A BATEMANS Bay woman has steered through troubled waters to receive a scholarship today in Wollongong.
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Billie-Jean Raahauge shared a love of the ocean, the Clyde River and boats with her late husband, the skipper and commercial fisherman Mattie Barber.
“The ocean brought us together,” Ms Raahauge said.
“We had known each other since we were little and grew up loving the same thing.”
However, their life together and with their four children was cut short in June, 2013, when Mr Barber drowned while working on Coila Lake.
When Ms Raahauge steps up today to receive the Mick Young Scholarship at TAFE Illawarra for her maritime studies, she knows Mr Barber would have been first to shout: “Aye, aye, Skipper!”.
A qualified deckhand for 20 years, Ms Raahauge threw herself into her Marine Engine Driver studies after her husband’s death and has just finished the TAFE part of her Master Five course.
The scholarship will help get her to Sydney to sit the gruelling oral examinations required to claim her skipper’s ticket.
“Being on the water makes me feel calm,” Ms Raahauge said.
“I don’t know if it sounds silly, but it makes me feel closer to Matt.
“Some people think it is really weird.
“They think I would never want to go on the water again, but it is what I have always done and it makes me feel closer to Matt.
“It was something I have always wanted to do and Matt was going to help me.
“We had that dream.
“I thought it was time I did something for myself.
“He would be happy to know I am still doing it.”
The couple worked together on Innes Boat Shed vessels, she as a deckhand and he as a deckhand and skipper.
Currently a deckhand one day a week on the Escapade, Ms Raahauge has a dream on hold until her three-year-old starts school.
“To drive the Escapade up and down the river while the kids are at school: that is the ultimate dream,” she said.
She thanked the Innes family and TAFE teacher Colin Tritton, who had supported her while she “retrained” her brain to study.
“I have called him in tears and said I can’t do this, and he has said, ‘no, we will get you through it’,” she said.
“The theory and the mathematical equations, and not having enough time to sit down and concentrate were the biggest challenges.
“I remember ringing Col and saying I had finally found five minutes to sit and study and the kids have taken my pencils.
“Poor Col was trying not to laugh and I am bawling my eyes out.”
She said she felt proud to have persevered.
“It felt great to pass each subject,” she said.
Now, Ms Raahauge, who has one stripe on her epaulettes, looks forward to “two stripes and a little squiggle in the middle” when she passes her oral exams.
“The kids think it is pretty cool,” she said.
The Mick Young Scholarship helps motivated students overcome disadvantage to complete their chosen training.