buckle-up

With my back to our suite and my eyes locked on far away sights, it was once again time to go down to the sea in ship s. The title of a movie made ages ago, but I have to admit my thoughts were more about the lines from the poem by John Masefield: “ I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky. ” What has become an all too familiar tradition of Margo and I, as the days pass by and the times together over Thanksgiving and Christmas are but a distant memory, we seem to be always drawn to the ocean and to a cruise out on its waters. As you read this post, we are anchored within the coral reefs surrounding Belize, having pulled into Colon, Limon and Roatan. As for the photo above, you may come across it in other posts and commentaries but it does capture the essence of why we sail. Our means of transportation across the Caribbean this time has been the Viking Mars. A formula ocean going Viking vessel following exactly the same lines as other Viking Ocean going ships, it b...

  Ritz Carlton Yacht Evrima; San Salvador Bahamas We are still far from port as we continue on our voyage through the Caribbean. Once again, for the Christmas holidays, we can be found island-hopping and today, we will shortly weigh anchor alongside San Salvador in the Bahamas. Long considered the exact landing spot where Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas, this island is just the tip of a very high ocean mountain.  We have journeyed far this year. Perhaps further than at any time in our married life. We have crossed the dateline and the equator. We have stood in Greenwich with longitude zero. Or 360 if you prefer. We have been moving our watches forward more times than we have at any time and our preferred mode of transportation has been ocean-going liners. There have been a number of airline hops but for the most part, we have simply been all at sea.  Seabourn Sojourn; Trinidad and Tobago This time last year we were doing a similar cruise through the is...

  There has been so much written about the fallout from the global pandemic becoming a time to rethink work – life balance. A time to think whether the drudgery of the daily routine was really worth it! One hour commutes? Unhealthy meals and rushed coffee breaks. Meetings, Bl**dy Meetings! Once the taste of working from the confines of our homes was how we saw our working future took hold, perhaps there was a different path to go down; one that catered more to real productivity gains. For Margo and me, 2009 was the turning point. Together we made the decision that I was not going to return to corporate life. Instead I was going to do something for myself. Having participated in four startups only to see the time spent working with the corporations that acquired each startup proving less than challenging perhaps even boring, why not launch our own start up. Yes, wherever I could set up shop was where I was going to work and as we head into our fourteenth year, Margo and I have p...