Days 139 and 140 - Elvis — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $45, daily high temperature.68*f

The weather has been windy and cool but that has not kept us out of the heated swimming pool. It has been sunny so if you can find a place in the pool out of the end it is quite nice.

We received a call from Marian Lambrecht. She is a sailing friend from Waukegan. Marian is in Ft Lauderdale for a boat surveyors convention. We tried to find a convenient time to get together but it could not be arranged due a tight schedule for her convention and other commitments we had made. Next time.

Our friends from Chicago Gabe and Angela Viti called from the Ritz Carlton and invited us over for cocktails on their balcony with a beachfront view and dinner. It was a magical evening. Gabe and Angela are in Florida to buy a boat to sail around the world. Many people have that dream but often times it is just a dream. When I met Gabe I was slightly skeptical until he mentioned he recently swam across the English Channel and has summited 108 of the highest peaks on seven continents including Everest and Kilimanjaro. Gabe and Angela had no sailing experience so they chartered my Pearson 39 Blue Heaven last summer. I had the pleasure of sailing with them 22 times and helped teach them to sail. We practiced in all conditions including heavy winds and reefed the sails. They are good sailors and will do well. They have narrowed their boar search down to an Island Packet 485. Many of these boats have completed successful circumnavigations.

Gabe Viti and Angela

The boat that will carry them safely around the world – an Island Packet 485.

Dale and Andy got off the boat today. They are going all the way to Chicago to celebrate Andy’s decade birthday with family and friends. They will return on February 16. On that date Priscilla and I will travel to Boston to visit our new grandson Jackson.

Bill and Marty Valters picked us up at noon to go to lunch and then go for a ride on their boat to do some sight-seeing on on the ICW around Ft Lauderdale. We had a wonderful lunch on at Noodles Pannini on Los Olas Blvd. Then we had a tour of the ICW celebrity houses and boats onboard the Valters’ Tiara 36′ Dorado. They have owned a condo in Ft Lauderdale for 17 years.

We met the boss at the Valters’ home. His name is Elvis.

When the temperature drops below 65*f in Florida it is time for a roaring fire at the Valters’ house.

Johhny King the lead singer for the Bubba Connection band that plays at Grunts in Key West every Friday and Saturday has been severely injured in a scooter crash and is in the ICU.

Carl ( Chef ) Wooden – quote for the day.

“I still love things that you don’t even need to pay for. Going to the beach and being around five of your friends and having a good time means so much more than going out and spending hundreds of dollars.” – Maria Sharapova

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (Russian: born 19 April 1987) is a Russianprofessional tennis player, who is ranked world No. 6 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). A United States resident since 1994, Sharapova has competed on the WTA tour since 2001. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions, for a total of 21 weeks. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam. She is also an Olympic medalist, having earned silver for Russia in women’s singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.