I grew up by the sea close to the tip of Kent in SE England - the point that reaches out to the continent - in a place called Minnis Bay.
The clifftop was about 100 yards from our front gate and, looking back, the sea played a major part in my life then through my role as RainbowChaser (volunteer Admin) at Sailonline, it did so again.
Childhood seaside memories are of swimming and learning to respect the tides and currents of that part of the Thames Estuary, watching yacht races, excavating pre-Bronze Age burial pits on the beach with Toni Powell-Cotton, cycling between the marshes and the sea, picnics at the beach-hut and... lots of sunshine!
For just over a decade, from 2010 to 2021/2 I spent a lot of time keeping racing going on Sailonline.org and trying to find ways to create buddy-ups between the virtual world of Sailonline and every kind of sailing activity. Through Jubilant's Fastnet Campaign 2013 I helped raise funds for The Cure Parkinson's Trust and the RNLI and by sending #RCtheParrot to Jubilant for the Fastnet race I felt very included. When your world shrinks due to illness and/or disability it is easy to feel and be disconnected from the busy-ness of the world of work and activity - for a while I thought to have #RCTheParrot might act as a vehicle for fundraising and even, somehow, empower those with movement disorders, not just me, but it was a fleeting and short lived hope as my own medical issues crowded in and I realised many betters had gone down this path before me!
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