My first taste of sailing was not pleasant. Four years ago, I was asked to be extra weight on a laser, to help balance the boat, after some convincing, I reluctantly hopped aboard with my stomach in my throat the whole trip. During those early days, out on Sydney Harbour, I would beg my friend to take me back to shore as the feeling of 'tacking' and the general swell of the ocean terrified me. It hasn't been easy, but nowadays, I can't get enough of mucking around on sailing boats. This year alone, I've crewed on winning 24-foot yachts and sailed back from Lord Howe Island. It's a pastime I absolutely love. It's one of the only things in life that makes me feel free and effervescent.

A vessel that goes by the name of Pegasus has been the source of much of my nautical joy recently. Having sailed the 72-foot schooner back from Lord Howe Island before the cyclone weather hit in March, I decided to spend the June long weekend enjoying what the Hawkesbury River had to offer with a group of six friends nestling into the hull of the Pegasus for the holiday.

We meandered up the Hawkesbury River and docked in Brooklyn late in the afternoon for fresh local seafood at Lifeboat Seafoods. The oysters served there are so juicy and fresh, it felt like a burst of the ocean in your mouth. We ate so much, we didn't need to eat dinner.

Deciding to spend Saturday night at a secluded inlet near Cottage Point, the bush valley was surrounded by mist and provided a beautiful backdrop to a night of zany conversation while taking turns in puffing away on the hubbly bubbly, a pipe with a long, flexible stem, attached to an ornate vase like container that allows tobacco smoke to be cooled by passing through water.

Feeling like Captain Ahab, I recounted the voyage of a lifetime between puffs of smoke, recalling the time we took Pegasus from the paradise of Lord Howe Island through the treacherous storms that Cyclone Larry threw our way, with a little poetic license employed in describing the severity of the storms of course.

When I decided to go to Lord Howe Island, it was one of those times in my life where I took a side step from reality. It lies in the South Pacific about 700 kilometres north-east of Sydney. We stayed on Pegasus while we were at Lord Howe and became the local tourist attraction.

Two of my closest friends from university were on Pegasus too. We had never travelled together in the 10 years that we had known each other but I couldn't imagine a more idyllic way to strengthen our camaraderie. The highlights of the many priceless memories we shared included snorkelling at Ned's Beach, where a reef shark kept a watchful eye on us.

What fascinated me were the blue-coloured clown fish and the groups of crayfish as large as the length of your arm hanging around in rocky alcoves.

We would bike ride around the island through rain forests, careful not to fall into a Mutton Bird hole. Trekking 770 metres above sea level to Goat House Cave felt like being suspended in a purer sense of nature as we saw Boobie birds with their red tell tails, hover for a bit, then glide past.

Just living on a boat is surreal. There's the constant rocking motion that necessitates learning to time your movements to be in sync with the swaying of the boat so that you don't fall over. The sound of just being on the water has captivated my senses with the splashing against the side of the boat and the tinkling of the mast rigging as you breath nothing but sweet sea air.

One unforgettable night, we were anchored at Middle Beach in Lord Howe when a rising swell broke the anchor chain and we had to move the boat around to the lagoon side of the island. There were a bunch of dolphins swimming alongside the bow. We were hanging over the edge of Pegasus reaching out to try and touch them. They were so close, we could hear them chattering as they weaved and dodged the bow of the boat moving through the moon-lit water. We could see the silhouette of the dolphins doing back flips out the water. They were putting a show on, just for us!

Sailing home from Lord Howe Island, I had my most authentic sailing experience ever. In the rainy and windy weather the cyclone had created, you couldn't help thinking of films like A Perfect Storm. It was my first experience off-shore where you get a 360-degree horizon with no shoreline in sight and the feeling of being completely at the mercy of the ocean kept me awake through the night as we kept watch. 

There are no man-made distractions when you are battling the seas, no technology fuzz that clutters your thoughts like mobiles or email. Instead, I found it mesmerising just to watch the waves roll past. How they rise up and down, up and down.

The voyage didn't end in shipwreck or piracy, so I offered another story to my guests on The Hawkesbury to keep their sea tale appetite fed. I told them of a race on Pittwater, we were about 200 metres from the finish line when the wind disappeared on us. We sat on the yacht for 2 hours waiting for the wind to come back but the Gods weren't smiling on us that day. We never finished the race, but the night on the Hawkesbury was filled with just as many unfinished stories as we laughed our way into the small hours of the night.