Sails in Spain: Friday 1 September – first day of Ivan’s partial-retirement

Having lost the race to full retirement to Rachel, today I embarked on his first day of partial retirement. The last work meeting at 8am at the Sheraton in Schipol and then I met up with Barry in the café to check in to our flight to Mallorca.
And if this is what retirement is like then bring it on. Barry and I fly to Mallorca and meet up with various guys from Barry’s past.

Peter ‘the captain’ (Nicaragua) and Grant (Australia) from med school (I think), Jim and Javier (Spain) from Peter’s past and then Barry (NZ) and I (no fixed abode). The boat ‘Kiwi Drop’, I suspect they rename them to reflect the primary nationality of the crew.

On Friday evening we sail out in a perfect cloudless night from Palma, en route to Ibiza and eventually Formentera. The sunset, the first of many perfect sunsets as we head through the harbour out into the open Med’.
By 1am, with various stages of jetlag going around it becomes apparent that we had better organise watches. Pete, Jim and I go until 4am and then Barry, Javier and Grant carry on. The sky is absolutely clear and with slightly less than a half moon the stars are beautiful, with the odd shooting star to keep the show moving. It isn’t hard to stay awake just watching the sky and listening to the water. We pass through the occasional cloud of jelly fish, which glow fluorescent green in the lights from the boat, quick fantastical from on board, but rather nasty if you end in the water with them.