Failure to Launch
While everyone is traveling on their own path in this life, there are some universal truths. One such truth is that every path has forks in the road – critical decision points that shape who you are and what life has in store for you. This week, we encountered such a fork.
Our “quality of life” refit developed into a major rebuild after Hurricane Ian hit our boat, Magic Dragon. It’s been nearly two years since she’s tasted the water (we’ve owned her for 16 of those months.
By now, we’ve repowered the boat with a new engine, removed the broken generator, repaired the crack in the hull, destroyed our galley counter, rebuilt said counter with a new refrigerator, installed a new water filtration system, rewired 75% of the boat, replaced all of the lights, installed new fans, and the list goes on and on. We’ve poured our hearts, souls, and a not insignificant amount of our money into our boat.
And it was finally time to launch Magic Dragon and see if she floats.
Anxious for the day, I (Andy) was up bright and early. I could not have asked for a more peaceful morning. A magnificent sunrise, full of color. The light breeze. Friends present to share the occasion with us. Magic Dragon hanging peacefully in her slings.
Little did we know that a couple of hours later, our beloved boat would be back on boat stands in need of even more frantic work.
At 8 am sharp, the boatyard crew came alive. Brian coaxed a constant diesel purr out of the travel lift, and a few moments later, Magic Dragon’s hull felt the cool refreshment of saltwater for the first time in years. While she was floating on her own hull, but still within the safety of the slings, I was afforded the chance to go aboard and check all of her systems. If anything was amiss, the yard could safely pull our boat back out of the water before any serious damage could happen.
Things were amiss. Two of our thru hulls were significantly leaking and a third was leaking slowly. Our boat was sinking, slowly, but sinking, nonetheless. Magic Dragon had to come back out of the water and go back on the stands.
But, what now? A major decision loomed before Kirstin and I. Keep pressing forward with the boat, spend a bit more money and more time fixing the leaks, or walk away from the project. No one would hold it against us. We could sell the boat as is to recoup almost all of our financial investment. We could buy a newer boat, one better maintained, maybe even a catamaran. Or, we could dig a bit deeper and find the additional motivation to keep pushing forward.
Honestly, this was the first time I ever questioned our decision to pursue this life and specifically this boat. We have good lives back in Chicago. Good jobs. Good pay. A nice house. We could easily move anywhere in the USA and have a nice, and easy life (easy compared to living on a boat). This setback hit me hard.
But, Kirstin never wavered. She pulled us through this setback. She looked at the fork in front of us and gently guided us down the path forward that included Magic Dragon. Kirstin was fantastic during this time (which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has watched our project evolve).
Anyway, this has been a very longwinded way of saying that despite this failure to launch, we are pushing forward with Magic Dragon and hope that you come along with us.
Much love,
Kirstin & Andy
