Mike Ruffles

We built a 44ft yacht and sailed away.
That was supposed to be the ending.
Author of the Getting Away series.
Book 2: Getting Back, out now.

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

At 36, my wife Ann and I made a decision that didn’t make much sense on paper.

Instead of waiting for retirement, we built a sailing yacht and sailed away.

For a while, it worked exactly as we imagined.

Then reality caught up with us.

And we found ourselves making a decision we never expected:

We went back.

🧵

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Always takes me a long time but finish uploading the paperback book. It’s done 👍

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Mitzie here.

Humans have strange ideas.

Mine spent years building a 44-foot steel yacht while working full-time… and somehow thought this was a sensible plan.

I watched the whole thing.

At the time, I thought they were mad.

I may have been right.

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

8/
If you’ve read Getting Away, this is what happened next.

If you haven’t, you can still start here.

Either way, this is the part of the story people don’t usually tell.

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Thread: The part of the story no one talks about 👇

1/
Three years ago I wrote about how we built a 44-foot steel yacht and sailed away from the UK.

That was Getting Away.

At the time, it felt like the ending.

It wasn’t

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

7/
Getting Back is now live on Amazon:

👉 https://t.co/AbxYM0D4fQ

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

It’s easy to dream about a different life.

It’s much harder to build one.

Piece by piece.

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

It’s easy to dream about a different life.

It’s much harder to build one.

Piece by piece.

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

The hardest part isn’t leaving.
It’s starting.

This is what starting looked like for us.

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Most people don’t hate their job.
They hate the feeling that this is all life is.

We decided to test that.

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Ann is sitting on the port side deck looking out to Palma while Ruffles Spray crosses Palma Bay on the island of Mallorca on the 13th June 2003. (Sorry about the grainy photos, as our camera in those days was not the best)

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Mitzie here 🐶

Adding her watchful face to this one — she was there for every storm and every hard choice.

Book 2 is called *Getting Back*.

Because sometimes the only way forward… is to go back for a while.

Pre-order → https://t.co/nA0SuvTLvK

Have you ever had to turn back from a big dream? What helped you keep going? 🐾

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Mitzie here🐶

Book 2 is called *Getting Back*.

Because sometimes the only way forward… is to go back for a while.
You read how we escaped the rat race and sailed away.

This is the part almost nobody talks about, when real life hits the dream.

Storms. Money running out. Hard choices.

Pre-order drops soon → https://t.co/nA0SuvTLvK

Have you ever had to turn back from something big? What happened?

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Mitzie here🐶

Book 2 is called *Getting Back*.

Because sometimes the only way forward… is to go back for a while.
You read how we escaped the rat race and sailed away.

This is the part almost nobody talks about, when real life hits the dream.

Storms. Money running out. Hard choices.

Pre-order drops soon → https://t.co/nA0SuvTLvK

Have you ever had to turn back from something big? What happened?

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Book 2 in the series is called Getting Back.
Because sometimes the only way forward…
is to go back for a while.

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

Doubt is not a signal to stop
There were moments when doubt was overwhelming.
Usually late at night.
Usually when I was exhausted.
Usually when something else had gone wrong.
I learned not to treat doubt as a warning sign.
It’s just what happens when you do something unfamiliar for a long time.
Doubt didn’t mean we were wrong.
It meant we were stretched.

[Mike Ruffles @MikeRuffles]

7 weeks until the next chapter of the journey is published.