When you love you have to leave...

Don’t you want to rid yourself of all that cotton wool you’re wrapped up in? To break away from the herd mentality with all the instinct of those age-old birds of a feather…? The Earth is not just a dusty old atlas stuck on a shelf someplace. The oceans cover two-thirds of it, so let's make the most of it; let's go on an adventure, discovering others and ourselves. Let ‘s show our children they need to learn one or two other "living" languages. That their ecological conscience is forged by the fire of the reality of limited fresh water reserves, of a volume of waste products which quickly becomes problematic, and notions of the management of electric power which is no longer infinite. Come on, let’s go! Just for a moment, let's leave this cocoon which may be reassuring, but which also incarcerates us.

Here’s the idea, the cure, the emergency exit: a complete year off.  Even for children at worst, this will avoid the everyday conflicts about doing homework. And the school year will not be blank at all, because in the school of life, the sea and Mother Nature, we learn something every day. 365 days, a minimum space-time, to break the frenetic pace of our earthly lives. Time to decompress, to rest, to find your spirit, to resume the thread of your life, to rediscover your other half, your children, to re-establish links, to live together, truly, and not just cross paths with each other. Stop chasing pipe dreams, go back to basics. We see rejuvenated couples come back with a strengthened bond, brought together again by this common experience, quite literally for once. Because truly living together, with the love of one's life and one's adored children, wasn’t that the original plan? Why not take literally the phrase "all in the same boat"? To find oneself in a small space, to learn to tolerate each other, to brush past each other, to touch each other, to jostle with one another, to fight each other, to reconcile, to laugh out loud, to sing, viva la vida! On a boat you can find a unity of life enjoyed by so-called primitive societies, but one so much more supportive than our own great spaces of solitude.

Since you have no clue about fishing, experiment with your children with some different techniques, give them an early evening watch, see them swim like dolphins, amaze them by contemplating a sunset so they forget their tablets, wake them up with the sun and a smell of homemade bread, sorry, I mean boat-made, in the not-so-great onboard stove. These are just a few examples of what’s in store for you during this exceptional year and which will see so many strong bonds forever woven between you. ...