G and S ----- No, No, No, not the surfer dudes, Gordon and Smith, its Gary and Shirley. Or should I say Captain Gar and that crazy first mate, Shirley. At least most days, that's how it goes. [...] Since we are both Leos with pretty strong personalites, some days I want to be the CAPTAIN!!! Yes, we have read all those great sailing books and we know that ultimately there can be only one captain. So I will just have to be the Galley Wench. Captain Gar and I have been together since 1990 and sailing most of that time. Our first long sailboat adventure together was a 10 day trip to Appalachicola, Florida in 1993. It was kind of a make or break deal for the relationship since when we met, Gary was a power boat man. As you can deduce, we had a great time and have been happily sailing along ever since.

Dreamchaser started her life as "Second Wind". Our first sight of Second Wind was at the Telamar Marina in south Florida. She was on the hard getting ready for a new bottom and had the accumulated dirt and grime that is associated with that job. It was a very windy, stormy day and the ladder [...]

looked a little shaky. But she was calling us and soon we were both up on top checking her out. For those of you who know us well, I was not inclined to make the trip to the top at first, but once Gary was up there exploring, I couldn't resist. Besides, there was no one in south Florida that knew me and could tease me about crawling around Second Wind on all fours. Second Wind had many of the qualities that we were looking for - center cockpit, large aft cabin with a centerline queen bed, aft head with separate shower, decent size salon and galley with room to additional storage and last but not least, a good size V-berth and second head for all of our great friends who may want to join us for a leg or two of this adventure. After a little wine with lunch, we decided to make an offer. Our broker was pretty funny. He had just shown us a beautifully restored Swan and we were walking back over to Second Wind. When we told him that we were ready to write a contract, his only comment was "On this boat???". Things moved pretty quickly and before we knew it, Gary was back in Cocoa Beach for the survey and we were getting ready for closing. All went well, and Second Wind was soon our baby!! Next hurdle was to get her back to the Panhandle.