Scott's dad Bill, winters in Florida and he invited family members to come and visit. We took him up on it before he had a chance to rethink and rescind his offer. The rest of our days in Florida were spent crashing his condo and boating in the Intercoastal Waterway and the gulf.

    We had a memorable and delightful day in Sarasota Bay which is part of the Intercoastal. It was a glorious bright, sunny and warm day. A day that we won't have in Wisconsin for two months. Bill has a 13' Boston Whaler that he uses for fishing while in Florida, so we took both boats, the Campanoe and the Whaler as our photo taking boat, dropped Steve off at a beach so he could hook up with some friends that were also in Sarasota and the rest of us went boating.

    Sarasota Bay is big and beautiful. Bill was fishing and we were skimming over the top of oyster bars watching huge schools of fish dart around. We had to stop and check out a live royal conch. It took some talking to get Sunny to get out of the boat to pick it up considering we had just watched a fisherman pull in a shark. Up ahead of us off in the distance we saw a kayaker and jokingly wondered if it was our friend, Ole from Mazo. The closer we got to each other the more it was looking like him. Amazing! A huge body of water, 1500 miles from home and we literally boat into each other. So of course we had to spend the rest of the day together.

    One of the reasons we were both in that area of the bay is because there is on outlet into the gulf and both Scott and Ole were anxious to boat in really big water. You notice I said Scott. The stretch of water connecting the intercoastal and the gulf was enough excitement for Sunny and I. Even Bill turned around and went back to calmer water.

    Scott dropped us off at the beach, something you can't do with just any boat and actually it was the only time he got water in the boat the whole trip. Coming onto the beach, the bow was on sand and before we realized that we had to pull the boat up on shore quickly before the next wave crashed over the back of the boat that happened and we took some water. Sponged the water out, built up some courage and out he headed into the six foot waves. Bill saw that Scott was handling it just fine so he came out in his boat and took some incredible pictures. Ole and his kayak joined us on the beach after about two waves.

    When Scott first went out into the waves there were times when we couldn't see him or the boat when he was between waves and then he would come shooting out like a missile. Waves crashed over the decks but the raised cockpit kept water out of the boat. He admitted later that it did occur to him while he was out there that he could get flipped over but that is a first. Never before have we ever felt like that could happen. Campanoe is extremely stable. He did get the hang of being in that kind of water and had fun playing on the waves.

    The tide was coming in and we were losing our beach plus Bill and his boat never could come to the beach so we planned to meet at the little restaurant back in calmer water. We waited and waited for Ole. Finally we went back to see where he was. He couldn't get off the beach with his kayak. He couldn't push off and get in before a wave tipped him over. You could almost see smoke coming out of his ears he was so frustrated.

    Campanoe to the rescue (one of two). We stayed out aways and told him to wade out, get a rope to tie to his kayak and he could get on the Campanoe and we would tow his kayak back He said no way was he going to be able to get on the boat from in the water. One of the benefits of a Campanoe is just that capability. It's low to the water and stable so he could pull himself up easily. A hamburger and cold beer later and Ole was feeling much better.

    Ole had an eight mile kayak back, Bill wanted to fish and Scott wanted to sail. We said our goodbyes to Ole and we played in the bay until dark. It was the kind of day that makes vacations so special, memorable and increases our love of water and boating. For us, spring break now means fold it , load it, and tow it to fun and exciting new destinations.

    I had mentioned that there were two Campanoe rescues. One was the kayak and the other was a day that we headed south on the Intercoastal. Bill had his boat and we were in the Campanoe. We came to a place where we could go into the gulf. Sunny and I even stayed in the boat this time. We were getting to be old hands at big water. We were bobbing around in the waves watching the dolphins when Bill's motor dies. Again, we tied the problem boat to the Campanoe and towed him to calm water where we could figure out the problem. Problems are part of boating, but when we designed Campanoe we tried to consider all these problems. If our motor dies we can always sail or paddle easily.