Overview

Navigating around roadblocks, whether emotional, physical or financial, becomes part of life if you choose to undertake any adventuresome endeavor. For folks who want to sail across oceans, the challenges start long before they set to sea: earning the money to buy or build a boat, learning both sailing and seamanship, finding the right boat, convincing themselves to put aside careers, everyday contact with friends and family, and the security of life as they know it for the constantly changing life that lies beyond the horizon. Lyn and Jim Foley successfully navigated all of these hurdles. With their business and home sold, their skills honed, their boat outfitted and charts on board, they were literally within days of setting sail when they encountered one more unexpected roadblock. Jim was diagnosed with Parkinson s disease. Don t go, the doctor said. But as Jim and Lyn walked toward the doctor s door, his intern whispered the fateful words, Go anyway. There is inspiration to be found in the book Lyn wrote about their journey. There are also useful guidelines for anyone who wants to get out cruising. Go Anyway should be essential reading for anyone who has started a career, then discovered the idea of cruising under sail. The steps Lyn and Jim took to go from sailing neophytes to coastal cruisers helped prepare them for the realities of choosing a cruising boat wisely. Once they d chosen their boat, they undertook real sea-trials and a proper shake-down cruise before setting off into foreign waters. This logical and often enjoyable approach saved them from the first passage traumas that end many cruising dreams. Lyn clearly shows the work that goes into keeping a cruising boat ready to cross yet another ocean, plus the difficulty of insuring that it is done properly if outside contractors are used. Their boat had relatively simple systems by today s standards. Yet there were times when Jim and Lyn felt they were repairing their boat in a series of exotic ports. They learned the reality of cruising life is that you are the one who must insure that all the systems keep working; the sails, the rigging, the engine, generator, water tankage and pumps, ground tackle and your shore boat. This takes time, patience and a commitment to understanding and knowing how to maintain the gear you have on board. A survey of marine professionals suggests it takes two and a half to three days a week to maintain a 35 to 40 foot cruising boat, equipped with currently suggested equipment in top, ready to go to sea condition while it is being used for offshore voyages. Combine this with the time spent actually crossing oceans, plus time to clear into then out of various ports, time for basic people maintenance (laundry, shopping, provisioning) and in actuality, folks who take off cruising find they have little more true time off than those working at normal jobs on shore who get weekends and holidays free. But here is the magic that Lyn s story shows. Those who do set off cruising, and then learn to slow down and take the time to savor this new life they ve chosen will spend all that free time surrounded by potentially enticing adventures. Then, as they sail onward they will spend much of the time while they are at sea reminiscing about these encounters and wondering what magical happening the next landfall will bring. As much as Lyn s descriptions of moonlight nights at sea, magical landfalls or swimming in crystal clear tropical waters might entice you to go to sea, it is the stories of the people Lyn and Jim encountered, the friendships they formed that will encourage you to go anyway.--Lin Pardey, Sailor and authorFew of us, even in perfect health, would dare accept the challenge Lyn and Jim embraced. That they did so, while simultaneously battling Jim s Parkinson s disease, makes Lyn s entertaining, well-written account doubl --Kurt Wilson, Editor, The Round Top RegisterGo Anyway by Lyn Foley (Beth A. Leonard) When Jim Foley was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson s Disease (PD) in 1990, he was 42 years old and he and his wife, Lyn, had just taken delivery of their dream sailboat and been on the brink of heading over the horizon. At the time, there was no cure and very little in the way of palliative medicine to treat the progressive, degenerative neurological disorder, and the doctor who made the diagnosis told the couple that Jim might only have five more years to live. The eminent neurologist then pronounced their dream of sailing away on a boat a foolish idea. Jim and Lyn might well have believed him except for a young intern who whispered from behind the doctor s back, Go anyway. Go Anyway is, first and foremost, a love story. There is no pretense that love can conquer a disease like Parkinson s. But the book demonstrates how love can allow two people to live their lives with grace, courage, and strength despite it. Lyn writes about the challenges they faced with honesty and integrity and without any trace of self pity. Jim was Jim a healthy, alive, loving, and magnificent person. He had been thrown a ball named PD with which to play the game of life. Until the rules changed or we discovered how he could drop it, he was destined to carry the ball. However, the PD ball was not Jim; he just carried it. We would accommodate, but not surrender to, Parkinson s. And they didn't surrender. They face the same challenges that all circumnavigators face: storms at sea, corrupt officials, groundings, problems with the boat. But all of these paled in significance in the face of the relentless march of the disease that Jim carried with him. At every stage they must not just assess the boat s condition and their own willingness to continue, but PD s relentless progression and whether or not Lyn can manage the boat as her husband becomes less and less able to do anything aboard. By the time we arrived in Singapore, Jim was really out of steam. All of his symptoms had worsened: more tremors, more stiffness, more freezing, more difficulty walking, more difficulty talking, and more difficulty sleeping. Just functioning on a daily basis wore him out... In order to compensate for his unresponsive body, he rested more often and took things more slowly. I shouldered more and more of the physical necessities (especially the deck work) of sailing... The compensations we made worked well enough to get by on shore, at anchor, and on short harbor-hopping passages, but the big question we needed to ask, and answer truthfully, was: Should or could Jim safely make the ocean passage from Japan to the United States? If he couldn t, or shouldn t, what would we do? This is an inspiring story about overcoming what cannot be changed and living life as fully and completely as possible. Lyn s hard-won wisdom allows us to see that the ball we ve been thrown, as challenging as it may be, is not us, and we, too, can carry it with spirit and integrity. We can go anyway. --Beth Leonard, Author, Sailor