Something different.

Lyndell and I met sailing in England. In fact, we met on a park bench as we waited for other members of the crew from Imperial College. We were to pick up a charter vessel from Lymington – near the Isle of Wight.

A chance meeting.

Did some of the other young sailors set us up? We’ll probably never know, because the captain of the boat recently died.

Here are two poems that trace how that time led to us, in the end, sailing Mirrors.

First, the big picture:

More precious than rubies
 By Robin Ford, November 2009
  
 Hello, I’m Robin and you must be Lyndell.
 Cocoa and cake with the rest of the crew.
 Sailing at night round the East of the island.
 G & S songs with the moon in full view.
  
 Last of the crew from the Easter adventure.
 She washed her hair as they moored in the bay.
 “I know a cute little East Sussex village.
 “Let’s see how close we can get in a day.”
  
 Alice and Nancy go holiday swimming,
 Skip Bo at night on the floor of a tent.
 Hiking the hinterland, urging legs onward.
 No time for asking just what it all meant.
  
 Hello, I’m Robin and you must be Lyndell.
 Taking fresh guard as the innings proceeds.
 Forty years wiser, with life re-imagined,
 Onward together to see where life leads.
 

Second, an obituary:

The Captain
Robin and Lyndell Ford, January 2017

He knew us from the day that we first met —
The captain of the yacht we were to share.
Years later, half a world away, and yet
Our interests were ever in his care.
With teasing mischief always on the brink,
He answered in a voice that might seem gruff,
When Lyndell asked for sugar in her drink,
“If stirred by Robin, should be sweet enough.”
Now did he match-make on that Easter cruise?
Did he see then what fortune would provide?
Some forty nine years on we share the news:
A loving, caring friend has sadly died.
He set us up, together, for life’s trip;
How beautiful, the captain of our ship.