Chuck's Version

Up until now I've been pretty quiet concerning this delivery. I posted a little something to Facebook to let my followers know that something kinda big (for me) was coming. So here is the beginning of my blog entries.
This trip started for me many years ago when Greg came to me and asked if he could join Sam and I on the old Lightning I'd bought to race on Thursday nights. Well, I guess I actually need to go a little further back. Sam, Greg and I worked together on the same project. Sam and I worked on the same team and Greg worked on another. Sam had said to me one day that he'd like to learn to sail.. I said, it was easy anyone could do it and that I'd teach him.   It just so happened that I had a boat that I'd had for many years but that had been neglected in recent years. The plan was that I'd work on getting my boat ready to sail but in the meantime we needed something to sail. So I bought an old 19' Lightning and he and I learned to rig and sail it together. It was different from the larger keel boats I was used to but we persevered and showed up each week for the local races. Greg over heard us talking at work and asked if he could join us as he'd like to learn. He admitted that he was a powerboat kind of guy and really had no aptitude for sailing but was interested none-the-less.  Over 10 years later he's still sailing with us. We no longer race but we still go out once a week for an afternoon/evening sail on Calliope my Pearson 28. It was during these weekday sails that Greg first started talking about wanting a big boat to spend a lot of time on.

Everyone thought it was just a daydream and that it would never come to fruition. So in the spirit of daydreams, I said "HELL YEAH!!! If you find something in Florida, I'll help you bring it up." Once. I said that once! He remembered it and is now holding me to my word.

Fast forward to December 2014:
I got a text from Greg saying he was looking at a couple of boats. One in the region and one in Florida. I offered a little friendly advice as I'd had some experience in this area and when the deal fell through, I thought, yep, this is just a pipe dream. Then after the first of the year and a particularly heavy snowfall requiring all of us to get out there and shovel walks and driveways, I got a text from Greg, saying he'd found a boat in Florida and that he'd had enough snow; He was going to Florida to look at it. In the next couple of days, I found out that he'd put an offer in and that it had been accepted. Okay now we're getting serious. As his friend, I felt compelled to offer what advice I could and the next thing I know I'm on my way to Florida to attend the survey.

After seeing the boat noting it's strengths (which were many) and weaknesses (which were few). I was ready to make the trip which is now in it's final planning stages. Greg has covered all that in previous posts so I won't rehash that.

So I'll talk about Scott. I wouldn't be making this trip if Scott weren't along. Scott and I have sailed together on each other's boats and on other peoples boats for 30years.
We've known each other for probably 50 years and as Greg said we each went our separate ways as adults. I had a career in the Coast Guard which put me on the water professionally and was bitten by the sailing bug in the late 70's. That's when I bought CALLIOPE. Scott sailed with me once in those early years but he wasn't bitten until later. Once he'd been bitten, he'd call me up every year or so and ask if I still had my boat and if we could go out for a weekend. We had some awesome trips in those days. When he got into the larger keel boats he'd invite me to sail on his boat and they were always an adventure. I don't think I ever turned down an offer to sail with him. Scott has over the years had many many adventures to include sailing through a hurricane in the North Atlantic but most recently he sat for and was issued his Captain's license from the U.S. Coast Guard.
So when this trip came together, there was only one person I wanted to fill out this crew.  Only one person I trusted implicitly. We don't always agree on how things should be done but we always get there safely and with lots of stories to tell.
More to follow...