August 7 & 8, 2009

Friday morning came and we awoke both rested for the first time. We did some miscellaneous jobs around the boat and were looking forward to hearing Jack and the band play later in the evening. Around 6:30 p.m. we got in the dinghy and headed over to the White Elephant. Our new pal Scott, the manager there, had reserved us a table right in front of the stage which we sincerely appreciated. Scott was really envious of what Heidi and I were doing and hoped that he could head out on the high seas later in his life. We hope he makes it!

Jack’s first set was a lot of his old material and he dedicated a handful of songs to Heidi and me. Throughout the night he played a lot of the new songs. Best of all almost all of the music he played that night was his original material. It is great when you have grown enough in your career that you can play your music and have enough material to cover three long sets. As the night ended, we coordinated with Jack to meet him and the band the next day at Gasparilla Marina which is located about 9 miles further south on the ICW.

Heidi and I hopped in the dinghy and headed back to GYPSY WIND with a smile on our faces. As much as Heidi and I love Jimmy Buffett music, we love Jack Mosley music just as much. And best of all, Jack has become a very good friend of ours. Jack sings about the sea and sailing and cruising. His words literally match what is going on in our lives right now and they truly touch our hearts. They have from the moment we first heard his music which is another story in itself that I will share in another entry. But for now, please understand that we love Jack and his music. Heck, we named our boat, GYPSY WIND, after one of his songs. “Gypsy Wind” is the forth song on his Tourist Town Blues CD. Also, in one of Jack’s songs, “Before Your Dreams Get Old” (forth song on his Island Time CD and first song on Live on the Water CD) he sings about doing what you have always dreamt about doing before you get too old to do it. A few of the lyrics go:

“I’m gonna get on my boat set my sails for the setting sun
Do what I’ve always dreamed about doing but I have never done
‘Cause I’ve about reached my limit on doin just what I’m told
You gotta take your chance and dance your dance before your dreams get old.

People are always telling me that I would be flat out of my mind to go
Taking my boat all the way straight across the Gulf of Mexico
But I can see me makin landfall over on the Yucatan
Sittin on the beach with a bottle of Cuervo in my hand”

So with that in mind, we invited Jack to sail with us on our first passage across the Gulf of Mexico which we plan to do at the end of this hurricane season (December 2009) or at the latest, the end of next hurricane season. We will sail from Key West to the Yucatan Peninsula and then we plan to head south down the Mayan Reef to the San Blas Islands off Panama and hang out with our great friends, Mel and Jackie, on Fiesty. You can read in other parts of this web site how they are directly responsible for what Heidi and I are doing right now. Anyway, we though it would be way cool to help Jack live out his dream, so we invited him to be the fourth person who will crew this adventure. The third person will be a good friend of ours, Edward. He is Jennifer’s (who use to be Yeoman of the Tampa Bay Parrot Head Club) husband. He is a fireman, paramedic, knows his way around boats very well and, most importantly, has the enthusiasm to make the passage with us. In addition, he is originally from Panama.

TIME OUT – I am writing this on Monday evening. It is around 9:00 p.m. We are docked at the Galleon Marina in Key West. Heidi is out in the cockpit. All of a sudden she says, “Honey, come here. You have to hear this”.

I went to the cockpit and I heard this guy playing blues on an acoustic guitar that was truly amazing. It was coming from Schooners Wharf which is about 2 football fields away and when the wind is blowing from the north/northeast we can hear the music pretty good. During the afternoons we can hear Michael McCloud singing away. So I stop writing, made a couple of Captain Morgan boat drinks and we headed over the Schooner’s. We stayed there until they stopped playing around 11:00 p.m. It was a trio called Caffeine and Pepper and this guy named Carl was ripping the guitar apart. He was unbelievable. The music we heard for that hour and a half turned a mellow Monday evening into an unforgettable experience. The full 5-piece band of Caffeine Carl and the Buzz will be there this weekend. So will we. Damn I love Key West!

BACK TO MY JOURNAL . . .

When Saturday morning arrived, we were up and ready to go. Today we were going to meet Jack and the band, Don, Rick and Alan, as well as Mike, who is a great photographer, and they were going to come aboard and shoot the cover for the next CD. As I am writing this entry on August 17th, Jack, Don, Rick and Alan are in Nashville, Tennessee going to the studio each day to record the new CD, “Time on the Water”. Jack said he is really putting everything in to this CD which is why they went to Nashville to record it. I can’t tell you how thrilled Heidi and I are that GYPSY WIND is going to be on the cover of “Time on the Water”. This is happening right at the beginning of our adventure. To jump ahead for just a second, I remember when the photo shoot ended and Jack thanked us for letting them shoot the cover on GYPSY WIND, we looked at each other and almost simultaneously said to each other, “It was meant to be!”

We pulled anchor around 10:30 a.m. to give us plenty of time to make the 9 mile run. As we pulled into the marina they were all waiting for us at the fuel docks. Moving a single screw (propeller) boat with a long keel around in a small space with any wind and/or current is always a challenge – especially for someone like me who is use to running a twin screw powerboat that you can easily turn on a dime just by using the gears (versus using the steering wheel). To make this adjustment to a long keel, single screw boat easier, we had installed an external bow thruster. This give us power at the forward most point of out hull and, in essence, makes GYPSY WIND react almost as well as a twin screw vessel. Best of all, it eliminates almost all of the headaches of maneuvering in a tight spot. When we were pulling out of Gasparilla Marina it certainly came in handy as there was not a lot of room to maneuver. It really makes you look like you are one hell of a Captain! To me it is the absolute best investment we have made on GYPSY WIND to date and I know any Captain out there who uses one can testify to what I am saying.

We spent the next few hours taking photos. I think Mike must have shot about 300 pictures. I think Heidi shot just as many. At one point we lowered the dinghy into the water and Heidi ran GYPSY WIND while I took Mike around in the dinghy to get shots away from the boat. As I previously mentioned, one time when the band was sitting in the starboard aft part of the boat, a bunch of dolphins came up and were swimming close by. Mike got a few shots of this and maybe one will be good enough to use as the cover shot. Although I would rather them use one with more of GYPSY WIND in the picture, I must admit that it would be quite the shot if Mike was able to capture the moment. We will see pretty soon as Jack’s Time on the Water CD is set to be released by October.

We made it back to the fuel docks around 5:00 p.m. and we said our goodbyes and Jack and the band had to hurry to get to their gig at Benedetto’s Tiki Bar in Punta Gorda where they were set to go on in a few hours. Heidi and I and the bow thruster turned GYPSY WIND around and we got back in the ICW and began heading south once again. Our goal was to make it to Cabbage Key which was about 15 miles away. We made good time and had the anchor secured about a half hour before sunset. Cabbage Key is on the west side of the ICW and Useppa Key is on the eastern side. We were anchored just off of Useppa Key and could easily see Cabbage Key off our port rail. We had a pretty awesome lightning storm that night and luckily all of it was many miles away.

Earlier in the day, although we could not get Internet access, we did maintain our cell phone coverage and I had left messages with my friends Rob and Dale who were both in Key West. Rob lives there with Michele. They met through the Tampa Bay Parrot Head Club and I had the honored of marrying them seven years ago to this day, August 17th. Dale and his lady Yvonne were there because it was the beginning of lobster season. Dale and I have been friends since our college days back in the 70’s at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Dale is known around all parts as “lobster boy”. I mean a lobster does not have a chance in the world if Dale has spotted him. Heidi and I have been on several trips with Dale and Yvonne and I must admit I have never seen anything like it when Dale spots a lobster. He can free dive 20’ – 30’ and still have enough air in his lungs to track them down. Anyway, I had left a message with both of them to give me their opinion of the weather reports they were observing and receiving there in Key West. I can get weather reports on our VHF radio and our Single Side Band radio. However, it is always good to get first hand reports from people who are in the area to make sure that what is being reported is being reported accurately. To get to Key West from the west coast of Florida you have to go through the Florida Bay and that can be challenging at times. Although being a sailboat we would like to have some wind. However if it is a choice of having wind and 8 -10 foot seas, which is what I had the last time I made the trip a few years ago in a powerboat, or having little to no wind and having to use our engine all of the way on our sailboat, I will take the latter option – at least until Heidi and I have some more sailing “time on the water”. Both of them said that making the run on Tuesday would probably be a little better than Monday. Since it was currently Saturday and we had about a 12 hour run to get to Marco Island which would be our departure port from the west coast, we decided to spend a day where we were and go and explore Cabbage and Useppa Keys. As the lightning sparkled in the sky all around us, we finished our dinner and went to sleep. Another great day on the water behind us. It just doesn’t get any better than this which is another borrowed lyric from a Jack Mosley song, “Any Better Than This”, tenth song on Jack’s Small Boats on Big Oceans CD.

GOOD NIGHT NOW!