The crew of Wrinkles is sorry for their lack of posts over the recent months. (Egads! It has been months!) It seems life had many distractions, twists and turns which all conspired to keep us from updating this silly blog. You still want an explanation you say? Well, here goes.......
If you go back to our last post you will see we had mixed emotions about returning to Wrinkles after a wonderful trip visiting friends and family all over the U.S. Although Wrinkles was in good shape and ready for another sailing adventure, her crew wasn't exactly ready to drop the docklines quite yet. Brenda has never been fond of storms or heavy weather sailing. Fortunately the beautiful sunsets, quiet island beaches and amazing friendships we developed were able to outweigh the stressful portions of cruising for the last 2 1/2 years. Mike knew upon returning from the Bahamas last season that it would be Brenda's last long voyage aboard Wrinkles. She simply had run her weather tolerance tank empty.
We planned on an easy sail down to Marathon where we would spend the winter enjoying the Florida Keys. Unfortunately Hurricane Irma pretty much destroyed Boot Key Harbor and our plans. So now what do we do? Our wanderlust was still going strong and we were not ready to become landlocked quite yet. We started looking at RV'ing as an alternative to sailing. We would be able to wander, explore, meet new people and basically refuse to grow up and become responsible adults. Hmmmmm? Sounds like a good option.
The decision was made to put Wrinkles up for sale and move aboard an RV. It was NOT an easy decision. Mike wrote the following email to our family to express his emotions.
Adventures do end. I've known this for weeks now, but I seemed to be able to place it in the back of of my mind where I wouldn't need to acknowledge it. Well, yesterday was my day of reckoning. I stepped across Wrinkles teak rail for my last sail as her skipper, owner, friend. The familiar feel of the solid deck as I boarded her made me feel at home and at peace. Wrinkles has been my home and my means of adventure for nearly three years now as we shared beautiful sunsets and exotic islands.As we sailed under a gentle wind across Charlotte Harbor toward the storage lot I reminisced about the highs and lows of cruising aboard an old sailboat. Sure there were times of fear and anxiety, but to truly be alive we need to get outside our comfort zone occasionally. The rewards were plentiful. Beauty, adventure, friendships, excitement and the amazing feeling of accomplishment. Sharing life aboard Wrinkles with the love of my life was a good life.I'm not sure if I subconsciously sailed 40 minutes past the turn up the Myakka River or if I just didn't want to make that final commitment to put Wrinkles away. It is more likely that during our adventures Brenda has been the true navigator and I didn't have her by my side to keep me from getting lost. Eventually Wrinkles and I worked our way up the Myakka River, made it safely through the dreaded Cattle Point Lock, navigated the shallow canals and gently docked at Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage.This adventure has ended. You can't imagine how hard that sentence was to type. Wrinkles will soon have a new skipper to pat her teak after each day's journey while saying, "Good job Wrinkles."
Yes, Mike would still love to point Wrinkles bow off to distant shores, but cruising is only fun and rewarding if it is a shared adventure. It is far more important who we share our adventures with than what those adventures are. We are excited to make our beautiful RV our new home and head off across America to new adventures.
Life does supply us with interesting twists. From now on our travels will involve merges and turns rather than tacks and jibes. Just different terms for new adventures we can share together.
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