Got to tell you all about my stepsister.

Annette is 55 years old and married to a Dutch guy who retired last year. After her husband's retirement, the two of them sold everything they owned; horses, apartment, house, cars bikes, teacups…you name it…absolutely everything.

They invested their money in a round the world sailing adventure. They figure it will take 6 to 8 years!!! And they bought themselves a piece of land in Thailand where they plan to build a bed and breakfast Inn when they return.

Their used sailboat needs constant repairs, and after every sailing spree, they just about make it into the next harbour. Once a month she sends me long updates per email, with all the gory details. Annette has never ever done anything like this before. Shortly before they set sail she took a sailing course and got her licence for deep sea sailing. Her husband took a course in how to operate appendicitis, just incase….!

Every time I receive an email from Annette I think; wow, life is just beginning for my boomer sister. I would never do what she does, but I find her attitude and energy invigorating. She writes about huge hurricane storms with gigantic waves, where they just hover in the teeny cabin below and get seasick. She also writes how she sometimes prays and asks herself if she was brain dead when she said she would do this. But when the seas are calm and they have a steady wind, she forgets the storms and basks in the beauty of it all. She writes of gorgeous turquoise water, where she and her husband snorkel next to dolphins diving through glass still water at sunset.

She has asked Hubby and me to join them for a short excursion between two countries. But Hubby and I both agree, we are lake sailers, …and that's enough adventure for us.

Sometimes she gets lonely, and she has confided in me that she is doing this just for the love for her husband. What a strong love that must be. How far would you go for your husband? I got to say, this would definitely overstep my line of loyalty.

I hope Annette plans to write a book. Her emails are a joy to read.

Wow Hannalore
the picture is beautiful...the story great.
I am heartened that there are still adventures.Think of it this way...she is doing it for us."Sisters are doing it for us in everything they do" we are a generation like never before and in the communication via you we can all see the possibilitis.
Mountain ash

It's great to be on that adventure of a lifetime. Hope at least she (or someone) will keep all her emails. It's an instant record for her.

Where I work now, one of the engineers sailed the Pacific Ocean & Carribbean for a few years full-time...before he returned to work.

How far would I go in terms of an adventure for hubby and dreams?

Well already, I left a full-time job, sold my home and relocated to Vancouver to join my partner. At that time, no job in new place. Took me several months to land a job....

With respect to adventures/trips, I know my limits. I'm not totally convinced I have the mental stamina to have joined my partner to cycle across Canada/U.S. which he has done on 2 different trips in separate years. However having a compatible partner /friend can help a person enormously on a long, long trip.

I would not sell all my stuff and go on trip. ...unless I knew money was well-invested for long-term ...so that I/we could return ....to a roof, food for the long term.

I've heard of real stories like this, with some situations where the person was abit destitute after returning.

Yea, that's me...afraid of being a bag lady in the end. I plan adventures with that worry at the back of my head.

I agree Mountain Ash, women like these put a different light on Boomer women.

Yes; I've heard of people doing this before as well, and that most of them would never do it again. And some, as you said, Orchid, become not only destitute, but can't manage with the 'busy' world when they return. I would never risk that.

Orchid that surprised me to read that you wouldn't do a Canada bike trip with your partner. You are so fit. Maybe just along a coastline? You've done Vancouver Island, right?

I couldn't help think, when reading Annette's journal, how similar life is to the sea. Stormy, calm, sometimes even boring…and then come those days when the wind is just right, and you're uplifted and happy, just riding with the waves, and you forget about those turbulent fretful days.

No, not crazy in my mind, but...

I wouldn't give up everything to do it, just to much of a financial risk, but I have to say, what a wonderful adventure. I like you analogy of life to the sea. So true.

I would love to do a six month journey, but I cannot imagine 6 years. Would I do this for a husband? I would love to have a husband that would ask, to be willing to risk so much for love of life, but then I would have to be the sensible one that says "no". In reality, I would be the one to ask and Dennis would be the sensible one.

I did it. Why else would any sane American woman live in a pit like Moscow? Sold everything and gave away the cars and the dogs. Brought 1 child and left the other behind. I had never even owned a passport up till then.

When we were on vacation in Santorini Greece this spring we met a British couple about our age who had sold everything, quit their lucrative careers, and bought a small boat. Thy'd been sailing around the Mediterranean for a couple of years and seemed pretty content. They thought that when they got tired of sailing they might sell the boat and buy a camper to roam America.

It happens. It's just a matter of giving up everything and everbody you know.

Don't think I would do this...but you never know! I think about moving to France for six months...but that's about as adventurous as I get...:-))

Other than, of course, giving up my livelihood to start a totally unrelated career! LOL!

I don't have any money to speak of, but if I did I can't imagine risking it all to sail around the world. Too practical I guess....but, oh how I envy her courage to grab a hold of life and get everything out of it!

Somehow, in some way we all need to look for a way to squeeze as much out of life as we can. We may not blow it all on a once in a lifetime trip but we need to find ways each day to maximize life.

How could we challenge ourselves daily in this? Could this be a new forum topic? What do you think?

Even if all we did was to break our routines enough to stop for 10 minutes and listen to the breeze blowing through the trees, or stop to watch some kids playing with bubbles at the fair, or really listen to a grandchild ramble on as we comb their hair......Perhaps we could encourage each other somehow to 'stop and small the roses' more. What do you all think?

Sometimes I think about doing something like this, but not sailing. I think I'd like to sell almost everything (I'd have to keep family heirlooms/photos and stuff like that), buy an RV and tour around both North and South America. Hubby would love to do that too...I'm not sure what's stopping us...

We're doing the next best thing. My brother, who passed away in March, was only 43, but had managed to save quite a lot of money. That's because he never took any vacations and never went anywhere, even though he loved to travel and often spoke about the places he'd love to see. He had over a year's worth of vacation accumulated when he died. Perhaps he figured he'd do it when he retired...but look where that thinking got him...nowhere at all.

So we're using his money to do what he always wanted to do but never did...we're going to do some serious traveling, and lots of it. So far we've already planned and booked several trips...Europe in the fall, a Christmas cruise through the Panama Canal, six weeks in the Caribean next winter, and now we're debating between an African Safari and a cruise that leaves from Tahiti and stops all along the Pacific South American coastline...and I'm still hoping to make it up north to see the Aurora Borealis and polar bears! Things we've always dreamed of doing but could never afford to do - things GARY would have dreamed of doing and COULD afford to do, but never did.

We only live once...it's an incredibly beautiful world out there...at our age, there just ain't that much more time left to waste waiting for the right time to follow those dreams...