As a semi-retired writer/sailor (which means 3 books gives us enough dough to be semi retired after 35 years of sailing) me and the old lady still get a kick out of our old Morgan 34 sloop. Where the boat is docked is 5 minutes from the house, means we can be out in Hawk’s Channel in 20 minutes and in the Gulf Stream in an hour sailing and in blue water with calypso music on the box and 2 rigged Ballyhoo trailing off the stern on 100 lb test line. We are going for food and its hard to slow down under sail. Some of my contermporaries say “Don’t you get bored with the same routine?” Well, there ain’t nothing routine when you are doing something you love and have passion for and the setting’s the same.
Down island, Bahamas, Keys, I’ve sailed them all - clean water, good wind, plenty of fish, sandy beaches, palm trees, ladies in small bathing suits, good food, drinks, and music. Sometimes on a charter I would wake up at dawn and wonder where I was- Keys, Bahamas or Virgins. Well, we settled in America’s out islands.
BUZZZ! Grab the other rod Nora - we got two dolphin on the line at the same time! We have come in with 10 to 15 lbs of filets on a good day. If the fishing isn’t that good we will come back in through Snake Creek into Florida Bay and anchor off Plantation Beach, a great spot with palms & the whole magilla. This sailing destination is just one and a half hours from our dock. How can you beat that? In fact, I had a charter at this beach about 5 years ago. With the boat anchored off, we were sitting there on the beach after coming in on the dinghy, and the charterers said 2 years before they had chartered in Tahiti, and how this scene was so much the same with out the trouble, expense and 20 hour flight!
On the weekends, after a nice sail, we will some times stop at the sand bar off Holiday Isle and join in on the festivities - swimming, picnicking, dancing, and the party mood put on by local boaters. Or we might go into the dock at Holiday Isle for a late lunch and a dip in the pool as my wife bops me over the head for checking out the bikini ladies and biker chicks. Then we head back out on the boat under full sail, heeled over 15 degrees, making 6 knots with another hour to go.
With the feeling of the power of the sails, the hypnotic motion of the waves in tune to a little classical music, my wife sitting next to me, I hate to get back to the dock, but then its back to the AC, the dish with 500+ channels, the computer. But the next morning, up at 6, check the marine weather, 10 to 15 kts clear, and its over the boat and get everything ready in the car. I still get that extra shot of adrenaline or whatever it is! Alright! another day sail off Islamorada!