Helping Hand

From past blog posts you may remember me mentioning our friend Diane who, at 90 years young, is still cruising on her Gemini Catamaran Caesar's Ghost (named after her black lab, not her husband 😉). She has a ladies Sunfish race named in her honor at the Hope Town Sailing Club, and until a few years ago, she still competed. I have worked with her on the race committee many times and she is amazing. However, she does need crew help moving her boat, and after it was stored in Indiantown for the summer, she arrived last week and needed help getting her boat to a marina in Stuart, up the north fork of the St. Lucie River. The Indiantown Marina is about 25 miles away from us, so Dave and I first headed out there to see her and her granddaughter who was there for a few days cleaning up the boat (ash from the sugar cane field fires was everywhere). We helped them put on her roller furling jib sail, so now she is set for sailing.

For the actual trip to Stuart, Dave and friend Walter volunteered and they had a great trip on the eastern section of the Okeechobee Waterway, including going through the lock that we visited awhile back that I posted about. They even saw horses at the water's edge, and we have seen cattle there before too.

Di hardly ever turns her helm over to others, especially since last year she did that and the man driving, ran it into a bridge without the bridge being open, causing the mast and rig to come down and much damage. She lost the whole winter on the boat while it was repaired. Dave was surprised when she trusted him enough to take over steering while she stood watch and relaxed behind him.

Di is now safely settled at the marina where many friends that are in this area this season can go visit her. It is an honor to keep her going!