Diana Nyad is one tough lady. And she’d better be, because swimming 103 miles from Cuba to Key West is one tough task — a task not many 61-year-olds would attempt.

At 61 years old, Diana Nyad is poised to attempt a 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West. (Photos by Haig Jacobs, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Diana hopes to begin her marathon swim any day now, but it won’t be the first time she’s challenged herself to attempt the feat. In 1978, when she was 32 years younger and a seasoned athlete, she didn’t make it.

Instead, battered and weak, she was hauled into a support boat by friends after spending more than 41 hours battling strong currents and punishing waves.

This time, she believes, will be different. And while having turned 60 might seem to be a disadvantage, for Diana Nyad it was just the inspiration she needed.

“Honestly, I have not been sitting around for all these 32 years thinking ‘my life is miserable without making it from Cuba to Florida’,” Diana said recently during a break in her final training in Key West. (Click here to view a You Tube video interview segment with Diana.)

Tough and savvy, Diana is motivated by the desire to shatter negative stereotypes about older people.

In fact, she’s a popular radio and television personality and author who lives in L.A. and looks far younger than her chronological age. Yet after celebrating her 60th birthday last year, she decided somebody needed to shatter the modern-day perception that older people are “past it.”

“I’m strong, I’m vital, I still feel relevant to my community, but you’re not made to feel that way at 60 in this society,” Diana said. “I want 60-year-olds to look at me and say, ‘You know that silly bumper sticker ‘60 is the new 40’? She’s proving it’.”

So she began training for the 103-mile swim — which, coincidentally, is estimated to take about 60 hours (yes, that’s an almost unbelievable two-and-a-half days).

As well as being physically and mentally challenging, the feat also involved logistical challenges that rivaled those of an Everest expedition. They included getting government permissions from both the U.S. and Cuba, and assembling a support team (it eventually grew to 37 people).

Diana's nonstop marathon swim is expected to take an incredible 60 hours.

Unlike her 1978 attempt, Diana won’t be swimming in a protective shark cage. This time, she’ll be accompanied by professional kayakers with electronic shark repelling devices — just in case.

In mid-July, with the details falling into place, Diana successfully completed a 24-hour swim in the Gulf Stream off Key West. And recently, she’s been staying in the island city, where the community has embraced her as she waits for the right weather conditions to begin the marathon.

“The people in town have been so generous to me,” Diana marveled. “The Southernmost Hotel has given me a free hotel room for as long as I’m here, the Key West Yacht Club is giving us a free boat slip for our boats … these generous donations from the good people here in the Keys have helped me enormously and I will be forever grateful.”

A seasoned athlete with tremendous physical and mental reserves, Diana believes she has a better chance for success now than she did during her first attempt 32 years ago.

She hopes to end the swim in Key West. But if currents sweep her closer to some other part of the Keys, that’s just fine too.

She’s got plenty of mental techniques to help pass the hours at sea, like counting her strokes in every language she knows and following the beat of metronomic songs. But ultimately, it will come down to her personal resilience and staying power … qualities Diana believes have only increased with age.

“I definitely am a little slower than I used to be but I think I have a better chance mentally, and in spirit and will, than I did before,” Diana said. “And after all, that’s what it’s all about out there — the will.”

May this tough, inspiring lady stay safe, stay focused, and emerge triumphant on the welcoming shores of the Keys.

Topics: Events, Highlights, Key West, On the Water, Profiles, Voices Main Archive

When Brian Gordon Sinclair looks in the mirror before going onstage, Ernest Hemingway looks back. That’s because Brian, an award-winning Canadian actor and playwright, has spent the past several years researching, writing and performing one-man plays about the legendary author, presenting them each July at Key West’s annual Hemingway Days celebration.

Is this Ernest Hemingway? Or is it Brian Gordon Sinclair? (Hint: the bearded writer pictured here never lived in Key West.)

Hemingway, who lived and wrote in Key West throughout the 1930s, wasn’t Brian’s first major subject. Years ago, while tracing his Irish roots, Brian became fascinated with Irish revolutionary leader Patrick Pearse. After developing a successful one-man play about Pearse and the Irish Easter uprising of 1916, he began seeking another all-absorbing character.

“I wanted to find someone else to play who had that heroic quality,” he said. “I fell in love with the idea of being someone bigger than life, and standing on stage conveying theories and ideas that I could believe in with all my heart and brain.”

When Brian picked up Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms,” the author’s passion, prose and philosophy captured his imagination.

Backed by a crowd of “Ernest” supporters, Brian presents Canada's Hemingway On Stage Award during a past Hemingway Days celebration.

He had visited Key West previously on vacation, but returned with a purpose: to immerse himself in Hemingway’s life and experiences. He discovered the island’s Hemingway Days festival commemorating Ernest, visited the author’s Whitehead Street home and met “Papa” Hemingway Look-Alike Contest veteran Bob Orlin.

“It was the festival itself that attracted me,” Brian said. “If I was going to create a play, what better place to go than a place where they had a Hemingway festival?”

During that visit, though he hadn’t begun writing the script, he booked a Key West theater for the following year.

He also stepped into Hemingway’s skin for the first time. With his black hair and moustache, Brian resembled the author during his Key West years — so Bob Orlin convinced him to enter a “young Hemingway” contest at a local bar. He promptly won, using the prize money to continue his travels and research.

Brian Gordon Sinclair, in the persona of Ernest Hemingway, is surrounded by friends at La Terazza in Cojimar, Cuba.

When he began writing the play, however, a problem arose.

“My intention was to do one three-act play and that would be it,” said Brian. “By the time I got to the end of World War I, I already had enough for one play.”

Ultimately, “Hemingway On Stage” grew into a six-part series — each play exploring a facet of Ernest’s life and career, and each taking Brian onstage to create an intimate portrait of the iconic author.

As well as giving audiences new insights into Hemingway, the plays have brought a surprising benefit to their creator.

“Working on Ernest, with Ernest, has absolutely revitalized my life,” Brian reported. “His life encompassed so many different things that it became an adventure for me.”

Brian's in-depth portrayal provides audiences new insights into Ernest's complex and often troubled character.

Brian’s research has taken him to London, Paris, Spain’s Civil War battlefields and bullfighting rings, Hemingway’s childhood home in Illinois and many other places. He continues to present his plays in Key West where, like Ernest, he has found friends and inspiration.

“Everybody in Key West has treated me with such open arms and respect and kindness that I consider myself an honorary citizen of the place,” he said.

This year, Brian will step outside his six-part series to present a storytelling evening titled “Hemingway’s Hot Havana.” Ticket sales will benefit the Key West Art & Historical Society and the Hemingway Look-Alike Society Scholarship Fund.

He hopes to debut the final play in his “Hemingway On Stage” series during Hemingway Days 2011 — but that doesn’t mean he’ll say farewell to the author.

“Spiritually, I have become a friend of Ernest Hemingway,” Brian said, “and Ernest and I will be friends forever.”

Topics: Arts, Events, Festivals, Highlights, Key West, Profiles

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

For 30-some years Bill Becker, news director at Lower Keys–based U.S. 1 Radio 104.1 FM, has provided a soothing, authoritative presence that appeals to Florida Keys listeners. Surprisingly, though his smooth voice and comfortable manner make him a broadcasting natural, working in radio was not his life’s goal.

Broadcaster and family man Bill Becker delights in spending time with his wife Bernadette and their granddaughter Bella.

A native of New York, Bill earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marine biology. Though he wrote for his high school newspaper, he had no radio experience until he came to the Florida Keys and his love of science led him into broadcasting.

After graduating in 1971, he accepted a job offer from the Lower Keys’ Newfound Harbor Marine Institute at Seacamp.

“It was my sole job offer in 1971,” Bill admitted, “so I drove down with all my belongings in a 1964 Chevy and I worked there for 10 years.”

He taught marine biology to kids and, through outreach programs, became involved in local organizations. He even served as president of the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce.

That’s when he caught the attention of David Freeman, a local insurance agent with a broadcasting background who had started a small Key West station. David asked Bill to do 15-minute on-air segments about his work at Seacamp.

“I would record my segment on cassette with a hand-held tape recorder and mail it to David, who would play it every Wednesday at 12:15 p.m.,” said Bill. “It could barely be heard in Big Pine, but still it gave me the bug for radio — I felt I was creating something positive that people appreciated.”

As passionate about ocean waves as he is about airwaves, Bill takes a break for a bit of beach-combing in the Marquesas Keys.

When U.S. 1 Radio started up in 1980, Bill went to the station and offered to do local news. That was the beginning of his career there — a career that has lasted to this day and made him the most recognized voice in the Keys.

Since that beginning, U.S. 1 has been a primary local news source for Keys residents and visitors. In fact, when Hurricane Georges affected the Lower Keys in 1998, Bill and his fellow staffers stayed on the air throughout the storm — even when a neighbor of Bill’s called to report that half the roof of the Becker house was gone.

Powered by the station’s sturdy generator, nicknamed Zippy, the intrepid team provided information and comfort to listeners during and after Georges. In 1999, U.S. 1 received a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association for their outstanding coverage.

“Attending the black-tie event to receive the award, and meeting the giants of broadcast news like Walter Cronkite, was a very humbling experience,” recalled Bill.

In addition to being a respected radio newscaster, Bill is a pretty good on the washtub bass.

His work has involved him in other historic moments, too. For example, he simulcast live from Key West’s Mallory Square in 1982 when the Florida Keys seceded from the Union and formed the independent Conch Republic.

In addition, Bill co-founded of one of the Lower Keys’ signature events: the annual Underwater Music Festival that spotlights coral reef preservation. Each July, the quirky underwater broadcast draws hundreds of diving and snorkeling enthusiasts and national attention.

Today, Bill broadcasts the news and hosts U.S. 1’s 90-minute “Morning Magazine” each weekday morning, showcasing local issues and events. He’s quick to praise the station’s evening newsman, Ezra Marcus, calling him “a real television and radio pro.”

After nearly 40 years in the island chain, Bill appreciates his tranquil existence on Sugarloaf Key with his wife Bernadette — and two daughters and a granddaughter close by.

“I live on a wonderful wooded acre with a pool, a pond and a great garden that I get to tend to year-round,” he said. “I have a great life.”

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Highlights, Local Color, Profiles, 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

Influenced by her parents’ love of the outdoors and her mother’s creative background, Valerie Fecher picked up a camera and began taking photographs at an early age.

"Sunrise in Big Pine" showcases both Valerie Fecher's talent and passion for the natural world. (Photos provided by Valerie Fecher)

Her inspiration to become a shutterbug came from her mother, a painter, who also passed her artistic drive down to Valerie’s sisters. One became a sculptor and the other a craftsperson.

The natural world also has exerted an ongoing influence on Valerie, dating from a 1967 family camping trip in Alaska. These days, she goes regularly to the Everglades with her lobsterman father, where they ride around on their airboat capturing images that she uses in her shows. On one of their treks, she was lucky enough to spot and photograph a rarely seen Florida panther.

Valerie grew up in Miami but, by the time she turned 14, her parents had chosen to move farther south.

Valerie is influenced by her family's creative heritage and love of the outdoors.

“In 1971, my parents decided to leave the rat race behind and move me and my two sisters down to the Keys,” said Valerie, who lived on Big Pine Key and attended Marathon High School. “Big Pine was a small rural area back then and they liked that.”

After graduating from high school, she attended Florida Keys Community College, where she honed her darkroom skills in the medium of black-and-white photography. She later received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from Miami’s Florida International University.

Valerie eventually built a darkroom in her home that she used to develop her photos until it seemed the right time to embrace digital photography.

Nature and the water play a large role in her work, so she often takes off in a kayak right from her property on Big Pine to seek compelling images.

Valerie's "Clouds Out Back" contrasts the stillness of the water with the light-drenched energy of the billowy clouds.

While photographing outdoor subjects is her primary passion, portrait photography is Valerie’s second love. She even enjoys shooting portraits of local kids dressed up for Halloween.

Today, she’s a member of Big Pine’s Artists in Paradise Gallery, where her mother is a founding member, and happily displays her work in the gallery’s shows.

“I’ve been with them about a decade, and the photography I show is mostly images from the Everglades and the Keys,” Valerie said. “The gallery has grown tremendously over the years from its original 13 members.”

Her husband, a fishing guide, shares her love of the outdoors. Most of their vacations are very active, generally including kayaking or snorkeling.

It’s hardly surprising that Valerie’s life and photos are inextricably entwined. Each reflects her passion for the beauty of the natural world she finds in the Florida Keys — the island chain that is both her home and her inspiration.

Topics: Arts, Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Environment, Local Color, Profiles, 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

Some people might dread a mundane workweek, ticking off the days on the calendar until their next vacation. But not Armando “Mandy” Rodriguez. The guiding spirit behind Marathon’s Dolphin Research Center, or DRC, Mandy calls his job a blessing and a gift — one that the Vietnam veteran says rescued him from deep post-war despair.

Mandy Rodriguez, the guiding spirit behind Dolphin Research Center, enjoys a quiet moment with a couple of good buddies. (Photos courtesy of DRC)

In 1984, Mandy and his then-wife Jayne Shannon-Rodriguez founded the nonprofit DRC after working as head trainer and manager of the research facility that previously existed on the property.

Now, more than 25 years later, both remain actively involved in DRC’s operation. Their underlying philosophies — to teach the world about marine mammals’ innate intelligence and problem-solving skills, as well as how to care for and protect them — are the principles that guide the facility.

With its protective environment for dolphins and sea lions, DRC draws national and international visitors to the Florida Keys. It’s also a center where people can increase their awareness of marine mammals and environmental conservation.

In addition, DRC is a great place to learn and work for young people pursuing careers in research and animal behaviors.

Under Mandy's watchful eye, dolphins Kibby, AJ and Tanner have some fun taking turns on a training platform.

Mandy’s connection to marine mammals, however, predates DRC. It began during his childhood in Cuba.

“I was taught to swim before I could walk, exposed to mammals at an early age,” said Mandy, who arrived in the United States at age 10. “I was an ocean brat.”

When he was 20, after fighting in the Vietnam War, Mandy worked at the Miami Seaquarium as “low man on the assistant trainer totem pole.” The experience left him unfulfilled and in search of a teaching institution.

He found it at the New England Aquarium in Boston, where he trained with harbor seals, sea lions and fur seals. Yet it was interaction with dolphins that ultimately captured his attention and became his passion.

A trio of "mellow fellows" share a swim in DRC's protected waters. The center has performed groundbreaking research on dolphin intelligence.

Mandy’s war experiences had left him edgy and suffering from persistent post-traumatic stress disorder. He credits the dolphins — their energy, behavioral responses, ability to evoke emotions and calm the soul — with helping him coexist better with fellow humans, including those who had harassed and persecuted him when he returned from Vietnam.

“The dolphins taught me to live life, accept life and to be … a mellow fellow,” said Mandy.

Now that he has spent decades with the gentle cetaceans, he admits to having a few favorites: Kibby, a resident of DRC for nearly 30 years, 21-year-old A.J. and his 7-year-old son Tanner, whose cognitive abilities earned him a brainiac reputation as the “jock who’s smart.”

The “four boys” like to play and romp together, with the dolphins gathering around for the kisses that Mandy generously doles out — all while maintaining an eye contact that demonstrates the trust between them.

“They taught me to have fun in life, to eat, play and make love,” said Mandy of the dolphins. “Anyone that goes wrong with that is nuts.”

Topics: Animal Ambassadors, Environment, Highlights, Marathon, Profiles

This might be her 31st year in the scuba diving business, but Amy Slate has not lost an ounce of her enthusiasm for diving, ocean preservation or the Key Largo community she’s called home since the 1970s. Owner and operator of Amy Slate’s Amoray Dive Resort, she’s living a dream of being connected to marine life that began when she was a child growing up in Miami.

Amy Slate, today the owner of Amoray Dive Resort, discovered her passion for the world beneath the sea at an early age. (Photo by Frazier Nivens)

At age 6, a swim with the dolphins at Key West’s Flipper Sea School launched Amy’s passion. Afterward, convinced she would spend her life in, on and around the ocean, she excitedly told her parents, “This is it!”

Years later, as a teacher in rural Jacksonville, Fla., Amy taught sixth-grade students lessons in all subjects with teaching tools derived from the ocean. Utilizing seashells, students learned how to take measurements, use multiplication and explore scientific origins by reading about shells and marine life.

Amy also conducted dive training classes at the YMCA. Yet the tug of her South Florida roots (coupled with morning frost on the car windows), were enough to make her decide, along with then-husband Spencer, to head for the Keys in 1978. There they started a dive business named Atlantis Dive Center.

Amy Slate shares her Upper Keys life with Labrador retrievers Mia and Tia. (Photo by Peter Lorber)

In 1992, Amy dissolved her personal and professional partnerships to branch out on her own with brother Justin. After years spent studying other dive resorts — “research” that involved diving with humpback whales in French Polynesia and on the reefs of Bonaire, Cozumel and the Caribbean — Amy opened Amy Slate’s Amoray Dive Resort.

The property, and its name, were born from Amy’s deep love for the ocean and a play on her Italian family roots in the province of Sant’ Agata di Puglia. After every dive trip, the Amoray boat crew plays “That’s Amore!” on the return to the dock, and the resort’s signature logo is a moray eel in the shape of a heart.

The resort reflects Amy’s love of the Keys environment. All rooms are named after reef fish and brightly decorated with Caribbean-style colors, tropical linens, furnishings and wall hangings.

Amy still dives at least two afternoons a week along the reefs and wrecks of Key Largo. (Photo by Frazier Nivens)

Over the years, Amy and Amoray have earned a reputation for excelling at underwater weddings. Amoray Dive Resort ceremonies have been featured in “People” magazine and on a television show hosted by Geraldo Rivera — who even blew a conch shell on-camera for his audience.

Amy’s activities, however, aren’t limited to operating the resort. She has focused on fundraisers for local dolphin care centers and shelters for women and children, has served on the board of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, and is active in furthering coral restoration and transplantation projects with a local marine scientist.

Despite her wide-ranging travels, she believes the Florida Keys are still the best place to dive. In fact, she dives the Upper Keys’ Molasses Reef at least two afternoons a week to relax.

“Not everyone can live their passion,” Amy says. “But if you do what you love, the rest will follow.”

Topics: Environment, Highlights, Key Largo, On the Water, Profiles, Voices Main Archive