It’s taken me three weeks to get my head around what’s happened and to be able to write this post. We’re in London, I have had three surgeries on my shoulder and Wildling is for sale!

My appointment with the shoulder specialist started out OK, he was thinking it was most likely a partial tear that would heal on its own, but based on the nature of the injury and the fact that I had pain in multiple locations, an MRI was required. The MRI showed extensive damage to my shoulder joint and tears in two of the rotator cuff tendons. It would not heal without surgery, and full recovery after surgery would take 1 year! It took three surgical procedures during a 3 hour operation to repair all the damage.

All our plans for sailing Wildling in the ARC in November and then across the Pacific next year are completely shot. Even if we postponed the Atlantic crossing for 1 year, it doesn’t work because we have to be back in Australia at the end of 2019 so Lindsay can go back to finish her last two years of high school. So that pushes a voyage of this magnitude off until after Lindsay starts university, 3-1/2 years from now. We bought Wildling to explore the Med for a few years and then sail over to the Pacific, but since that isn’t possible, we have decided it’s best to sell her in France and buy another boat in Australia when I am able to sail again. Robin and I still plan on exploring the Pacific once both the kids are in university, but we will be doing that from our home base in Australia.

One thing for sure, whoever buys Wildling is going to get an amazing boat! With all the upgrades we have done and taking care of the post delivery “new boat” repairs and getting her totally dialed in for world cruising, she’s even better now than when we took delivery of her in 2015.

I’m going to focus on shoulder rehab and Robin and I have a lot of thinking and planning to do as we decide what’s next for us. This will not stop our sailing adventures, that’s for certain, we just have to adapt to the new situation and move forward!

We are coming up on 1 year of being “boatless”, so we’re all getting a bit anxious to go sailing again! Construction on Wildling is going really well, but the waiting is still a bit difficult. In the meantime, there are a few projects we’ve been working on so we’re ready to go sailing as soon as Wildling is finished.

Australian registration and flag

I submitted our application to register Wildling as an Australian vessel. The process involves many forms and is a bit mysterious, but I managed to “mostly” get it correct the first go. The good news is that we now have an official registered number with Australian Maritime Services, and we have secured our boat name, which is good, because coming up with a new name at this point would be a bummer.

The things I got wrong were not using my full middle name on two of the forms, and not having the correct construction type designation on the builder’s certificate. I had put “fiberglass layup” and they needed “molded”. They also need the original copy of the builder’s certificate, which is on it’s way over from France right now.

François at Outremer, was a big help with all of this! Australian shipping requires a bunch of measurements of the boat to figure out molded depth and tonnage, so he had to collect all the details for us, fill out a complicated form, get it certified and then send over to Australia. Thanks François!

The two remaining details to complete are to provide Australian Shipping with a “Certificate of Handover” in June when we take possession of Wildling. They also need us to mark the name and registration details on the boat in accordance with the “Marking Note” that they sent me. Once that’s done we will be fully registered and can voyage internationally under the Australian flag.

Wildling wear

We worked with Jess at Musto clothing to get custom logos printed on T-shirts, sunshirts, hats and jackets. Musto make really nice clothing for sailors and they did a great job on the clothes for our last boat, so we decided to use them again for Wildling. The sunshirts and jackets won’t be ready until next month, but we have the T-shirts and hats. Here are some pictures of Lindsay modeling our shirts!

Linens

Robin is getting started on our bed linens and towels. These are very important details, and thankfully she has the expertise and motivation necessary to make sure everything is done correctly!