My plans to leave toward the end of November for my coast hopping
toward the bahamas from NW FL are still go but those of you with more
than one child know that the life of parents is just one crisis after
another. This time its my 14 yr old son. Nick is "Joe Cool" at
school and among his friends and is somehow popular. THis is very
alien to me as I was such a geek social failure that I had to embrace
unpopularity as a persona to have any self esteem. He is very
conscious of what people think of him and his strange ill-clothed old
truck driving scientist geek dad is a source of embarassment to him.
Whenever we go anywhere, little girls his age pass him and say "See
you later Nick" with the flirty raised eyebrows. My Gawd, my WIFE has
never even looked at me that way, he has to be an alien life form.
However, popularity is a strange sort of drug, too much isnt even
enough and it has gotten him into doing things at odds with my values.
We have been trying to find something to occuppy his time but he
really does not get too involved in the things we have tried such as
baseball, soccer, music, caving, camping, sailing the big boat,
astronomy, whatever. If we'd allow it, he'd be a mall rat. This past
week I really found out who he wants to hang out with and went
ballistic. NO COMPUTER AT ALL, no phone, must be at home after
school, etc but despaired of finding SOMETHING he could be
enthusiastic about that would provide the sort of experience that
would require skill, planning and intelligence followed by pride when
accomplished.
When i built the MiniCups, he wasn't too thrilled about helping but
when he sailed one the first time he said "That was the most fun I've
had on the water". Since then, he has never expressed any reluctance
about sailing them (I shoulda recognized this) and has even said how
cool it would be to sail them over to Dog Island (a 3 mile sail across
the bay, I dunno if this is a good idea). Last week he told one of
his friends "These are the boats "WE" built" with obvious pride (when
did it become "we"). This morning, just on a whim, I said, "You know,
it'd be cool to really go cruising on the MiniCups". Immediately, he
replied "That'd be so awesome, I really want to do that". When I
reminded him that it would be just me and him and not one of his
friends, he said that he had been wanting to do this. Have I
inadvertantley stumbled on something that would give us both great
memories and him a great experience?
So, what kind of MiniCup cruising is feasible? I know he isnt
really into the wilderness thing which is most of what we have around
here. He really needs people around him so maybe something a little
more populated. Something close to shore with reasonable distances
(15 miles a day) would be good. Being older, i am well aware of our
mortality (ok, I'm a chicken now) whereas he is the risk taker.
Anybody have any ideas for someplace in Florida for this? Any other
ideas?

On 2 Nov 2004 13:18:49 -0800, (Parallax) wrote:
Being older, i am well aware of our
mortality (ok, I'm a chicken now) whereas he is the risk taker.
Anybody have any ideas for someplace in Florida for this? Any other
ideas?
===============================

I know you are on the west coast of Florida but I forget which
town/area. I'm in Cape Coral with the Caloosahatchie River/Okeechobee
Waterway almost in my backyard, the intercoastal waterway and the
barrier islands (Sanibel, Captiva, N Captiva, Cayo Costa, etc) are
just down river and around the bend. All of these areas offer
protected cruising of the type you mention, and at least some of the
islands have potential for overnight camping. Cayo Costa in
particular, south of Boca Grande Pass, has a state park/campground on
it. They are currently under repair from hurricane Charley but should
be back in business soon. N Captiva has a fair amount of undeveloped
land, and although camping may not be strictly speaking permitted,
could probably be done with a bit of discretion. There are other
uninhabited islands further south such as Picnic Island where you
could hang out almost indefinitely. Alligators, especially near
Sanibel, are probably the biggest risk to overnight camping. You
could minimize that possibility by sleeping in hammocks or on the
boat.

Good luck, with teenagers it's "anything that works".