@Brian1946
01/06/2013: Yes. Started on the west coast of Florida in Tarpon Springs, soloed north to Cedar Key during Thanksgiving, south again to St. Petersburg to replace some bright-work, then south to Key West with stops in Sanibel Island and Chokoloskee to see friends and tweak the rigging. Acquired an absolutely lovely passenger/aspiring first mate at KW and delivered her to a little yoga clinic in Celestún around sunset the Friday those kids were murdered in Newtown, CT. Was on top of Uxmal temple the night the world was supposed to end. Went to a beautiful Christmas eve midnight mass for the first time in years at the old cathedral in Merida.
The day after Christmas I set out for Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuba, took a car to friends in Camaguey and spent New Years there. I picked up a very interesting passenger in Camaguey, Michael Anthony Jackson, (Jesuit wanderer, orphan citizen of Boys Town at 3 yrs old, graduate of Loyola & Gregorian Universites, Viet Nam war medic, now a researcher/lecturer on liberation theology at Georgetown U’s Woodstock Center, but on vacation at the moment—one of the most interesting people I’ve met in years—and he can sail).
Really strange. This trip started with a Buddhist lady expat out of KW who took me straight to the Yucatan interior in her Jeep so we could lay at the top of a Mayan temple under the stars, then she dragged my sorry, unrepentant ass to Midnight Mass a few days later, and now I have a seriously radical priest on board. I tell you, for a basically mundane guy who doesn’t really spend a lot of time reflecting on such things, this is a very interesting trip. And no drunks. So nice.
We arrived in Negril, Jamaica around 0300 today all beat to shit. My intention is to make for Villa Rosa near Bahia de Jobos, Puerto Rico next. Maybe go up into the redbud mountains for a while. Afterwards I have to drop Mike on what’s left of Montserat and then I go on to Portsmouth, Dominica. Just hang there for awhile with some medical people and a small Peace Corp group. It is a really beautiful, mountainous island with very nice people on it. I wish I could figure out how to make a living there.