When John and I left with our seven-year-old daughter Kate on Laughing Goat on what would become a three-year sailing adventure, Elmo, a Portuguese water dog puppy, came with us. Chocolate-colored, curly haired, long-legged, dignified Elmo whom my brother-in-law named "the man in the brown suit." Though we hoped he'd become a playmate for Kate, he was John's dog, trailing him everywhere. His serious demeanor made him a comforting watchmate at nights. Elmo could be goofy, though, like when violets randomly appeared in his hair, or he rolled ecstatically on a stinky dead fish on the beach. On Staniel Cay in the Bahamas, painful burrs stuck to his hair, paws, and tail, and in Belize, ticks found him. I believe we extracted forty one time. When John was away on business towards the end of the voyage, Hurricane Mitch hit Guatemala, and Elmo was my companion in misery, taking care of the boat.
After we returned from our journey, we bought a house in Florida and told Kate that she could get a dog of her own. She chose a sweet, jolly, handsome golden retriever puppy, whom she named after Chubby Checkers. Always ready to swim or chase frisbees at the beach, Checkers was a menace to unuspecting swimmers as he headed resolutely into the ocean on self-imposed rescue missions. After Kate went off to college, John and I sold the house and moved aboard a 40' catamaran, Smooch, with the two boys. From our base in Fort Lauderdale, our crew of four sailed often to the Bahamas, which we had come to love on the earlier voyage.
In the picture above, Elmo and Checkers are getting ready for an outing in our Jeep in Fort Lauderdale, probably to the bakery on Las Olas Avenue, a charming Italian shop with fresh ciabbata, pastries and coffee. The boys would sit politely, emitting occasional moans of pleasure and longing, as John fed them chunks of blueberry muffin.
They both lived to age fourteen and have been gone awhile. I'm so glad they were a part of our lives.
If you want to learn more about our sailing adventure on Laughing Goat when we left everything behind and sailed away, you can find my book here. Holding Fast.