by Ann Lee Miller | Dec 4, 2015 | Blog, Coconut Grove FL, Just The Facts Fridays, Miami FL- Living Aboard a Sailboat
At the tail end of the sixties we were kids—growing up on boats sandwiched between Miami’s Coconut Grove—hippie central—and Biscayne Bay. Our gang of dock rats added and subtracted kids with the fluctuation of the Dinner Key Marina census and sundry petty feuds, but... by Ann Lee Miller | Oct 9, 2015 | Blog, Just The Facts Fridays, Miami FL- Living Aboard a Sailboat
This story was published in the Australian magazine Great Ocean Quarterly [Vol. 1:4] Fall 2014. We’d sailed out of Biscayne Bay into the rumpled, navy blue bedspread of the Atlantic an hour ago. The last shadow of land disappeared and familiar fear funneled... by Ann Lee Miller | Oct 2, 2015 | Blog, Coconut Grove FL, Just The Facts Fridays, Miami FL- Living Aboard a Sailboat
This story appeared in the July-August 2014 issue of Good Old Boat magazine. My brother, Boo Boo, materialized in a crib in the dining room in 1964 about the time Dad birthed a boat in the living room. I was in first grade at Shenandoah Elementary. Mom worked... by Ann Lee Miller | Aug 14, 2015 | Blog, Just The Facts Fridays, Miami FL- Living Aboard a Sailboat
I stare out the window of my Phoenix home office at gardenias like the ones that grew in our Miami yard where Dad built the Annie Lee. And I wonder if his naming the boat after me had been a grand gesture of his love for me. The Annie Lee was a dream Dad wrangled to... by Ann Lee Miller | Jul 3, 2015 | Ashland OH, Blog, Just The Facts Fridays, Miami FL- Living Aboard a Sailboat, New Smyrna Beach FL
The fairytale ending I’d hoped would happen between me and Dad—didn’t. I matured. Dad mellowed into middle age. But we still muddled through life in the emotional ruts we’d laid down long ago. The only thing that shifted in my teens was the balance of power. While I’d... by Ann Lee Miller | Jun 26, 2015 | Coconut Grove FL, Miami FL- Living Aboard a Sailboat
Rain splatted against my calves and chin and one elbow as I turned cartwheels across the beach. Planted right-side-up, I shot a grin at Kate who had been throwing sand balls into the channel between our island and Pier 1. Kate dove into the water, her salt-stiff hair...