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I have owned my own boat since I was about 10 years old. My first “yacht”
was a wood row boat. With it, I found my spirit for adventure and love of exploring new places. As I grew older and was able
to acquire an old worn out outboard motor, I learned the wisdom of my fathers advice not to venture farther than I wanted
to row back.
My father and mother both were born and raised in Miami, Florida. From the stories my dad use to tell,
I have often thought what a wonderful life he had as a child growing up on the waters of Biscayne bay and South Florida. Although,
I have never been the avid fisherman he was, his love of the ocean was certainly passed on to me. My zest for travel and adventure
with out a doubt came from my mother.
When I was about 16 years old, I moved from Miami to the Florida Keys with
my family. I will always be grateful to my parents for that decision. As it was there that I first learned to sail.
I met my wife Kim when I was at a training
course with about 60 other firefighters and she was attending training for work with a colleague. At the end of the last day
of the course, we all were coming back to the hotel for some BS (beers and stories). If you know anything about firefighters,
you can imagine the competition I had trying to met one of the only two women in the place. Again my spirit and confidence
won. When the timing was right, I was able to talk to Kim and asked her to dinner. I can not blow my own horn to loud here,
as I later found out that as in most successful relationships, Kim was hoping I would.
Over dinner, I learned that
she also had inherited a love of the ocean from her father. Who is retired Navy. Living and growing up in Virginia Beach Kim
had been around the Ocean and boats all her life. She had enjoyed many trips on power boats with her dad and family over the
years. Although she had only traveled on power boats, she too had a dream of living on a sailboat and traveling.
After a wonderful dinner and conversation into the early hours of the morning, I regretted having to travel home to Florida
and most likely never seeing this wonderful woman again.
We stayed in casual contact by e-mail for about a year.
Then Kim was offered a job in south Florida and moved to within three hours of my home. The rest as they say is history.
For Kim’s birthday one year, I decided to take her for a 1 week long sailing vacation. Having been to the British
Virgin Islands several times to provide training to the local fire service, I thought it was the perfect place for her first
sailing experience. We bare boated a 32ft mono haul for 6 days.
If you have never been to BVI, I highly recommend
a sailing trip there on your own boat or with one of the many bare boat operations there. There are so many small islands
just a few hours sail from each other. Most have good anchorages with moorings available for a worry free nights sleep. At
most anchorages there is some kind of restaurant or bar for some social activity.
Great sailing, great snorkeling
and diving, Beautiful scenery, and good anchorages all within a few hours flight from Miami. BVI is truly a wonderful place.
Needless to say, Kim’s first sailing experience was everything she dreamed of.
In 2002, Kim and I
decided to purchase a sailboat to use around Key Largo. This would allow Kim to learn more about sailing and for us to see
how Cate would do on a boat and the water.
We knew this would not be our dream boat but it would meet our needs
for now. After looking for weeks at ads of boats that met our size and price range, we found a 1973 32 ft. Erwin for sale
in Marathon. Marathon is 50 miles south of our home. A quick phone call and 1 hour later we were looking at the boat. Sometimes
you just know a good deal when you see it. One walk around the deck, a quick look in the bilge to find it clean, dry and full
of spider webs, I knew this was a dry and sound boat.
We enjoyed day sailing and week-end trips on Arturus. Knowing
that boats sometimes take years to sell, we decided to put Arturus on the market. Little did we know she would sell in two
months and we would make about $500.00 over all on the deal.
With Arturus gone, we had a decision to make.
Buy another interim boat or start looking for your dream boat. I had only three years left to retire, so it was time to start
looking for our dream boat.
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