I had a good time when I was home for Christmas. I saw my oldest daughter, Sara, graduate with Honors from Colorado University. I am real proud of her. As anyone that wants to accomplish a major goal, she dug in and worked hard. I see in her also her happiness in accomplishing this goal. I had a great time with Tim and Amanda and catching up with them. I also had a busy schedule catching up with many of my friends and all of my family while back there. Carolyn and I had some time together. I was also busy getting any paperwork together and wrapping up any issues before I left again and readied for my trip out of the US.
12/30/2008 This week is a flurry of activity. Today I moved my boat off of the dock at Jerry’s house and motored south through Snake Creek into the Florida Sound. This is the water on the inside of the Keys. It was a gorgeous trip. The water is incredible. I took the boat to the Upper Keys Sailing Club. This is the club where Wes and Jerry belong. I anchored off of the beach. This made it easy for me to get around while working on the boat.12/31/2008 After a hard day’s work, I readied for the New Years Eve party at the yacht club. There were many nice people there that I met. The two I spent the most time with were Inger and Stewart. They
live in Baco Raton and spend weekends in Key Largo. Inger is from Norway and Stewart from England. They were fun to hang out with. I also met Don. He sat at our table and we had some good discussions on multihulls as he has been a fan for many years. He has a large trimaran that had a wing sail that has been modified. Unfortunately later that night, Don passed out and the EMTs were called in and Don was taken to the hospital. Don is doing well and there are no major issues.01/01/2009 Happy New Years!!!! Today I drove to Miami to pick up my parents. They flew in last night and celebrate New Year’s midnight in the Miami airport. We were going to go shopping, but all of the stores were closed for the holiday. What a concept. I have been use to stores forsaking all of the holidays in Colorado. It made for an extra trip to Miami the next day, but I was happy to see that most employees had a day off.
While we were at lunch, I received an urgent call from Wes. My boat had slipped the anchor as the wind clocked around and she was adrift. The club was getting ready for their Hangover Race, when my boat decided to drift right through the starting area. Many members of the club set off to the rescue of my boat and reset the anchor. This is always one of the biggest fears of a boater anywhere. The boat did not drift into shore and thankfully, there were people that were able to safely reset the anchor for me. The boat drifted about a ¼ mile from its original spot. Inger wrote this special poem below to record the activity.
Key Largo, Florida, New Years day - 2009.
I heard the news today, Oh boy.
Bill Edwards boat, No Rush, let go.
Southward she was drifting
while the winds were shifting;
The Cat was moving with the winds on Buttonwood Sound, real slow.
Bill Edwards was not in sight.
He had headed north to Miami to catch a flight.
Family was coming to town,
and the boat had been anchored down;
Seven fathoms out and a hook to the right, the anchor was meant to be tight.
On shore the Club was discussing the wind in the Bay.
Trying to get the hangover regatta underway
But the sailors were moving slow
and there had been a delay in the show;
When they discovered the Cat was astray,
There was now clearly a better reason for the delay!
The hangover regatta crew was suddenly alive,
assembling the chase boat to take for a drive.
Race committee Bill Standard and Leah White took charge
Run Aground crew’s Ginnette Hughes and John Bliss joined the rescue barge
The chase crew arrived at last and made the boat fast.
Thanks to the hangover rescue crew, Bill Edward’s Cat No Rush survived. Leah White, Bill Standard, John Bliss and Run Aground Crew’s Ginnette Hughes
01/02-05/2009 These four days were a flurry of activity to get ready for the crossing. We were constantly provisioning with food, fuel, water, spare parts and other activities. I did receive the new remote controls for the engine throttles and Dad and I installed them. They went in fairly easy and I only needed to make a few minor modifications.
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