July/August 2002 Issue

 Gone with the Wind

I’ve always had a love affair with the wind. In the ’70s and ’80s, I logged many thrilling hours aboard my lovely twenty-four-foot, Australian sailing boat in the Long Island Sound. When I moved to Sanibel, I looked forward to the leisure and excitement of sailing on gulf waters. One year later, unable to strike a balance between business and pleasure time, I donated her to Edison Sailing School, which runs a program for underprivileged kids.
    The old passion for the wind was rekindled as I read Bill Waites’s “Outdoors” article on windsurfing (page 48). Until then, every time I crossed the Sanibel Causeway on those spectacularly blustery days, I gazed enviously at the windsurfers crisscrossing the waters, totally attuned to the wind, their vibrant sails soaring in the air and boards skimming the water’s surface. “Ah, if only…nah, I’m too old for that!” I’d as quickly dismiss the thought. Well, Bill’s article proved me wrong. Read it; you’ll come across the amazing 84-year-old Harry Biffar and his story.
    The siren call of the tropics is nothing new. In search of wind, sun, sand, and surf, some rethink their lifestyles and relocate to those locales without looking back. Temperature is up, wind is blowing, skin is acquiring that golden tone…!
    If the wind dies down, however, and the lush vegetation becomes as still as a stone pillar, we experience another facet of paradise—mosquitoes. Swarms of them oozing around our ears, prickling every corner of our bodies any time of day or night.
    Ready to rescue us is the Lee County Mosquito Control District, whose outstanding work is covered by contributing writer Barbara Linstrom-Arnold. The LCMCD was founded six decades ago and has amassed an impressive track record for its sound methods of mosquito elimination—notwithstanding sporadic controversy raised by the environmental patrol. Barbara’s article deserves your perusal, so that next time you complain about those perennial summer nuisances, you’ll welcome the helicopters flying low above your head.
    Have we become too spoiled? Perhaps. Pioneers like Oliver Bowen, Laetitia Ashmore Nutt, George Barnes, and the Brainerd Family, who settled on Sanibel and adjacent islands in the nineteenth century, had to contend with truly sweltering heat and gazillions of mosquitoes. These diehards braved the inhospitable climate and dangerous wildlife that pervaded our tranquil islands way back when. Many of them died here and are buried in island soil. Times of the Islands’ editor Jill Tyrer went in search of their resting places and unearthed intriguing stories that can be read in “Island Souls”.
    When you close this issue’s last page, you will understand why our islands have such fundamental, natural appeals. If you crave to buy your own century-old island cottage and turn it into a cozy refuge, or if you love birds but never thought about becoming a serious bird-watcher, Times of the Islands will introduce you to some fascinating islanders who can inspire you to pursue those dreams.
    I, for one, have had my appetite whetted by those windsurfers. The next time you drive across the Sanibel Causeway, chances are you will spot me, alongside Harry Biffar, going, going…gone with the wind.
—Friedrich N. Jaeger, Publisher