It still continues to amaze me, a gift from a far

If your into sailing you will have heard of Tom Schnackenberg, I had the pleasure of having dinner with Tom and his wife as well as the rest of the Schnackenberg clan, privileged indeed, all it does is highlight how what Eva and I am doing amazes even truly amazing people, it also highlights how small New Zealand is and the one degree of separation.

Tom's brother John is married to Catherine who I use to go to athletics with, she lived in the next street, Tercel Place, Sunnyhills in Auckland and her dad is a very famous, well in Pakuranga athletic circles anyway, Mike Murray, he often set me on the straight and narrow as a budding sprinter.

Also on board was another who's who of NZ yachting Mike Sanderson who's dad operated on my knee three weeks ago, just another coincidence a good friend of mine Richard Speer stayed with the Schnackenbergs at their home in Valencia, the list goes on, a very strange night indeed.

So how did I end up there for dinner other than my stunning good looks and vibrant personality, well yes you guessed Eva, Tom's wife Annie lost her mother at the ripe old age of 9 months and was bought up by her father, seeing Eva and I together on the beach and swimming brought images of what she imagined her father did with her, it was a very emotional conversation for us all and am still touched that we were both able to open our hearts and share our experiences.

So the gift, Annie  was wearing a beautiful bracelet, before I left she took it off, put it in a beautiful bag and gave it to me for Eva and asked me to tell Eva about how she came about it when she is old enough, speechless.

Tales from the sea, now all I need is some Northerlies so I can head south.