Enter Bruce, and Florida Keys Sailing School.  When he asked us how we decided to take sailing lessons with them, our honest answer was that he didn't ask us to call him Captain over the telephone.  I mean honestly, how can you take sailing seriously when images of Captain Crunch and Peter Pan keep popping into your head?  Ok, ok, on the boat is one thing, but on dry land?  Come on.

Matt practices the "Clove Hitch"

Seriously though, sailing with Bruce and Edgar will remain one of the highlights of our trip.  They were  AWESOME.  We spent 7 days living on a Catalina 30 named Selena in a marina called the Keys Fisheries (with the best stone crab claws you've ever tasted).  Each day we would venture out on the water, only to discover how little we knew. At night we would study for our exams.  I was not happy about this - see below.  We had two great days with 25 knots of wind, which were absolutely exhausting, but we were happy to experience those conditions with an instructor, rather than at some point in the future on our own.  Not only were B & E knowledgable, funny, and over all total characters- but they were great teachers too.  Oh- and patient!  We bombarded them with questions not only about sailing, but about buying a boat, provisioning and EVERYTHING else we could think of. (Sorry about that guys.)

We're leaving the Keys Fishery's 8 days later, tired, sunburnt and whole lot saltier.

When we told them our plan to purchase a boat with our current time constraints they thought we were a little nuts.  This was discouraging, coming from two sailors who have bought and repaired their fair share of boats.  We've come this far!  We're not giving up yet! They wished us luck ( a lot of luck) and advised us to try the West coast of Florida (in and around Ft. Myers) to look for a boat.  And since they are our new sailing gurus - off we go!