Today, I met with some sailing friends that have sailed their 37-foot Morgan sloop from Fort Myers, Florida, where left 4 weeks ago. I met them 4 years ago when I sailed down to the Florida Keys and we began caravaning south when we anchored at the same location in Virginia's segment of the Intra Coastal Waterway. Roger had lived in Detroit, he hated that city, and Sandy, was a registered nurse in a major Detroit hospital emergency room.

Roger decided to have a beer on the way home from work, he was recently divorced and Sandy decided to have a cold one in the same bar, one that had live music. They sat down at the bar, next to each other, struck up a conversation during a time when the band was on a break, and Roger said he was gonna get the Hell out of Detroit. He said he was having serious thoughts of buying a sailboat and sailing to Mexico. Sandy said "That sounds like one Hell of a trip - who is going with you?" Roger responded "No one unless you want to go." Sandy said "Why not! I've got nothing better to do." They packed their clothes and sailed away and never looked back.

On the trip south, right after we met at the anchorage and had a couple Green Coconut Margarettas, Roger noticed all the music gear in my boat and said "are you a musician?" I said "well, kinda, but more an entertainer and singer than a musician." As we made out way south, Roger would frequently stop at one of the marinas, and book a job for me, almost like having a sailing agent.

Do I miss those jobs away from home? You betcha. And, if I were physically able, I would still be out there doing them. We had dinner at Schaeffer's Canal House Restaurant and Marina this evening, the place was packed and they had a reggae band, well kinda like a DNJ reggae band. The guy had a laptop, mixer, flat screen monitor and a lady singer. The gal had a pretty good voice, but like much of the reggae music I've heard over the years, nearly every song sounded the same and the lyrics were very repetitive. No one in the place was paying a bit of attention to them at all. And, when they finally took a break, the audience seemed to breathe a sigh of relief because as the band's performance progressed, they, like many similar groups, figured that if no one was paying any attention to them, they cranked up the volume to ear bleed levels. Finally, the manager told them to take a break and turn down the volume.

As we left, Roger looked at the crowd, about 200 people, then turned and said to me, "I would bet my bottom dollar that if you were on that stage, there would have been 50 or more couples on the dance area and you would have a full tip jug." Yep, I really miss that part of this business as well.

All the best,

Gary