Day 93 - The Conch Republic — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $22 for the dingy, slip fee $133, daily high temperature 81*f feels like 88*f

We had the opportunity to meet an amazing person. Jennifer is a nurse at a local clinic. She immigrated legally from Cuba at the age of 22 after three attempts to enter the U.S. by watercraft. Starting at the age of 18 she tried to float across to the U.S. She said there was no resemblance to a boat. One time her craft was an upside down kitchen table strapped to 55 gallon drums. The US Coast Guard caught her each time before she had “dry feet.” She gave up and went to medical school in Cuba to become a doctor. At the age of 22 she received a call from the Cuban embassy advising she and her brother had been granted visas. Since she had never applied for a visa she was surprised. It turns out her grandmother had applied for visas for Jennifer and her brother when they were born and it took 20 years to get approved.

Her father encouraged her to go to the US even though she was in Cuban medical school.

One way to spend Christmas Eve is at the helm of 105′ gaff rigged schooner. The America 2 is a replica of the ship that won the original America’s Cup race in England in 1851.

Captain Priscilla

Captain Father John

The Conch Republic
The Conch Republic was established by secession of the Florida Keys from the United States of America, on April 23rd, 1982 in response to a United States Border Patrol Blockade setup on highway U.S.1 at Florida City just to the north of the Florida Keys. This heinous act effectively isolated Keys Citizens from the U.S. mainland since the blockade was on our only land artery to and from the mainland. This roadblock portrayed Keys residents as non-U.S. citizens who had to prove their citizenship in order to drive onto the Florida mainland! Hardly an American thing to do!
We protested! A totally American thing to do! Key West Mayor Dennis Wardlow along with a few other ‘key’ Conchs, went to Federal court in Miami to seek an injunction to stop the federal blockade, but to no avail. Upon leaving the Federal Court House , on the court house steps , Mayor Wardlow announced to the world, by way of the assembled TV crews and reporters, that ; “Tomorrow at noon the Florida Keys will secede from the Union!”

At noon, on the day of secession, at Mallory Square in Key West Florida, Mayor Wardlow read the proclamation of secession and proclaimed aloud that the Conch Republic was an independent nation separate from the U.S. and then symbolically began the Conch Republic’s Civil Rebellion by breaking a loaf of stale Cuban bread over the head of a man dressed in a U.S. Navy uniform. After one minute of rebellion, the now, Prime Minister Wardlow turned to the Admiral in charge of the Navy Base at Key West, and surrendered to the Union Forces, and demanded 1 Billion dollars in foreign aid and War Relief to rebuild our nation after the long Federal siege!

Thus began our Conch Republic journey which still continues today! We are both Conchs and we are Americans and we are proud to be both. By act of Congress we hold dual citizenship as Conchs and as Americans and will fight for the right to be both!

bonus photo

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“I spent uncounted hours sitting at the bow looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how it caught the light, the air, the wind; watching patterns, the sweep of it all, and letting it take me?” – Gary Paulsen, Caught by the sea.

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Running away from home at the age of 14 and traveling with a carnival, Paulsen acquired a taste for adventure. A youthful summer of rigorous chores on a farm; jobs as an engineer, construction worker, ranch hand, truck driver, and sailor; and two rounds of the 1,180-mile Alaskan dog sled race, the Iditarod; have provided ample material from which he creates his stories.