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From: Roy P (no email)
Date: Fri Feb 09 2007 - 19:56:28 EST
On Thursday 08 February 2007 10:15, Mike Fischer wrote:
> Thank you so much for the update on their situation. Please let them know
> we are praying for them and would invite them over, except that we're
> presently in harbor in California!
Hi Mike
II think they'd appreciate hearing it directly from you. :)
They have 2 'places' on the web
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog/
and
http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog
Cheers All !
Roy
S.V. Sarks
BTW... Here's the latest, including Lydia's thoughts on lessons learned.
------------------- QUOTE -------------------------------------
I just got off a Skype phone call with Skip, who's aboard Flying Pig
and is getting ready to tie up for the night at Keys Boat Works in
Marathon. While the bilge pumps are on, they haven't been on
constantly. There are no visible "holes" in the hull, although there
are obvious stress cracks, and some leaking going on.
Skip said that watching the boat being hauled back to level was so
moving he was in tears; one of the reasons why I didn't want to be
there. I didn't think I could handle it. Needless to say, the cost
of having the boat salvaged costs the first five years of a mortgage
payment and the education of two children; it still remains to be seen
how the insurance company will assess the damage, but we are hopeful
that we haven't lost her. Despite his great fatigue, Skip was
sounding much better when we spoke.
I have to tell you that the outpouring of love and concern, support
and help from our newsgroup readers, 90% of whom we've never met in
person before, has been absolutely overwhelming and staggering to us
both. We haven't felt alone during this period because we feel you all
out there, and I can't thank you enough. We had no idea how many true
friends we've got and I know for a fact that we are the most blessed
people on this earth that I know of :) Thanks to you all for all your
warm mail and offers; we are doing well, and hopefully better by the
hour as we learn more about our position. I don't have any
fingernails left and I've about twirled my hair out of my scalp, but
I'm really feeling hopeful as I write.
OK - this is the last mail tonight, but I'll keep you posted as we get
the updates from the boat yard. If any of you are in the Marathon
area going forward, I hope we'll be back near the boat and preferably
on the boat, our beloved home, very soon.
God Bless you all -
Love, Lydia and Skip
------------------------ quote ---------------------------------------------
For the first time since this whole thing happened, I’m really angry.
Not because of what happened, but because I just finished composing a
letter to the Log, which immediately disappeared into the ether. So,
ARGHHHH!! I say to you. :/
I wanted to say a few more things before we (hopefully) get wrapped up
tomorrow in trying to get back to living on our wonderful home, Flying
Pig.
We are so grateful for all your love and support, well wishes,
encouragement, and beautiful, warm emails. You have no idea how
sustaining they have been to us both.
There have been many, many offers of help, ranging from car loans, to
vacant boats to live on temporarily, to cash donations. I’m not able
to answer all those mails individually as yet, but I wanted to make
these blanket comments to those of you who have made offers.
There are some Angels out there, disguised as sailors, who have taken
steps to set up a means to make donations. , aka
William V Hoyle Jr. has set up a Flying Pig Trust account, into which
some people have wished to contribute by snail mail. His address is:
10401 Warwick Blvd
Newport News, VA 23601
Off Phone # 757-596-1850
has also set up a PayPal account in which to make
donations.
Having said that, I must also tell you that among the cruising
newsgroups, there has been some dialogue about whether or not we need
any financial help, and that perhaps we should have been consulted
first before Angels stepped in. These are my thoughts on this:
I am comfortable sharing with you that our boat was insured for $140K,
subject to the underlying mortgage of $64K. The salvage of Flying Pig
from the reef to Marathon, some 25 miles, which involved a 70’, 1000HP
landing craft, two SeaTow boats, a BoatUS boat, a ferry boat, 4
divers, 2 helpers and the salvage Captain, cost $30K of which $7K is
covered by insurance. Obviously there will be a shortfall. We
anticipate that all other repairs will be covered by insurance. Any
costs for living expenses incurred since the wreck, has been absorbed
by the Red Cross, to whom we’re very grateful, with the exception of
the car rental for a week. We had just gifted our van to a needy guy
in the old boat yard we left, the day before we departed. In truth,
he needed it more than we.
I will also tell you that while we don’t have the shortfall at hand,
we would be mortified and very uncomfortable if anyone out there were
to make donations based on anything other than desire and ability.
For those who have the ability and are not driven by desire, that’s
entirely OK by us. We don’t expect anything, and we wouldn’t have
felt either disappointed or abandoned if these Angels-posing-as-
sailors had never brought this subject up. So, for those of you who
want to help us financially, we thank you with all our hearts. For
those of you who can’t or don’t, we thank you too for following your
comfort level, as we would have done, I’m sure, were the shoe to be on
the other foot.
We are Pay Forward people, I think, and over and over, it has paid us
back. We carry spares for others that we know we would never use for
ourselves; in kind, we have received spares we needed from others we
didn’t have. This is part of the cruising mentality. And it’s good.
However, we don’t expect anything; in return, it seems, we have
everything.
So, that’s that. I mean it.
As to the grounding …
There are some of you who might be sitting back, scratching your
heads, wondering if we were out there playing “silly buggars”, as my
British ex-husband would say. Well, we obviously weren’t adhering to
our own rules of safety.
1. We were exhausted and sleep deprived when we left.
2. When I got seasick on my second Scopalamine patch while I was on
watch, I didn’t wake Skip, knowing he badly needed rest, to get help.
As discussed in earlier log posts, I feel this really impacts your
judgement.
3. As a result of either the patch (which I’ve heard affects vision)
or just the rough seas and exhaustion, I didn’t focus well on pretty
much anything, including the instruments.
4. While we diligently checked the weather in St Pete and Marathon
before leaving, which looked very good for a downhill run, we weren’t
adequately prepared to hit surprise bad weather.
5. We were in a hurry to leave, to reach George Town, Exumas by 3/1
when my son and girlfriend were arriving by air to join us. I didn’t
want them arriving without us being there to greet them. Big no-no.
We live and learn
We were taken out for a wonderful dinner tonight by Jay and Diane,
more amazing people we’ve never met, who happened to be in a slip in
Key West and contacted us. We had a marvelous evening together.
We’re so grateful for them, and for all of you who have lent your
shoulders as props.
Stay tuned – this will be the last mail from me before we’re safely
back on the boat in the Keys Boat Yard, Marathon, which we anticipate
to be tomorrow. Yay for that – I’m ready to kick butt again
With love, Lydia (and Skip)
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