All people who sailed with me heard me talking about the “Admiral” called friend of mine, Thomas.

He accompanied me to Croatia when I bought MaRe. He was my coach when I needed training to steer MaRe in the narrow space between two other boats in Simuni marina. He also sailed with me and other friends in Croatia. He always read my narrations and sent me comments since I started to sail around the world.

But sailing is not all which connects us. In 1982, when we met in Port Saint Louis du Rhone as adults, we found out that as youth we did sports together. Since meeting in the south of France, we never lost contact anymore.

Over the last years we exchanged many messages about his bout with cancer. I often called him a “non eradicatable weed” in German. He always saw the little positive side to win the bout.

Reading his last message, just about a week ago, I felt a great tiredness. Tomorrow is his birthday and I wanted to and will send him a special birthday message.

Today I got a message from my son, who found in Facebook a post of a friend of Thomas.

Thomas, took the last walk over the rainbow.

Fair winds and Handbreit on the other side!