Sailing Saetta: prelude, Saskia and Miguel move in together, and she learns how to sail

It was 5 years ago that Miguel sent me a photo of him in front of a boat, saying he just bought it. The idea was not completely new to me, we went to a boat viewing together, but to actually buy a boat, was taking the whole thing a step further. Miguel’s dream has always been to travel a lot. For me, it has not been like that. I grew up in a relatively small city in the Netherlands. Although I wanted to move away to a bigger city, I never took the step. I was comfortable where I was, with family and friends around the corner, work an hour drive away and quick to/from the airport to visit Miguel.

When we started dating I always assumed Miguel would move to the Netherlands, but when he started his MBA in Edinburgh, I realized that him moving would not happen anytime soon, so I decided to move to Scotland instead.

There I realized how important the boat was to him; it is not only a boat, but a way of living, of freedom, going wherever whenever you want (although in reality, it does not work that way). I enrolled in a weekend sailing course to get to know the basics of sailing, which are the same for every sailboat: you set your sails according to the wind and course you want to steer and go from there. 

But sailing on the training boat and on ours feels completely different. I tried one more course and after that decided to learn “on the job”. If anyone asks me now if I know how to sail, I usually say: not really. Miguel is the one who does most of the sailing. I am perfectly happy to keep watch, to winch the sails or help any way I can. Setting courses and being the skipper is not something I enjoy, but that does not mean I do not like being on the boat. And the more I am on the boat, the more I learn, the more excited I get about sailing. I love being on the water and enjoy the relaxing feeling from sailing life (with some excitement every now and then!). The more we sail together, the more we know how to work together and how to make sailing together work. And so far it works well. Sailing the world has never been my dream, but the more we work for it, the more excited I get.