March 16, 2001 Marathon, FL

Hello to All, Just to catch you up on our winter before we leave for The Bahamas. I think in the last letter we were spending the month of Jan in a slip at Sombrero Resort and Marina. I had just returned from a week in Ft Lauderdale and Mother and Ralph were arriving Jan 22, with a condo in the Resort. We had a great visit with them and it was a pleasure to spend time with them during our months away from New England. Of course, the temp. never got above 70, but that didn't stop us. We even spent a day in Key West where Ralph had been stationed at the airbase in the 40's. They even let us drive around the base for old time sake. The day they left, the temp. went up to 80, and it's been there almost every day since.

As they left AM of Jan 28, Spencer and Dawn Howe (old-time Foxboro friends of Ken's) arrived that evening. Last year they joined us in Georgetown, but we never sailed due to the weather. Feb 1, we left Marathon to sail to Key West where they would fly out. It's about 50 miles, so we stopped half way at New Found Harbor for the night and anchored off Little Palm Island where several Presidents (Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Nixon) have vacationed. The resort covers this small island and you can see tables with cloth covers spread along the shore, The only way to get there is by boat or seaplane and it is very, very expensive. When they were making the PT 109 movie in '63, Kennedy came to watch it being filmed. There was no electricity there, so his father asked the State of Fl to run 3.5 miles of utility poles to Little Palm - and they did. The launch is named The Truman and is an old timer.

Dawn and Spencer decided they really wanted to take a dive boat out to Looe Key reef, one of the best diving/snorkeling areas around. This meant they would catch a bus to Key West the next day rather than sail. They said the diving was spectacular, the highlight being a 5' barracuda. Not for me - IT'S A JUNGLE DOWN THERE!! Meanwhile, while at anchor, I saw, in a period of about 3 hours, 5 or 6 rays come flying out of the water, skim along the top, flapping their wings. In all my years on the water, I've only seen a couple before this. I have friends who, when in the Caribbean, had a big one fly out and land in their tender. They had a terrible time getting it out. It was a great week with the Howes and we hope Spencer may be able to join us for part of the offshore trip home.

[Editor's note: Spencer personally hopes to be there for the ENTIRE offshore portion of the trip.]

As Ken was taking them ashore for the bus, I picked up the phone and called our friends, Arthur and Martha on Cavalier. Those of you getting letters last year will remember we met them in Lake Worth in Jan , crossed over and back, to and from the Bahamas with them, having many great adventures thru the winter. We had talked to them in Dec, but didn't think we'd see them before they crossed in Feb. When I asked where they were, they had just arrived in Marathon, Feb 1, within an hour of our departure. So, instead of continuing on to Key West, we returned to Marathon and spent a great 10 days with them, anchored out.

Meanwhile, several boats from The Annapolis Sailing Club have been spending the winter at Sombrero Resort - a real party gang. They've been doing this for 3-4 years and organize a Fun Regatta each year in Feb, to get everybody away from the docks - and provide an excuse for a BIG PARTY. One of the boats, a Pearson 34, invited us to race with them along with Tom and Marney, whom you will hear more about later. Every boat had to have a theme, costumes, etc. These would be considered when calculating results and awarding trophies. Our theme was Fun In The Tub. The girls wore bikini T shirts and shower caps, the boys wore colorful wigs, and T shirts covered with bubbles. The girls each had jars of bubble soap to send streams of bubbles with the breeze, and the boys took turns pumping the giant squirt gun at anyone within range. 50-60 balloons filled the cockpit, a rubber ducky adorned the bow while another trailed in the water behind. A real racing vessel, with the bimini awning up so you couldn't even see the sails. I knew we were in trouble when I discovered I was the only person aboard who had ever been in a race. So I was in charge of tactics. "Who has a stop watch?" I cried. "A what?", they replied. - so I timed the starting guns with my second hand. I tried to explain starting line techniques to the skipper, but they were more interested in rubber duckies and balloons. I kept telling myself, this was just for fun, but found myself calling out orders.("no, don't tack yet!") Too late. And then there was the crab pot we caught on the prop- but it only took us 3-4 minutes for someone to cut it off so we could continue on our way. Actually, we didn't do too badly for a fun race - I figure we took a second place -and there were 7 firsts!!! But our timing on the starts was great, getting there within a couple of seconds of the starting gun (even if we were at the wrong end of the line). On the trip back to the marina, at low tide, four of us, including our boat, drawing 6 feet, ran dead aground and had to wait an hour for the tide to come up. They had to hold the awards party up for an hour and a half which didn't please those ashore and the food was all gone by the time we arrived.

The next weekend, Feb 17, The Walshes-lucille, Mike and 10 yr old Stephen- arrived for the week. They had also come to Nassau last winter, where we never sailed due to bad weather. This year we had a fabulous week and a great sail to Key West. On our stop at Little Palm we saw 2 more rays flying. Luck was with us, and we even found a slip in Key West. The week was filled with fun and laughs.

We spent another few days doing the Key West scene until a big Norther was coming and hightailed it out of the unprotected harbor and heading for Marathon. The wind was blowing 20-25 out of the SE and we reached the whole 50 miles thru Hawk Channel, maintaining 7-7.5 knots all the way, dodging crab pots, and making it to Marathon in 6 hours. A SPECTACULAR SAIL!!! Then we set 2 anchors, hunkered down for a blow and to wait for Tom and Marney to return. It blew so hard and the wind generator was making so much electricity, I was able to watch a 5 hour video (over 2 days) and still have plenty of power left over.

We met Tom and Marney Applegate in Dec (actually Ken picked them up at the Dockside bar when his brother, Jimmy, plunked their miniature dog on the table in front of Marney. Linda and I were in Key West for the day.) We soon became close friends and have spent many days and evenings together looking for trouble. Ken introduced Tom to Dark and Stormies. Marney is from Canada, Tom was a policeman in FL, but has been retired for several years. They have a Catalina 30 that draws 6 feet, just like us. They really wanted to travel to The Abacos with us, so we've been waiting for them while they were off selling their house. They returned this week and we are all trying to get last minute preparations done to leave. They said they could be ready by Sunday for a 2 day trip to Miami where we will cross. Unfortunately, there's a front coming thru Mon-Tues, so who knows when our next break will come. Now thru Sun would have been great.

So, we're off like a herd of turtles. Will disconnect cell phone on the 19th, our month end. As I look back over the winter, I note we spent time in Palm Beach Gardens, Ft Lauderdale, Coconut Grove (Miami), Marathon and Key West. Not too shabby for a couple of kids from New England. I know I promised no long letters this year, but you haven't heard from me in months. Should be back in RI by mid-late June. I'll check email in Bahamas so please write. We're off to join Tom and Marney for a swim in the pool, a shower and a drink poolside. Spring's coming, it's in the 90's today. Jane and Ken 3/17: What's Irish and lives outside all summer? PatiO'Furniture!!!! 3/19 Front stalled, coming Tues and Wed, 20-30. I'm off to the library for a couple of movies. Why let all that free wind power go to waste! We were up in the night with a small boat dragging into us. A bright light couldn't wake them up. I finally had to blow the fog horn at him. We'll see how many drag in the blow tomorrow. Went to Mail Boxes,Etc with laptop and PAID to send this letter. For some reason it didn't go. So now Ill put it on a disk and use their computer, but weather map attachment probably wont work. 3/20 Had met sailing vessel Heather from Warren, RI, with Ann and Fabyan Saxe on board. They live about = a mile from me. About 10 min. after Fabyan took off in the tender for West Marine, I looked up and saw Heather had dragged and Ann was fending off the wall/docks in front of the condos down wind. Fabyan had been working on the engine, so she couldn't even use that. We helped her secure the boat to pilings, put out another anchor and after Fabyan returned, get back to anchor. They anchored near a big catamaran whose owner said he had graduated from Warren High in 1961. Ill go introduce myself today. I must know him.