Sailing My Story

This story belongs to Leila

and her Auntie Val.

It's a tiny tale about Auntie Val's life and her love of sailing.

-Shall we sing?

-Yes.

-Right.

# Row, row, row your boat

# Gently down the stream

# If you see a crocodile

# Don't forget to scream. #

THEY SCREAM

LEILA LAUGHS

And now it's time for Auntie Val to take Leila on a journey of discovery

and share her memories of when she was younger.

They're chatting about Auntie Val's love of sailing.

Now, Leila, I want to tell you a story.

My grandpa...

he was on a ship called HMS Rob Roy,

and when he was on the ship, he made this.

And, you know, this is older than me,

and it's older than your Great-Great-Grandma Marty.

And these are his medals.

-My daddy sails too.

-He does.

And do you know what?

I taught your daddy to sail when he was about eight years old.

Can you teach me to sail?

I'd love to.

That would be wonderful, wouldn't it?

Not only teaching your daddy, but teaching you as well.

When did you learn to sail?

Oh, I was quite an old lady before I learnt to sail.

Why didn't you learn to sail when you was younger?

Well, I was a very naughty girl.

I wasn't holding Grandma Marty's hand when we were near a road,

and I ran across the road when I was about a year older than you.

And I had a nasty accident.

And then I had to have an artificial leg.

But it didn't stop me from learning to sail.

It actually meant that I did learn to sail.

Auntie Val was given a new leg by the hospital

when she lost part of her own leg because of a road accident.

Because of the accident, Auntie Val didn't begin sailing until she

was much older, but when she did,

she couldn't wait to buy her first boat.

I had some money, and rather than just let it fritter away on nothing,

I thought, "I'll buy something special." And the thing that

I wanted to buy that was special was a dinghy,

and that dinghy was Ginnie.

It was like being in charge of another world

and having a whole new sense of freedom,

to be able to do something

without being restricted by my artificial leg,

because my leg didn't matter,

I was sitting in the boat.

Auntie Val is taking Leila to her sailing club to show Leila

her racing boat, which is called Red Jester.

Welcome to Red Jester, Captain Leila.

This is my racing boat.

It goes very fast.

Now, it's ever so important to know where the wind's coming from.

So, we have a little flag, called a burgee.

You hold it. See if you can see where the wind's coming from.

-There.

-Yeah, and it moves round with the wind. Look.

And that's important, because when you're sailing,

you've got to know where the wind comes from. Leila, can you swim?

-Only with a floater.

-Only with a floater?

Well, that's all right, cos you can still go the water with

a life jacket on, but you do need to learn to swim to be a sailor.

It's terribly important to be able to swim.

Well, Leila, with your flag, you know where the wind's coming from,

and you're going to learn to swim,

and you're going to make a great sailor.

OK?

Boats have been around for a very long time - before cars,

trains and planes.

One of the oldest types of boat is called a coracle,

and this old film shows what they would have looked like.

I'm sure people would have raced them too, just like Auntie Val.

Coracles are small and light, so you can carry them on your back.

Look at these funny men carrying coracles. They look like tortoises!

Auntie Val has sailed on a very special ship called the Lord Nelson.

It's a tall ship, and it has lots of sails.

People that sail on the Lord Nelson are people with disabilities,

just like Auntie Val.

And now, it's time for Auntie Val to show Leila a boat that she

-really loves.

-This is Ginnie.

She's my first ever dinghy, and it's the boat

I first learnt to race in, so she's very, very special to me.

She's older than Daddy, which makes her very, very old, doesn't it?

Would you like to go sailing in her with me?

-Yeah!

-Great! Let's go.

Auntie Val and Leila have put on their life jackets, which is

very important when sailing on water,

and they're getting the boat ready for sailing.

Turn and wave to the camera!

You've got the front of the sail there absolutely perfect.

-Absolutely perfect. That is wonderful.

-Yay!

Leila, that's absolutely fantastic sailing.

You're a natural. Give us a high-five.

This is my little sister, Anisa. She's not very good at waving.

THEY LAUGH

I'm glad to see you've got your life jacket on, ready to go sailing.

We need to learn a bit more about boats.

OK, have you got your boat ready?

-Yep.

-Put it on the side of the pool like I have.

Now, which is your left hand?

That's the one! OK, now...

with your left hand, point to the left-hand side of the boat,

and this is port.

Port.

Very good. Port.

Now, hold your right hand.

OK, now point to the right-hand side of the boat,

and that's called starboard.

-Starboard.

-Starboard.

Very good! You both got that right!

Now...are we going to put our boats in the water?

-Yeah!

-OK.

First of all, see if you can make your boats go.

WATER SPLASHES

It is tipping.

One, two - oh! They're all gone!

Shall we...? LEILA SPLASHES

You splashed me!

SHE LAUGHS

These are just a few of my trophies,

and thank you very much for helping me clean them.

What did you get these trophies for?

I got them for winning.

Hmm! For winning races.

Sometimes in Red Jester...

and sometimes in Ginnie. This one...

I won when I was sailing Ginnie, when I was racing Ginnie.

-And...

-That one's nice.

-I got that one for racing Ginnie as well.

That one looks just like Ginnie.

It does, doesn't it? Yes.

And that's really nice.

-You like that one, do you?

-Yes, cos it's really shiny and sparkly,

and I love sparkles.

And not only that, it tells the right time.

-Yeah?

-Yeah. That's good.

-You know which is my favourite?

-Which?

-This one.

-That's my favourite too.

-Cos Ginnie won this one as well.

And it tells you the temperature,

how hot it is or how cold it is in the room.

Which one's the biggest?

I think this one's the biggest, and it's certainly the oldest,

and I've won this one six times.

You're a champion, Leila.

-There you go. Hold that one up.

-Thank you.

AUNTIE VAL LAUGHS

And thank you very much for helping me clean all these trophies.

Not all of them are clean.

Oh, we'd better get going, then!

Here's an old photo of Auntie Val winning another award

for sailing from Princess Anne, who is Her Majesty the Queen's daughter.

How exciting!

People have been racing boats for many, many years.

Auntie Val usually races a small boat in a lake,

and some people race enormous tall ships in the sea, like these ones.

And, the bigger the boat is, the more sails it needs to make it move.

Look at these amazing pictures of

the British sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur.

Dame Ellen is the fastest woman ever to sail around the world on her own.

This is my mummy and daddy.

BOTH: Hello!

It's a very exciting day today,

because Auntie Val is taking part in a big sailing race.

Mummy, Daddy, Leila and Anisa have come along to cheer Auntie Val on.

Good luck, Auntie Val!

Wow! Look how well Auntie Val is steering the boat.

-There's Auntie Val!

-Auntie Val must be doing really well in the race.

She even has time to wave to the family.

-Come on, Auntie Val!

-You can do it!

Brilliant! Auntie Val has passed the orange marker and has won the race.

ALL: Hurray!

Thank you for telling me stories about sailing.

That was my pleasure, Leila, and can you remember

all the special things we did together?

'We went to look around your lovely racing boat,

-'Red Jester.'

-It goes very fast.

-'We dusted all your trophies.'

-You like that one, do you?

Yeah, cos it's really shiny and sparkly, and I love sparkles.

'You taught Anisa and I about different parts of the boat.'

-Port.

-Port.

'Then, we made waves, and I splashed you.

'We went sailing on Ginnie, your very first boat.

'And we had a great time sailing together.'

Give us a high-five.

'I watched you race your boat with Mummy and Daddy.'

-There's Auntie Val!

-Oh, yeah!

What was your favourite thing about the things we did together?

Splashing the boat.

Splashing the boat?

Well, my favourite thing was taking you sailing on Ginnie,

cos you were really, really good.

What a fabulous heap of fun.

That was Auntie Val's tiny tale about the things she used to do

and her love of sailing.

Now Auntie Val has shared her story with Leila,

it's time for Leila to start her own story.

Do you know someone with a story to share?