Where it started
I was 40 years old, had never set foot on a sailing yacht, and had just booked a bareboat charter in Croatia for the following summer. This is, in retrospect, exactly backwards from how you're supposed to do it. Eighteen months later, I was anchored in a perfect bay in the Ionian Islands, watching a full moon rise over a Greek island. It was worth every pound and every moment of terror.
The course
I took the RYA Day Skipper theory course first — an online course that took about three months of evenings to complete. Then the practical week: five days aboard a 38ft Beneteau with four other students and an instructor, sailing from Plymouth. I was sick the first morning. By the third day, I was genuinely absorbed.
Was it worth it?
The short answer: yes, unequivocally. Learning to sail at 40 is no harder than learning at 25. The qualification opens up a type of travel that no other mode of transport can offer — and the sense of competence that comes from navigating your family safely into an anchorage you've never visited is something that a hotel holiday simply cannot replicate.