I hesitated posting this because I thought I had made my mind up, but had second thoughts.

The admiral and I were requested to meet, together, with her back guy. She has been having issues for years and has been getting shots in her spine to help with pain, numbness, etc. I have been getting filtered information from her regarding the situation and apparently her back guy decided we all needed to sit down together and talk this through. The actual medical highlights are not necessary here, only that the admiral was given a stern talking to about what she is no longer able to do, should not try to do, etc. The explanation was that an operation is in her future that will fix things once, and will require about a year off work. She is now relegated to being a boat rider, no longer a sail trimmer, sail raiser....no golf, no bowling, no lifting over 20 pounds, no yard work, no pulling, no pushing...you get the idea. After the operation there are no second opportunities to repair this if it gets messed up again, so she is pretty much going to be this way forever, limited to light duties.

We talked at length this weekend and decided that there is no reason to keep the Island Packet, I gave the local broker the heads up today that listing paperwork will be forthcoming. She is not a good boat driver, that is her least favorite thing to do. She was the sail raiser, sheet trimmer and so forth. Our boat is really not set up to single hand and would require a great deal of modification to rearrange sail controls. If you stand in front of the helm, the setup works OK, the driving position which straddles the steering, does not lend itself to moving quickly and you can't reach sheets, traveler, reef lines or raise or lower the main sail. It really is a two person boat. I also seem to be getting less agile each year, not sure why? I guess getting old really is a hassle.

As I mentioned in the past, I have not really warmed up to this IP since we bought it. It is a very pretty boat and does have its charm, but is a different breed of sailing. I miss our old Islander, as a sailing boat is was excellent, but even at that, the Admiral would be going from rail to rail with the heeling.

I'm weighing alternatives ranging from getting out of boating all together to getting a fat powerboat to cruise the lake.

Thoughts, alternatives we should consider?