City Chick Sailing

by Hope Fotherbess on 27 Oct 2006 Ah`I remember the days when I was the ever-so promoted bank executive - a bit of a power dresser to boot – success after success, boy did my heels click on the parquetry when I entered a boardroom.

Then my engineer partner Larry, who liked to mess around on boats when he wasn’t working, out of the blue one day suggested we go sailing…..

Well he’d been working on that boat for some time – it kept him out of trouble while I socialised like hell to increase my network. The idea sounded great at the time too - another adventure in life. I could just imagine myself, sitting back with a glass of champagne in my hand while the coastline of San Tropez slipped by, writing cards to my envious friends back home.

The problem was that I would have to give up the career for a while – now that made me nervous as hell – others would get up that ladder ahead of me, and would there be room when I came back? But I loved my man, the idea was enticing, and better still, my boss said I could take a year’s break without losing any job status.

The die was cast – we sold my Mercedes and his Audi (we hadn’t owned them anyway), rented out our small trendy flat in the inner city, and we were off.

That, of course, was the beginning of my deterioration. How could I have guessed what sailing was REALLY like? Things came to a sad state, and when I peered occasionally in the small mirror in the head (that’s sailing talk for bathroom), I could hardly believe it was still me. Let me just explain what happened to this once smart-as-fresh-paint city chick:

1. THE CLOTHES: The very first thing to go was the clothes. I kept cutting down and down to move onto the boat, but there still wasn’t enough space for my St Tropez gear. Finally there were just shorts and tops left and a couple of snug outfits. So it seemed that St Tropez was OUT, as I would have nothing to wear there. (I secretly cheered myself up by thinking I would buy more new gear as I went). As for the Bruno Magli shoes I used to wear, and the designer bags, they didn’t fit either – instead HE expected me to wear big clumsy walking sandals, and a backpack! Sulky for weeks I was!

2. THE HAIR: The next thing that changed was my hair, and didn’t I scream! I had a thick mane of long lustrous carefully streaked hair that I had been proud of all my life. The trouble was, it kept getting in the bilge and blocking the sumps, especially in the head where I washed it. Also it took a lot of water to wash – so now my hair is a Number 3 – less than an inch long – Larry reckons it’s cute, but maybe he just hates cleaning bilges.

3. THE FINGERNAILS: Trying to keep my long painted fingernails proved just impossible, when I was forever pulling on ropes and throwing fenders around. I just couldn’t stand broken nails and peeling polish, so one day I spat the dummy and gloomily cut them short and left them unpainted. Ugh – I could just feel my confidence already starting shorter as well, and the relationship with Larry.

4. THE PARTIES: Like everyone, cocktail parties used to be part of life – great gear, smart guys in trendy suits, meeting exciting people. And cruising? Well it’s a sundowner with the other cruisers mostly, or maybe just with ourselves. Clean shorts are as far as I could get for dressing up. It sure had come to a pretty pass.

5. THE MERCEDES: About that Mercedes – it was a little beauty – a 550E or some number like that, two-door, impressed the hell out of my friends who didn’t have such things. Now? – Well, no car, so we had to buy couple of folding bikes. Otherwise, we just had to walk, or catch the local bus.

6. THE BALLS: Ah I remember the formal Balls – now there was a treat – great ball gown, spending a couple of weeks salary on it, swishing out to a glamorous venue. I was so beautiful then – after cruising for a while, when I felt the urge to go dressing up, I went and painted my toenails, and tried to smile though my sniffles.

Are you starting to get the picture?

7. THE WINE! – now I am a red wine girl, and I was picky too –been known to leave a restaurant because the wines weren’t good enough. Cruising, you drink what the locals drink. When you test sip it, if you think the SECOND glass will taste okay, it passes!

8. THE CONVERSATION: As for conversation – it used to be politics, what cars we drove and suburbs we lived in, what plays films and concerts were on, whose husband had run away with whose wife, who had had a chin lift – you know, the normal sort of thing. Cruising? Well, when a crowd gathers, they talk about the weather, boat maintenance, navigation, the weather, pollution, the weather, boat maintenance, global warming, pollution, the weather, AND, every now and then, what life used to be like at home.

9. THE GYM: Yup, the gym was a real habit. I had all the right gear, went three times a week to work off those parties and dinners. When we went sailing, in the first month I lost two kilos and soon I got to be skinny and brown – my old mates would hardly know me – it’s all that sheet pulling and fender throwing.


So you can just see how my life changed, just because I agreed to go sailing. And you know what? I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the bank. – It sort of seems, well, irrelevant, somehow. We’re now five years into a circumnavigation of the world – yes, we just seemed to keep going – probably we’ll take another three years before we get home.

And then? Who knows? – we’ll find somewhere to live out of a city, in clean air, closer to nature, and we’ll find a way to earn an income, but I’ll never go back to that life I used to think was so cool. Looking back, it wasn’t cool at all.

Maybe, just maybe, our lives will forever be richer – just because we went sailing.

[O, by the way, young Richard is two now. He was born in Greece – they have a very good medical system there. He’s cute as a button, and doesn’t know any other life except the boat. To my surprise, and with a lot of help from other ‘boat mums’, it has all worked really well. I flew home last year for Mum to see him, and my young sister comes sailing with us occasionally.]