GL: Feline Purr-fect Ready to Head Out!

[Ben Scotkin]

I want to once again express my sincere thanks to everyone who helped me 
to not only decide to go up the Tenn-Tom to the Great Lakes, but also 
for your invaluable trip planning assistance. I even finally bought a 
dinghy, in large part based on your comments. We had wrestled with that 
decision for two years, but this trip I believe a dinghy will be quite 
useful.

We head out from Key Colony Beach in the Fla. Keys Wednesday afternoon 
and will travel all of seven (7) miles to our first overnight stay at 
the Marathon YC, our local little club, where we will throw a going away 
party. Thursday morning we will head North across the Gulf toward East 
Cape, located at the SW tip of Fla. We plan to anchor out at one of 
several locations I have selected, tucked in behind the 10,000 Islands, 
a little South of Marco Island. This will give us some time to play with 
the dinghy and try to figure out how to get in and out of the thing. We 
are not really spring chickens any more; Im 67 and Joyce, my line 
tosser & bow person, is 79.

We plan to use our reciprocal yacht club privileges and visit a number 
of YCs on the way, take a side trip to Lake Okeechobee for some bass 
fishing, and generally work our way up to Mobile.

I have got about 75 pounds of charts and guide books and we cant wait 
to get started. I have also compiled a list of boat names and I will be 
looking for you. If you see us, holler!

Ben & Joyce
34 PDQ Power Catamaran (with turquoise bimini)