June 10 - Cruise Interruptions

"Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation." —Lois Wyse

We found out we were having another grandwonder on our way home from the boat last fall and knew we didn’t want to make any cruising plans for this summer. We wanted to have time to play with our granddaughter, and have time to help take care of the new baby. Some things are just more important than having fun on a boat…there aren’t too many things, but grandwonders certainly are! So this is going to be a transitional year for us…moving from the summer cruising we’ve been doing the past three years to winter cruising. For now our plan is to spend next January and February in Marathon (The Keys) and then go to Abaco in the spring…after that who knows.

We planned to be home by the time our new little grandwonder made his arrival, so we could be at the hospital for the joyful occasion. But this new little person had his own plan. We got the phone call last Wednesday morning at 3AM that Brytanie was in labor and he was making his appearance almost two weeks early. I’m sure it won’t be the last time he has plans of his own.

We had finished all the work we wanted to get done on the boat while we were waiting for his arrival, but we hadn’t quite taken the time to get home. I had a feeling we might need to leave a little earlier, so I packed all our clothes and took inventory of what we were leaving on Tuesday. After our son, Kyle, called with the good news, we loaded the car and shut down the boat in record time and were on our way home by 5 AM. It’s a 16 hour drive from Jacksonville, FL to Temple, TX and although we wanted to be there for the birth I hoped the baby would come quickly…and he did, very quickly. We weren’t even out of Florida when we heard he’d arrived. Thanks to modern technology we got to keep up with the progress and had a picture of our new grandson minutes after his birth. Not quite as good as being there, but still very exciting.

Graham Thomas Marshall arrived at 8:06AM (central time) weighing 7lbs. 8oz. and 20.5” long. Neither Brytanie’s parents coming from California or us from Florida could make it in time for Graham’s birth, but Stan’s sister got there just moments after he arrived and she made a great stand-in Mom and Grandma until all of us got there. He joins a large family on both sides and will definitely be surrounded by a lot of love the rest of his life.

We plan to return to the boat in the fall or even a short trip later this summer, but for now we are going to enjoy being grandparents to two of the most amazing little people in the world. We have a lot of hugging and kissing to catch up on.

Graham Thomas Marshall