I was born smack dab in the middle of the Redneck Rivera at the head of Escambia Bay. Jimmy Buffet was born a few years before me and about 100 miles down the coast in Pascagoula.  To find Escambia Bay on the chart, just head north up Pensacola Bay and you'll get there.  Mom told me I was the result of a full moon, a bucket of bay oysters and one beer too many. 
 
As a young pup, I would go out with my Dad and Granddad fishing on the bay.  That is where I learned that the facts should never get in the way of good story. If your getting home late any answer is better than the truth that you were just having too good a time to let it end.
 
Some weekends we would head over to Santa Rosa Island and hang out on the beach.  I loved to watch the boats and ships sailing out of the pass at Pensacola and slowly disappearing over the horizon. I would conjure up all sorts of exotic destinations in my imagination as to where those boats and ships might be bound.   Like any place next to the sea, pirate stories and tales of buried treasure abounded. Jean Lafitte spent quite a few years sailing up and down that stretch of coast.  When we were on a deserted piece of beach (that was possible, back then) dad would tell us kids the story of Lafitte's buried treasure as he sat on a cooler of beer under the full moon and shucked a bucket of oysters for mom.  How will we know where to look we would ask.  Look for the X he would tell us and off we would go over the dunes in search of booty.

   
 Change is inevitable; Dad took a job in Atlanta and we moved.  I would visit my Bay relatives from time to time, but time and distance took their toll and life shifted more and more to Atlanta.  I met a friend in high school who had access to a Hobbie 18.  We thought ourselves to sail it and for a couple of wonderful summers my search for adventure and the occasional booty moved to Lake Lanier.  Then it was off to the navy and school. I married my California Girl, made a couple of babies and got myself a mortgage of my very own.  Time passes, kids grow up, wife gets a horse and I sat at my desk wondering where those boats and ships were headed for and oh by the way, is that buried treasure still out there somewhere? 
 
A few years ago, I decided it was time to get back to my water roots.  I could not move back to Escambia Bay, but I could get back into sailing and after a brief search I ended up at LSA.  I re-learned to sail, met some like-minded pirates who also wondered where those ships and boats were going and wanted to go find them.  So, it was off to where the trade winds always blow, the beer is always cold, the beaches are white and the oysters can't be beat. You can find this collection of pirates sitting at the dock rehashing an old adventure.  
There I was, with the wind blowing 40, the seas taller than the mast; I had the tiller in my teeth, a girl in one hand and a beer in the other when suddenly --- Ah yes, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.  They could be planning a new adventure, anybody here ever been to -- it's beautiful the wind is great and the locals wear nothing but. Or maybe, they are just thinking what a perfect day they just had on the lake and are lingering at the dock because they just don't want the day to end. 
 
So, I had found a little adventure, recaptured a bit of my youth, met some wonderful folks and been to some beautiful places.  I've even gotten to go home again thanks to LSA P'cola.  For those of you who have been there, Escambia Bay is off to port and beyond the Pensacola Bay Bridge a bit as you come out of Seville Harbor. 

Recently, I was walking down to the LSA dock like I have done a hundred times before, but this time I noticed something that has always been there, I just hadn't noticed it before.  There is an X at the entrance to the LSA dock. Suddenly it hit me.  I had found my buried treasure after all.  Come join us at the dock, there is plenty of booty for everyone.  X marks the spot.