Yacht life—as least if you happen to be a guest of Factory Billet raceboat owner Jim Schultz on his elegant 130-foot Riva for a week in Key West, Fla.—works a lot like this: You think about something you’d like and it appears. The crew reads your mind before you’ve made it up.
Thinking about a splash of tequila with an orange-and-cinnamon chaser? One appears. Thinking about another? Another appears.
No doubt, being this spoiled is a treat. But if you you’re used to doing things for yourself, it’s also a little unsettling. For example, I keep wanting to bring my dishes to the galley and rinse them in the giant stainless-steel sink, but I get the side-eye from the crew when I try it. I have an urge to tidy up my cabin each day, but they keep beating me to it.
So I have surrendered to living spoiled through Sunday. The struggle, as the saying goes, is real.
My other takeaway from this road-trip, at least so far? Key West is easier and more-enjoyable minus the annual Race World Offshore world championships and concurrent Florida Powerboat Club event in early November. For the first time in 30-something years of coming here to cover those events, I can walk by Rick’s or Sloppy Joe’s or Irish Kevin’s without bumping into—literally and figuratively—someone I know. Duval Street doesn’t feel tame and tidy, but it also doesn’t feel like an artery clogged with feral and messy humanity
Then again, the weekend has not arrived.
This weeklong visit to Key West began a two-week road-trip of boating adventures and event coverage. On Monday, I’ll grab an Uber and head to Marathon to spend a few days with Mark and Eileen Fischer of Deep Impact Custom Boats. We’ll do a little local exploring in a 499 center console before taking the 49-footer to Naples on Thursday for the Florida Powerboat Club event in the posh Southwest Florida city.
Come Friday morning, I’ll catch a ride with the Fischers and the Florida Powerboat Club group to Fort Myers. From there I’ll bounce to Cape Coral to catch up with the Invitational Skater Fun Run group, which is basing its annual brand-celebration weekend out of the Westin Cape Coral Resort for the first time this year.
But that’s more than a week away. In the meantime, I could use another cup of coffee.
And there it is.