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First Person Account | My Sailing Stories

First Person Account: December long weekend

Added by Bill on Feb 06, 2003 - 12:44 AM


I thought it would be a good idea to share our "long weekend" vacation adventure last Dec 5-9 with you all. However I need to set the stage. To do so I have started our story with the E-mails traded at the Beachcats Mailing List that led to this story.

Bill Cash" Date: Sat Nov 9, 2002 9:01 am Subject: Re: Charters
Katherine and I are planning a vacation around our 30th anniversary in February. One thought is to go to Belize and do the "Under the Sun in Belize" trip. Sounds like a fun trip... 8 days on an 18 going from Cay to Cay and lodge to lodge, BUT its expensive. $1950 each plus 750-1000 each for airfare. And since we don't know anyone who has done this trip we have some reservations about dumping 6K on a vacation.

My second thought is to do a bare boat charter, BUT the vast amount of our sailing experience is on beachcats or very small monoslugs. IM not sure a charter service is gonna allow us to bareboat a 30+' catamaran with beachcats as the backbone of my sailing resume... Can anyone point me to a "more relaxed" charter service, in the Keys of the Islands?

Bill
From: "Damon" Date: Fri Nov 8, 2002 9:08 pm Subject: Re: [beachcats] Charters
Do it! Do it! Take lots of pictures and write an article for TheBeachcats.com, you can be the reporter for the Central America desk while your there. <grn> The pay will be low (0), the work will be hard, but the honor will be great!
Damon</grn>

"Bill Cash Date: Sat Nov 9, 2002 9:01 am Subject: Re: Charters
Damon:
How's about starting a collection to help offset the cost.... I think that would be fair.. After all Ill be the one slaving away in the hot sun, forced to sail every day and then you guys will have the joy of reading about my labors.. Just $10 per beachcat member would defray the cost, and you would all feel good about contributing to such a great project...

From: "Bill Cash Date: Wed Nov 13, 2002 12:05 pm Subject: Long weekend plans
Katherine & I need a break from work, kids and the cold weather. We just booked airline tickets to Miami for 12/5 -12/9. We are gonna stay at eldest daughter's place in South Beach and do some day trips to the Keys, and hopefully some sailing. Anyone gonna be in the area?
Bill

From: "mattson" Date: Wed Nov 13, 2002 3:52 pm Subject: Re: Long weekend plans (OT Comedy)
Nice, Cash. Real nice. I sent a big charity check to Damon for the Cash Vacation Fund, and now you start telling us about your jaunts down to Miami for the weekend.

I urge anyone considering a donation to read his line above, with your nosed raised and lower jaw jutted out, doing your best impersonation of "Mr. Howell" from "Gilligan's Island."

"Katherine and ahhh need a breaaak from....."

Maybe you'll have a photo op for the fund campaign while you're down there. Kind of like one of those "Feed This Child for a Dollar a Day pics", where the big eyed kid in ragged clothes is standing in a doorway.

In your case, you'll be in a beach chair with your Hobie sunglasses, holding a beer, just above some caption about "this poor man with the domestic beer". And maybe some sob story about "inefficient room service."

Oh the humanity of it all.

I'll probably open this sucker at my office, while some customer yelling at me on the phone about some plant order he never got that is actually sitting on a hot tarmac in Los Angeles, baking to death, that I could send a truck down to salvage if the truck was not in the shop with a blown starter, and I can't seem to get an in-service date from the mechanic, because he doesn't speak any friggin' english.

Oh yeah... I be running to the checkbook on THIS one.

Bill

OK so you have the picture Now for the trip

Hopefully you'll enjoy reading about this trip as much as we did, and you will all continue to support the 'Cash Vacation fund'.

As previously reported, Katherine and I needed a break from work the cold gray North East. We planned a quick getaway weekend to Miami with the intent of taking some day trips down to the Keys and hopefully some sailing. We chose Miami because we knew we would have free lodging there.

We intended to leave New Jersey on the 7:30 flight from Philadelphia to Miami. Mother Nature had other plans. The first snowstorm of the season rolled in on about sun-up on Thursday, by 5PM they were canceling flights. We called ahead and our flight was still scheduled to depart at 7:30. We arrived early, boarded on time, and pulled away from the gate as planned, then the captain notified us that we would be de-icing, and there was a 2 hour back-up at the de-icing station. Two hours turned to three and the Captain came back on the PA system.

"Ladies and Gentleman this is you Captain. I'm sorry to inform you that we have been instructed to return to the gate. The FAA only allows us, the fight crew, to spend a specified amount of time in the cockpit on any given day. Because we have been waiting to de-ice for so long, (long pause) my time will run out before we reach Miami. Management has instructed us to return to the gate"

We waited for the punch line, none came. To make a long story short we returned home, (because the Airline told us the hotels were full, and they were not) took a nap, and came back to the airport on Friday morning for a 9:00 AM flight that actually took off just before noon. Due to the delay in reaching Miami we decided to extend our stay for another day.

Friday was mostly gone by the time we arrived in Miami checked into our deluxe accommodations, made some plans and called it a day.

On Saturday morning we got up before dawn to watch sunup then rented a car and headed to Key Largo.

Our plan this trip, weather permitting, was to drive south till we found a beach cat to sail. At our first stop, just south of Rick's Place, ***** I would be remiss if I didn't mention our last trip the Florida. This past April we had the pleasure of spending 4 days at Rick's Place in Key Largo, home of Rick White and May Wells and the Rick White Sailing Seminars. The April trip was wonderful, Rick and Mary are great and Back Water Sound (the body of water they live on) is a great place to sail.

We pulled into the parking lot just in time to watch the owner of the rental shop sell his last Hobie 16. Finding no cats to sail there we headed back out on Rt 1 South to mm98, The Windham Resort. Caribbean Water Sports is located at the hotel. Since we were doing this trip on a show string we made "special" arraignments to cover the rental cost.
They have several Hobie Waves and one Hobie Getaway. The Getaway rents for $100 for 4 hours. Winds were moderate, the water was warm and the sailing was wonderful. At one point, about 4 miles off shore, we found ourselves on such beautiful water that we had to park the boat and just take time to enjoy the view. (Sorry we didn't have a waterproof camera with us).
Hours later we returned, cleaned up
and headed for our next adventure of the day, a sunset sail.
Naturally we made special arraignments for our tickets
Reef Roamer is a 42' catamaran owned by a retired commercial fisherman, who lives on a 65' Morgan with his lovely wife. Captain Bill insists of an all female crew.
www.reef-roamer.com

 

They put Katherine right to work skippering the Reef Roamer.
I was allowed to watch.
All in all a very full day. We drove back north to Miami and our deluxe suite where we ordered a light bite and called it a day. Insert 9Katherine-hotel-miamibeach
On Sunday the wind had come up and there was a high probability of Thunder Storms so we chose to do the Glass Bottom Boat out of Key Largo. The storms had built the waves over night. Seven miles off shore at Molasses reef the waves were over 6'. The Glass bottom boat handled it well and the view of the reef was spectacular. (sorry no pictures of this)

After the Glass bottom boat trip we headed south again to meet up with another all female crew at Two Chicks Charters.

We didn't realize we had made arraignments to take our second sunset cruse on a powerboat until we arrived. We looked for other options.
Then decided to give it a go. Captain Andrea gave us a great tour of the Bay side of Islemadora, north through some mangroves to a drawbridge then out to the ocean. Sunset was obscured by clouds but the trip was fun and we learned a good deal about the area. Another fun filled day came to an end. The rain arrived as we drove back to Miami.

More storms were predicted for Monday and the wind was blowing so hard we chose not to go boating. But, we did come across another place to rent beach cats on our way to the Miami Seaquariam. Just after crossing the bridge to Key Biscayne, on the causeway, there is a cat rental outfit called, Sea Sun Sports Inc. (305-987-5618) They are located just across the Key Biscayne Causeway, on a place called Hobie Island. We thought about taking a N5.0 out for a spin but it was "blowin dogs off chains".

Fortunately Katherine got hired,we went to the Seaquariam met some new friends

 

and Katherine lent a hand with the show.
The following day said goodbye to Miami, and flew home to reality. We learned when we checked in at the airport that our flight was overbooked. Almost like magic our seats were upgraded to first class. Now that was a treat. It was the first time we had flown first class and wow what a difference. I could get used to that kind of treatment, but not at the cost of first class tickets.

So there you have it, Vacationing in Southern Fla on a shoestring. Our Belize adventure begins on February 18. You'll need to act quickly to share the adventure. Donations should be sent to:

The Cash Vacation Fund, c/o TheBeachCats.com.

Footnote: Great job Bill, thanks for sharing. <grn></grn>
 
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