be finished.
    Several months later, and we were ready. We had secured a berth at Kingston-upon-Hull in the new Marina, in the King George dock. Watching the massive boat hoist lift her off the trailer and into the water is something I will never forget. All the emotions that had been building up throughout the past months were now able to flow out. It was a proud moment, and yet another sense of achievement for both of us. We’d completed her together. Nigel does not show his emotions outwardly and, like his mum, doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but what I will always remember is turning towards Nigel to see a very emotional man. Tears running down his face, as she was placed in the water. If that’s not a sense of pride and achievement, I don’t know what is!
    â€˜Juliet’ was born! We named her ‘Juliet’ because, as two young people falling in love, ‘our tune’ was Dire Straits number one hit single ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

Close to the Wind
    â€˜Ocean Breeze’ our second boat arriving at Hull Marina prior to launch. I’m in the foreground looking on nervously
    Too close on one occasion! ‘Ocean Breeze’ was our second boat. At 35ft she was a capable go-anywhere boat; many smaller yachts than her have circumnavigated the globe. She’d been built to a high standard and a top spec; we knew this because we had built her. I myself had laid up every sheet of fibreglass, saturating the cloth with a pre-mixed quantity of resin and catalyst. You had to work quickly, because you only had around twenty minutes before the resin would ‘go off’ and set rock hard. On the other hand you had to make sure your work was accurate and precise, because one day your life might depend upon it! Ironically, ours did!
    If you’ve never stepped on, or inside, a sailing boat, then it’s going to be difficult to explain, but I’ll do my best. From a layman’s point of view, nothing sounds logical on a boat. Externally, on deck, you have the bow, which is the front of the boat, with a safety rail around it known as the pulpit. The stern is at the back of the boat, with another safety rail, the pushpit, and the greatest width across the boat is known as the beam. Ropes which hoist sails are called sheets; other ropes are classed as lines, and others classed as warps.