It all began in Buff Point Central Coast NSW

Last Christmas I took the plunge - I decided to buy a trailer-sailer. During January I spent many hours on the net researching my options. I wanted a boat that would sail well, be manageable by a senior citizen with one crew and, vitally, be light enough to trail behind my 2 litre Subaru Forrester. I settled on a Farr 5000 as first choice but I was willing to look at other options such as a Careel 18. Most of the boats I fancied were built in the 1980s but I reckoned great - more affordable.

Next came the buying phase and I found 3 for sale on the net - all in Central Coast NSW. The Australia Day weekend found me hurtling round the Central Coast in a little hire car checking them out. The first two looked more than a little tired then, just before dusk, I saw Little Dragon. It was love at first sight. She is gorgeous. Of course I tried to remain level headed and take a responsible approach to the outboard motor and trailer (I knew very little about either) but I was hooked and asked for a test sail the next day. Jan Davis (a friend from Greens NSW) came out with me on a rather hilarious test sail. Neither the mainsail or the jib were set and the rudder jammed down. The previous owner was more of a fisherman than a sailor. However she did not sink and I decided that the problems were easily fixed. So I clinched the deal and arranged to return a month later to trail her back to the Northern Rivers.

Confidence building in 2007

Three years ago my ankle was so painful that I started to think that my sailing days were over. However a skilled surgeon fixed it and by 2007 I was ready to get afloat again.

I responded to Jim Marco's advert on "Find a Crew" website and to my amazement he took me on. I spent the best part of 3 months crewing on his 37 ft yacht Intention in Vanuatu. Thanks so much Jim for giving me this opportunity - it was great. I learnt so much and it helped me start to regain confidence.

The first photo shows me at the wheel of Intention with Cathie Jones, a swimming friend from Byron Bay who came also came along as crew. Cathie left after 3 weeks as her leave ran out and she was replaced by 2 more swimming mates - Nicky Greenlaw and Lee Fenton. All 3 have been rash enough to volunteer to crew on Little Dragon - see the post about the "4 shielas launching" coming up soon.

My sister Pat visited from September to December last year and as I mentioned in the blog "It's in our blood" we have both followed the family sailing tradition. In fact she has owned and raced her own dinghy single handed until she decided a couple of years ago that pulling the dinghy up and down pebble beaches in England was getting too hard and she moved over to crewing in keel boats.

We decided to try our hand at chartering a bareboat in the Whitsundays, a Catalina 28 for 7 days. It was the first time we had sailed together since we were kids and I think we were both a bit nervous of the sisterly dynamics. I reckon it worked well and I was very willing to defer to her as skipper (Pat I challenge you to add a comment with your perspective). Photo 2 shows us about to set off on Ripple.

We had a ball, the Whitsundays are stunningly beautiful, the weather good, the snorkelling superb and the sailing an enjoyable challenge. I don't think I need to go into the details of the failure of the macerator and how we ended up using a bucket rather than the head for most of the week.

I have sailed on the tall ship Soren Larsen several times over the last decade as "voyage crew" and really wanted Pat to have a similar experience. It is very different to crewing on a keel boat in chilly England, so we decided to do one sector together. In October we sailed out of Santo in Vanuatu and round the Banks Islands for 10 days. I recommend sailing on Soren Larsen to anyone who dreams about the romance of sailing on a tall ship in the South Pacific (although on bow watch at 2 am in gale force wind and heavy rain the romance wears off quickly for many voyage crew).

This photo shows the two of us showing off on Soren Larsen's bowsprit.
The final photo is of the 4 - 8 watch on Soren Larsen (Pam 4 from left and Pat 2 from right). On arrival all the voyage crew are put in a watch and expected to stand watches whenever we are underway. The officer of our watch was George, First Mate. The two permanent crew had a tough job teaching the six voyage crew their bunts and clews.





So to sum it up - by the end of 2007 I felt I had the confidence and certainly the enthusiasm to sail into 2008 - it was just a question of how.

It's in my blood

My sister and I were both taken sailing when we were still in carrycots so it's not surprising that sailing is in our blood and we are following the family tradition.

The first photo is of our grandfather racing at Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex in 1909.

The next shows our mother age around 10 at the helm with her brother, sister and cousin.

Next my mother is still at the helm, this time a young woman.

Finally my mother, again at the helm, this time cruising with her husband just before WW2.

My early memories are of mucking around in boatyards while my father was fitting out our 18 foot Essex One Design.

When my father wanted to show off his daughters to family friends and relations instead of getting us to recite poetry or play a piece on the piano he taught us to demonstrate tying bowlines behind our backs!



My first (and until now only) venture into boat ownership involved a very dilapidated 14 foot Cheetah catamaran (rather like a modern Hobie Cat) which my cousin Jill and I co-owned. We got her seaworthy and sailed her for a couple of seasons until we both left school and moved away from the Thames Estuary for work and studies.

Now fast forward almost 50 years. I have retired and for the first time for many years got the time to spend more time afloat. Sure, in the interim I have sailed whenever the opportunity arose; for example teaching sailing in the south of France, a decky on the Darwin to Ambon race, voyage crew on the tall ship Soren Larsen in the Pacific, crewing on the 37 ft yacht Intention in Vanuatu and only last year bareboating with my sister Pat in the Whitsundays. That last experience was so enjoyable that I started to dream "what is to stop me buying my own little boat?" Answer "nothing" so that, in summary, is what led to my love affair with Little Dragon.