Ya know the old saying, "so close, but so far away..." Well, that is our new theme for Sunshine. We came so close to getting her to Florida, but not close enough. On Friday, the 8th of May, Jim got a phone call at work from my Mom while I was in Micah's class for a Mother's Day breakfast. She asked Jim, "are you sitting down?". Well, what's the first thing you'd think of if your Mother-in Law called you at work and said that to you? Then she told him that she just talked to her brother-in-law, my Uncle Bob who he & Aunt Margie have been behind us 100% with this whole endeavor of ours. He has a friend that we have talked to before, even as far back as a couple years ago about doing the original delivery then all the way from El Salvador. U. Bob told my mom Henry would do the delivery! So we had the missing piece, the "Captain" of Sunshine in Jim's absence. We already had lined up a couple who live in Portobello, Panama to be crew, but not in charge. Jim talked to Henry that evening and as soon as Henry could get his boat in Ft. Lauderdale where he is, closed up, he'd be ready. They made tentative plans to leave later this week. Jim talked to Henry again, 2 days later, to make sure when he'd be ready, and Henry informed him that he got a call over the w/end that his 90 yr. Old Uncle in Texas was needing some immediate attention and he was asked by other family members to do it.
So, now what? On Monday, we got a couple more leads that led no where, and Tuesday, Jim's B-day, while we're at dinner at the Roadhouse in Beaulah, we decide that this is where we need to stop. Our priorities have changed, we can't keep Sunshine where she is and afford both time & money to leave her there. Even if we kept her, we'd only be able to use her for maybe a month every year,for the next few years and for the expense that would entail, plus at the beginning of each time we'd get to her, there would most likely be maintenance- and possibly extensive, it's not feasible for us any more.
So sadly as of this morning, she went up for sail on ebay.
The hardest part is that she is in much better shape now than when we took ownership of her, and to put that much blood, sweat, & tears, literally in to something & then have to let it go, is...well, just hard to take-real hard. The kids are sad. But I often tell them when they don't want to pick up their toys, or don't want to do a certain chore, or don't want to do whatever it is, "some times ya gotta do what you don't want to do." Well, there's nothing like leading by example.
I will probably post one more time, to update on the sale. But there won't be a reason to keep the sailblogs going after that.
Thank you all for reading our blog, posting comments, and for your support. I thoroughly enjoyed writing these. Maybe someday, they'll be a book!