Tuesday, April 6, 2021
/public-file/507/Ultra/f91f63a7-adc9-4e04-a139-044052725196.jpg
/public-file/508/Ultra/04da43dd-33ab-41f1-bb8f-0ba8f8792e35.jpg
/public-file/509/Ultra/3a306d31-0f6b-43ec-a6d0-e8a5b88b9171.jpg
/public-file/510/Ultra/6b1a9bb7-7ac0-4ba7-be37-fb23eb25c7a0.jpg
Denis and I knew each other through mutual friends and had only met a few times, when, in Publix Supermarket, we came across each other. It turned out to be an important day. It changed both our lives. Denis asked if I liked canoeing and paddling and camping. I replied to the affirmative and he described a trip he was planning, to paddle through the Everglades Gulf Islands. We agreed to do it. Our first trip was 2004 with Ted Head in his handmade kayak accompanying us. Denis cooked our food and was provisioner par excellence!. He'd have five meals a day including three main ones and mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. Each one was different and nutritionally balanced, he'd worked out a detailed menu for each meal. When, at the end of a long day paddling, he would always have a cold beer and a handful of peanuts to give us for us to enjoy while he cooked dinner. The trips were so good, we did it every year for sixteen years, exploring all among the islands and making camp on what few pieces of land, beach or chickee there were available. I have recorded all our tracks of where we paddled on each trip and there are now very few places we have not been. Denis was always happy there. He never complained, no matter how tired he was, or how wet and cold he was, he was always there with a good attitude and handing out snacks for us to eat and comments for our conversation.
Years earlier, we had several times, sailed the Mug Race from Palatka to the rudder club and boy, did he know how to sail! He had won several firsts in sailboat races on the St. Johns.
In 2009 both he and I crewed on a 36-foot sailboat to sail a captain and his two sons from Mayport to Bermuda. Once arrived on Bermuda, he and I walked about the town in St Georges Port and we stopped off for a drink at a bar with a view. We were served a locally made rum, Goslings Black label. We both enjoyed it. Later, when we got back to our homes, we found the same rum in the local liquor store and from then on, whenever we visited each others house, often sitting out by the pool and talking, we would both knew we had something in common when we sipped our tot of Bermudan rum together.
I have thoroughly enjoyed knowing Denis and being his friend all these years. He was good to talk to and fun to be with. My life will never be the same without him. If ever I get to go back to the Everglades, I will drink a toast to him and his memory out there on the sandy beaches of the islands or the wooden slats of the chickees and look to the water and think of all the good times he made possible by his leadership and good meals and great attitude and personality.
