A taste of Sailing

Due to high cost of travelling the world I thought the most logical way to do it is to sail around. The wind is free and can take you all around the world for free. It is also kinder to our environment as you are not burning fossil fuels. The price of a plane ticket to one destination could be unaffordable but sailing to that place could be free and you get to see so much more on the way.
My adventure into sailing began with a lot of reading and a few visits to the local yacht club to talk to a few seasoned sailors I found on the Docks. The next moment I found myself on a yacht getting ready to participate in a social club race as part of the crew. I took a friend with that also had never sailed before but had the desire too and this turned out to be an interesting adventure. The yacht we were placed on was 28ft boat and was far from seaworthy! The desire to explore and experience a taste of something I am interested in was stronger than the thought of the boats condition, it floated and as far as I was concerned that is all that mattered. Our captain was rough cut from years on the sea and enjoyed his beer at the helm. He shouted the odds and we ran round like headless chickens trying to follow commands we had never heard before. We learnt fast!
We sailed 10 nautical miles in light wind and pleasant sea conditions for 2 1/2 hours that day. We sailed the course in all directions to the wind using various sails. I ended up loosing a thong as my foot got stuck in the ropes; it would have been me hanging from the mast if I never kicked it off; it landed in the water and floated out of reach. At this point we where coming third out of seven boats until the captain had to perform a man overboard drill for a thong! We retrieved the slop but ended up coming last. We used engine back into the port she gave up just before the dock. Besides a slight cut on the finger from a fraying cable we returned to the docks wiser and a desire for more sailing hours.