2009 Cruise of s/v "Son of a Sailor"

At Coral Sands Resort, Harbor Town, Eleuthera

We are Bettye and Dennis from St Augustine.  We have been cruising off and on for about three years on our Trawler, “Son of a Sailor.” We have already explored much of Florida, the Chesapeake, and most of the Bahamas between Long Island and the Abacos.

We are now on board “Son of a Sailor” our 40 foot auxiliary sloop.  Son of a Sailor is named after Dennis’ father. He was a retired Navy Chief, a licensed, professional captain, and with his wife of 60 years, a resort manager in the Bahamas and the Keys.  He was from the “old school,” meaning that regarding boats, there was almost nothing he could not do, make or fix.  He was a craftsman in many things, and a journeyman at the rest.

Our son Rudy is a Sergeant of Marines, currently stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC.  He is a member of 2nd Batallion 6th Marines, which just returned from the Middle East in April on board USS Iwo Jima.  This was his fourth tour in the middle east.  His bride, Malia, is doing very well, working to maintain the tradition of Marine wives everywhere.  One of the benefits of this site is that our Marine can keep up with our travels, no matter where he is in the world.

Our goal is to spend as much time as possible over the next couple of  years in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. Then  we will work our way down island to Trinidad / South America.  Our companion on the boat is Merry Kitty, a pure white mongrel cat from Tennessee.

Since retirement a few years ago, we have cruised the St Johns River, the Florida East Coast and West Coast up to Tampa, the US East Coast up to the Baltimore area, and the Bahamas from the Abacos to Long Island (thrice).

We tried to visit as much of the beauty of the Chesapeake as we could, visiting Norfolk, Portsmouth, Deltaville, the Upper Neck, the Eastern Shore of Maryland including the Chester River, St Michaels, Oxford, Kent Island and much more, Washington DC, Annapolis, St Marys and dozens of beautiful anchorages.

In the Bahamas we have visitied Bimini, the Berry Islands, New Providence, Eleuthera, the Exumas, Long Island, the Abacos and West End. In all, we have motored just under 10,000 nautical miles on board our trawler, and another 2,400 nm on our sailboat.

View from Club Thunderball, Staniel Cay