There?s nothing better than sailing away from your worries, that?s what I told my fellow reporters when we signed up for sailing lessons at the Royal Bermuda Dingy Club. And it?s true ? once you get the hang of it.

Getting the hang of it is easier said than done and has always been my downfall in this wonderful sport. You see, I?ll confess, I am actually the Dingy Club?s 1997 Female Sailor of the Summer but before May I couldn?t figure out where the wind was coming from let alone what the hell to do with the sails.

I had the fortune of being the only girl at the summer sailing camp, thus I won the award.

But I was determined to learn how to sail this time around; I even solicited the advice of my former camp counsellor. I figured I should know just how horrible I was before I embarked on the endeavour. His reply, bless him, still not wanting to crush the inner kid in me was: ?You were always a timid sailor?.

Nevertheless, I decided to conquer my ineptitude and learn how to sail so that I could actually hold my Female Sailor trophy with pride instead of hiding it in a corner of my room.

With me were two colleagues ? Elizabeth and Sam ? recent arrivals to the Island who were determined to soak up as much of Bermuda?s summer activities as possible.

Our first lesson was set for a Thursday evening and everyone was excited about the prospect of gliding across the Great Sound without a care in the world. We imagined the feelings of liberation we would feel sailing far away from phones, politicians, Police and accidents. No breaking news story would be able to find us on a boat we concurred.

Our excitement vanished when we arrived at the Dinghy Club. The wind was howling, the waves were crashing and this was not the tropical experience we had expected. But before we could turn and run our instructor found us.

Maria assured us we would not be going in the ocean that day. An off the cuff remark about how we would capsize in a minute had one class member panicking ? ?you mean the boats can tip over?? she asked with trepidation.

Instead of sailing we set about learning the parts of the boat, how to rig one and the various points of sail. Words like ?beam reach? and ?on a run? were things I had heard before but never understood. But somehow with Maria explaining it things were starting to make sense, or so I thought.

We returned the following week with high hopes, rigged our boat and hit the high seas. So far so good.

We managed to navigate our way through the boats tied up around the marina. To our disbelief we figured out what it actually meant to sail ?down wind? and ?across the wind?.

We got the hang of it so well that we even managed to start a proper gossip session. While my friend and I swapped tales of work woes and recent events, we sailed along blissfully.

At a high point of one story a shill noise pierced our ears: ?TURN THE BOAT! TACK! TACK NOW!?

It suddenly dawned on us that Maria was yelling at us. As soon as we realised that we noticed we were heading right for a rather large cruise ship. But a quick flick of the wrist, some serious pulling of ropes and flinging ourselves to the other side of the boat and we were out of trouble.

That?s when Elizabeth and I set our first ground rule: no good stories until we are sure that there isn?t a boat in our path. A solid rule we thought.

As the weeks went on other rules were added such as always move to the opposite side of the sail so as not to end up in the ocean and never wear your favourite sunglasses sailing. We also managed to figure out what a ?jibe? was and how to make the boat go faster.

And that?s where one of our final rules came in ? beat the ladies from Ernst and Young.

One thing that never factored into our daydreams of carefree sailing was competition.

Why would we care how others were doing as long as we were far away from a phone, we figured.

But then we met the E&Y ladies ? two very composed girls who managed to pick up sailing with out missing a beat. They never yelled, cursed, looked baffled or annoyed.

In fact they looked like they had been sailing their whole lives. They looked like they deserved my Female Sailor of the Year trophy.

So in our last class we decided we were not going to gossip, we were going to strategize.

We actually tried to figure out which route would be the best in the race. We paid attention to the wind and what our other classmates were doing. And it worked.

We actually overtook the E&Y ladies and were bound for the finish line, but then the wind shifted and they were homing in on us.

This could not happen ? we were absolutely not going to let them win the final race. We tried to figure out a way to go faster but nothing was working.

And then it happened, the Gods smiled on us. We?re not sure what happened but to our surprise, and yes even glee, during the last few meters we heard a yell. For once it wasn?t us, or someone yelling at us.

Nope, this time it was those calm and collected ladies from E&Y. As we turned our head we saw victory in our sights and the E&Y ladies being catapulted into the water.

As we glided across that finish line we couldn?t suppress our excitement, after all we were the champions.

To celebrate we took Maria for a drink at the clubhouse. We settled on dark-n-stormies, to go with our nautical theme. And that?s when it hit us. Victory and booze, that?s what sailing?s all about.

Getting away from land and phones is great. The feeling of the sun in your face and the wind at your back, that?s wonderful too. But beating you fellow sailors and tucking into a victory drink ? really there?s nothing better.

Finally with the taste of Gosling?s on my lips I figured I?d earned my Female Sailor award. Some would say nine years too late, but at least I made it.