BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Fwd: Subject: [TheDingyDock] Skip and Lydia Gundlach need help

Geoff Schultz

From:
To: "Flying Pig Log"
Subject: [Flying Pig Log] Fears, Tears and Broken Dreams

Here's the e-mail that I received earlier today:

Sunday, February 04, 2007
4.13 pm
Off the coast of Longboat Key, FL

I'm sitting at the helm of our boat while Skip takes a nap below. All
is well. The engine is off and we're on a perfect beam reach, heading
160 degrees, bound roughly for Boca Grande.

We left St. Pete this morning at 11 am having had our water pump break
and prevent us from leaving last night as we'd wanted to. I had put
on my Scopolamine patch at 4 pm yesterday, prepared this time for
seasickness. It works, and I don't feel drowsy either.

It's grey out here and the water is very green. The wind is cool; I
have sweat pants on and two sweatshirts, but I'm comfortable. No
rain, just grey, and no other boats in sight. I wonder if that's
because it's Sunday.

So, here we are, day one of the rest of our lives, having completed
the preparation for this adventure we've been planning for nearly 8
years. I think this was the first time that I set a goal in my life,
other than very short term ones of less than a month. And when we
both started working towards this dream, it seemed so incredibly
impossible. (Hence the boat's name, Flying Pig.) I mean, I just
hadn't met anyone who had done this before, personally. Of course
there are a zillion people doing it every day, and now that we've
stepped into their world, we feel well and truly surrounded by them,
their experiences and their wisdom, their generosity and friendship.
They are the coolest bunch of people. Not all of them, however (in
fact, most of them have not) given up their homes, cars etc and kicked
the System. Most of them have one foot still inside it, and I hear
that this makes for a lot of frustration. One shouldn't sail on
deadlines, for instance; it always leads to trouble. But when you
have a foot in the real world, and you've only got "x" weeks vacation
time to take off in your boat, you do have deadlines. It's much
easier to do it this way - nothing but the boat. Aside from being in
George Town in the Bahamas to pick up my son, Samuel and his
girlfriend, Jana on March 1st, we don't really have any more agendas
and deadlines to meet, which is good.

Making 6.5 knots now; I can hear the wind in the sails, and the sheets
(sail lines) are creaking. It's absolutely wonderful, but I don't
know how people do it all alone. You'd really have to be in love with
your boat, in love with yourself, in love with the sea, and fall
outside of the People Lover category.

So - now that we're at the end of this 8 year goal (marked by leaving
the boat yard today and taking off on our Journey), I wonder if we'll
make a new one. Can you make it through life happily without any
goals? If you don't have them, does that make you a Drifter? Or, are
you just one of those people who live each day at a time as if it's
your last? I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'll let you know
when I figure it out.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Red Cross Building,
Key West, FL
5.30 pm

I look back at this mail I wrote when I was on watch, and wish I could
go back there and rewind the last couple of days and start again.

As we sailed further south, the weather got worse, and we were out far
enough in the Gulf that there seemed nothing else to do but go on, on
a reefed mainheet. The seas were 8' and the wind was 20+ knots - just
a mess out there. We set our course to get near the channel marker
that would take us through to Marathon, but which we wouldn't enter
until daylight. Somehow, we were blown off course and in one great
noisy crunch, went from 25 ft depth, (according to the depth finder),
to 4 feet of water in a second, being chewed up by the reef north of
Marathon.

The Coast Guard stayed with us by radio every few minutes to reassess
damage; we weren't taking on any water because the boat was lying on
her side in 4 ft of angry waves. That was the good news; if it had
happened out somewhere deep, no doubt we would have sunk. TowBoat US
got to us fairly quickly to determine that he couldn't do anything
about the boat, nor could he get close enough in the weather to get us
off the boat, and so 4 hours after the wreck, the Coast Guard
airlifted us out. I looked down from the basket that was lifting me to
the helicopter, and saw our beloved Flying Pig, lying on her side
looking so dead and helpless. I can't get it out of my mind.

As a matter of course, the Coast Guard delivered us to the Hospital in
Key West, where Skip got checked out as a precaution because of his
heart condition. All OK there. The wonderful people at the hospital
gave us a room to crash in, and began to give us all sorts of
information on how to make it through homelessness, which,
effectively, we currently are. After feeding us breakfast, the
hospital called a cabbie, who refused money once he heard our story,
and delivered us to the Red Cross Building in Key West. The Red
Cross, which is represented by a wonderful man named Paul, is sending
us off to a Days Inn for a few days until we can reevaluate the boat's
damage and decide where to go from here. That's it, in a nutshell.

You can imagine that while we're physically unharmed, we're currently
still stunned, and grieving our Flying Pig. We know that her hull has
been broached (holed) but we don't know to what extent, and nor can we
find that out until a salvage vessel delivers her to a boat yard in
Marathon.

Tomorrow, we meet with the salvage guys first thing in the morning on
Big Pine Key, to go out on their huge landing craft vessel, try to get
some things off the boat and then try to tow her to safety without
capsizing her. We'll catch the bus from Key West up there first
thing.

All that whimsical chatter about not having a plan anymore. That
changed in a hurry.

In the end, Life is an Adventure. By the grace of God, we're fine,
and Homelessness is a state that I've never experienced before, and
will perhaps expand my perspective of the world. I mean, there are
tons of homeless people out there, and I've always wondered how they
manage to do it, why they don't just shoot themselves if it's that
awful. Maybe it isn't that awful; maybe a lot of them like it. Well,
I'm about to find all this stuff out. One more experience to chalk
up. :/

The ability to reach us from here on out is going to be iffy,
depending on where we are and whether we have any connection. I'll
try to keep you updated by email.

Please keep us in your prayers. We're feeling pretty bruised.

Love from Lydia and Skip

Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Days Inn, Key West
3.28 pm

I wasn't able to get any connection prior to this writing, to send out
news to you all. However, I'm now sitting in the Holiday Inn, a couple
of doors away from the Days Inn where the Red Cross have put us up,
where they have graciously helped me connect on their wifi.

Skip drove a rental car to Big Pine Key this morning to meet the
salvage guys and join them on their huge "carrier". They're going to
check out the boat, hot patch the holes, and try to bring her back to
Marathon (25 miles) without sinking her. At some point, the adjuster
will get involved too; in fact, he may be aboard with Skip and the
salvage skipper. I received a message at the motel a few hours ago,
that Skip may be out all night bringing the boat in, and not to worry
about his whereabouts. I know he's absolutely exhausted, even though
he got some hours of sleep last night.

I caught the bus to K-Mart and purchased some clothes for us with the
Red Cross voucher. What a wonderful organization they are; Paul and
Lise, their representatives here in Key West, bent over backwards to
help us. Anyway, just so you know, K-Mart has a whole different
sizing system from any other store I've ever shopped in, because I
know for a fact that I am NOT a size 4, and more like a size 8. So if
you want to feel good about your size, check out K-Mart. Meanwhile,
they are deplete of size 4's :/

Before I get carried away for hours and hours with this email, I'm
sending it out. I assure you that we are physically well, albeit,
mentally fatigued and emotionally broken at the moment, but I'm sure
things will improve once we can get a damage report.

Again, it's hard to reach us - we don't have a cell phone - but if
it's urgent, we are able to walk across to this Holiday Inn and hook
up to check or send out email. We will keep you posted as things
develop.

Love, Lydia