Farewell Renard

Last week, we said goodbye to our friends Marie, Simon, Charlotte and Alice on SV Renard. They are continuing east along the north coast of Vanua Levu. We are heading west/southwest crossing to Vitu Levu where we’ll fly out in a few weeks to attend our daughter’s wedding. It was hard to say goodbye.

We first met them in Tenacatita, Mexico but didn’t really connect until a few days before we left Mexico for the Marquesas. We caught the same weather window for the crossing. It was on that crossing that we got to know them through texts and daily radio check-ins. We connected again shortly before making the passage from the Marquesas to the Tuamotus and have been joined at the hip ever since. We have travelled together through French Polynesia to the atoll of Suwarrow in the Cook Islands, American Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand and now to Fiji. When we left Mexico, I wouldn’t have guessed that we’d still be together a year later.

It has been great to plan together and explore new places with them. They have become good friends. They have a special place in our hearts. We refer to Charlotte and Alice as our “boating grandkids.” It would have been a very different trip had we not shared it with them.

Goodbyes have been part of our life for years, first as international teachers and now as sailors. Goodbyes are always hard. Some are harder than others. This one sucks.