The Braden Famikly Sailing Adventure August 1999

Our Family Sailing Adventure

In and Around St Petersburg Beach and Its Gulf Waterways
Aubust 4-7, 1999

This webpage was created to honor Bonnie Braden on the 11th anniversary of her passing on June 10, 2014. Anyone who knew her could see that she was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother (though not in 1999),

daughter, and Christian lady.

She was also a great homemaker, a first-class cook, and a skilled seamstress - the latter being fortunate in that each year she could remake the Halloween costumes when the children changed their minds about what they wanted to wear, a decision usually late in the day on October 30th.

She also "broke the mold" on being the wife of an Army commander; pleasantly surprising everyone with her openness, kindness, and good humor.

She was also active in PTA and in the Braden's Valrico community "Buckhorn."

Her laughter was infectious; and those not knowing her might initially think she might be a bit ditzy, but they were absolutely wrong. She was smart and intuitive.

(Click on any slide to enlarge it.)

So far as I recall, this was an adventure mostly planned by Bonnie. We had lived in the Tampa area from late 1998 to the summer of 1992, and had many great times in and around the Clearwater and St. Petersburg beaches, the Tampa attractions such as Ybor City and Busch Gardens, and the super tourist city of Orlando with Mickey to visit and bunches of other things to do there.

Somehow, she learned that it was possible to book a catamaran tour of the St. Petersburg water areas. She found one that came with a captain and was large enough, at 39 feet, to have sleeping quarters: two inside of each of the two large pontoons that floated the boat.

So she coordinated times with the family, booked the boat, and on August 4, 1999 we were at the pier looking forward to three days of fun in the sun.

Bonnie Swims with the Dolphins
So there we are, comfortably relaxing and enjoying the smooth sailing along the inter-coastal waterway, a few of us on the deck, and a few of us laying in the roped matting area between the pontoons.

When all of a sudden we hear: flop, flop, flop, flop, flop SPLASH!

What in the world ….? It’s Bonnie, wearing a face mask and with her swim fins making the flopping noise, headed off the back of the boat. She has seen two dolphins and now she is going to swim with them! The captain is aghast. He has a passenger in the water, and has a 39 foot boat which is far, far, far from being able to turn on a dime.

Well, he makes the turn and recovers Bonnie the Mermaid. The dolphins evidently wanted nothing to do with her, and - thankfully - neither did any other sea life. I’ll bet that our Charter Captain Steve will be telling that story for the rest of his life. I know we will.