Is It Time to Stop Sailing?

[Chotu]

I've come to a serious moment in my boating life.

I'm experiencing health problems directly related to boating.

I have a great catamaran that needs some work. I have become seriously allergic to epoxy. I'm looking at having a forum member fly out to complete the work, since it means hospital time for me going near epoxy. Haven't heard back from him though unfortunately. I'm also potentially looking at other places to perform the work. This is looking to be very expensive, in the vicinity of $200,000 to wrap it up. That's A LOT of money to me and is unearned income plus my life's savings. So it's expensive to me.

I have a 50' blue water monohull also. This boat is ready to go and I had planned to spend the whole summer cruising on her to make sure I still like boats enough. The summer was to help me get an idea of if I like boats enough still and to help me decide which boat to keep.

I'm on the monohull right now and I can't breathe. AGAIN. My eyes are watering and my lips are puffed out and my throat is sore. As it would appear, I'm also still very allergic to mold. The very small bit of mold all boats have is enough to wake me up at night gasping for air when the boat is closed up for rain or just mostly closed for the night.

I hadn't had a single issue with allergies or breathing since I attempted to work with epoxy on the catamaran about 6 months ago. I had been traveling by RV on land since then.

Now, back on a boat,. I'm having the same issues, though this time it's mold.

Mold and epoxy are basically everything boats are. There is a little bit of both on pretty much every boat in existence. And a little bit is enough to make me unable to breathe.

I had planned to go cruising all summer to enjoy it and help me get away and make some life decisions and specifically boat decisions. Was trying to decide which boat to keep, if any.

Should I keep on pursuing these things or is it time, after 30 years of boat ownership and much of that spent living aboard and cruising, to give up boats for good? Should I try to fix the cat (paying around $200,000), stay with the monohull that's ready to go, or sell both and retire from boating due to all these health issues that are directly related to boats and vanish completely on land?

I'm afraid I know the answer. But I'm too scared to contemplate giving up something I love so much.

Thoughts?

PS:. Haters please go easy. After a lifetime of sailing, living aboard and cruising (and building a cat), this is very emotional and upsetting to have health issues push me out of something I love.

Am I missing anything here? Any options I haven't considered?