Book 2, Chapter 61

Over breakfast Bill and I discussed the logistics of getting the whole family to Milford Haven for Saturday with Dumblebit entering the marina at noon. The final decision was that while Bill would catch the train back to Cardiff after breakfast, I would stay aboard at Neyland until Bill and Da came to cast me off on Saturday morning. To make the most of my time in the area, Bill suggested I hire a car for a couple of days as a bonus to my pay for work on Dumblebit. Now car hiring had always been outside my budget both because I didn’t have much cash and because hire companies didn’t like young drivers. It turned out though, that through Bill, the Non-Executive Director of Arianrhod Development had no problem in hiring one of the cute new Smart Cars.

Watching Bill arrange the car was like watching my sister Litara with the solicitor and bank manager. Where I would have gone to a big, well known hire company and explained to whoever was on the desk that I was 19 and didn’t have a proper job, Bill chose the manager of a small local company ready to bend over backwards to accommodate an out of town developer here to help with the promotion of Milford Haven as a yachting centre. To cap it off as he was handing over the keys the manager asked for a photo of me with the car. Luckily, as I knew I would be going in to see the marina promoter, I was dressed appropriately and my experience with Litara warned me to say that he would need my publicity manager’s approval if the photo were to be used for advertising purposes.

That image of myself as a go-getter that Bill and the car-hire manager pushed was quite seductive so while in the mood, after dropping Bill off at the station, I drove over to the Milford Haven marina development to introduce myself and spy out the land concerning where I would have to dock Dumblebit. It helped enormously as, by the time I left, safe, simple routes had been laid out to get both Dumblebit into a suitable berth and people onto her who were interested in new yacht design. Even the modelling of sailing clothes got adjusted to what I could reasonably demonstrate to the customers in the time available. Nobody was pretending that the nearby town was picturesque as it’s a major commercial port but the surrounding country is beautiful so my professional duties done, like booking a manicure for Friday afternoon, I did a bit of sightseeing and visited Pembroke Castle before heading back to the boat.

Dumblebit lurched and I braced myself against the walls of the toilet looking in shock at the knickers around my ankles. “I’m not ready for this!” I shouted, but there was nobody there to hear. Everything had been going so smoothly. Over the Thursday afternoon and Friday morning I washed, shined and generally put Dumblebit into boat show condition before indulging in the manicure I’d booked then joining the promotor’s family for dinner on Friday evening. Saturday morning my family and friends arrived to see me safely on my way from Neyland and to greet me as I stopped Dumblebit precisely on the perfect spot in Milford Haven Marina for Bill and Da to take my mooring lines and make us secure. Photographs were taken; guests were entertained, and the curious had their curiosity about Dumblebit satisfied before I slipped into Naomi mode to show off the latest in clothing for sailing and messing about by or in the water. Not only did it go smoothly but the feedback was good with customers ordering on the spot. Bill and Da were still busy handing out specifications and explaining options on Dumblebit’s design when I took my little car back after which we all had a slap-up tea where it was agreed that we’d all done well and I would single-hand Dumblebit overnight back as far as Swansea while my family and friends drove home.

The sailing wasn’t as smooth heading East with a following breeze and an ocean swell as it had been sailing West but it was fast and I was just South of Port Eynon, on the Gower Peninsula when a visit to the head disclosed that my knickers were full of blood!

I knew this might happen sometime - indeed I desperately wanted what it meant - but why now? I did have a change of knickers, one sanitary towel and a mobile phone but what I didn’t have was my mother to hold me and tell me everything was as it should be and everything would be alright.

“Pull yourself together. You’re a woman now,” I coached myself while cleaning up and re-dressing. Then I got out my mobile phone which fortunately had a signal and texted Serena - ‘SURFIN CRIMSON WAVE. SWANSEA @ NOON’

The last miles were fast, even with two reefs in the mainsail, the staysail and just a scrap of jib Dumblebit was easily making 7 knots through the water proving my estimate of a noon arrival pessimistic. The wind was fresh but the sailing not uncomfortable as we swept past Mumbles Head into Swansea Bay. Lots of scenery to see but my mind was full instead of what it had seen in my knickers and what it meant!

Should I have been so dramatic over something that every other woman I knew had gone through? I felt both a terrible drama queen when I spotted Serena on the dock waiting for me and extremely thankful that she had come. Taking a leaf from Bill’s book I did make sure that Dumblebit's mainsail cover was on and that she had been hosed down with fresh water before going below with Serena to make a cup of tea. That done however, the tears flowed…

“If ever I thought about gender before all this I’d have said it was a matter of character, looks and body language. Even if everybody had said they saw all of those things as being very feminine in me I still wouldn’t have chosen surgery and changed my name just for that. The deciding factor in the beginning was that I want to be a mother. Now, with the experience of how much more complete I feel as Venus, I wouldn’t want to live as a man even without children but the desire is still strong to have children one day.”

So with me laying my heart out, what was Serena’s first reaction?

“Just don’t rush it!! I’m not ready to be an aunt.”