Long-haul Tipper Michael Wnuk Dies

Long-haul Tipper Michael Wnuk Dies
Long-haul Tipper Michael Wnuk Dies

Video: Long-haul Tipper Michael Wnuk Dies

Video: Long-haul Tipper Michael Wnuk Dies
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Anonim

"As Falls Wichita, So Falls WichitFalls?" With these words begins the last blog entry by Michael Wnuk, which he published on October 2nd on his homepage sy-marlin.de. In it, he said goodbye to friends and companions in the face of a renewed outbreak of a long-standing cancer, against which he did not want to defend himself again. Ten days later, last Monday, he died. His family, who had traveled from Germany, as well as local sailors who were friends accompanied him during his last days and hours.

Michael Wnuk, together with his wife Nathalie Müller, is known to many thousands of not only German sailors. With their "Iron Lady", a twelve-ton steel ship, the two of them will go on an extensive sailing trip along the barefoot route around the world for seven years starting in 2000. During this time her two daughters are born. The book about her sailing adventure "The Sea as a Dream" becomes a bestseller.

After their return, the family will initially stay ashore for four years, then they will go on a trip again in 2011 - in groups of four and in much more demanding areas. The "Iron Lady" heads south along the east coast of South America. For several months the crew cruises through the canals and fjords of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. At the time, Wnuk and Müller regularly reported on this trip with their often spectacular experiences and impressive encounters in their own blog on YACHT online.

When the west coast of Chile is reached, a turning point follows. Because an unexpected good opportunity presents itself, the family parted with their old ship at the beginning of 2013, only to buy another, larger one shortly afterwards: the "Marlin". At that time it was at the other end of South America, in Suriname. There the four of them take over their new home and set off on further trips, this time to the Caribbean and finally back across the North Atlantic to Flensburg, their new adopted home.

Soon afterwards her second, once again exciting book about this trip, "Under Sailing at Home", will be published.

Marlin at Anchor on turquoise ground
Marlin at Anchor on turquoise ground

Sailing yacht "Marlin"

While his wife and daughters quickly find their way into life on land, Michael Wnuk's longing for the sea is always present. The trained advertising specialist from Moers in the Rhineland is also professionally dedicated to his dream of sailing: With his FirmLunatronic, he has become an expert for communication electronics on board blue water yachts, particularly recognized in the long-haul scene.

In order to be able to go back to sea regularly, he also retrofitted the "Marlin" in the following years and offered berth charter trips. They take him and his sailing guests around the North Sea and later again south and across the Atlantic back to the Caribbean. Especially in the areas off the coast of Cuba, Wnuk feels that he has reached the goal of his sailing dreams.

But then in July 2016 he was diagnosed with acute leukemia. But he doesn't think about giving up. Wnuk fights the disease with tremendous effort and actually manages to be back on board his "Marlin" months later. In 2017 he thinks he is healthy, but cancer has not been defeated; It breaks out again at the end of 2019. This is followed by stem cell transplantation and chemotherapy, and Michael Wnuk actually does it this time too; he gets back on his feet.

But then the corona pandemic breaks out and all attempts by the skipper to get back to his ship initially fail. In the months before, the "Marlin" had been on other bunk charter trips in the Caribbean with hired skippers and is now waiting for her owner. He'll have to wait until August, when he'll finally get a flight.

Michael Wnuk was not on board for a year. He spends his last months sailing and kiting off the coast of Curaçao. At the end of September he was again diagnosed that the cancer was back. This time the disease doesn't give him a chance.

Michael Wnuk takes his blog readers with him on his journey until almost the very end. Just as he has always done: open, straightforward, direct. That was his way. It had character.

He says goodbye with the words:

"Now it's over. (…) Beloved are those who don't forget me. Because I'm only dead when nobody thinks of me anymore. The most beautiful last moment will be when I close my eyes and a smile on my face will spread."

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