Back in 1990, I went with my then 15 year old son on day's windsurfing course during a family holiday. I ended up buying a board, sails, wetsuit and even a sturdy roof rack to carry the lot home on the family people carrier.
The next four years or so was spent struggling on an inland lake, created by the excavation of gravel (a "gravel pit"). Bad wind (and not just because of my liking for baked beans), boredom with the constraints of the lake, no friends to sail with, even though I'd joined a club. Clearly age has made me more desperate - now it wouldn't matter... but then I started various other things, felt bad leaving the family at weekends etc. and it just drifted away from me.
And then last year (Jan 2003) I met a friend who declared he was going windsurfing in the Red Sea in February - bastard!! I immediately decided to join him, and by the end of 2003, had spent a total of a month in Dahab. My windsurfing had improved a lot, but I didn't have enough instruction, foolishly, I now believe. But I greatly enjoyed the clean wind, the space of the sea and the entire windsurfing experience freshly.
So now I've been to Dahab once this year (June 2004) and have decided that I really want to sail waves. And to do that I have to get more regular time on the water... and that means sea sailing here in the UK. And that means a number of things...
