We hear you,
All we can help you with is our own personal experiences and how we handled them. That includes professionally sailing and flying .
We had to limit them, or just let it go completely.
1. I flew and sailed for nearly 40 years, absolutely loved them both. Flying, Certified Flight Instructor,
Charter Pilot and Corporate pilot, the last 17 years ( 2500 missions ) I was an instructor pilot with Air Combat U.S.A. taking customers up and talking them thru formation flying, gun sight
tracking, BFM ( Basic Fighter Maneuvers ) and six ful on five and six G dogfights and made a video of them. Their own top gun
movie of themselves. Loved every minute . Plus associated with fellow pilots who became great friends.
2. Concurrently with the flying, I was a USCG lic.
captain, sailing and
motor vessel instructor,
charter skipper, flotilla leader in the
caribbean and
south pacific,
delivery skipper, and just fun sailing vacations for Erica and I.
Also, for us , meeting and having great times with the sailing club friends was highly important.
It was not becoming bored with flying, or sailing. But more that father time stuck his long nose and hatchet into the works. Eyesight, hearing, G-tolerance, etc. put the binders on flying the fighters. But that did not happen until I was in my 60's .
Sailing, that was also a magical love for us. We
sold our boats, the best was Erica's
Crealock (
Pacific Seacraft 37 ) and in later years tried to maintain our local sailing with Sailing Clubs. No longer for
employment, but just for fun. The boats in the local sailing club are old, with many problems, some dangerous . Plus ,
day sailing our southern calif waters just does not interest us these days.
So, our flying days are flat over, and I miss it very much.
Sailing we save the
money that we would spend sailing old beater boats and continue our international bare boat sailing vacations world wide. Just Erica and I, 36 foot monohulls, mostly the
BVI now, once a year for two weeks, or sometimes skip sailing and go on eco adventures, like
Costa Rica.
We just added in a three week trip back to
Kauai island, our home island as full time residents for ten years. Just returned from our wonderful 3 week island visit, seeing friends, and kayaking, beaching it, snorkeling, and hiking. Fair amount of partying as well.
We also add in fun and grand times here in our new home of
Dana Point California, ( 3 yrs now ) and we remain very active, hiking near by and in the wilderness areas, going to the beach, and land trips up to our mountains, or out to the deserts. Both of us stay fit with working our several days a week as well.
Oh, and we go out on saturday nights for date nights, and also squeezed in a happy hour or two during the week. ( staying within reason ), but still maximizing the fun times and meeting old and new friends.
Point being, we replaced two of our best loves ( Erica is also a pilot and sailor ) , but we found bare
boating to help our sailing fixes.
One thing that has helped out, during the transition time, is having Erica in my life, and being able to share all of these things together on a regular basis.
Not much sitting around.
I understand that your circumstances are are a bit different, but as others have mentioned, if the desire for sailing and working on your boats is no longer there, find new endeavors that you can enjoy.
Life is an adventure, keep on living it, and expanding your horizons and sharing them with your best beloved.
Out with the old, and in with the new.
Do what feels good to you, and keep that spring in your step lad.
And when my final curtain drops, may it be from over use, not rust.