Well, I'm back West, after yet another epic road
trip. Suffered a brake failure in Gainesville, caught up with
some old friends in Asheville, visited my son in South Bend, then
put my head down and drove straight through from Chicago to Challis
( 34 hours ) - only to get stopped by snow 30 miles from home.
No signs of Spring here yet - we've had snow every day this week,
and lows in the teens.
Here are some shots from this winter on the West Coast of Florida.
The boat shop mural is on a shed in Boca Grande. Each item in
the painting, whether a boat, tool or dog, has a local story associated
with it.
A lovely Garden "Eel" canoe yawl, which lives at Boca
Grande.
"Heart Of Gold", featured in MAIB articles, is now
a planter in front of a restaurant at FT Myers Beach.
Freddy Freddy, an evolving live aboard, with perhaps a work boat
hull beneath all that other superstructure he's added. The sponsons
are a 21' sailboat, sliced in half, then attached to the hull.
The Freddy dink is also odd, asymmetric, and seems to work just
fine.
Hermoine is a 1925 Elco 56. The owners are living aboard, constantly
fixing and upgrading, while trying to make a living hosting weddings
and parties wherever they wander. A real labor of love.
Mike Ives, headed south on his annual 3 month cruise, aboard
his Montgomery 17. That's a Bolger car topper in tow. Mike is
a prime exponent of the "small yacht, big dink" philosophy.
We caught up with Dennis Bradley and Egret at Cayo Costa. She
has new masts, and now sports a mizzen stay sail. As Dennis points
out, 220 square feet of sail ain't enough for a 4000 lb boat.
Steve
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