The Doctor is in the "house"!

Our few days in Marathon worked out fine and we were able to get out before the next cold front came through so we didn't even bother to try to anchor on the inside.  The outside of Boot Key Harbor is actually nice since we saw the best sunsets, the water was clean enough to swim and we had plenty of swinging room.  But time to head north to get ready for our Bahamas crossing.

As we had to go right by, it was easy to decide to hold up at the LoreLei for a couple of days to see our old friends from the "Hobie Days".  The Tradewinds regatta was getting ready to start up so we got our anchor down and "hung" with our friends.

Rob, the lonely driver of 6 Hobie's showed up first and came right out to Nati.  It wasn't planned but he spent the night and we were much lighter on the refreshment level than we were the night before.

From there the rest of the racers kept coming into town and when the Puerto Ricans showed up they didn't know we were there!  What a great surprise!  Pedro, Julio and Monica showered us with hugs and kisses and it was like we saw them just last week.  It was just plain FUN!

The racers had 3 good days of sailing on the ocean side right off the beach at the Islander Hotel.  The beach was flat and large enough for all the sailors.  The ramp into the water was a little tight but the winds cooperated so not many folks hurt their boats launching or retrieving them.

At the Islander Hotel

Perfect conditions

nice butt doctor!

The Hobie 16 fleet was the largest fleet and the competition was terrific.  Along with Pedro there were other top contenders including:

Mark Modderman
Bill Jeffers
Dan Borg
Greg Rayborn


The top two racers were separated by only 2 points after two days so the final day of racing was intense for the sailors.  After all the other trophies were handed out the 1st place trophy, along with the "Carlton Tucker Award" was given to "Doctor" Pedrin Colon and his crew, Monica Cabrera!

Pedrin & Monica

Their names will go on this!

Stay thirsty my friend!

After the ceremony the work of putting all the boats and gear back on the trailer continued.  We tried to keep "Mr $5.95" from doing much work since he popped his shoulder out on the last day but Rob just did a little less.  That is good since he once again had to drive, all alone back the Syracuse in the cold and snow.  We are glad we are sitting on Nati!

Rob used to be worth $6 million….not anymore!

All loaded and ready to head north.