Before long we were sailing every other day. We loved the boats and decided to get involved with the racing program at Charlotte Sailing. Within 6 months Scott and myself had bought our own boats. We dominated the racing and started sailing on short trips around the Harbor. We sailed to Boca Grande which is 26 miles from the sailing center and on the way back we thought it might be a great adventure to sail the Escapes on a long trip.

We wrote to the Escape Sailboat Company and told them of our quest, to Escape to Cuba on a 11.5 foot Escape. The response we got was "you must be crazy" But if you insist on going we would like to send you 2 new boats for the trip. We were on our way to the planning stage. We talked to sailors from our local sailing club to find out what we should bring for this estimated 40-50 hour trip. If we carried all that was needed we would have to have a support boat along. We talked Gary Trimmer, owner of the Sailing Center, into coming along in his Beneteau 305.

First of all the paper work was needed to leave the Country to enter a forien port. Passports were also needed. The food stuffs were purchased at the local Sam' Club. Area business donated other items like bottled water,  safety equipment, and money. Garmin Electronics loaned us 2 Garmin 170s. GPS/VHF handheld units.