the boat

this old person cruise is quite a world unto itself. I am the youngest participant by about half a century, and my father, in his mid 70s is among the next youngest. Yet these people, regardless of their ages, are living life to its fullest. There is an 88 year old who is sailing around the southern cone, up to rio, from where she will take another boat to Gambia and Senegal and up to Lisbon. She hasn’t planned for after that, but if she is still around she will. Her logic is “fuck it, if I die, I die, but as long as I am living I want to live.” Fair enough. Another told my father that she had buried 3 husbands but was looking for a 4th, while another couple, in their 80s were recently married, having met on a previous elder hostel adventure. Last night my father and I sat down to dinner with two widows from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who seemed boring and conventional until they started telling us about their safari adventures in Kenya and various treks through china. One of them had gone through germany as a teenager right after WWII!
Lots of the participants are retired university professors, and others are just eccentric. Many are American/ Canadian, but there is an older French couple, several british, some south African jews, and an elderly black woman from Bermuda who has the most amazing accent (I spent a whole dinner trying to figure it out, but gave up and finally asked) and odd tales of studying in London in the 50s.
Yesterday we went to Casablanca wine valley for a wine tasting and these pensioners like their drinks! Some were having three or four glasses at 11 am! My dad and I came away with 4 bottles, and that was relatively little! A few have complained of hangovers, but most seem to manage large amounts.
We have now set sail from Valparaiso (a lovely town on the coast where I would like a dacha if I had the money) and are out at sea. I am curious what trouble these pensioners will get up to on the boat. I need to work on my thesis…