It has been far too long since I blogged... sorry for the lapse. We left Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos and headed directly for St. Mary's inlet at the GA/FL state line. We had great wind when we left and sailed for the first 10 hours or so, but after that it was mostly a motor boat trip as the wind died.

It took us 2.5 days before we got tied up at the marina downtown in Fernandina Beach, FL. Almost immediately after we were secure at the dock, a massive thunderstorm hit. We saw over 60 knots of wind, lightening everywhere, torrential rain and the power went out over the entire island. Its funny that the scariest thing we have experienced was after being tied up in a marina in FL.

We motored up the ICW to Jekyll Island, only bumping the muddy bottom once. No big deal. We got secured and shortly afterward met up with our friends on Amazing Grace II and Side by Side. It was fun having our friends hang around Jekyll with us for a week and the kids really had a blast but before we knew it they were both headed off north for the Chesapeake. At the time I thought it highly likely that we would see them again when we too headed north within a month or so.

We got a few boat projects done and then packed up to head to the Atlanta area to visit family and friends. After almost a week in Cumming, GA we headed north to Banner Elk, NC for the 4th of July holiday. It's a lot of fun there with a parade and fireworks plus the weather is very nice. After a week, we headed back down to Cumming and my parents house. I got a lot of paperwork crap done and was able to take care of some real estate messes. Productive and necessary but not exactly fun.

After being away from the boat for nearly 3 weeks we headed back to Jekyll Island. When we arrived, I discovered that while we were gone the rear A/C unit had died. I diagnosed a bad compressor and after speaking with the guys at Flagship marine who made the unit I shipped it back to them to be repaired under warranty. Our Lectra-San unit also had died and I had to order a new set of electrode plates to repair it. So boat projects continue.

After getting back to the boat, Michele began again having really bad fibromyalgia attacks. She suffers bad headaches, tingling electric shock feelings down both her arms and hands, tremors in her hands, numbness, deep muscle and joint pain in both her legs and arms, bad bladder pain.....and it all was getting rapidly worse. Much worse.

She has suffered from this for a number of years to varying degrees. Last year before moving out of our house to pursue this "episode" we pursued several treatment options very aggressively to try and get her as "better" as was possible and we had good success with this. I think we both felt confident that she would be able to undertake the cruising lifestyle and cope with her disease. We appear to have been wrong.

Things have gotten worse to the point where we have abandoned plans to head north and we are on our way back to the Atlanta area to seek treatment. We are taking Michele back to the Chiropractor and nutritionist who helped her before. We are also going to see a neurologist, as MS is a possibility we want to try and rule out and we are seeing a rhumatologist. We will also seek out any other specialists who may be able to help. Our entire focus at this point is on trying to get help for Michele so she can cope with the pain. We have gotten some serious pain medication and muscle relaxers to try and manage the severe pain in the meantime but this is just treating symptoms, not chasing a cure.

The reality of Fibromyalgia is that no cure is likely. This is a degenerative debilitating disease and though we hope to find ways of getting Michele back to being able to cope with day to day life the hard reality is that living the cruising lifestyle just does not appear to be something she can do.

So at this point, it appears we are done. I honestly cannot put into words my thoughts and feelings with this. Dreams die hard, but that's life. Now it's on to real problems: How to make a living? Where to live? How to pay for all the medical treatment Michele will need? When does school start and how do we get the kids going on that? Lots of stuff.

Lillie Mae is for sale. I am going to do my best to sell her myself, the thought of paying a broker 10% for shooting a few lousy photos and throwing it up on yachtworld.com is not something I can stomach. I will post another blog update with a VERY long and detailed description of the boat. If anyone is looking for a fantastic 3 cabin cruising yacht....Lillie Mae is IT. Any helps in selling her that anyone can provide is greatly appreciated.