Got up early this morning to cook breakfast for Vince and Phil.  They are setting off on a journey that they have been thinking about for years, planning for months and working toward since January.  It is extraordinary how much effort and money has gone into the plan and now they have gone.  It is very quiet here.  We headed to the dock at 7:30am for an 8:00am start.  I had a very large bottle of champagne and some orange juice to make a toast to their journey.  They will be on the boat for a month, taking her all the way to Georgia and then leaving her there until January.  Then it is off to the Bahamas for four months.  Retirement for Vince and a chance to finally fulfill his dream - a dream he set in motion when he was just a little boy.

                               

Here he is with his own boat that he made in his back garden in Bristol England.  He is at the helm and taking a make believe voyage.  I look at this little boy with wonder.  How did all that time pass and how did I become the woman in his life?  We have been together for 29 years - married for 27.   We are about to embark on a thing called retirement together - not really sure how that is going to change things, but life is becoming more precious and time is more important somehow.  I wish that we could explain this to those who are young so that life is not frittered away, but held a little more tenderly and enjoyed just a little more.  

Well, today he is off on a very real voyage - at the helm as skipper of his 37' yacht named Kinky Turtle.  I have a few tears looking at this little lad and thinking about all the hopes behind that jumper.  I hope that one of those hopes is coming true as he sits on his yacht this evening.  He deserves that - he has worked all his life for this moment and I am choked up just thinking about it. 

They set off this morning at 8:10am and we cheered and toasted them as they left.  May the wind be always with you my love.  We are still cheering for you here at home.