"So this is what it feels like when a dream comes true!" I wrote those words in my diary, rattled by the rapid events that had taken place in just a few short days.

Twelve years earlier Tom and I had decided to one day buy a sailing boat and cross the big oceans. We were kids without a dime in our pockets but the vision was strong and the plan was simple. We would build a business of some sort, get the money and go.

Years passed and building a business to profit turned out not to be so easy. Instead of making money, we were losing it and our boat became an increasingly faint shadow on an uncertain horizon.

One cold and rainy autumn evening, one of those endless days of struggle, we hit a bar to release some steam. In there, displayed behind a glass screen, was a model of an ancient ship. "Come look," Tom called me. "It's Columbus' boat."

Awestruck, it hit me. “That's it," I announced, "that's the name of our boat!”

“Santa Maria."

We had a name but we still had no boat. Instead, our battle took us through life in dramatic ways, to places we hadn't planned and situations we hadn't anticipated. The pursuit proved tough, extremely tough. Yet behind the frustration, doubt and failures it was also a joyride to empowerment and wisdom. So this is what it feels like when a dream comes true.” It was more than 10 years later, 1998, that I wrote those words in my diary. We had gained other priorities but we had not forgot. We weren't millionaires yet but we had some funds and suddenly there was a picture of a boat in the paper.

She was nothing fancy - an O´Day coastal cruiser, 37 feet, 20 years old. We had expected to save up for something grander. But here she was and she was only US $30,000. We realized this was our chance. We were going on a dangerous climbing expedition the following spring. Climbing high mountains had taught us that life can end anytime. Dreams should not be kept on hold. We had to go. And we had to go now.

It took just a few days of inspections and negotiating. And finally, one evening, with friends and family in our kitchen we raised a toast to a long time dream of two kids finally come true: To Santa Maria.