After sitting behind a desk for thirty years, Dave decides to retire at age 55 and makes plans to sail across the Pacific Ocean. Arlene finds the prospect of such an adventure irresistible and whole-heartedly joins in. Neither of them has ever been on a sailboat, and they know nothing about the sea, but he buys a forty-foot sloop and they spend a winter outfitting it. They then start their life-changing odyssey by circumnavigating Vancouver Island. Within three years, they make landfall in Brisbane, Australia, have sailed 19,000 km from Victoria, Canada via Hawaii and the South Pacific.