Hello Jeff and Mira

At the Miamarina in central Miami we took on two more cruisers, Jeff Barbee and Mira Dutschke, his professional partner and sweetheart (see right). I met Jeff in Paonia, CO more than a year ago to discuss what he calls his Islands Project. Jeff is a photo-journalist and Mira is a lawyer and both work out of Capetown, South Africa. The Islands Project is to sail the Caribbean, interviewing scientists and others who are working on solving environmental problems. Jeff and Mira would create documentaries primarily for TV that combine the adventure of sailing the Caribbean with solid information about the environmental progress being made at islands that are more vulnerable to the stresses that are increasing worldwide, such as global warming, water and air pollution, diminishing fisheries, coral destruction, and endangered species. I agreed to include them in our cruise up the eastern coast of Florida, where we would stop at several locations where environmental work was taking place, such as the Harbor Branch of Florida Atlantic University at Fort Pierce. More on this later.