Living the Dream

This was probably the most special day with my father (Roy). It had been his life long dream to own a luxury motor boat. After alot of searching and visiting boat shows around the world he chose an Italian boat, a 56ft Azimut.
Our journey started firstly in Southampton, where my father and I went on an intense 7 day course to learn how to skipper a boat like this, and obtain a licence to some degree of competence !!.
What a lot of fun it was cruising around the Solent, and nipping across to the Isle of Wight where we anchored in a beautiful cove and had lunch :) After an exhausting week, we both received our licences to skipper our treat.
Fast forwarding to Florida... where we had to take delivery of the boat. From their home in Sarasota FL, Dad and I left very early that morning and drove down to Miami in a hired vehicle.
We arrived at the dealer, and for me it was the first time I got to see it. A very emotional time, don't mind admitting I had a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. I haven't seen my father look so excited yet terrified at the same time :)
Once all the legal paperwork was completed we took the keys and with the guidance from a young captain who was sailing with us back to Sarasota to help us become acustomed to all the controls and procedures (which there were many), we cruised out the docks and out along the Miami front where all the lovely beaches are. We cruised for just over an hour before returning to the harbour for the night, as it was too late in the day to go anywhere.
We stayed overnight in Miami harbour, which was surrounded with sky-scrapers all lit up in different colours (pink, yellow, blue, orange) which was just spectacular. We also had a road-bridge to one side which was just the most amazing blue. The americans certainly know how to make concrete look good at night. We had a meal and listened the the fantastic South American bands pumping out the Salsa music. Got our heads down early only to rise at 4:30am (still dark) crept out the harbour in complete darkness, then started the long journey up the west coast. What a lovely sight to be out at sea and watch the sun rise, quite magical.
We caught the sight of Dolphins along the way and even had them jumping over the wake at the rear of the boat, magical. We nearly mowed-down a large sea turtle, but thanks to my quick reactions, it came to no harm, but it also was a wonderful sight.
We cruised all-day, and when the sun was setting and we were just a few nautical miles from docking for the night. We noticed a helicopter hovering just maybe 30ft above the ocean filming another boat. As we were powering the boat above 20knots to beat the darkness (this is quick by the way) I noticed the helicopter tilt our way, and I just knew what was about to happen. Thankfully it did and we had a film crew hovering along the side the boat filming us. By this time I was beside myself with excitement and the thrill (who needs sex lol) We managed to return the favour and did manage to get our camcorder out and film to helicopter ourselves, as I'm sure no-one would believe our story and put it down as a 'fishermans tale'. It certainly reminded me of Miami Vice :)
Thank-you Dad for a lovely memorable experience of a LIFE TIME.

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