As if you didn’t have enough to do … your blog has been nominated for a Liebster Award. http://joan-druett.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/www-winner.html

We have just returned from Charleston, South Carolina where we met the Liberty Clipper which sailed last Sunday from Nassau, Bahamas. On board the Clipper were the cremated remains of my son Kyle Bruner and his worldly belongings. Accompanied by my wife Ginny, daughters Christie Cataldo and Sarah Brown and her husband Josh, son Joshua Cataldo and his wife Kari, we met the boat on Thursday morning and were greeted by Andy Huntoon, the owner of Liberty Fleets of Tall Ships, Captain Chris Shaw and the Clipper’s crew. In short order, we cast off into a flat, calm bay, with only a hint of wind. However, with the engine, the outgoing tide and the river current we moved quickly towards the open sea, flanked by a small pod of dolphins and a pair of pelicans. Clear of the docks, we helped the crew set the sails and the engine was silenced. We continued to drift on the tide, taking that opportunity to talk and get to know the people who had been close to Kyle during his final days. We heard stories that were consistent with other things that we had been told in messages and videos and posting on Kyle’s memorial page. We were able to connect vague notations in his journals to events in his life at sea and ashore. When were were far enough out, the captain suggested that we gather to send Kyle on his way. We all, family, crew, passengers and owner assembled on the aft deck to start the brief commemorative we had planned. Then suddenly out of nowhere a wind rose, the sails filled and the boat heeled slightly and we were underway. The captain chuckled and said that apparently on his day, Kyle wanted to go sailing. The crew trimmed the sails and we reassembled in front of the now active helm. We each took turns expressing our thoughts about Kyle and the person he had been and the person he had become and I was struck by the fact that here were even more people expressing how Kyle had helped them to confront their fears and self doubts, how he had come to their rescue, or just been a friend when one was needed and I realized that Kyle didn’t become a hero in the final moments of his life, he had in so many small, yet important ways been a hero all of his life. He had his moments of weakness and his estrangements from family and friends, but in the end he had slayed his own demons and reconciled with those he had hurt. Once everyone had had their say, I read John Masefield’s Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

Then his mother and I stepped to the rail, first we dropped his home rock into the water, the rock he always left in the place to which he intended to return. And with the same hands that had delivered him into life 34 years ago, we scattered his ashes upon the sea.