Wanderlust

As a deskbound wage slave I’m a sucker for stories of wandering gypsy sailors. Here’s a good one from the local Annapolis, MD paper about New Zealanders Dilys and Deyal McKenzie. According to the article the couple retired, sold everything and headed off to sail around their corner of the Pacific. Bravo, you say. But how did they end up in Maryland? After 48 months cruising the Pacific they headed west and haven’t stopped for nearly 12 years. The United States is the 40th country they've visited aboard their 25-year-old sailboat, Ravangi since May 14, 1994. They have, of course, a list of ideal destinations. Annapolis was on the list, as was sailing down the East River in New York, past the Statue of Liberty. Mount Desert Island, in Maine was another recent item they checked off. Venice was on the list, as were the Aegean Islands, Crete, Athens and the Corinth Canal. Israel, Sudan, Egypt, Cyprus and Turkey have been checked off, too. People like this send faint rays of hope filtering through to my air-conditioned cubicle hell hole (it’s all not that bad really but you know what I mean).