Excerpt:

A three-hour course on basic sailing skills was recommended for those who, like me, hadn’t clambered aboard a dinghy for donkey’s years. So, before long, I was being made to capsize a small, single-sailed boat called a Pico, while our instructor, Sam, shouted directions from the shore on how to right it.

An exhausting but invaluable lesson, as it later turned out.

‘Did you see me out there?’ I asked the family after I’d handed the boat back to its rightful owners. ‘Yes, Dad,’ said the children with what, I felt, was a little too much hilarity. ‘You had a builder’s bum!’ said my daughter, as they collapsed into fits of laughter. Keeping my swimming shorts up had been the least of my worries. Read more