Truth be told, I never really wanted to catch a swordfish.

Sure, I had written about how daytime swordfishing, or catching a broadbill in broad daylight, had been fully developed off Islamorada in the Florida Keys.

Andy Newman fights a swordfish in the waters off Islamorada. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)

But, after witnessing at least a dozen catches, I simply concluded it was just too much work.

After all, you sit in a big barbershop-like chair, holding a big game fishing rod as thick as a broomstick and a huge reel that looks like it could literally lift the world.

But on Sunday, July 19, after being “ordered” to sit in the chair, I found myself connected to a swordfish that was 1,800 feet away — with little choice but to crank that baby in.

I was out on the Catch 22, owned by Richard Stanczyk and skippered by his brother Scott. I was there simply to catch a few dolphin (mahi-mahi) and help produce a new Video of the Week for the Florida Keys website and the Keys’ You Tube channel.

As Andy battles the fish, strong winds and rough seas result in a saltwater shower. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)

But now we were backing down on this fish and I was winding furiously to recover line.

We were 25 miles off Islamorada and, quite honestly, this was not the picture-perfect day that is so typical in the Florida Keys. The wind was blowing strong and the seas were rough. As we chased the fish, water was coming over the boat’s transom and I was getting drenched.

“Aha,” I thought. “So this is what Hemingway experienced to motivate his words for ‘The Old Man and the Sea’.”

As it turned out, the overcast skies and continued saltwater “showering” were a godsend. Had there been bright sunny skies with little breeze, which is the Keys’ traditional summer weather pattern, I likely would have suffered heat stroke.

Fifteen minutes into the fight, I had cranked in almost 1,200 feet of line and the fish leaped across the ocean’s surface.

The swordfish leaps across the water's surface, putting up a grueling 80-minute fight. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)

“This is the real thing, Andy,” shouted Richard, who pioneered daytime swordfishing in the Keys with his angling friend Vic Gaspeny.

Five minutes later we could see the leader, but then the fish took another run and dove deep.

I had to give up 500 feet of line. Within about 10 minutes I struggled to regain 250 feet of line — and then the stalemate began.

I’d get a few feet. He’d take it back.

We went on like that for at least half an hour and I really began to feel like Santiago, the main character in “The Old Man and the Sea.”

Finally, seemingly inch-by-inch, I was able to crank that fish to the boat and mate Hunter Baron grabbed the leader. Between Hunter and Nick Stanczyk, Richard’s son, they were able to gaff the 168-pound swordfish and slide it over the side and into the boat.

About 80 minutes after the hookup, there was backslapping and handshakes all around.

Andy, mate Hunter Baron (center) and Captain Scott Stanczyk display the prize catch. (Photo by Nick Stanczyk)

“You know, Andy, anglers from all around the world travel far and wide to catch a prized fish like that,” Richard said. “You caught one in your own backyard.”

I acknowledged Richard and reminded him he had already given me that quote for a story I wrote several years ago.

“You think back to the days of Zane Grey and Hemingway and the idea of going out and capturing one of these big monsters,” he said. “You don’t have to go to an exotic spot anymore for a world-class gamefish. People can come to the Keys, book a charterboat and have a chance of hooking a giant fish.”

My own catch certainly proved that.

Editor’s Note: Islamorada is known as the “Sportfishing Capital of the World” and features the largest offshore charterboat fleet in the Keys. Book at the following marinas:

Bud N’ Mary’s Fishing Marina

Caloosa Cove Resort & Marina

Holiday Isle Resort & Marina

Robbie’s of Islamorada

Whale Harbor Marina

World Wide Sportsman

Topics: Highlights, Islamorada, Local Color, On the Water, Voices Main Archive

Since Key West’s earliest days, its atmosphere has encouraged rugged individualism — but few individuals stand out more than legendary shipwreck salvor Mel Fisher.

Adventurer Mel Fisher, shown here with some of his glittering discoveries, proved that the American dream is thriving -- at least in the Keys. (Photo provided by Mel Fisher's Treasures)

Mel, a former California chicken farmer, appeared in the Keys in 1968 and shortly afterward settled in Key West. His luggage consisted of one big dream — that of finding the sunken treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, shipwrecked in a 1622 hurricane somewhere in Keys waters.

The Atocha’s cargo, according to its manifest, included a quarter of a million silver pieces of eight, some 30 tons of silver bars, and other riches destined for the coffers of Spain. Clearly, it was a worthy prize for any man.

Some people never really fit into Key West’s offbeat lifestyle, but others — like Mel — fit in immediately. With his drawling speech and seemingly limitless capacity for rum and Coke, he became a familiar figure on the island.

During the long years of searching for the shipwrecked galleon, there was little money to support Mel and his crew — which included his wife Deo and, eventually, children Dirk, Taffi, Kim and Kane. Still, enough treasure trickled in to keep their enthusiasm alive.

Mel and Deo Fisher were early SCUBA pioneers before they became shipwreck seekers. (Photo provided by Mel Fisher's Treasures)

After all, Mel reasoned, almost any day could herald the discovery of the Atocha’s main body of riches. “Today’s the day,” his well-known phrase of encouragement to his divers, began to appear on T-shirts all over Key West.

At long last, in July of 1985, “the day” arrived.

On July 18, Mel’s son Kane, then captain of the salvage boat Dauntless, discovered a 60-pound ballast stone, barrel hoops, copper ingots, and almost 1,000 silver coins in a deep-water area called Hawks Channel.

Two days later, on July 20, divers Andy Matroci and Greg Wareham dove down to investigate a promising area of the seabed. Facing them was a reef of what looked like stones. The duo went back up for a metal detector and dove down again. The metal detector went wild: it was a reef of silver bars.

Andy reached the surface first and yelled to the salvage boat, “It’s the ‘mother lode’! We’re sitting on silver bars!”

A diver examines gold bars and chains on the site of the Nuestra Se–nora de Atocha shipwreck about 35 miles off Key West. (Photo by Pat Clyne/Mel Fisher Maritime Museum)

Kane Fisher radioed back to Key West, “Put away the charts. We’ve found the main pile.”

They had found 1,041 silver bars and boxes of coins — 3,000 to a box. Almost immediately, shippers’ marks on the silver bars were matched to the Atocha’s cargo manifest, confirming the identification.

“It was surreal. I had spent most of my life looking for it, and all of a sudden there it was — all these silver bars piled up and sticking up out of the mud, and there were fishhooks snagged on them and lobsters living in the cracks between the silver bars,” said Kane’s brother Kim, who had begun tracking the Atocha with his family when he was 12 years old.

The excavation of what media dubbed “the shipwreck of the century” began. Divers and archeologists eventually recovered more than $400 million in gold and silver coins and bars, breathtaking religious artifacts, jewelry, weapons, pottery, navigational instruments, contraband emeralds and other incredible items.

Kim Fisher, son of the late Mel Fisher, displays a 23-karat gold bar recovered during the ongoing search for the remainder of the Atocha shipwreck. (Photo by Rob O'Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Now, 25 years after the discovery of that “main pile,” people flock to Key West’s Mel Fisher Maritime Museum to view the Atocha treasure and artifacts housed there — and marvel at the triumph of the human spirit that their recovery represents.

Yet according to the vessel’s cargo manifest, much more remains to be found. After Mel’s death in 1998, his son Kim took over the family enterprise — and today he and his own son Sean supervise the ongoing search for the portion of the legendary shipwreck that still awaits discovery.

“We’re looking for the sterncastle of the Atocha,” explained Kim, who looks (and sounds) a lot like Mel. “There’s a lot of treasure still out there … 100,000 coins, 300 80-pound silver bars …”

The Atocha’s story — and the quest — continue.

Topics: Events, Highlights, History, Key West, Local Color, On the Water

The marine life that makes its home on the Florida Keys’ living coral reef is widely acclaimed for its diversity — but that undersea life usually doesn’t include an underwater brass band or a snorkel-wearing Elvis Presley.

These strange "undersea creatures" were spotted in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary during a past Underwater Music Festival. (Photos by Bill Keogh/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Unless, of course, it’s the second Saturday in July.

That’s the timeframe for the annual Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival, an engagingly weird event that draws as many as 600 divers and snorkelers to boogie to the beat of music beneath the waves.

Staged by a popular local radio station, the submerged songfest takes place at Looe Key Reef, an area of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary about six miles south of Big Pine Key.

The station’s playlist — ocean- and water-focused ditties ranging from the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” to humpback whale songs and the themes from “Gilligan’s Island” and “Titanic” — is broadcast to participating divers and snorkelers (and a whole lot of curious fish) on special speakers suspended beneath boats at the reef.

A few years back, divers and snorkelers at the Underwater Music Festival came across a patriotic parade -- on the ocean floor.

While you might think music would be distorted underwater, it’s actually surprisingly clear. Plus there’s an ethereal “surround sound” feeling that comes from the sound waves’ transmission through the water.

Adding to that ethereal quality are the bizarre reef denizens that can be spotted during the event. Unsuspecting divers and snorkelers at past festivals have encountered an underwater brass band complete with tuba, marchers in an ocean-floor patriotic parade, and the “Divas of the Deep” — a trio of female divers costumed as Ella Fish-gerald, Tuna Turner, and (wait for it) Britney Spearfish.

One memorable year even Elvis himself decided to take the plunge, though he wasn’t wearing blue suede fins at the time. Elvis impersonator Neil Goldberg, dressed in a white caped jumpsuit and flashy gold chains, “performed” underwater on a bright red guitar for a mesmerized crowd of “sea fans.”

“The fish seem to be Elvis fans — they’re ‘all shook up’,” The King quipped after resurfacing.

Elvis impersonator Neil Goldberg performs for "sea fans" at a recent Underwater Music Festival.

For the 2010 festival, scheduled July 10, rumor has it that “Alice in Waterland” and her fictional friends will be on hand. Organizers are staging an offbeat salute to the classic tale “Alice in Wonderland” and the 2010 film it inspired, with underwater appearances by divers costumed as Alice, the “Mad Haddock,” “Cheshire Catfish,” and other take-offs on the story’s memorable characters.

Goofy as it seems, this good time has a serious purpose: preserving the Florida Keys’ unique coral reef ecosystem. The musical broadcast incorporates diver awareness announcements by Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary officials, offering tips on how to enjoy the ocean while minimizing your impact on the reef and marine environment.

So if you’re a music “afishionado,” dive into the doings at the Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival. And even if you can’t come down and take the plunge, you can share the spirit — by “singing out” about reef preservation.

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Environment, Events, Festivals, Highlights, Local Color, On the Water, Quirks, Voices Main Archive

Watching a turtle release, and seeing the rehabilitated “patient” returned to the blue Keys waters where it belongs, can make you cry.

Ryan Butts of the Keys' Turtle Hospital releases Kentucky, the loggerhead sea turtle, into the Atlantic next to the Seven Mile Bridge. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

At least, it can make ME cry. There’s something about seeing the turtle slip into its saltwater habitat and swim joyfully away (okay, I’m anthropomorphizing here, but trust me — their entire shell-covered bodies radiate joy) that touches the heart and inspires a powerful sense of oneness with the natural order.

Such was the feeling recently when Ryan Butts, administrator of the Florida Keys Turtle Hospital, released “Kentucky,” a 10-year-old loggerhead sea turtle, into the Atlantic Ocean next to the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon.

Even before the release, Kentucky (named for his discoverers’ home state) was one lucky creature — because the Turtle Hospital is the probably the best place in the world for a sick or hurt turtle to wind up.

Located in Marathon, the hospital is the world’s only licensed veterinary hospital dedicated to treating sea turtles. It’s so highly acclaimed that airlines have been known to fly turtles injured in the Caribbean to Miami, where hospital staffers meet them in their turtle ambulance (yes, they really have one — I’ve seen it!) and drive them down to the facility for care.

Governor Charlie Crist (shown here at right) helps release a sea turtle in the Keys after its treatment at the Turtle Hospital. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)

The hospital’s primary goal is to treat injured sea turtles and return them to the wild whenever possible. On top of that, founders and staff work tirelessly to raise public awareness about sea turtles and their needs, collaborate with state universities on sea turtle research, and work toward environmental legislation that makes the beaches and water safer and cleaner for their charges.

Each time a “patient” is returned to health, its release is a joyful occurrence. Even Florida’s governor, Charlie Crist, has helped send a couple of the recovered creatures back to their watery homes — including a 140-pound green sea turtle that was serendipitously named Charlie.

But turtles aren’t the only marine denizens that find help in the Keys when they need it. Ailing dolphins, whales and manatees encounter willing and dedicated rescuers ready to lend a hand.

Caring professionals do their best to assess and provide what these marine mammals need so they can return to their pods or habitual territory. Assisting the trained professionals are volunteers — parents and kids, energetic 20-somethings and weathered seniors, first-time visitors and longtime residents — drawn together by the need to help.

Rescuers from the Keys' Marine Mammal Conservancy extricate a stranded infant whale from a mangrove island. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)

The volunteers are particularly vital during whale strandings, when one or more whales are found in shallow water, disoriented and often seriously ill. Such whales are generally moved to sheltered lagoons for care and rehabilitation — and people are needed 24/7 to stand in the water holding the “patients” upright to make sure their blowholes remain above water.

A few years back, one of those volunteers was my husband. He doesn’t look like a whale rescuer — he’s stocky, laid-back and not very athletic. But when a pygmy sperm whale was found just a few feet off a popular local pier, he spent 18 hours in the water holding her. And that was after he nonchalantly hopped on a jet ski (for the first time in his life) to provide escort while the whale was transported several miles to a safe lagoon in an in-water sling.

I too had a volunteer assignment: driving the whale’s blood samples to a lab for testing and picking up fishy food rations in my trusty Chevy Explorer, which was quickly nicknamed the Squidmobile.

But what we did wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Each time there’s a turtle or marine mammal in need, dozens of people appear, seemingly out of nowhere, to help with whatever might be necessary at the time.

To me, that’s one of the things that makes the Keys such a magical place. And Kentucky the turtle, if he could reached in his blue-water habitat, would almost certainly agree.

Topics: Animal Ambassadors, Environment, Highlights, Marathon, On the Water, Voices Main Archive

Saltwater anglers in the Keys often swap fish tales, but sometimes their “true” storylines seemingly get tangled in their fishing “lines.” Unflinching humorist Nick Aldacosta, for decades a Marathon fishing captain, has spun thousands of those tales and cast miles of line.

Nick Aldacosta's grin can't hide his wicked sense of humor or world-class storytelling skill.

“That reminds me of a story,” he’ll say with a disarming grin. No matter how outrageous or embellished the details, his tales are indeed true and his listeners are drawn to the punch line like a billfish to bait.

Nick’s own life story is equally engaging, spun from his early years on shrimp boats, docksides and charter vessels. Born in Fort Myers, Fla., he’s been a Marathon resident since he was just a year old.

His father was a shrimp fisherman, and at age 3 Nick started learning the ways of the water.

As a small boy he “caught” his first fish, a mangrove snapper.

“My dad tied a fishing line around my waist and told me, ‘When something pulls on the line, run.’ Well, that fish nearly pulled me off the table on the shore, so I took off running, pulling that fish right outta’ the water,” Nick said with a laugh. “I must have run 15 or 20 miles, that fish trailin’ behind me.”

At age 13, Nick was rigging baits, shaking weeds off fishermen’s lines and selling live mullet for $5 a dozen out of his mother’s Falcon station wagon, running between the Seven Mile Bridge and Bahia Honda. By the time he was 21, he owned Nick’s Sporting Goods.

A younger Nick Aldacosta (seated), circa 1980s, and a small fishing buddy admire their catch after a day on the water.

Though his descriptions of his on-the-water activities during the Keys’ no-holds-barred 1970s fall somewhere between shady and chivalrous, during that time Nick’s charter fishing business aboard Nautical Wheeler came to fruition.

His fishing pals were raucous, rich and famous. They included actor Lee Marvin and sportfishing legend Ron Hamlin, who authored “Tournament,” a fictional angling tale whose character Wink Andros bears an uncanny resemblance to Nick Aldacosta.

Nick’s wife Annette Walsh, who with him owns and operates Annette’s Lobster & Steak House in Marathon, caught his fishing fever and achieved an elusive grand slam shortly after they were married.

“We’d only gone out for the morning in a 14-foot skiff,” NIck said. “We had crackers on the boat, and that’s it.”

The “morning” evolved into a compelling 13-hour episode of fishing. Without fuel, bait or appropriate rods for what lay ahead — a grand slam needs to be completed on the same boat, within 24 hours — they borrowed mullet and tarpon rods from fisherman friends.

Nick siphoned needed gas from his “mullet wagon,” an indescribably ugly convertible with a plywood bait box in place of the trunk. (Nick freely admits that, on a particularly rum-soaked night when the car was still reasonably intact, he left a customer’s tarpon in the trunk. When its scales fell off and the stink grew unbearable, he simply cut off the car’s back end.)

Nick and his wife, Annette Walsh, stand flanked by the grand slam tarpon, permit and bonefish that, along with pictures of Captain Nick's angling days, grace the walls of their restaurant.

After Annette landed the necessary permit and bonefish, the duo targeted tarpon, the final fish in the coveted grand slam.

“She hooked a 150-pound tarpon and fought it an hour and a half, until releasing it at 8:30 p.m. — the fish were all released,” Nick said.

Replicas of the grand slam fish still hang on the walls of the restaurant.

More than 30 years, three vessels and three mullet wagons later, Nick Aldacosta still loves taking people fishing.

Not long ago, sitting at the edge of the restaurant’s bar where patrons and passersby could hear him spin a yarn, he quipped, “I’m not in the fishin’ business; I’m in the entertainment business. I just fish for fun.”

Topics: Highlights, Local Color, Marathon, On the Water, Profiles, Quirks, Restaurant Picks, Voices Main Archive

Forty-year Florida Keys resident Rick Berry has designed fishing rods for everyone from weekend anglers to famous people who fish recreationally or professionally.

Rick Berry has designed fishing rods for everyone from weekend anglers to world-renowned celebrities. (Photos by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau)

“I’ve met former President George Bush Sr., who fishes regularly in the Keys, and I actually built him a red, white and blue rod,” said Rick. “I’ve also built rods for legendary anglers Roland Martin, a nine-time bass angler of the year winner, and Stu Apte who still holds a couple of saltwater fly rod records.”

Rick’s fascination with fishing began when the Miami native was a child accompanying his father on angling excursions to the Keys. As a teenager, he headed to the island chain nearly every weekend to fish the bridges.

Rick studied marketing in college, and eventually he and his wife, Trula York Berry, moved to the Upper Keys to run Bill’s Tackle Shop — a business he had helped his father build.

His own business, Key Largo Rods, was born in 1978. Since then, it has grown into a rod-making empire and a passion and life’s work for Rick.

More than 30 years after the debut of the enterprise, the rod-maker modestly considers himself a small manufacturer. Nevertheless, he has expanded the business to feature 225 distinct rod models sold throughout the eastern United States, and racked up an impressive total of more than 2,500 models designed and 250,000 built over the years.

The master rod-maker has even crafted a red, white and blue rod for former President George Bush Sr.

”One of the reasons I have so many models is because the other manufacturers knock me off,” Rick said. “We sell primarily to tackle dealers, and I have some accounts I’ve had since 1978.”

The variety of rod materials now includes solid and hollow fiberglass, pure graphite and blends that are part fiberglass and part graphite.

One of Rick’s toughest professional challenges came five years ago when Captain Richard Stanczyk, a leader in the Keys fishing world, pioneered daytime swordfishing and enlisted Rick to design the perfect rod for it.

“Designing swordfish rods is almost the impossible dream because they have to be built to sustain a 50- or 500-pound fish,” said Rick.

It took 22 experimental rods, but he finally hit on a design that worked for Stanczyk — a major accomplishment.

Legendary angler Roland Martin, left, examines a swordfish rod that Rick made.

“Early on we had the heavy-type rods, but now we are going with lighter and lighter gear because with lighter weight it’s quicker to reach the bottom,” said Rick. “By using 30- to 50-pound tackle, which is very light for fishing in 1,500 to 1,600 feet of water, the fish automatically come to the surface which helps the fisherman quite a bit.”

Rick considers himself fortunate to be in Islamorada, where year-round fishing and immense species diversity combine to make a world-class fishing destination.

As a master rod designer, he is often asked what kind of fishing he likes best. Despite — or perhaps because of — his vast angling experience, he finds it difficult to provide a simple answer.

“The truth is I like it all,” Rick admitted. “Whether it’s in the backcountry of Florida Bay, the gulfside, bridge fishing for tarpon patches, reef or offshore, I’ve done it and love it all.”

Topics: Key Largo, Local Color, On the Water, Profiles, Voices Main Archive

For award-winning writer Brad Bertelli, life is about noticing the little things — especially when he’s hovering over coral heads offshore. His book, “Snorkeling Florida: 50 Excellent Sites,” reveals many of his favorites, and the reefs of the Florida Keys (renowned as North America’s most accessible dive and snorkel destination) best represent what the water has to offer.

"Snorkeling Florida" spotlights author and underwater aficionado Brad Bertelli's favorite Florida Keys snorkeling spots.

Brad’s favorite snorkeling sites include coral reefs, seagrass beds and shipwrecks. Luckily for aquatic enthusiasts, the Keys provide easy offshore access to each underwater environment. Water depths are typically shallow, and water temperatures range from the 70s in winter months to the 80s in summer — practically guaranteeing a safe and enjoyable trip.

If you’re a snorkeler, kicking from shore just beyond the seagrass beds will bring you to structures such as coral heads, rocks or outcroppings where you can see a variety of fish.

“Fish look for these ’condos‘ to live and dart in and out of,” Brad said.

Sightings increase, he advised, when the tide is changing or at low tide, and when there’s low wind — usually in the early morning hours before afternoon clouds build up and create surface chop.

Snorkeling sites in the Keys are shallow, allowing for maximum light (and color) exposure along the reef line. (Photo by Pat Taylor)

Keeping a slow pace is important as well. Snorkeling is not a race, so take your time to examine the reef, soaking it all in. The ease of snorkeling is what makes it so appealing for people of all ages and experience levels.

Key Largo is brimming with fine snorkeling spots — many of them in or near John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. They include the north end of Molasses Reef, a beautiful and shallow strip of reef lush with schooling blue striped grunts and Florida favorites like sergeant majors, horse-eyed jacks and Bermuda chubs.

Just off Founders Park on Plantation Key is a group of coral heads between three and four feet tall. For a family with little kids, cruising down the jetty is great for spotting nurse sharks, rays, starfish and seahorses.

Off Islamorada’s Cheeca Lodge, Brad often hovers over “Cheeca Rocks,” a shallow, healthy cluster of robustly populated coral heads that aren’t heavily dived.

Shown here above water, Brad Bertelli offers informative insights on the Keys' underwater world based on his first-hand experience.

Indian Key, accessible by boat or a 25-minute paddle by kayak, is home to small critters like banded shrimp, damselfish and juvenile angelfish that crowd around lime-colored brain coral heads.

In the Lower Keys, though Looe Key is legendary for its glorious finger reef seascape, Brad said his all-time favorite shore snorkel is the untouched and uncrowded beauty at Bahia Honda State Park. In shoreside waters only four feet deep, you can spot “babies” from a variety of species including starfish and conch.

“What is so remarkable about snorkeling the Keys is how much you can see offshore without having to be on a boat,” stated Brad. “You can wade in off the beach and it’s truly breathtaking.”

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Environment, Highlights, Islamorada, Key Largo, Local Color, Marathon, On the Water, Voices Main Archive

Before Chris Robinson became a Lower Keys fishing guide, he co-owned the All-Breeds Hot Dog Pound, tended bar for some 20 years at Key West’s landmark Chart Room and Louie’s Backyard, and shared adventures with Jimmy Buffett and other notables.

As a young Key West bartender in the 1970s and early '80s, Chris met writers, actors and musicians fleeing the “real world.” (Photos courtesy of Chris Robinson)

In fact, when Chris arrived in Key West in 1972, the 24-year-old from St. Augustine, Fla., found himself in a renegade seaport town. Politicos ran the government largely from the Chart Room Bar (where Chris captured a coveted bartending job), hobbyist pot smugglers were admired as romantic outlaws, and local treasure hunters drank rum with Pulitzer Prize–winning escapees from the literary mainstream.

Tall and spare, with long hair and a luxuriant moustache, Chris displays a storyteller’s wit, easygoing attitude and lively enjoyment of the absurd. During his early Key West years, those traits served him well in an offbeat venture begun with buddy Tommy Hicks.

“We opened the world-famous All-Breeds Hot Dog Pound on Greene Street,” said Chris. “Our motto was We Relish Your Buns.”

The business didn’t last long, but old-time Key Westers still wax nostalgic about the “pound’s” juicy hot dogs nestled in soft Cuban rolls.

At that time, Key West’s ramshackle charm and end-of-the-road atmosphere made it a magnet for writers, actors and musicians fleeing the “real world.” Among them were novelist and poet Jim Harrison, “Ninety-two in the Shade” author Tom McGuane and struggling singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who later memorialized the Key West lifestyle in song and earned enduring fame.

Chris (at left holding a freshly-caught permit) eventually became a Keys fishing guide.

“He was not a star then,” said Chris. “He used to sit with his little guitar and amp and play in the Chart Room.”

The two became friends when Buffett moved into the oceanfront apartment above Chris’s beside a bar and restaurant named Louie’s Backyard.

By 1986, Chris was tending bar at the Afterdeck at Louie’s, an open-air cocktail deck on the edge of the Atlantic, whose clientele combined local fishermen, upscale tourists and visiting celebrities. It was a position he would hold for 18 years.

Yet while he enjoyed the Keys’ partying pursuits, Chris also was drawn to life on the water. An angler since his childhood, he bought a boat shortly after arriving in Key West and learned flats fishing tips from Tom McGuane.

In action on the Florida Keys flats, Chris guides anglers to tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracuda and the occasional shark.

Eventually he got his captain’s license and began guiding. In 2004, he retired from Louie’s Backyard and began chartering full time on his 18-foot Action Craft, fishing the flats for tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracuda and the occasional shark. He called his business Big Kahuna Charters.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Chris enjoys guiding novice anglers as much as he does seasoned pros.

Poling through the shallows, he also shares his love of the diverse and vibrant Keys environment with his clients — pointing out sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, stingrays and manatees.

“I tell people it’s an eco-tour with a chance to catch a fish,” said Chris.

It might be a long road from the bartending high life to the natural realm of the flats, but Chris Robinson has traveled it with grace — and few regrets.

Some years back, while guiding a Chicago office worker on a February fishing escape, he realized just how lucky he was.

“It was about 80 degrees, the water had three different colors and the sky was that big, high-pressure clear deep blue,” said Chris, “and he looks at me and he goes, ‘Nice office’.”

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Environment, Highlights, Key West, Local Color, On the Water, Profiles, Voices Main Archive

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? In Key West, nobody. And while Key West’s Wolf is certainly big, it’s only bad in the slang sense, where “bad” means seriously terrific.

The Schooner Wolf under full sail is a magnificent reminder of Key West's seafaring heritage. (Photo courtesy of the Schooner Wolf)

That’s because Key West’s “wolf” is the 74-foot gaff-rigged topsail Schooner Wolf, a majestic tall ship that’s been headquartered in the island city for some 25 years.

The flagship of the Keys’ Conch Republic, the Wolf is patterned after the 19th-century blockade runners that once plied the waters of the Florida Straits. The classic schooner has appeared in several movies, stars in Key West’s annual Pirates in Paradise festival, and is renowned for its humanitarian relief sails to needy Caribbean and Bahamian island communities.

But the Wolf is most notable for something else entirely: its owner and skipper, Captain Finbar Gittelman.

Captain Finbar Gittelman, a master seafarer with a roguish sense of humor, is the builder and skipper of the Wolf. (Photo by Rob O'Neal)

The epitome of an old salt, Captain Finbar bears a slightly unnerving resemblance to the wicked Barbossa in “Pirates of the Caribbean.” He has lived in Key West since the early 1970s and built his classic schooner in the early 1980s.

As admiral-in-chief of the Keys’ picturesque Conch Republic Navy, Finbar presides over the navy’s yearly sea battle with “federal invaders” — a highlight of the annual Conch Republic Independence Celebration. (By a strange coincidence, the navy ALWAYS wins). He’s also a legendary pirate king who, with his lady Julie McEnroe (a.k.a. Blossom), oversees Key West’s rollicking Pirates in Paradise festival.

However, there’s more to the captain than the personas he assumes with devil-may-care enthusiasm. In 1980 Finbar survived a deadly Caribbean hurricane at sea, spending three harrowing days in a tiny life raft after the ship he was piloting sank in the storm.

Shortly before the Wolf's departure for Haiti, volunteers load a portion of more than 10 tons of relief supplies destined for earthquake victims. (Photo by Rob O'Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau)

He has since sailed the Wolf on several missions of mercy after hurricanes and other natural disasters, carrying cargoes of relief supplies to desperate people in stricken Caribbean regions.

On Feb. 20, the Wolf departed Key West’s Historic Seaport for earthquake-ravaged Haiti, carrying more than 10 tons of food, water, medicine, tools and other supplies donated by Florida Keys residents and businesses.

Finbar and Julie expect the crossing to Haiti to take between five and seven days. Their final destination is a remote coastal area not accessible to larger relief ships, where members of the local fishing fleet will paddle their dugout canoes out to meet the schooner.

As the Wolf sets sail for Haiti Feb. 20, Finbar blows the conch horn in farewell while Julie waves goodbye to friends on the dock. (Photo by Rob O'Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Not only will the Wolf bring these people lifesaving supplies — it also carries the good wishes of hundreds of Keys residents, and a part of the island chain’s vital spirit.

“People keep asking me why we’re doing this, and my answer is simple,” said Finbar. “We’re islanders, and we need to take care of our fellow islanders.”

So raise a glass in salute to the Wolf, to Finbar and Julie and the rest of the Haiti-bound crew. May they find fair winds and smooth seas, and a safe journey home.

Topics: Highlights, History, Key West, Local Color, On the Water, Profiles, Voices Main Archive

Ever wondered why there’s a gigantic panorama of fish and other sea creatures wrapped around a four-story building in the median of the Overseas Highway in Key Largo?

Actually, it’s the brainchild of an internationally acclaimed marine life artist who just happens to live in the Upper Keys.

Marine life artist Wyland takes a break after putting finishing touches on his 7,500-square-foot marine life mural in Key Largo. (Photo by Andy Newman/ Florida Keys News Bureau)

The 7,500-square-foot wraparound mural, located at mile marker 99.2, depicts the living coral reef that parallels the Florida Keys — the only living coral barrier reef in the continental U.S. And thanks to artist and environmentalist Wyland, Keys visitors can preview that reef’s breathtaking ecosystem without getting wet.

For some 30 years, Wyland has used his artistic talent to raise awareness about the need to preserve and protect the oceans and their inhabitants. An avid diver who’s spent hundreds of hours happily submerged in Florida Keys waters, he credits the Keys reef for inspiring much of his work.

“The Florida Keys is one of the best places in the world to dive,” said Wyland. “Every time I dive I learn more, and then I try to incorporate that into my paintings and my sculptures and my murals.”

A diver explores the coral reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo. (Photo by Bob Care/Florida Keys News Bureau)

In fact, just a few miles from the Key Largo mural site lies John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the first underwater preserve in the United States.

Pennekamp is incorporated into the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which covers about 2,800 square nautical miles of coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove swamp on both sides of the Keys island chain — with an indigenous population that includes more than 600 species of fish and 55 varieties of coral. Savvy underwater enthusiasts call the area one of the most fascinating dive sites on the planet.

Wyland’s Key Largo mural, completed in 2007, features manatees, manta rays, corals, sea turtles, fish and bottlenose dolphins.

“This mural is really the gateway to the Florida Keys,” said the artist, who has painted 99 other mammoth marine life murals on buildings around the United States, Australia, France, Japan and other far-flung locations including New Zealand.

Wyland details the eye of a manatee during the creation of his Key Largo mural. (Photo by Gary Firstenberg)

Another of his marine life panoramas graces a former warehouse in Key West’s Historic Seaport district, and a third overlooks the Overseas Highway at mile marker 50 in Marathon. Like all of Wyland’s murals, they’re designed to motivate environmental awareness and responsibility — particularly in children.

“Art is something that can touch people’s emotion,” he said. “You can choose not to go into a gallery or a museum, but you can’t ignore a giant mural. If people see this beauty, I know they’ll want to get involved in protecting it.”

Next time you drive into or out of the Keys, immerse yourself in the island chain’s coral reef ecosystem at mile marker 99.2. It’s a great introduction to the underwater world … and you don’t even need to leave your car.

Topics: Arts, Environment, Highlights, Key Largo, Local Color, On the Water, Voices Main Archive