BRINGING ANNIE HOME
the Maine memorial;
Annie at rest in moonlight in Marina Hemingway;
the author confers with guide Haley next to Alberto’s classy Pontiac cab: Mike channels Papa Hemingway
The proposal struck a chord: Jock, an old sailing buddy, had his Pacific Seacraft 37, Annie, in Puerto Rico and welcomed hands to bring her back to Florida for sale. And since Cuba was opening up, Havana would be the intermediate destination. Jock was a colleague from Foreign Service days. We had collaborated on Palestinian-Israeli issues in the late ‘70s and executed President George H.W. Bush’s strategy in the first Gulf War aft er Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Upon retirement, I bought Panope, a Pacific Seacraft 34, and in 2011 Jock helped me sail her from the Bahamas to Bermuda and then on to the Azores. Inspired, he then bought Annie.
Age increasingly factored in. Jock, now over 70, equipped Annie for singlehanding—lines to the cockpit, mast pulpit, oversized winches, etc.—but found a human’s back more problematic than a boat’s rigging. On his passage from the Bahamas to the Dominican Republic in 2015, his back proved severely challenged during two long weeks of singlehanding against prevailing easterlies with the engine out of action. Multiple back operations later, and with the help of another friend, Mike, he had advanced Annie to Puerto Real in Puerto Rico.
Aft erward, Jock
