I thought it would be a good idea to share our "long weekend" vacation
adventure last Dec 5-9 with you all. However I need to set the
stage. To do so I have started our story with the E-mails
traded at the Beachcats
Mailing List that
led to this story.
Bill Cash” Date: Sat Nov 9, 2002 9:01 am Subject: Re: Charters
Katherine and I are planning a vacation around our 30th anniversary
in February. One thought is to go to Belize and do the “Under the Sun
in Belize” trip. Sounds like a fun trip… 8 days on an 18 going
from Cay to Cay and lodge to lodge, BUT its expensive. $1950 each
plus 750-1000 each for airfare. And since we don’t know anyone who
has done this trip we have some reservations about dumping 6K on a
vacation.
My second thought is to do a bare boat charter, BUT the vast amount
of our sailing experience is on beachcats or very small monoslugs.
IM not sure a charter service is gonna allow us to bareboat a 30+’
catamaran with beachcats as the backbone of my sailing resume…
Can anyone point me to a “more relaxed” charter service, in the Keys
of the Islands?
Bill
From: “Damon” Date: Fri Nov 8, 2002 9:08 pm Subject: Re: [beachcats] Charters
Do it! Do it! Take lots of pictures and write an article for
TheBeachcats.com, you can be the reporter for the Central America desk
while your there.
hard, but the honor will be great!
Damon “Bill Cash Date: Sat Nov 9, 2002 9:01 am Subject: Re: Charters
Damon:
How’s about starting a collection to help offset the cost…. I think
that would be fair.. After all Ill be the one slaving away in the hot
sun, forced to sail every day and then you guys will have the joy of
reading about my labors..
Just $10 per beachcat member would defray the cost, and you would all
feel good about contributing to such a great project…
From: “Bill Cash Date: Wed Nov 13, 2002 12:05 pm Subject: Long weekend plans
Katherine & I need a break from work, kids and the cold weather. We
just booked airline tickets to Miami for 12/5 -12/9. We are gonna
stay at eldest daughter’s place in South Beach and do some day trips
to the Keys, and hopefully some sailing.
Anyone gonna be in the area?
Bill
From: “mattson” Date: Wed Nov 13, 2002 3:52 pm Subject: Re: Long weekend plans (OT Comedy)
Nice, Cash. Real nice. I sent a big charity check to Damon for the
Cash Vacation Fund, and now you start telling us about your jaunts
down to Miami for the weekend.
I urge anyone considering a donation to read his line above, with
your nosed raised and lower jaw jutted out, doing your best
impersonation of “Mr. Howell” from “Gilligan’s Island.”
“Katherine and ahhh need a breaaak from…..”
Maybe you’ll have a photo op for the fund campaign while you’re down
there. Kind of like one of those “Feed This Child for a Dollar a Day
pics”, where the big eyed kid in ragged clothes is standing in a
doorway.
In your case, you’ll be in a beach chair with your Hobie sunglasses,
holding a beer, just above some caption about “this poor man with
the domestic beer”. And maybe some sob story about “inefficient room
service.”
Oh the humanity of it all.
I’ll probably open this sucker at my office, while some customer
yelling at me on the phone about some plant order he never got that
is actually sitting on a hot tarmac in Los Angeles, baking to death,
that I could send a truck down to salvage if the truck was not in
the shop with a blown starter, and I can’t seem to get an in-service
date from the mechanic, because he doesn’t speak any friggin’
english.
Oh yeah… I be running to the checkbook on THIS one.
Bill
|
OK so you have the picture Now for the trip
Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading about this trip as much as we did, and you will all continue to
As previously reported, Katherine and I needed a break from work the cold gray North East. We
We intended to leave New Jersey on the 7:30 flight from Philadelphia to Miami. Mother Nature
“Ladies and Gentleman this is you Captain. I’m sorry to inform you that we have been instructed
We waited for the punch line, none came. To make a long story short we returned home, |
 Friday was mostly gone by the time we arrived in Miami checked into our deluxeaccommodations, made some plans and called it a day. |
 On Saturday morning we got up before dawn to watch sunup then rented a car and headed to KeyLargo.
Our plan this trip, weather permitting, was to drive south till we found a beach |
|
|
 They have several Hobie Waves and one Hobie Getaway. The Getaway rents for $100 for 4hours. Winds were moderate, the water was warm and the sailing was wonderful. At one point, about 4 miles off shore, we found ourselves on such beautiful water that we had to park the boat and just take time to enjoy the view. (Sorry we didn’t have a waterproof camera with us). |
 Hours later we returned, cleaned up |
 andheaded for our next adventure of the day, a sunset sail. |
 Naturallywe made special arraignments for our tickets |
|
Reef Roamer is a 42′ catamaran owned by a retired commercial fisherman, who lives on a 65′ Morgan with his lovely wife. Captain Bill insists of an all female crew. www.reef-roamer.com
|
 They put Katherine right to work skippering the Reef Roamer. |
 I was allowed to watch. |
 All in all a very full day. We drove back north to Miami and our deluxe suite where we ordereda light bite and called it a day. Insert 9Katherine-hotel-miamibeach |
 On Sunday the wind had come up and there was a high probability of Thunder Storms so wechose to do the Glass Bottom Boat out of Key Largo. The storms had built the waves over night. Seven miles off shore at Molasses reef the waves were over 6′. The Glass bottom boat handled it well and the view of the reef was spectacular. (sorry no pictures of this)
After the Glass bottom boat trip we headed south again to meet up with another |
|
|
 Then decided to give it a go. Captain Andrea gave us a great tour of the Bay side of Islemadora,north through some mangroves to a drawbridge then out to the ocean. Sunset was obscured by clouds but the trip was fun and we learned a good deal about the area. Another fun filled day came to an end. The rain arrived as we drove back to Miami.
More storms were predicted for Monday and the wind was blowing so hard we chose not to go |
 Fortunately Katherinegot hired,we went to the Seaquariam met some new friends
|
 and Katherine lent a hand with the show. |
 The following day said goodbye to Miami, and flew home to reality. We learned when wechecked in at the airport that our flight was overbooked. Almost like magic our seats were upgraded to first class. Now that was a treat. It was the first time we had flown first class and wow what a difference. I could get used to that kind of treatment, but not at the cost of first class tickets.
So there you have it, Vacationing in Southern Fla on a shoestring. Our Belize The Cash Vacation Fund, c/o TheBeachCats.com. |
We pulled into the parking lot just in time to watch the owner of the rental shop sell his last
We didn’t realize we had made arraignments to take our second sunset cruse on