my english class assignment

Thursday, January 22, 2009 { 5:48 AM }

A difficulty i faced

I had alot of difficulties in the past like coping in school however this was one of the difficulties that i had given all out to overcome

Wednesday ...3.30p.m...National Sailing Centre ( East Coast Park, Singapore)

We were at the national sailing centre. There, a storm was brewing. Dark rain clouds clumped together in the air and the air was stale. Thinking that the wind would stay at this condition for the moment, our china coach, Xiao Dong, asked us to launch the boats. Reluctantly we did as we were told. Then for an instant there was no wind at all and the sea was calm. We launched the boats. We sheeted in our sails and sat in the boat as our boats drifted away from the shore... ...

As we were relaxing in the boat, the wind and the current changed suddenly. The wind started howling and the waves were strong. As most of us were relaxing in the boat, we were taken aback by the wind and most of us capsized. Looks like this was not going to be as easy as it looks. We uprighted our boats without a problem as we were full of energy and we had the fighting spirit of not being taken down by the wind. '' I will not give up'' I thought to myself. I tightened all my ropes so that i could catch as little wind as possible for me to control the boat easier. If i had not done so i would have capsized repeatedly.

We sailed for a while andthe storm clouds dispersed after five minutes and however the wind did not ''die''. It was still as strong as before. As our coach told us that this wind was hard to come by, we will carried on to sail. We first sailed to Bedok Jetty, where on the way i capsized a few times. When i had sailed there, the rest of the sailing crew were already there, ready to sail back to the sailing centre again. When i was about to reach to them, they had already started to sail back. When i saw them sailing, i realise that i was extremely tired and fatigue engulfed me. I tried ways and means to sheet in my sail but to no avail. I was just too tired. As i was about to give up, happy memories spreaded across my mind. I suddenly ''woke up'' and as I did so, I sheeted in my sail immediately and followed the rest of the sailing team.

After a while, the storm clouds was back. The wind howled like before but only louder. My sailed flapped crazily and I was not going to give up again. However looking at all my strong sail mates capsizing repeatedly under the merciless wind, I was not as confident as before. At this point, my coach came towards me on his power boat and encouraged me. He then said it was enough training today and we should get back to shore. It boosted my confidence once again. I was determined to get back to shore. Now, i saw lightning striking pass the horizon and the wind ''died'' again. It started to drizzle and then there was a heaving downpour. Knowing what would happen, i got ready for the wind. However the wind came back much stronger than before. It was around 25 knots. I shivered at the thought however once i though of my coach's encouraging words, with all my courage i sailed back to shore safely.

From that day onwards, whenever i go out to sail and have difficulty in something, I would remember my coach's encouraging words and then i would be able to sail without much of a problem...